|
 This Week’s Teen Book:
The
Midnight
Charter
by
David
Whitley
Agora
is
an
insular
city-state
where
anything
can
be
bought
and
sold.
Everything
is
a
commodity;
goods,
services,
people,
thoughts,
concepts
and
even
emotions
are
bartered
on
the
open
market.
It’s
an
economy
without
money,
where
trade
is
the
only
way
of
life
and
debt
is
death.
The
successful
elite
rule,
plague
festers
in
the
pitiless
slums,
and
children
are
possessions
until
their
twelfth
birthdays.
In
the
ancient
tower
of
Count
Stelli,
the
city’s
greatest
astrologer,
two
children
meet,
both
of
whom
have
been
sold
into
servitude.
Mark
is
an
emotional,
imaginative
boy
who
is
sold
by
his
father
to
the
Count’s
grandson
in
return
for
medical
treatment.
The
other
child,
Lily,
is
reserved
and
thoughtful;
an
orphan
now
owned
by
the
Count.
At
first,
threatened
with
being
thrown
out
to
die
on
the
disease-ridden
streets
if
they
displease
their
masters,
Mark
and
Lily’s
only
goal
is
to
work
and
survive.
However,
as
they
begin
to
understand
that
they
can
shape
their
own
destinies,
they
each
find
their
own
path
—
Mark
within
the
system,
angling
for
power
and
the
security
it
brings;
and
Lily
beyond
it,
determined
to
change
the
city
forever.
Unbeknownst
to
them
both,
however,
Mark
and
Lily
are
watched
by
the
mysterious
ruler
of
Agora,
the
Director
of
Receipts,
whose
interest
in
the
apparently
insignificant
pair
is
more
than
a
passing
one.
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