Ness, P. (2008). The knife of never letting go. Boston, MA: Candlewick Press.

The knife of Never Letting Go is set is a dystopian future, the town where Todd Hewitt lives is populated completely with men.  Todd is the youngest male in the town and in less than a month he will turn 13 and one month and he will become a man.  One strange aspect of his town is that everyone can hear everyone else’s thoughts or “noise”.  People can even hear animals thoughts, which Todd has discovered  his dog Manchee doesn’t have much to say.  The two men that Todd lives with have told him it is time for him to leave. The sheriff, the Mayor's son, a boy not much older than Todd comes to bring him to the Mayor. Todd doesn’t understand why he has to leave but his caretakers insist.  On his quest through swamps he finds Viola – a girl.  Viola is not from this time but Todd is fiercely protective of her.  A horrible man named Aaron and the townsmen chasing him,  Aaron is convinced Viola is his does everything in his power to hunt down Todd and Viola.  Together with Manchee, they journey protecting each other  from these sinister men. Armed with only with a map, Ben one of his caretakers have given him, a backpack and a journal written by his mother.  Every settlement they come to seems to not want anyone from Prentiss and knows there is danger following them. Todd and Viola’s goal is go to New Haven where Viola can communicate with the people from her time and warn them of the dangers that lie ahead of them.  The relentless townsmen of Prentiss will not give up until Todd and Viola are captured.  Why won’t the townsmen stop pursue them?  Are Todd and Viola part of a bigger plan?

Ness has created an unique story that tells of Todd’s terrible quest to something greater and safer.  Todd is hunted in every scene and Ness leads the reader running alongside Todd and Viola hoping for relief.  The Knife of never letting Go is the first of a trilogy of books in the Chaos Walking series.  The series will soon be made into movies.  The producers are hoping that the Chaos Walking series will have the same success as the Hunger Games series.  Ness said that he thought about the constant “noise” that technology makes and the fact it never seems to shut off as the bases of the “noise” in the book.  A Knife of Never Letting Go was the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize. Ness has written other award winning books, his newest book is Release. He can be followed on Twitter at Patrick_Ness.

Classroom ideas include has discussion and writing about the “noise” that surrounds us.  What “noise” is prevalent in each student’s life and what is the consequence of living with all that noise.  Also, challenging students to go without the noise for a weekend as a class project and discovering how difficult it was and what were the result of letting go of the expectations and demands of technology.

Identifiable themes include uncovering pain and the past, a fierceness to protect others in trouble, the intrusion of others and the need for boundaries.

                                                             A conversation with Patrick Ness