wednesday january 07
When Katniss Everdeen volunteers to be a tribute for the Hunger Games in place of her sister, it is an honor only in the eyes of the Capitol. The Hunger Games are an annual game of survival for children living in the Districts surrounding the Capitol as punishment for an uprising almost 75 years ago. Every year, a raffle for children ages 12-18 is conducted to see who fights to the death on national television for the entertainment of all citizens.
But the poor have a higher chance of their names being drawn - because if you put your name in more than the single entry required by law (which increases every year), you can earn extra food for your starving family. Even though some Districts produce food, people are still starving due to strict theft laws.
So when Katniss volunteers, she does so with the full knowledge that she will probably not survive, but at least she has saved her sister for another year. But the knowledge that her government continues to condone the killing of children for entertainment leads to a new twist on the game...
Suzanne Collins, author of the popular Gregor the Overlander series, has outdone herself with this stunning portrayal of true survival of the fittest. The Hunger Games is a fast-paced thriller set in an oddly familiar world, where killing your neighbor may be your only chance to survive.
saturday september 20
Twisted, by Laurie Halse Anderson, is the story of a young man who makes a bad decision that has a snowball affect on the rest of his life.
As a fan of Anderson's more well-known work Speak, I picked up Twisted with high expectations and I was not let down. The story opens with Tyler, who is completing his community service, under direction of a probation officer. He was painting grafiti on the side of the school to be noticed - and noticed he was.
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thursday june 26
After a classmate's recent suicide, Clay Jensen comes home to find a package on his porch, with no return address. It contains cassette tapes with Hannah Baker's voice on them, explaining why she killed herself. Each of the thirteen stories on the cassettes belongs to a person who played a crucial role in Hannah's suicide.
The kicker is that everyone who receives the tapes is one of the reasons she killed herself. So what did Clay Jenkins, who loved Hannah, do to be on the receiving end of all that guilt?
Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher, brings together this tale of grief, love, and surviving high school, in a story of both compassion and blameful vengeance.
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monday april 07
In this fish out of water tale, two ballerina sisters are moved from their New York City apartment and dance lessons at the premiere ballet school in the country to a small town in rural upstate New York. The Year My Sister Got Lucky, by Aimee Friedman, follows the lives of Katya and her perfect older sister Michaela as they adjust - or avoid adjusting - to their new surroundings.
Now, I've never had a sister, so their relationship was unfamiliar to me. But the relationship between these two girls is well researched, as I discovered when I read the author's bio - she has a sister whom with she attended dance classes (check out Friedman's MySpace page). While Katya's trials and tribulations are at times humorous and other times emotional, her relationship with her big sister is the connecting theme throughout the novel.
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friday march 14
I recently finished reading Scott Westerfeld's Midnighters series and liked it so much that I looked to see what else he had written (check out Westerfeld's blog here). I found Uglies, which stars Tally Youngblood, who can't wait to turn sixteen.
But instead of Tally getting a driver's license on her sixteenth birthday, in this world turning sixteen means going under the knife and getting a life of parties and prettiness. Shortly before her much-anticipated surgery, Tally befriends a girl named Shay, who shocks Tally by not wanting to be made "pretty." The consequence of not going through with the surgery is being Ugly. For life.
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tuesday march 11
Anyone who grew up – as I did – devouring any and all horse-related books, from Marguerite Henry’s
Misty of Chincoteague and Bonnie Bryant’s
The Saddle Club to Walter Farley’s
The Black Stallion series and Mary O’Hara’s
My Friend Flicka, will recognize themselves in the opening passage of Susan Juby's
Another Kind of Cowboy:
In the beginning…
There was Del Magnifico le Noir. If you didn’t know better, you might have mistaken him for a dark-blue Norco bike, but to six-year-old Alex Ford, Magnifico was a three-year-old Thoroughbred, reminiscent of the Black Stallion. Like the Black Stallion, Magnifico was given to bursts of thrilling speed, which is why Alex kept a red dog leash tied to his handlebars.
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