Troubled world, part one

Iola Reads will dive into fantasy this fall. September 8 will introduce Iola’s young readers to book one of the “Atherton” trilogy, “House of Power.”
The book, by acclaimed children’s author Patrick Carman, is a William Allen White award nominee. Because the selection of W.A. White books is done by state librarians and young readers, USD 257 Curriculum Director Gail Dunbar, who coordinates Iola Reads, said she felt the book would be well-received locally.
The world of Atherton has three dimensions: Inhospitable highland cliffs, fertile tabletop lands where the agrarian population dwells, and the mysterious and well-guarded flatlands. An orphan living in Tabletop, Edgar, recognizes the realms are collapsing into each other. Edgar ventures into the dangerous flatlands seeking a way to save his planet.
Patrick Carman developed the Atherton series through drawings and journal entries he kept while on a “100-day journey,” he notes on the book’s official Web site. Atherton, he says, “became my home away from home, ... the characters my friends.”
“For me Atherton became a real place,” Carman said, “an escape from the road into a world gone wild.”
Dunbar was excited by the book’s interactive Web site that allows readers to play games and learn more about the mysterious planet.
“This is the first science fiction book we’ve done,” Dunbar said, noting the genre’s popularity with young adult readers should help reach the program’s target population.
“Our main focus is young males,” Dunbar said. “We really want to bring that population in. They tend to stop reading when they hit middle school.”
The author will be on hand Oct. 15 to “do a presentation with the middle school students in the morning, and an evening presentation for the community,” Dunbar said.
Amazingly, while Carman canceled most of his fall speaking engagements after being named to a national conference in Washington, D.C., he rescheduled his date in Iola.