Across the Universe by Beth Revis has just been named Amazon's January Best Book for Young Adults. The first book in a new trilogy is an imaginative spin on the recognizable tale of a problem plagued starship sent to colonize a new planet. The riveting first chapter chronicles the details of Amy and her parents being cryogenically frozen before being sent on a 300 year journey into outer space. Flash forward 250 years and Amy's cryogenic chamber has been unplugged and she is awakened 50 years too early. The first person she meets is Elder, the rebellious young teen who is being groomed to take over as dictator of the spaceship, when the current leader dies. The story is told in alternating chapters by Amy and Elder.
At first Amy is furious, then intrigued by the spaceship Godspeed, which has three different levels corresponding to the three castes of passengers: the feeders, who are farmers, the shippers, who maintain the technology and the keepers, who rule. As she acclimates to her new environment, she realizes that most of the inhabitants seem to be drugged automatons. When Amy begins questioning Elder about the spaceship society, he realizes that the current leader has been hiding the truth from him with secrets and lies.
Elder, who was in the dark for years about the frozen inhabitants of the lower level, is captivated by Amy and sympathizes with her fears about the future. When other cryogenically frozens are unplugged and left for dead, Elder must help Amy locate the culprit before her parents are lost forever. As they methodically discover the truth about the horrors which have taken place aboard the Godspeed in the last 250 years, Elder and Amy look for a way to thwart the evil dictator and save the day.
The Across the Universe website currently includes a schematic drawing of the Godspeed, a trailer, reviews and downloads. There is also a Facebook fan site. The murder mystery and romantic aspect of the plot will widen the fan base beyond sci fi readers. Although the sexual content in the book is not particularly graphic, there is a mating season element that leads me to recommend the book for more mature readers.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Classic Connections - King of Ithaka and The Sherlockian
In my last blog I talked about my 2010 revision of What's New in Young Adult Novels? and discussed the three new instructional units that I added. One of my favorite updated units in the book is entitled "Classic Connections." Many modern YA authors are following the time honored tradition of retelling a classic story in a modern setting (Beastly by Alex Flinn) or incorporating elements of a classic in a modern tale (Saving Juliet by Suzanne Selfors). By having students read and compare the classic and the related modern novel, teachers can expose kids to plots that form the backbone of literature and help them appreciate the clever variations that the modern authors imagine. Two new books which can be added to this lexicon of classic connections are King of Ithaka by Tracy Barrett in which the author recreates the voyage Telemachos takes to find his father Odysseus, and The Sherlockian by Graham Moore which alternates the present day story of a Sherlockian scholar’s death with the story of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Bram Stoker’s investigation of a series of murders in the early 1900s.
If you are looking for classic connections to Greek Mythology, Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians five book series or his new Heroes of Olympus series immediately come to mind. The new series introduces Jason, Piper and Leo, three of the seven demigods mentioned in Rachel’s prophesy in The Last Olympian. These troubled teens are at wilderness school in the Grand Canyon when they encounter evil storm spirits and are transported to Camp Half-Blood. However, if you are looking for a book with deeper mythological connections, you may want to read Tracy Barrett's King of Ithaka, which reimagines Telemachos' quest to find his father Odysseus, King of Ithaka. When the book opens Telemachos has been waiting 16 years for his father to return from the Trojan Wars. His mother, Penelopeia, has been weaving a burial shroud whose completion she is using as an excuse to fend off would-be suitors, who think it's high time she remarries. Telemachos, who is worried about his country's lack of leadership, says, "I knew that Ithaka was falling into ruin and was vulnerable to attack, both from within and from without." He consults an oracle, who prophesies that Ithaka will not have a king until Telemachos searches for Odysseus and returns "to the place that is not, on the day that is not, bearing the thing that is not. On that day the King will return." With his centaur friend, Brax, and Polydora, a female runaway, Telemachos puts aside his fears and sets sail. He travels through dangerous territory from Pylos to Sparta. In a first person narration he tells the tale of his journey during which he meets many famous mythological characters, some who help him and some who deter him in his quest to fulfill the mysterious prophesy.
