Catching Fire

Bibliographic Information: Collins, S. (2009). Catching fire. New York: Scholastic.

Plot Summary: After leaving the 74th Hunger Games as co-victor with Peeta Mellark, Katniss Everdeen’s battle with the Capitol has only just begun.  Before she and Peeta embark on their victory tour through the districts of Panem, Katniss receives a surprise visit from the President Snow, Panem’s president.  His visit warns Katniss; she and Peeta must convince him they are truly in love, or face consequences.  What Katniss doesn’t know is her courageous act in the arena at the end of the games has sparked a rebellion; a rebellion she didn’t mean to start.  As the Quarter Quell approaches, Katniss is relieved that she will never have to enter the Hunger Games arena ever again.  Her relief is short lived, however.  The tributes for the 75th Hunger Games will be chosen from amongst all the living victors in each district.  As the only female victor in her district, Katniss will inevitably compete in the Hunger Games again, and this time against the strongest who have ever played.  Adding to her horror is entering the games with either Peeta or Haymitch, two people who have become like family.  Is the Quarter Quell the Capitol’s attempt to rid themselves of Katniss, the Girl on Fire, and extinguish the rebellion she has ignited? 

Critical Evaluation: Catching Fire is the thrilling sequel to Suzanne Collins’ best-selling novel The Hunger Games.  The conflicts in the story keep readers at the edge of their seat from the first sentence to the very last page.  Katniss, the hesitant hero, struggles with a love triangle, a mending relationship with her mother, recovering from the Hunger Games, adjusting to her new life in Victor’s Village, and avoiding run-ins with the Capitol.  Living next to Peeta is difficult for Katniss because of the history they shared in the arena.  She is still trying to figure out her feelings for Peeta and Gale, but both Peeta and Gale have become a bit distant since the arena.  Katniss’ relationship has been strained ever since her father died, but she is slowly starting to trust her again.  One of the most heartbreaking moments in the novel is when Katniss learns she will return to the Hunger Games arena for the Quarter Quell.  Her pain, agony, and anxiety are felt by the readers, as she prepares herself to face some of the strongest and smartest players in Hunger Game history.  Throughout the novel, Katniss starts to feel the responsibility of the rebellion rest on her shoulders, but she must figure out who to trust.  With an action packed ending readers will be waiting anxiously to read the third, and final, novel in the trilogy, Mocking Jay.

Reader’s Annotation: Winning the Hunger Games once was lucky enough for Katniss, but can she do it again?  May the odds be ever in her favor.

Information about the author:Suzanne Collins began her writing career writing for children’s television shows like Clarissa Explains It All, The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo, Little Bear, and Oswald. It was during her work on Generation O! when she received encouragement from James Proimos, a children’s author, to try her hand at writing children’s stories.  Her first series was The Underland Chronicles, which was followed by the international bestseller trilogy The Hunger Games (Collins, n.d.).

Collin’s inspiration for the novel came through the classical Greek myth Theseus and the Minotaur, Roman gladiator battles, and our current obsession with reality television (Scholastic, n.d.).

Genre: Dystopian, Science Fictions, Action, Adventure

Curriculum Ties: English (literature)

Booktalking ideas (one or two):

1. President Snow’s perspective

2. Gale’s perspective (love triangle)

Reading level/Interest age: 13+

Challenge Issues: The novel contains violence, killing, and death.

To defend challenged material I would:

1.    Read/watch/listen to the material to become familiar with the content.

2.    Familiarize myself with the Arizona Common Core curriculum standards http://www.azed.gov/azcommoncore/teacher/ to defend how the material can support the learning of these standards.

3.    Refer to the Library Bill of Rights: http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill

4.    Refer to the collection policy of my library.

5.    Collect reviews from staff/students/patrons who have used the material

Why I included this book: Catching Fire is the second book in the successful Hunger Games series.  The book has garnered numerous positive reviews, and has a strong female protagonist.  The book is a sort of a social commentary on our obsession with violence and reality TV.  

References:

Collins, S. (n.d.) Webpage. Retrieved 15 March 2013 from

 www.suzannecollinsbooks.com/bio.htm

Scholastic. (n.d.) The hunger games. Video. Retrieved 1 May 2013 from

http://www.scholastic.com/thehungergames/videos/mockingjay.htm

Delirium

Bibliographic Information: Oliver, L. (2011). Delirium. New York: Harper.

