Truesight

by David Stahler Jr.

Overview

Everyone in Jacob's colony is born blind. It has always been this way. They embrace the philosophy of Truesight: Blindness brings unity, purity, and freedom. It is an exceptional community. Everyone is happy.

As Jacob nears his thirteenth birthday, he anxiously anticipates his new role as an adult and all the changes that will bring. But as the day approaches, a far greater change threatens Jacob's future. It all starts with a searing pain in his eyes ...

This is the first book of David Stahler Jr.'s gripping Truesight trilogy.

Ages 12+

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780060522872
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	12/28/2004
Series:	Truesight Trilogy Series , #1
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	781,355
Product dimensions:	4.19(w) x 6.75(h) x 0.58(d)
Lexile:	860L (what's this?)
Age Range:	13 Years

About the Author

David Stahler Jr. received his bachelor's degree in English from Middlebury College in 1994 and later earned a graduate degree from the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies program at Dartmouth College. His other provocative works for young adults include Truesight, The Seer, and Otherspace. He teaches in Vermont, where he lives with his wife and two children.

Editorial Reviews

In the far future, Harmony is populated by the blind-by-choice, and for generations people there have been born blind. But 12-year-old Jacob inexplicably begins to develop sight. "This powerful debut novel is two parts science-fiction thriller and one part cautionary fable about the dangers of fundamentalism," said PW. Ages 12-up. (Jan.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Gr 5-7-Stahler debuts with a thought-provoking tale strongly reminiscent of Lois Lowry's The Giver (Houghton, 1993) in plot, tone, themes, and setting. Growing up in Harmony Station, a colony established on a distant planet by an association of blind people who have had themselves genetically altered so that their offspring will be blind, too, Jacob is approaching his pivotal 13th birthday when, in the wake of a series of severe headaches, he realizes that he can see. What he sees, besides previously unsuspected natural beauty all around, is that his supposedly pious, tightly knit, morally upright community harbors food thieves, adulterers, and hypocrites. Though most of the characters are only sketched, and Jacob displays a precocious ability to recognize colors and facial expressions, his agonized efforts to make sense of his bright, new, less innocent world make compelling reading. That readers will come away with the distinct impression that, at least in Stahler's view, the blind cannot lead independent, genuinely satisfying lives without sighted help and special technology constitutes a less attractive aspect to the story. Sentenced to surgical blinding after his secret comes out, Jacob flees at the end, like Lowry's Jonas, into an uncertain future. Fans of issue-driven fiction will find this novel absorbing.-John Peters, New York Public Library Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

The conflict between individual and society takes place in a poorly constructed dystopia. Like everyone else in the colony of Harmony, Jacob is blind. The original 22nd-century colonists had turned to genetically engineered blindness to separate themselves from the sinful, bigoted Seers. Centuries later, the Truesighted colonists are proud of their controlled and violence-free society. As Jacob approaches his 13th birthday, he learns of cracks in Harmony's purity: unevenly distributed food, government corruption, and the misery of his friend Delaney. As Jacob inexplicably gains sight (and becomes comfortable with concepts such as color and facial expression ridiculously quickly for a blind-from-birth boy in a blind society), he wonders if he can be reconciled to the rotten core of the only home he has ever known. An interesting concept marred by poor execution of the all-blind society and a too-evil villain. (Fiction. 10-12)

Kirkus Reviews