Based on real life events, The Sherlockian by Graham Moore embellishes the story of the death of a modern Sherlockian scholar, who was to present his finding of a lost Conan Doyle diary at the annual Baker Street Irregulars convention, but died on the eve of his presentation. The fictional Harold White, who has just been inducted into the society when the Sherlockian dies, is hired by a Conan Doyle relative to investigate the death and the whereabouts of the diary . The lost diary chronicles the story of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Bram Stoker’s investigation of a series of murders of young suffragettes. The author alternates his chapters between Harold's story in the present and Conan Doyle and Stoker's investigation in the early 1900s, so the reader can understand why the two would want to suppress the diary. The Sherlockian is arguably an adult crossover book which has some vulgar language and violence. However, any student who is reading Sherlock Holmes stories, will undoubtedly be comfortable with the subject matter and will revel in the backstory of Conan Doyle's period of abandonment of Sherlock Holmes and his dabbling in detective work using Holme's techniques.
If you are looking for classic connections to Greek Mythology, Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians five book series or his new Heroes of Olympus series immediately come to mind. The new series introduces Jason, Piper and Leo, three of the seven demigods mentioned in Rachel’s prophesy in The Last Olympian. These troubled teens are at wilderness school in the Grand Canyon when they encounter evil storm spirits and are transported to Camp Half-Blood. However, if you are looking for a book with deeper mythological connections, you may want to read Tracy Barrett's King of Ithaka, which reimagines Telemachos' quest to find his father Odysseus, King of Ithaka. When the book opens Telemachos has been waiting 16 years for his father to return from the Trojan Wars. His mother, Penelopeia, has been weaving a burial shroud whose completion she is using as an excuse to fend off would-be suitors, who think it's high time she remarries. Telemachos, who is worried about his country's lack of leadership, says, "I knew that Ithaka was falling into ruin and was vulnerable to attack, both from within and from without." He consults an oracle, who prophesies that Ithaka will not have a king until Telemachos searches for Odysseus and returns "to the place that is not, on the day that is not, bearing the thing that is not. On that day the King will return." With his centaur friend, Brax, and Polydora, a female runaway, Telemachos puts aside his fears and sets sail. He travels through dangerous territory from Pylos to Sparta. In a first person narration he tells the tale of his journey during which he meets many famous mythological characters, some who help him and some who deter him in his quest to fulfill the mysterious prophesy.
Based on real life events, The Sherlockian by Graham Moore embellishes the story of the death of a modern Sherlockian scholar, who was to present his finding of a lost Conan Doyle diary at the annual Baker Street Irregulars convention, but died on the eve of his presentation. The fictional Harold White, who has just been inducted into the society when the Sherlockian dies, is hired by a Conan Doyle relative to investigate the death and the whereabouts of the diary . The lost diary chronicles the story of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Bram Stoker’s investigation of a series of murders of young suffragettes. The author alternates his chapters between Harold's story in the present and Conan Doyle and Stoker's investigation in the early 1900s, so the reader can understand why the two would want to suppress the diary. The Sherlockian is arguably an adult crossover book which has some vulgar language and violence. However, any student who is reading Sherlock Holmes stories, will undoubtedly be comfortable with the subject matter and will revel in the backstory of Conan Doyle's period of abandonment of Sherlock Holmes and his dabbling in detective work using Holme's techniques.
What's New In Young Adult Novels? 2010
I just published the 2010 revision of my book, What's New in Young Adult Novels? and Ideas for Classroom Use. It includes reviews of over 130 new young adult books, as well as three new units. "Art World Connections" details YA novels, which explore the characters’ connections with the arts, as well as their ability to express themselves through artistic renderings. Many characters in these books escape the conflict in their lives by disappearing into artistic endeavors. Their art work helps them work through problems in a constructive manner. Included in the unit are art related projects that students can create which reflect what they learned from the book. The projects can take many forms, depending on the art form explored in the novel. Some of my favorite books that lend themselves to this project include Masterpiece by Elise Broach, Invisible Lines by Mary Amato, and Same Difference by Siobhan Vivian.
"Cultural Comparisons" is a new unit that focuses on YA novels that involve a foreign or minority culture. Students are asked to compare and contrast their own culture to the one profiled in the book as they read, and ultimately write a comparison/contrast essay as their final project. Graphic organizers are provided for the essay and the initial data gathering. There is also an example essay for Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok. Other books I would recommend for this unit include Finding My Place by Traci Jones, A Million Shades of Gray by Cynthia Kadohata and A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park.
