Scrap City (Middle-Grade Novels)

Scrap City is about an underground city made out of scrap called Smithytowne. The best part is that Smithytowne’s residents are robots, called scrappers, powered by magical Lifewater. I would love to visit Smithytown! The problem is someone’s drilling for oil where they shouldn’t be – right near Smithytowne. If oil and Lifewater mix, the scrappers lose their power source and basically die.

The main character is Jerome Barnes, an 11 year-old who becomes friends with Arkie, one of the scrappers. Together, they have to figure out who is drilling and how to stop them. It was so interesting and kept me reading. I especially liked how believable the characters were. They seemed like real human beings. Even with the magic element of Lifewater, it still seemed believable because the characters weren’t over the top and didn’t have any super powers. Even the scrappers were believable. They acted the way you’d expect humans to act. I’d love to have a robot friend like Arkie.

This is a well-done, interesting story that I think anyone would enjoy reading, but especially middle school-aged kids.