Classic story of a small town in Florida that escapes atomic destruction, only to have the residents slowly die of radiation poisoning. People actually do survive, and the U.S. government eventually provides some kind of aid. The last page of the book informs the reader that "we won", which doesn't mean much to the survivors, of course. However, just the fact that there still is a government makes the book seem a little implausible. Since the book was originally published at the height of the cold war, however, this attitude isn't surprising.

Set in England, this book is divided into three parts and spans the first fifty years after an all-out nuclear war. The first part deals with the blast itself and its effect on a small family. One of the dying members of that family delivers the only healthy daughter to a pacifist neighbor. Part two describes life for the people who have escaped the war by surviving in military bunkers, and how their high tech existence appears to provide a superior quality of life compared with the harsh conditions of survivors' lives "outside". This section reunites the healthy daughter of the family in Part One with her father, who has been living in a bunker. The "healthy" daughter has borne 7 children, many with mutations and is working with the pacifist to create a commune. Part Three describes how the survivors in the bunkers have exhausted their supplies and must turn to the "mutants" on the outside for basic survival. The third generation of humans after the war is comprised of mutants born without eyes, with protective hair and amazing psycho-kinetic abilities. They welcome the bunker-survivors because they contain knowledge of the past and can help them learn about their history. Thus humankind is destroyed but begins anew with the strengths of both linear knowledge and psychic ability. The species is renamed homo superior.

Told through the eyes of Philip Singer, a teenaged boy, After the bomb is similar to Barefoot Gen in that it describes the immediate effects of a nuclear explosion on a family attempting to survive in a fallout shelter in their back yard.

Continues the story of the Singer family's survival.

Excellent collection of short stories dealing with surviving an nuclear war. Hard to find.

Young adult graphic novel of the survival of a middle-school Japanese boy just after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Extremely vivid depictions of damage done to the city and to humans - not for the faint of heart. Interesting use of humor and violence that does not translate well from Japanese. To English readers, it appears that Gen uses violence and humor inappropriately, when in fact, for Japanese readers, he uses it to convey extreme emotions of despair, sadness and hopelessness.

The continuation of the graphic novel described above. In this installment, we see how Gen and his family survive the week after the bomb and also learn about the quickly growing prejudice against the hibakusha.

Seemingly the only person left alive after a nuclear war, a sixteen-year-old girl is relieved to see a man arrive in her valley until she realizes that he is a tyrant and she must somehow escape. Strong depiction of a clever female protagonist.

The common theme of nuclear disaster and human vulnerability interweaves the lives of four young people, an Ojibway Indian, an illegal Mexican migrant worker, a rock musician, and a sheep rancher's daughter, with the lives of three veterans of past wars. Actual nuclear attack is not mentioned until the last page of the book, when the "blink" of the flash is juxtaposed on the lives illustrated above. Very subtly and well written - really gets across the message of lost potential and waste.

Very good portrayal from a child's point of view of the survival of a German village after nuclear attack. The town gradually runs out of supplies and has to face a long nuclear winter. The population slowly dies from radiation poisoning, disease and starvation. "Though seemingly aimed at young readers, this is the most harrowing, detailed, and scientifically accurate fictional picture of nuclear war ever written." - Brians.

At the instant of a worldwide nuclear attack, the Quaker residents of a rural Pennsylvania village are imprisoned behind an alien force-field "wall". Gradually the inhabitants learn that the aliens mean to preserve the species, but they are restricted to the area of the town and must learn to survive without outside assistance. At first all seems well enough, but as the years go by and the genetic pool is tainted by the radioactive groundwater, the townspeople become desperate to find a means of successful reproduction. Two young adults, Isabel and Daniel, decide to test the limits of the "angelbees" 9hovering alien "eyes" that keep the community from breaching the wall), leading to both conflict and a sense of hope for the town.

Riveting account of the far-reaching consequences of a limited nuclear attack as told by two journalists. Both men travel throughout the United States during the years after three cities have been destroyed: New York, Washington, D.C., and Houston. In addition to the astronomical burden of radiation victims on the country's medical system, the population's overall immunity is drastically diminished and millions die from plagues and starvation. Towards the end of the novel, both men manage to sneak into California, which has closed its borders completely to outsiders and is considering secession from the nation. The quality of life in California is fantastic compared to the rest of the country, but can remain so only if it closes its borders to the hungry millions of war victims.

Classic young adult novel taught in many California schools, On the beach describes the slow decay of civilized Australian society after the entire northern hemisphere is wiped out by nuclear war. Includes an exploratory foray into the San Francisco Bay Area by a nuclear submarine to check on radiation levels. Most poignant is the depiction of a fractured romance between a displaced American sailor and an Australian woman. The Captain Towers cannot face his wife's inevitable death and so refuses to fully consummate his relationship with Moira. See also the movie On the Beach.