The "Amazon Web Page" unit is one I based on Betsey Coleman's "Camazon project" at the Colorado Academy in Denver, Colorado. The “Camazon” project, instructs students in creating a mock Amazon web page for an assigned book. The project not only has students using the latest technology, but also requires them to use higher level thinking skills in reflecting on their reading. For an Amazon web page, students include product details and a list of the author's other books, write spotlight reviews, create a "customers who bought this book also bought/viewed these books," section, and write an email to a friend about the book. Students make connections between the books they have read and the book they are reviewing; they use their own voice to respond, and they provide evidence in their spotlight reviews. Although the Colorado Academy project was technology based, (This year students used Glogster and last year Dreamweaver to create their projects) I think the ideas could be adapted for simpler projects. If access to or knowledge of technology is limited, teachers could assign a print project, rather than a web based product.
As always the hardest part of my revision was to determine a cutoff date for books to include. I still have plenty of 2010 novels sitting on my bookcase which I will have to include in my 2011 revision. I will be blogging about these books throughout the year, as I continue my quest to read and recommend the best YA books available. If you are interested in buying What's New in Young Adult Novels? 2010, there is a link on this web site which will connect you to Lulu.com where it can be purchased for $14.95.
"Cultural Comparisons" is a new unit that focuses on YA novels that involve a foreign or minority culture. Students are asked to compare and contrast their own culture to the one profiled in the book as they read, and ultimately write a comparison/contrast essay as their final project. Graphic organizers are provided for the essay and the initial data gathering. There is also an example essay for Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok. Other books I would recommend for this unit include Finding My Place by Traci Jones, A Million Shades of Gray by Cynthia Kadohata and A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park.
The "Amazon Web Page" unit is one I based on Betsey Coleman's "Camazon project" at the Colorado Academy in Denver, Colorado. The “Camazon” project, instructs students in creating a mock Amazon web page for an assigned book. The project not only has students using the latest technology, but also requires them to use higher level thinking skills in reflecting on their reading. For an Amazon web page, students include product details and a list of the author's other books, write spotlight reviews, create a "customers who bought this book also bought/viewed these books," section, and write an email to a friend about the book. Students make connections between the books they have read and the book they are reviewing; they use their own voice to respond, and they provide evidence in their spotlight reviews. Although the Colorado Academy project was technology based, (This year students used Glogster and last year Dreamweaver to create their projects) I think the ideas could be adapted for simpler projects. If access to or knowledge of technology is limited, teachers could assign a print project, rather than a web based product.
As always the hardest part of my revision was to determine a cutoff date for books to include. I still have plenty of 2010 novels sitting on my bookcase which I will have to include in my 2011 revision. I will be blogging about these books throughout the year, as I continue my quest to read and recommend the best YA books available. If you are interested in buying What's New in Young Adult Novels? 2010, there is a link on this web site which will connect you to Lulu.com where it can be purchased for $14.95.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Ron Kidd's Historical Fiction
If you are looking for well-researched historical fiction, I would highly recommend several novels by Ronald Kidd. My sister-in-law, who is acquainted with him in Nashville, saw him recently and mentioned my interest in young adult novels, and he sent me copies of three terrific novels: Monkey Town: The Summer of the Scopes Trial, On Beale Street, and The Year of the Bomb. Each book has an informative afterword in which Ron provides details about the historical incidents and people he weaves into his young adult coming-of-age tales.
Ron was inspired to write Monkey Town: The Summer of the Scopes Trial, when he went to a reenactment of the trial with his friend Craig Gabbert in the summer of 1994. There he met Craig's mother Frances Robinson Gabbert, whose tales of the trial intrigued him. Her father, druggist F.E. Robinson was the local drugstore owner and school board chairman, who suggested a publicity stunt which would take advantage of the Civil Liberties Union's desire to test the state's law against teaching evolution in schools. Robinson asks John T.Scopes, a teacher/coach, to be "arrested" for violating the state's law to help boost the town's economy. Scopes reluctantly agrees, and is stunned when Clarence Darrow arrives to defend him and William Jennings Bryan to head up the prosecution. In Monkey Town, Frances Robinson is a 15-year-old girl who has a crush on John Scopes and defies her father, who masterminds the publicity stunt, to defend "Johnny." Ron uses actual dialogue from the trial and includes many historical figures, such as H.L. Mencken, as he weaves the story of a young girl struggling to understand the behavior of her friends and neighbors, as well as whether evolution has a place in the classroom.