Plot Summary: A young girl, Lena, lives in a futuristic society where love is considered a sickness that needs to be cured at the age of eighteen.  Up until their eighteenth birthday they are separated continually from the opposite sex, and any romantic relationship is illegal and considered to be an infection.   Once they are of age, they are evaluated and paired with someone, assigned jobs, number of children, and their future together is perfectly planned.  Lena has always looked forward to getting “the cure”, especially since her parents were both infected, looked down upon in society, and dead because of it.  She is almost 1eighteen and will be safe soon, but when she meets Alex, a nineteen-year old boy who has already been “cured” and considered safe to be around, she starts to question not just the cure, but also the laws and world around her.

Critical Evaluation: Lauren Oliver, author, does an amazing job describing the dramatic effects of love, but with a negative twist.  She uses realistic emotions, actions, and feelings associated with love to create a very adverse take on it.  It seems very logical with her descriptions that love can be very detrimental to society, making this story seem like a possibility of the future.  Throughout the book, Lena, is forced to choose between her feelings of love and what she has been taught her whole life.  The detail in which Oliver describes Lena’s feelings are powerful and inspiring and connects with the reader’s own emotions with great intensity.  By the end of the book you want to yell at Lena to follow her heart and tell her love is real and good.   The overlying theme of the greatness and necessity of love in our lives is what empowers the story.  

Reader’s Annotation: What if you lived in a word where love was considered a disease?

A world without love is a world without problems, right?

Information about the author: As the daughters of two literary professors, Lauren Oliver and her sister were encouraged to live imaginative lives.  Her writing served as an extension of her love of reading, and she wrote several sequels to books she loved, something that is now considered fan fiction (Oliver, n.d.).  

    She studied literature and philosophy at the University of Chicago, and the received an MFA in creative writing.  She worked at Razorbill, a young adult branch of Penguin Books, where she began writing Before I Fall.  In 2009 she left her job to pursue writing full time.  Her other works include the Delirium series, and three novellas from the Delirium world (Wikipedia, 2013).

 

Genre: Dystopian, Science Fiction, Romance

Curriculum Ties: English (literature)

Booktalking ideas (one or two):

1. Lena’s parents’ perspective (they were “infected” with love)

2. Description of life when a person turns 18 (their life is decided for them)

Reading level/Interest age: 14+

Challenge Issues:

To defend challenged material I would:

1.    Read/watch/listen to the material to become familiar with the content.

2.    Familiarize myself with the Arizona Common Core curriculum standards http://www.azed.gov/azcommoncore/teacher/ to defend how the material can support the learning of these standards.

3.    Refer to the Library Bill of Rights: http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill

4.    Refer to the collection policy of my library.

5.    Collect reviews from staff/students/patrons who have used the material

Why I chose this book: This novel's premise of love as a disease is interesting.  Almost every person has felt love before, so they are more likely to react to the concept that characters need to be cured of it.  

References:
Oliver, L. (n.d.). Author. Retrieved from http://www.laurenoliverbooks.com/author.php

Wikipedia. (2013, May 11). Lauren Oliver. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lauren_Oliver

Divergent

Bibliographic Information: Roth, V. (2011). Divergent. New York: Katherine Tegen.

 

Plot Summary: In the dystopian world of Chicago, Beatrice Prior’s community is broken into five factions: Candor (the honest), Erudite (the intelligent), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Abnegation (the selfless).  As she inches closer to her sixteenth birthday, Beatrice takes an aptitude test that is supposed to help her decide which faction she will align with for the rest of her life.  Her results are surprising, and unnerving.  She doesn’t show aptitude for one faction, but three, a condition labeled as Divergent, a label she is warned to not share with anyone.  On Choosing Day, Beatrice decides (with hesitation) to leave her home faction, Abnegation, and join the Dauntless.  Before she is officially accepted into the Dauntless faction, she and the other transfers must endure a merciless initiation, a task not cut out for former Abnegations.  Beatrice is at first considered a weakling, but quickly shows that she is much more dauntless than they think she is.  Much, much more.

Critical Evaluation:  Divergent no doubt contains all the elements of a dystopian novel.  The characters suffer from oppression, though their oppression manifests itself through rigid rules.  For the first sixteen years of their lives, citizens are forced to abide by their faction lifestyle whether or not it comes naturally to them, as in Beatrice’s case.  Many times she struggled internally to conform to the lifestyle of Abnegation, and heed her true personality.  Unlike many dystopians, citizens are given a choice to leave their home faction and choose something else, but even that choice is heavy with consequences.  There are plenty of ruthless leaders in Divegent, like Eric, the leader of Dauntless, who are cruel, and puts the transfer initiates through hell.  Underlying all of this is the alliance between Eric and the Jeanine Matthews, the Erudite leader, aimed at bringing down Abnegation.  Beatrice, the protagonist, takes on the responsibility to save her home faction, and, with her unique label of Divergent, will most likely play the biggest role in protecting the weak from the power hungry in the subsequent sequels. 

