This Time of Darkness - Starscape Author:H. M. Hoover Eleven-year-old Amy lives in a decaying underground city. Ignored by her mother and under surveillance by authorities because she can read, Amy reluctantly finds herself befriending Axel-a strange boy who claims to have come from a mythical place called ...Outside. Is Axel crazy? Amy knows there is no such place as Outside. — But wh... more »at if there were? What would it be like?
Curious, Amy convinces Axel to escape. What she hopes to find is something Axel remembers called freedom. But what she discovers is beyond her wildest dreams.« less
I read this book in the 6th grade, and loved it. A few years ago, I spent a long time looking for it to re-read. It's still just as good as it was then - rather an interested social commentary for a children's book.