Ron sets On Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee in 1954, suggesting it is an excellent place to begin a study of race relations. The main character, 15-year-old Johnny Ross, is a white boy who lives in a segregated world, until he starts sneaking out and going to Beale Street, the heart of the Negro blues and music scene. There he meets Elvis Presley, who tells him about Sun Records where he hopes to record music. Johnny begins working for Sam Phillips at Sun and develops a relationship with Elvis, as well as other notables such as Nat D. Williams and Dewey Phillips, who broadcast the ground breaking radio program Red, Hot and Blue. As Johnny gets more involved with people in the music business, he discovers ties to secrets from the past and a father he never knew.
A fan of horror movies, Ron spent time watching them with his friends on Hollywood Blvd in the early 1960s. Discovering that Invasion of the Body Snatchers was filmed in 1955 in Sierra Madre, California and Richard Feynman, one of the inventors of the atomic bomb and the subject of an FBI investigation, lived a few miles away in Altadena, Ron was inspired to combine the two ideas in The Year of the Bomb. In the book four 13-year-old boys, fans of horror films themselves, are ecstatic to find out The Invasion of the Body Snatchers is being filmed in their town. Visiting the set, they meet two FBI agents posing as extras, who are investigating the filmmakers for possible Communist ties, as well as a scientist named Richard Feynman. The boys decide to do some investigating of the own and find out Richard was friends with Klaus Fuchs, who sold secrets to the Russians. The boys disagree over whether to turn over their findings to the FBI, as they realize it's not always easy to agree on what is the "right thing" to do.
Ron was inspired to write Monkey Town: The Summer of the Scopes Trial, when he went to a reenactment of the trial with his friend Craig Gabbert in the summer of 1994. There he met Craig's mother Frances Robinson Gabbert, whose tales of the trial intrigued him. Her father, druggist F.E. Robinson was the local drugstore owner and school board chairman, who suggested a publicity stunt which would take advantage of the Civil Liberties Union's desire to test the state's law against teaching evolution in schools. Robinson asks John T.Scopes, a teacher/coach, to be "arrested" for violating the state's law to help boost the town's economy. Scopes reluctantly agrees, and is stunned when Clarence Darrow arrives to defend him and William Jennings Bryan to head up the prosecution. In Monkey Town, Frances Robinson is a 15-year-old girl who has a crush on John Scopes and defies her father, who masterminds the publicity stunt, to defend "Johnny." Ron uses actual dialogue from the trial and includes many historical figures, such as H.L. Mencken, as he weaves the story of a young girl struggling to understand the behavior of her friends and neighbors, as well as whether evolution has a place in the classroom.
Ron sets On Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee in 1954, suggesting it is an excellent place to begin a study of race relations. The main character, 15-year-old Johnny Ross, is a white boy who lives in a segregated world, until he starts sneaking out and going to Beale Street, the heart of the Negro blues and music scene. There he meets Elvis Presley, who tells him about Sun Records where he hopes to record music. Johnny begins working for Sam Phillips at Sun and develops a relationship with Elvis, as well as other notables such as Nat D. Williams and Dewey Phillips, who broadcast the ground breaking radio program Red, Hot and Blue. As Johnny gets more involved with people in the music business, he discovers ties to secrets from the past and a father he never knew.