Very well written story from an English perspective of survival in a small town after the world is destroyed by nuclear war. What is interesting is that those who "survive" in the destroyed town are forced into slave labor by the government in exchange for food and medical treatment. A disturbing example of the dictatorial powers assumed by governments in national emergencies. Compare this story with the film Threads.

Excellent story of an aunt and her niece who survive nuclear war on California's central coast. The reader is guided through their initial survival of the attack itself, radiation sickness, nuclear winter, famine, and learning to breed animals and plant crops in a UV-inundated world. As the years go by, the women gather other survivors among them and withstand attacks from raiders. The women decide that they must preserve the knowledge of the past for future generations, and begin to collect books wherever they may find them and store them in an airtight vault near the ocean. When a group of fundamentalist Christians comes to live with them, they discover the library and try to destroy it because they believe that mankind's very knowledge led to the ultimate sin of self-destruction. Very compelling story dealing not only with the immediate after effects of nuclear war, but with the conflict between preserving knowledge and destroying it.

Meant more for children than young adults, this book describes the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in simple terms. Yep takes a fictionalized character named Sachi that he models on one of the historic "Hiroshima maidens", and the reader experiences the bomb through her eyes.

Excellent account of the experiences of the "Hiroshima maidens", teenaged Japanese women who were hosted by American families during their visit to the United States for a series of operations that attempted to remove the keloid scars from their bodies. Describes their hopes and fears of being "cured" and follows their lives for some years after the surgeries.

Gripping story based on extensive interviews with nine survivors of Hiroshima. Extremely graphic details of immediate post-nuclear survival as well as a final chapter that details how each survivor coped over the following forty years. Focuses on the attitudes and problems of the hibakusha, especially their reluctance to get involved in any kind of peace movement and their reluctance to complain to the government about their numerous health problems.

The medical effects of one or more nuclear weapons on a civilian population are described in plain language. Details on the drastic damage to the environment and the long range devastation to the planet are presented to help educate the public to the perilous situation awaiting us in the event of nuclear confrontation.

A few decades after nuclear disaster, a solitary wanders American back roads in search of food. After escaping from marauders who have stolen his supplies and clothing, he comes upon an old postal truck containing the corpse of a postman, some whiskey and a lot of old mail. Needing clothes, he dresses in the postman's uniform, and drags along the satchel filled with mail, using it to gain entrance to guarded communities. Inevitably, this wanderer ends up "delivering" mail between the far-ranging settlements of survivors and builds up a force of loyal mail carriers. See also the movie The Postman, which is fairly true to the book.

The first of a trilogy dealing with the survival of humankind after nuclear war/winter through the intervention of a benign alien species. Very sensitively written, the trilogy follows a young African-American woman's capture and suspended animation by the aliens, and her incorporation into their culture. Of interest is the lack of gender stereotyping by the alien race, which needs three genders in order to reproduce. Several explicit sexual scenes are not so much pornographic as illustrative of new ways of interacting across species/gender. Says Brien, " The [aliens] wish to interbreed with the humans and remold them as non-combative superhumans. However, the revived specimens tend to exhibit all the destructive instincts which caused the holocaust in the first place, and resist the aliens plans. The vividly depicted heroine, who sympathizes with the project, must struggle with her revulsion and fears. A thoughtful and original exploration of the question whether it is possible to create a peaceful human race which will retain its humanity. The black author also intelligently explores xenophobia as a metaphor for racism. "

Beautiful almost lyrical science fiction/fantasy novel about the distant future, long after the "storm" of nuclear war has subsided. Told through the eyes of Rush that Speaks, a 17 year old boy from the "Little Belaire" co-op, the book follows Rush's quest to become a "saint" or one who speaks so truthfully as to become "transparent". Difficult to understand but of great literary merit, Crowley uses language, metaphor and the abandoned relics of our pre-holocaust culture to show the twisted ways that relics from the past inform the culture and religion of the present.

Two generations after "the end of the world", a teenaged boy leads a rather banal existence on a Florida key. Taking music lessons from an elderly man, he decides to go through a risky initiation ceremony by a tribe of black mutants. Several flashbacks are used in the novel to portray the life of the boy's grandmother who actually experienced the war. Oddly, most characters do not have any idea that they are the survivors of a nuclear war, although many wear talismans against radiation and die of radiation-related diseases. A stark portrayal of life in a normally paradisical place.

Teenaged Ella never questioned her underground life with the Pioneer Colony. She had been taught that she is part of a survival community that escaped the wrath of the horrible war that occurred decades before. But as she and her friends get older, they start to wonder about the sun and the stars and at the colony's rigid rules and regulations. Stunning novel in which the young adults display the power and courage that the adults lack, taking charge of the colony's destiny by escaping to the surface of the earth.

