Across the Universe

Bibliographic Information: Revis, B. (2001). Across the Universe. New York: Razorbill. ISBN: 1595143971

Plot Summary: Amy, a seventeen-year old girl from Earth is torn between staying with her family, and finishing out her life on Earth.  Amy’s parents have joined a project to be cryogenically frozen and stored on the spaceship Godspeed traveling 300 years to a new planet they hope to colonize named Centauri-Earth.  She reluctantly agrees to join her parents on their 300-year frozen journey, but Amy is woken up fifty years too soon. Elder, the leader-in-training for the spaceship Godspeed stumbles upon Amy’s thawing body, and aids in her rescue.  Amy learns from the disgruntled leader, Eldest, that her presence on the ship is going to pose a threat to the mono-ethnic community aboard Godspeed, and she also has to deal with her grief of waking up 50 years prematurely.  All she wants is to see her parents again, but danger starts permeating the ship.  More frozen bodies are taken out of their cryogenic tanks, left to die.  She and Elder worry that her parents may be next, so they set out to solve the mystery, and catch the murderer.

Critical Evaluation: Beth Revis creates a space thriller told through the perspective of Amy and Elder.  With alternating narrations, Amy and Elder tell their story about the mysterious events that are taking place on the spaceship Godspeed.  The points-of-view in which Revis chose to tell the story provide great exposition in a narrative context.  The main characters, Elder and Amy, must grapple with earth-shattering discoveries.  Elder learns about the lower-levels of the spaceship, something Eldest has kept hidden from him.  He dislikes Eldest’s hesitance to trust him, and properly train him to become the next leader of the ship.  Elder’s discovery of Eldest’s secrets leads him to realize that much of the life he knew on Godspeed has been a lie.  Amy must deal with living as an outsider on Godspeed.  Eldest has convinced most of the ship’s inhabitants that she is a freak and a liar.  Amy is able to provide Elder with some perspective about life on the ship.  She senses that something is amiss, and acts as the catalyst to change the way of life on Godspeed. Across the Universe provides a window to the desperation people suffer when they are far, far, away from home.

Reader’s Annotation: The question isn’t where is she.  She knows she is on a spaceship headed for Centauri-Earth.  The question is when is she?  Amy wants to know why she is here now?  Why did someone wake her up while her parents still peacefully sleep sailing to their destination through outer space.

 

Information about the author: Beth Revis has been a life-long lover of Young Adult literature, and story writer.  She excelled in school, earning a BA in English, minor in history, and a MA in English Literature with a concentration in fantasy literature (Revis, n.d.).

After teaching for six years, a career she loved, Revis retired to focus on her writing.  Across the Universe is her first novel and trilogy, and she has also written a novella and a handful of short stories and Anthologies, which elaborate characters’ histories from Across the Universe (Revis, n.d.).

Genre: Science Fiction

Curriculum Ties: English  (literature)

Booktalking ideas (one or two):

1.    Conversation between Amy and her parents about leaving Earth.

Reading level/Interest age: 15+

Challenge Issues: The novel contains sexuality, attempted rape, and minor language.

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 of the unique point of view from which the story is told.  Alternating viewpoints between Elder and Amy help readers gather a deeper understanding of the novel.  The storyline is a little like Wall-E, in that humans have left earth to colonize another planet.  The science aspect about cryogenics will interest patrons interested in the science field. 

References:

Revis, B. (n.d.) Beth Revis. Website Retrieved from http://www.bethrevis.com/

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