A fan of horror movies, Ron spent time watching them with his friends on Hollywood Blvd in the early 1960s. Discovering that Invasion of the Body Snatchers was filmed in 1955 in Sierra Madre, California and Richard Feynman, one of the inventors of the atomic bomb and the subject of an FBI investigation, lived a few miles away in Altadena, Ron was inspired to combine the two ideas in The Year of the Bomb. In the book four 13-year-old boys, fans of horror films themselves, are ecstatic to find out The Invasion of the Body Snatchers is being filmed in their town. Visiting the set, they meet two FBI agents posing as extras, who are investigating the filmmakers for possible Communist ties, as well as a scientist named Richard Feynman. The boys decide to do some investigating of the own and find out Richard was friends with Klaus Fuchs, who sold secrets to the Russians. The boys disagree over whether to turn over their findings to the FBI, as they realize it's not always easy to agree on what is the "right thing" to do.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
The Unidentified
Although at first The Unidentified by Rae Mariz seemed like science fiction, I soon realized that this dystopian novel is hauntingly prophetic. Set in the near future, the story profiles a scenario where public schools have failed and big business is now in charge of education. High-surveillance schools are located in converted shopping malls, and students participate in the Game, a mulitmedia experience which is a combination of learning and entertainment. Students are required to carry mobile devices while they are playing, and they are constantly monitored by sponsors who are looking for new trends and opportunities to exploit them. Coincidentally, at the same time I was reading the novel, the Wall Street Journal published an article, "Your Apps are Watching You," by Scott Thurm and Ukari Iwatani Kane, which suggests that people's smart phones are sharing their personal data widely and regularly. Out of 101 apps, games and software applications for mobile phones, that they examined, 56 transmitted the phone's unique device ID to other companies, which allows tracking companies to find the age, gender and location of the user. Michael Becker of the Mobile Marketing Association is quoted as saying, "In the world of mobile there is no anonymity. "
Oddly enough, in the novel students are seeking the attention of advertising agencies in the hopes of being "branded." Branding is somewhat like being sponsored in that students get free products and are invited to exclusive events. Students who set fashion trends or achieve the highest scores in games are branded, thus insuring their popularity and assisting the corporations in advertising their products. The cell phones kids carry include GPS trackers, and they continuously post updates to profile pages, so that administrators and corporate sponsors can monitor their every move. Unlike her classmates, the main character, Katey "Kid" Dade, is an aspiring musician who prefers to fly under the radar. Then Kid witnesses a mock suicide staged by a group of students, calling themselves the Unidentified, who are challenging students to think for themselves. She begins to search for the underground movement's members and comes to the attention of an online-security company that brands her for being a "trendspotter." This alienates Kid's best friend who has been desperately trying to be branded herself. As Kid attempts to adjust to her new popularity, she experiences betrayals by lifelong friends and new relationships with people who previously ignored her. The deeper she gets into her investigation, the more she begins to question the societal structure around her.
The Unidentified suggests what the future might be like for today's technology dependent society and will make readers think critically about their use of Facebook and Twitter. Although I would recommend it for fans of Scott Westerfeld's Extras, Cory Doctorow's Little Brother and Suzanne Collins Hunger Games, I think it will appeal to a wider audience as well.
Oddly enough, in the novel students are seeking the attention of advertising agencies in the hopes of being "branded." Branding is somewhat like being sponsored in that students get free products and are invited to exclusive events. Students who set fashion trends or achieve the highest scores in games are branded, thus insuring their popularity and assisting the corporations in advertising their products. The cell phones kids carry include GPS trackers, and they continuously post updates to profile pages, so that administrators and corporate sponsors can monitor their every move. Unlike her classmates, the main character, Katey "Kid" Dade, is an aspiring musician who prefers to fly under the radar. Then Kid witnesses a mock suicide staged by a group of students, calling themselves the Unidentified, who are challenging students to think for themselves. She begins to search for the underground movement's members and comes to the attention of an online-security company that brands her for being a "trendspotter." This alienates Kid's best friend who has been desperately trying to be branded herself. As Kid attempts to adjust to her new popularity, she experiences betrayals by lifelong friends and new relationships with people who previously ignored her. The deeper she gets into her investigation, the more she begins to question the societal structure around her.
The Unidentified suggests what the future might be like for today's technology dependent society and will make readers think critically about their use of Facebook and Twitter. Although I would recommend it for fans of Scott Westerfeld's Extras, Cory Doctorow's Little Brother and Suzanne Collins Hunger Games, I think it will appeal to a wider audience as well.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Fixing Delilah
In my October 23rd Blog I mentioned that I had attended a Barnes and Noble event where nine terrific YA authors talked about the writing process and their new books. One of these up and coming authors, Sarah Ockler, caught my attention, not only because she is involved in Lighthouse Writers Workshops, where I took a screenwriting class with Alexandre Philipe, but also because her first book Twenty Boy Summer, despite its lightweight title, was a complete delight. Now that Sarah Dessen has a young child and has understandably slowed down with her book releases, readers and librarians are looking for writers to fill the void. I would definitely recommend Sarah Ockler's books for these readers.