Classic tale of the far post-apocalyptic future. The beginning of the novel is reminiscent of the middle ages: the Roman Catholic church controls all knowledge and basically governs the scattered groups of people that have survived a long-ago nuclear war in the United States. The book is divided into three parts, each part going farther into the future. The first part describes how a monk "discovers" the remains of a common soldier named Leibowitz, who becomes the founding saint of a new order devoted to the preservation of human knowledge. The second part describes civilization's gradual modernization and tendency towards producing warring armies. The final part brings the reader up to "modern" times: the knowledge preserved by the Order of Leibowitz has resulted in a technological revolution, among which are the redevelopment of nuclear weapons. The book ends with the beginning of another nuclear war, and begs the question: will mankind ever learn? Miller has just published a sequel called St. Leibowitz and the wild horse woman.

A slightly different take on the apocalypse, Vanishing point begins twenty nine years after "the vanishing", when ninety percent of the world's population disappeared overnight. The story centers around Renzie, who lives in the Winchester Mystery House with an odd assortment of survivors. No one lives in their original homes because everyone feels simultaneously guilty for having survived and hopeful that the "vanished" will someday return and claim their property. Renzie travels to several communities and learns of the fearsome armies to the south. Gradually, groups of survivors notice that their offspring are developing strange mutations, such as multi-colored, shimmering hair. Eventually, the characters realize that the cause of the mutations is actually the original cause of the vanishing, and that a new step in human evolution is underway.

A new-age post-apocalyptic story, Starhawk's novel takes place largely in the San Francisco bay area. Strong, violence-free communities work together in the bay area for mutual prosperity. Cultural and artistic talents are especially esteemed, and sexuality is free flowing and accepted. Down in Los Angeles, however, a military ruler is gaining strength, and attempts to overtake the peaceful communities of the north. A somewhat sappy but decent read about the power of non-violence to overcome evil.

Told in a mythical tone, this short story chronicles the initiation of a young priest in the distant future. The reader cannot tell that the story is post-apocalyptic at first and only discerns the situation through cryptic remarks about "the great burning" and the "Dead Places". It is forbidden to go east, but the young priest feels called to travel there and comes upon the ruined island of Manhattan. While there he experiences Manhattan as it was in a dream, and comes to learn that the inhabitants of the cities were not gods, but men like himself who "ate knowledge" too fast. Sad and lyrical, this story offers the unique perspective of a distant survivor.

Centuries after the "convulsion", or world-wide nuclear war, women and peaceful men occupy the cities while male warriors live outside their walls and conduct occasional battles. As in Pamela Sargent's The Shore of Women, a young woman falls in love with a warrior; but in this case she regrets it when she discovers he is as brutal as his comrades. Interesting study of how women are simultaneously trying to preserve the earth by promoting non-violence, yet are also participating in a type of "violence" in attempting, through eugenics, to breed out the violent tendencies of the warrior men.

Jeremy decides to take a canoe trip down a suburban river for the weekend and finds himself in a strange fog. When it lifts, he has left the present time for the distant future, a post-apocalyptic nightmare. He comes to the village of Idamore and meets survivors there who are "bred" by the "Federal Man" who comes to bring them salt and take supplies for others in their "sector". When the survivors discover that Jeremy comes from the "time of the light" - when power was still available and machines ran the world - they think of him as a god with the power to restore the energy grid. When they discover that Jeremy is fertile, they look at him as the perfect replacement for the Federal Man, and Jeremy must learn to deal with the community's absolute need to reproduce for survival and with its tendency to separate heterosexuality from sexual love. Captivating tale of how humans continue to attempt survival in the face of extinction.

Thirteen-year-old Nyle learns about relationships and death when fifteen-year-old Ezra, who was exposed to radiation leaked from a nearby nuclear plant, comes to stay at her grandmother's Vermont farmhouse.

Fourteen year-old Sorry Rinamu of Bikini Atoll leads a desperate effort to save his island home from U.S. nuclear tests. Depicts the shallow ways in which the U.S. Army treats the island natives and "relocates" them with total disregard for their nutritional and cultural needs.

After an accident at a nuclear power plant, secret forces within the government create a hidden settlement for the deformed children of the accident victims. Over the next 25 years, the children create their own community in which deformity is completely normal, and each person is treated as a unique and valued individual. A utopian novel, it simultaneously describes the horror of nuclear accidents with the egalitarian wonder of the community created by the victims themselves.

Feminist chiller about a future society in which fundamentalist Christian men control the United States. Because of all the chemical and toxic polllution in the environment, few women are able to bear healthy children, and these women are rounded up as "handmaids" to important males in order to bear them children. The possibility of male sterility is never addressed. Shows absolute reduction of women for their reproductive abilities. .

