Pale is a nicely written short story by Chris Wooding that I would classify as a Sci-Fi book. I would say the book could be read by anyone 4th grade or higher, although I believe it’s intended for high school students.
Pale is a book about a society that has developed technology that can bring people of a certain blood type back from death. Not a catastrophic, dismembering death, but a routine, run-of-the-mill, everyday death resulting from basically anything but dismemberment.
The plot serves as a moral story as it includes prejudice, karma and character realization and growth. Jed, the average “I’m better then you are because you are dead” kid gets placed into the ‘dead’ situation. Life, of lack thereof, quickly changes his outlook on the “Pale” classification of the dead people.
Pales are noticeably different with pale skin, white hair and blue eyes hence the name Pale. They are looked at as a lower class of people and treated as such. The prejudice comes in as they are abused physically, verbally and emotionally because they are different.
Jed, the good boy, becomes a Pale after a fatal accident. He now feels the abuse he used to inflict on others proving that what goes around comes around.
He has several experiences that change his view as he learns the moral of the story (so to speak). This is a good all-around book for younger kids to learn the importance of the fight against prejudice.
This is a quick book that can be read in one short sitting, it may make someone an interesting bedtime story someday.
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