Twenty Boy Summer is a book about friendship and the grieving process. Anna and Frankie are next door neighbors and best friends. Frankie's brother Matt, who is two years older, is Anna's best friend, who is a boy. The three of them are inseparable. Anna has had a secret crush on Matt for years and on her fifteenth birthday he kisses her and acknowledges that he loves her, too. They are, of course, worried about trying to find a way to tell Frankie. Then Matt dies suddenly and Anna struggles with her grief, as well as the secret she decides to keep. After a year of grieving, Anna goes to California with Frankie for the family's annual trip. Frankie, who has dealt with her grief by becoming boy crazy, decides to set a goal of meeting twenty boys on the trip and flirts with everyone in sight. Ana is much more conservative but ends up falling for a surfer, and she feels like she is cheating on Matt's ghost. Then Frankie finds Anna's journal and freaks out when she discovers Anna's secret relationship with Matt. Now boys take a back seat and Anna and Frankie have to salvage their friendship.
Sarah latest book Fixing Delilah once again navigates the issues of the grieving process. Seventeen-year-old Delilah, whose life has been spiraling into free fall, is suddenly whisked off by her workaholic mother to Vermont to attend her estranged grandmother’s funeral and deal with the family summer home. Delilah has not been to Vermont since her grandfather's funeral a decade earlier, when her grandmother, mother and Aunt Rachel had a falling out. Delilah, who believes her father was a one night stand who died in Afghanistan before her mother could tell him about her pregnancy, cannot understand why her mother would keep her away from her family. When Delilah arrives in Vermont, she reconnects with her friend Patrick with whom she spent idyllic childhood summers. As she and Patrick fall in love, she uncovers the secret of her mother has been harboring. Delilah finds the diary of her Aunt Stephanie, who died under suspicious circumstances when she was nineteen. Suspecting that her family is plagued by problems with depression, Delilah worries that she will succmb herself. Ultimately Delilah realizes that she cannot escape the problems of her past but "some of them can be repaired, piece by piece, rebuilt into something even more cherished and loved and unique."
Although Sarah's Ockler's books are a bit more sexually explicit than Sarah Dessen's, romantic issues are dealth with tastefully. I would recommend them for mature middle level, as well as high school readers who like their chic lit a "cut above."
Twenty Boy Summer is a book about friendship and the grieving process. Anna and Frankie are next door neighbors and best friends. Frankie's brother Matt, who is two years older, is Anna's best friend, who is a boy. The three of them are inseparable. Anna has had a secret crush on Matt for years and on her fifteenth birthday he kisses her and acknowledges that he loves her, too. They are, of course, worried about trying to find a way to tell Frankie. Then Matt dies suddenly and Anna struggles with her grief, as well as the secret she decides to keep. After a year of grieving, Anna goes to California with Frankie for the family's annual trip. Frankie, who has dealt with her grief by becoming boy crazy, decides to set a goal of meeting twenty boys on the trip and flirts with everyone in sight. Ana is much more conservative but ends up falling for a surfer, and she feels like she is cheating on Matt's ghost. Then Frankie finds Anna's journal and freaks out when she discovers Anna's secret relationship with Matt. Now boys take a back seat and Anna and Frankie have to salvage their friendship.
Sarah latest book Fixing Delilah once again navigates the issues of the grieving process. Seventeen-year-old Delilah, whose life has been spiraling into free fall, is suddenly whisked off by her workaholic mother to Vermont to attend her estranged grandmother’s funeral and deal with the family summer home. Delilah has not been to Vermont since her grandfather's funeral a decade earlier, when her grandmother, mother and Aunt Rachel had a falling out. Delilah, who believes her father was a one night stand who died in Afghanistan before her mother could tell him about her pregnancy, cannot understand why her mother would keep her away from her family. When Delilah arrives in Vermont, she reconnects with her friend Patrick with whom she spent idyllic childhood summers. As she and Patrick fall in love, she uncovers the secret of her mother has been harboring. Delilah finds the diary of her Aunt Stephanie, who died under suspicious circumstances when she was nineteen. Suspecting that her family is plagued by problems with depression, Delilah worries that she will succmb herself. Ultimately Delilah realizes that she cannot escape the problems of her past but "some of them can be repaired, piece by piece, rebuilt into something even more cherished and loved and unique."