In Los Angeles' near future, most residents are forced to live in "gated communities" because of dangerous gangs and thugs roaming the streets. Children must be schooled at home and parents commute to jobs each day in fear that it will be their last. Fifteen year old Lauren must flee her community when the walls are toppled by "paints" - garishly dressed thugs who ruthlessly rape and pillage everything in their path. Gathering a small group of similar survivors Lauren makes her way north in search of rural safety in which to develop her own intentional community, "Earthseed".

In the not-too-distant future, the population of Earth has reached an explosive peak. Hundreds of people take to space in search of livable planets to avoid the miserable conditions on Earth. A small Quaker colony discovers a hospitable planet that they name after William Penn, one of the founders of Quakerism. The colonists are surprised to discover that they are not alone on their new home. They learn from a benevolent (although ugly) species that although Quaker practice includes living environmentally, the Quakers must never build machines or generate electricity or the planet itself will destroy them. An interesting meld of survivalism, religious beliefs, and the human ability to learn not to pollute or destroy a new world.

Twelve-year-old Lola does pretty well in her New York private school, but life will soon change for her. The country is full of chaos - newly erupting riots occur nightly because of the harsh economic conditions. When Lola's screen writing dad is forced by debt to move the family to Harlem, Lola's daily life becomes mired in the dangerous gang-ridden streets. Spurned by her private school friends for living in a bad neighborhood, Lola turns to her new street-girl friends and begins using their dialect and acclimating to violence while exploring her lesbianism. After her father dies of a heart attack brought on by an abusive boss, Lola "goes postal" and kills the boss with her bare hands. An excellent portrayal of a disintegrating society and the effects it has on a young girl within a mere five month period of time.

FBI agents Mulder and Scully are called in to investigate a mysterious disease-ravaged body found in a federally funded genetic research lab. Racing to contain the virus before it spreads to the general population, Mulder and Scully discover the work of a doctor trying to save his leukemia-stricken son with nanotechnology. Excellent story of technology meant to cure that goes awry and causes a spiraling plague.

Somewhat fictionalized account of the first outbreak of the Ebola virus at a Catholic mission in Yambuku, Zaire in 1976. Riveting descriptions of entire communities being wiped out by the disease, extremely graphic depictions of the symptomology and course of the illness.

A fast-moving thriller about what at first appears to be a viral epidemic but actually turns out to be an alien invasion. A bit of a departure from Cook's usual medically-based thriller in that he has never come so close to writing science fiction. Young adults should like many of his other novels, which tend to be graphic, quick reads.

Compelling story of a girl coming of age in a community of women who have been imprisoned for unknown reasons in a bunker deep within the earth. The girl is the only person in the "jail" who does not remember life before confinement. Presumably the women have been imprisoned for reproductive purposes after a world-wide plague has destroyed the population. Eventually and purely by chance, the women escape their bunker and begin to survive on the depopulated planet above.

After a mysterious plague kills everybody on Earth over age 12, Lisa attempts to provide food for herself and her little brother, Todd. Gradually she realizes that there is strength in numbers, and organizes the neighborhood kids into a "militia" to defend their homes. When she realizes that the homes are too difficult to defend, she decides to move the group into the local high school and to fortify it. Children begin to arrive from everywhere, drawn to Lisa's leadership, and the fortress soon becomes a "city" of seven hundred children. Written for middle school kids and younger, the book is rather didactic and the author obviously promotes his Libertarian values through slogans and catch phrases. Still, a good example of a strong female protagonist.

A secret counter-terrorist operation is set in motion one spring morning in New York City, when a seventeen-year-old student wakes up feeling vaguely ill. Hours later she is having violent seizures and has begun a hideous process of self-cannibalization and is soon dead. When other gruesome deaths of a similiar nature are discovered, the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta sends a pathologist, an expert in epidemiology, to investigate. What she finds precipitates a federal crisis. An excellent depiction of the consequences of viral terrorism.

Bestselling non-fiction account of the recent ravages of the Ebola virus, from the African jungle to the Washington D.C. suburbs. Graphic descriptions of Ebola's symptomology makes this book not for the faint of heart - but young adults may appreciate the added gore. A pop science book that will appeal to almost everyone, and a good "beginner" book on the problems of modern day plagues and bacterial resistance syndromes.

Smith, Stephanie A. (1995). Other nature. New York : TOR.

A small community on the Oregon coast struggles to reproduce and survive generations after several plagues have destroyed civilization. Gradually the residents discover that some of their children share a strange affinity for the sea, and are developing seal-like mutations which allows them to escape their diseased surroundings by turning "back" into the sea . These mutations are too common to be "random", and eventually the citizens realize that their community was once a scientific community of genetic engineers, who released some kind of experimental virus that might transform and protect the local population from the then-anticipated plagues.

Local tales: Books set in the Bay Area or California

Books in which young adults are the protagonists

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