Reader’s Annotation: Beatrice only has seven fears and three tattoos.  She left a life of selflessness to join a life marked by bravery, but will she still be brave when she discovers a plot to destroy her family?

Information about the author: Veronica Roth, a young, 24-year old woman, wrote Divergent while attending Northwestern University where she received a degree in creative writing (Wikipedia, n.d.).  She has maintained a blog since July of 2009, where she talks about writing, book news, movie updates, and random muses.

Roth’s Divergent series has seen much success, selling over two million copies and landing on the New York Times Best Seller list.

Genre: Dystopian

Curriculum Ties: English (literature)

Booktalking ideas (one or two):

1.    Review the five factions, explain what they are, and have audience choose which faction they belong in.  Share.

2.    Four's description of Tris.

Reading level/Interest age: 14+

Challenge Issues: This novel includes violence, and some inappropriate touching.

To defend challenged material I would:

1.    Read/watch/listen to the material to become familiar with the content.

2.    Familiarize myself with the Arizona Common Core curriculum standards http://www.azed.gov/azcommoncore/teacher/ to defend how the material can support the learning of these standards.

3.    Refer to the Library Bill of Rights: http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill

4.    Refer to the collection policy of my library.

5.    Collect reviews from staff/students/patrons who have used the material

Why I chose this book: Divergent is a great addition to this collection because of its action-filled plot.  It is in the same genre as The Hunger Games, so fans of Katniss Everdeen who want to read more dystopian storylines will be excited to pick up this novel.  

References:

Wikipedia (n.d.) Veronica Roth. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veronica_Roth

The Hunger Games

Bibliographic Information: Collins, S. (2008). The hunger games. New York: Scholastic.

Plot Summary- Katniss Everdeen is a citizen of Panem, the country once known as the United States of America.  After a brutal war seventy-four years earlier, the capitol of Panem instituted the Hunger Games as a punishment for its citizens’ rebellion.  Each year, a boy and a girl from each of the 12 districts are chosen as a tribute to compete in the Hunger Games.  These twenty-four young tributes all fight to the death for the same thin-- to be victor.  As the volunteer tribute from District 12, Katniss is faced with the biggest challenge she’s faced yet, winning the Hunger Games.  Inside the arena, Katniss’ internal battle with her feelings for fellow tribute Peeta, clash with her love for Gale, her best friend left back home.  But this isn’t Katniss’ only challenge.  Panem’s oppressive government is suspicious of Katniss, and worries she might spark another rebellion.  Who will come out victor?

Critical Evaluation- The Hunger Games is today’s version of The Giver.  Susan Collins’ depiction of the theme government oppression makes for interesting classroom or book club discussions.  The parallels between our society and the Capitol are haunting: the obsession with reality television, the desensitization to violence, the chase for the latest fashion, and love of the extravagant and ornate.  The lives of the district members juxtapose those in the Capitol, and mirror the same contradictions we see in our country.  Katniss Everdeen is reminiscent of the hesitant hero, Harry Potter.  She has become a symbol of hope through her determination to fulfill the promise she made to her sister: to win.  The love triangle between Katniss, Peeta, and Gale, brings both tension and comic relief, and is sure to divide the readers between Team Gale and Team Peeta.  Collins’ strong female protagonist is believable because she is real.  Like many of her readers she has baggage that weighs heavily on her heart.  The loss of her father coupled with the poverty of her family motivates her to provide for her family.  Katniss appeals to both young men and women as a strong, yet formidable teenager faced with conflicts that force her to grow.

Reader’s Annotation- Twenty-four players, and only one comes out alive.  Are the odds in your favor?

Info about the Author: Suzanne Collins began her writing career writing for children’s television shows like Clarissa Explains It All, The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo, Little Bear, and Oswald. It was during her work on Generation O! when she received encouragement from James Proimos, a children’s author, to try her hand at writing children’s stories.  Her first series was The Underland Chronicles, which was followed by the international bestseller trilogy The Hunger Games (Collins, n.d.)

Collin’s inspiration for the novel came through the classical Greek myth Theseus and the Minotaur, Roman gladiator battles, and our current obsession with reality television (Scholastic, n.d.).