Although Sarah's Ockler's books are a bit more sexually explicit than Sarah Dessen's, romantic issues are dealth with tastefully. I would recommend them for mature middle level, as well as high school readers who like their chic lit a "cut above."
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Matched
After reading a review of Matched, a dystopian romance by Ally Condie, in the Wall Street Journal, I decided to move it to the top of my reading list. The reviewer, Meghan Cox Gurdon, compares the book, the first in a proposed trilogy, to Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series, saying, "Ms. Meyer, captures the temptation, the mix of longing and self-discipline, felt by passion-swept young people trying to make the right choices for the right reasons. Ally Condie catches the same heart-tugging elements that Ms. Meyer does."
Matched is set in a tranquil, rational futuristic world where choice has been virtually eliminated. Seventeen-year-old Cassia, who is looking forward to her matching ceremony where she will be introduced to her future husband, is also dreading her grandfather's upcoming Final Banquet, where he is scheduled to die. When Cassia is matched with her childhood friend, Xander, she is ecstatic, until she gets home and looks at her courtship microcard and instead sees the face of Ky Markham, an orphan from the Outer Provinces, who was adopted by a neighboring family. He is considered an aberration and is forbidden from matching. She decides to confide in her grandfather, who rather than comforting her by saying that it was just a computer glitch, encourages her to question the Society's dictates. He gives her a forbidden poem by Dylan Thomas, telling her "Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage against the dying of the light."
When Cassia joins a hiking group for leisure time activity, she finds herself paired with Ky, who introduces her to the lost art of cursive writing (keyboarding is the only writing allowed) and surreptitiously begins to share the secrets of his past. The better she gets to know Ky, the more she wishes he were her Match. Although Xander is her best friend from childhood, Ky's creative rebellious personality speaks to her passionate nature that she has been sublimating for years with lockstep obedience to the Society's rules. As the book draws to a close, Cassia's fateful decision sets up the sequel in which she will continue the rebel against societal dictates.
In the Wall Street Journal review Ms. Gruden says, "That Matched works so well is due partly to the author's even, measured prose. The cool clarity of Cassia's voice, eerily suits the watchful, unfree Society she inhabits." School Library Journal compares Matched to Lowis Lowry's The Giver, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, and George Orwell's 1984. Comparisons to these esteemed novels, should signal readers that Matched is a step above the average teen romance. I would highly recommend this book for middle level and high school readers.
Matched is set in a tranquil, rational futuristic world where choice has been virtually eliminated. Seventeen-year-old Cassia, who is looking forward to her matching ceremony where she will be introduced to her future husband, is also dreading her grandfather's upcoming Final Banquet, where he is scheduled to die. When Cassia is matched with her childhood friend, Xander, she is ecstatic, until she gets home and looks at her courtship microcard and instead sees the face of Ky Markham, an orphan from the Outer Provinces, who was adopted by a neighboring family. He is considered an aberration and is forbidden from matching. She decides to confide in her grandfather, who rather than comforting her by saying that it was just a computer glitch, encourages her to question the Society's dictates. He gives her a forbidden poem by Dylan Thomas, telling her "Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage against the dying of the light."
When Cassia joins a hiking group for leisure time activity, she finds herself paired with Ky, who introduces her to the lost art of cursive writing (keyboarding is the only writing allowed) and surreptitiously begins to share the secrets of his past. The better she gets to know Ky, the more she wishes he were her Match. Although Xander is her best friend from childhood, Ky's creative rebellious personality speaks to her passionate nature that she has been sublimating for years with lockstep obedience to the Society's rules. As the book draws to a close, Cassia's fateful decision sets up the sequel in which she will continue the rebel against societal dictates.
In the Wall Street Journal review Ms. Gruden says, "That Matched works so well is due partly to the author's even, measured prose. The cool clarity of Cassia's voice, eerily suits the watchful, unfree Society she inhabits." School Library Journal compares Matched to Lowis Lowry's The Giver, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, and George Orwell's 1984. Comparisons to these esteemed novels, should signal readers that Matched is a step above the average teen romance. I would highly recommend this book for middle level and high school readers.
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