Genre: Dystopian, Action, Science Fiction

Curriculum ties: Theme, Elements of Plot, Government

Booktalking Ideas:

1.    Peeta’s point of view.

2.    Conduct a class reaping

Reading level/Interest Age: 12+

Challenge Issues:  This novel includes violence, death, and rebellion.

To defend challenged material I would:

1.    Read/watch/listen to the material to become familiar with the content.

2.    Familiarize myself with the Arizona Common Core curriculum standards http://www.azed.gov/azcommoncore/teacher/ to defend how the material can support the learning of these standards.

3.    Refer to the Library Bill of Rights: http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill

4.    Refer to the collection policy of my library.

5.    Collect reviews from staff/students/patrons who have used the material

Why I chose this book: The Hunger Games  trilogy has become a sensation on and off screen.  The novel that served as the basis for the hit movie has garnered rave reviews from YA author John Green, Time magazine, and Stephanie Meyer (Wikipedia, n.d.).

References:

Collins, S. (n.d.) Webpage. Retrieved 15 March 2013 from

           www.suzannecollinsbooks.com/bio.htm

Scholastic. (n.d.) The hunger games. Video. Retrieved 1 May 2013 from

          http://www.scholastic.com/thehungergames/videos/mockingjay.htm

Wikipedia. (n.d.) The hunger games. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hunger_Games#Critical_reception

Insurgent

Bibliographic Information: Roth, V. (2012). Insurgent. New York: Katherine Tegen Books. ISBN: 9780062024046

Plot Summary: While dealing with loss and guilt Tris, along with Four, and those who are willing to follow them seek safety at the Amity headquarters. Upon arrival it becomes apparent that finding safety may be harder than they thought. They learn the Dauntless faction is split in two and some of the factions have allied against the others. Their stay with the neutral Amity is short because of the conflict Tris and her group bring with them. Many of them, including Tris and Four are Divergent, and they are the ones who are being hunted.  Tris and some of the others run to stay alive. Not knowing where to go next, Four’s past catches up with them and gives them an ally they would have never thought possible. The choice needs to made- do they stay on the run, or fight?  With secrets being exposed and spies being unveiled the list of the people Tris can trust is getting shorter every day. With the desire to protect those people she cares about, Tris will do anything to keep them safe, even if that means putting herself in danger to keep her loved ones alive.

Critical Evaluation: Insurgent is the second installment of the Divergent Trilogy, and picks up right where Divergent ends. It is easy to see from the beginning that the antagonists are those who are trying to take over the government and implement their own type of oppressive rule. Beatrice, now known as Tris, continues to do everything in her power to restore peace within the factions, but is that peace she is trying to restore the right thing for everyone? Normalcy is gone, and the threat of Tris’s biggest enemies is gone only to be replaced by someone new. Evelyn Eaton, Four’s mother, and the leader of the Factionless is that new person. She uses Tris and Four to help fight for her cause so she can gain control, but Tris’ mother was a Divergent,  and her father was a faction transfer.  This knowledge will help her find a solution to the mess they are all in. Tris’ role as the fighter will help her persevere to find all the answers she needs to help reunite the people of her homeland.

Reader’s Annotation: Tris escaped disaster once, but with war on the horizon she knows she is in for the fight of her life to save the people she loves.

Information about the Author: Veronica Roth, a young, 24-year old woman, wrote Divergent while attending Northwestern University where she received a degree in creative writing.  She has maintained a blog since July of 2009, where she talks about writing, book news, movie updates, and random muses.

Roth’s Divergent series has seen much success, selling over two million copies and landing on the New York Times Best Seller list (Wikipedia, n.d.).

Genre: Dystopian

Curriculum Ties: English (literature)

Booktalking ideas (one or two):

1. Heated exchange between Tris and Four.

2. Tris perspective about killing Will and how it haunts her.

Reading level/Interest age: 14+

Challenge Issues: This novel includes violence.

To defend challenged material I would:

1.    Read/watch/listen to the material to become familiar with the content.

2.    Familiarize myself with the Arizona Common Core curriculum standards http://www.azed.gov/azcommoncore/teacher/ to defend how the material can support the learning of these standards.

3.    Refer to the Library Bill of Rights: http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill

4.    Refer to the collection policy of my library.

5.    Collect reviews from staff/students/patrons who have used the material

Why I included this book: I included this book because it is the sequel to the highly acclaimed Divergent.  Young adult patrons who read Divergent will want to read Insurgent to continue the tale to Tris Prior.  

References:

Wikipedia (n.d.) Veronica Roth. Retrieved from

           http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veronica_Roth