The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

The book world has been buzzing about The Hunger Games since early June, and more impressively, the reviewers have been giving it the highest of praise:

• "The hype surrounding this book is well deserved."
• "I picked up her book and did not put it down unless forced." 
• "Highly recommended, this is a contender for the best science fiction for teens this year." 
• "It stands equal to Westerfeld's Uglies series" 
• "a completely scintillating book and wholly promising start to what's sure to be a spectacular trilogy."
• ... and many, many more  (I have yet to see a single negative review!!!)
  

So, obviously, I was a little bit excited when my copy finally arrived at the library, and now, having devoured it in one sitting, I have to agree completely.

As the novel begins, we meet 16 year old Katniss on the morning of the Reaping.  The Reaping is the first stage in a nationwide, televised reality competition -- The Hunger Games-- where 24 teens (one male and one female from each district of Panem) will literally fight to their death.  And I'm sorry, but that's all I'm going to tell you plotwise.

Katniss, our protagonist, has her flaws, but is strong and intelligent and thinks for herself  (which is more than can be said for certain recent YA heroines *cough*Bella*cough*).  The pacing is perfect -- no long flowery descriptions, not a single dull moment.    Collins seems to have a knack for introducing completely unexpected plot twists exactly when they're needed (wasp attacks, teens turned wolves, etc). The novel ends, nail-bittingly, on a cliff-hanger, and I, for one, am now anxiously awaiting Sept. 2009.

Just read it.  Now.  Get to the nearest library (or if you absolutely must, one of those bookstore places), and read it.  Immediately.

Readers might also enjoy:
The Uglies trilogy by Scott Westerfeld
Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden

Extras by Scott Westerfeld

Extras by Scott Westerfeld

When I was in college, there was this tradition, called "blow-out," that on the last day of classes, many students would start drinking first thing in the morning (or even the night before), and then go to class, water bottles full of alcohol in hand. There were rumors of professors doing shots with their students, and it was a common sight to see students walking around campus with plastic cups*.

Now, I was not exactly a big drinker (or legally old enough to drink, for that matter), so what was I doing on the very last day of classes in my college career?

I was curled up in bed, reading a book that I had randomly checked out from the local public library. And that book was Uglies, the first book in Scott Westerfeld's wonderful futuristic "trilogy."

I put "trilogy" in quotes because, you know, trilogies are supposed to have 3 books... and this specific trilogy ended up having an Extra volume (pun intended).

Extras takes place about five years after the mind rain at the end of Specials, in a city halfway across the world. In this city, which is probably in Japan, the mind rain has resulted in a whole new culture, one based on face rank and feeds, one full of different cliques that try crazy new things (truth surgery, for example).

Fifteen year old Aya has grown up learning about Tally Youngblood and the mind rain in school. Aya, with a face rank of 451,369, is in search of a great new story to kick, and happens upon the Sly Girls, a group of girls who do crazy tricks (like surfing on top of a mag lev train), and try to keep their identities hidden. But when Aya joins their group, she discovers something even more interesting -- something that could mean the destruction of her city.

Like the first three books in the series, Extras is a quick, suspenseful read. What Westerfeld does so well though, is to write these very readable books that are, at the same time, thought-provoking. For example, the society in Extras with the feeds and the face ranks could easily lend itself to a very interesting discussion of today's social networking culture. This would be a great pick for teen book clubs, and, while part of a series, can definitely stand on its own.

*There were also e-mails sent out every year from the administration asking us to "please party safely" and warnings that one could be arrested or expelled. But, as far as I could tell, these warnings were generally ignored.

Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

When the blurb on the back of a book tells you to "Clear some space in your schedule: You won't want to be interrupted as you read this nail-biting drama". You should heed their advice. You should not start reading it at 10 pm when you have to get up early for work the next morning. Okay, I don't know about you, but I really should have known better.

I asked the library to order Life as We Knew It back in October, and it just finally came in yesterday. (I do find it interesting that a book I've been waiting for ages just happens to show up several days after it makes the BBYA list -- especially since the same thing happened with Princess Academy and the Newbery Honor last year... but I digress...)

So, I checked it out last night at work, went home, took a shower, made myself a cup of apple cider, and started reading. Bad idea. At midnight, I figured I should probably go to sleep, so I put the book on my nightstand, lay there for a few minutes, realized there was no way I was going to fall asleep without finishing it, and picked it back up. I was able to finish it by about 1, but then it still took me a little while to get to sleep. So, now I'm at work, and it just happens to be the one day of the week that I work 11 hours... and I'm really tired. But it was so worth it.

Life as We Knew It is written as a series of journal entries, beginning as Miranda is finishing her sophomore year of high school. She writes about her classes, and her grades, and her summer plans, and "that moon thing" that is about to happen.

"That moon thing" is that an asteroid is going to hit the moon -- which, while cool to watch, shouldn't be that big of deal. But the asteroid is more dense than anyone expected, and when it hits the moon, the moon shifts off its axis, causing all sorts of changes on the earth. For example, since the moon controls the tides, almost immediately, there are huge tidal waves covering much of the east and west coast -- the Statue of Liberty even washes out to sea (This is really what freaked me out the most -- since my boyfriend goes to school in New York City).

As soon as this happens, everything changes for Miranda and her family (younger brother Jonny, older brother Matt, and their mother) -- everyone begins stockpiling food, gas prices start sky-rocketing, schools close because they are running out of food to feed the students. And every time they think it can't get any worse, something else happens... keeping Miranda and her family desperately fighting for survival.

What is really scary though, is how suddenly it all happens -- this novel isn't set hundreds of years in the future -- the journal entries have dates, but not years, and Miranda's early journal entries make her seem like an average teenage girl of today. And we know that things like this can happen -- though on a smaller scale -- we've seen what Hurricane Katrina did to New Orleans, we watched the footage of the Tsunami in Indonesia and Thailand.

And most of us have just enough experience with storms and power outages to have some idea of how this would be. Personally, I remember hurricane Isabel (2003), when we lost power for three or four days, and I had to eat cold ravioli out of a can, and we didn't have air conditioning, and all of the stop-lights were out. And that is absolutely nothing compared to what Miranda goes through -- but remembering it makes it just a little bit easier to imagine her suffering.

Life as We Knew It terrifies me and makes me want to start hoarding canned goods -- but I still loved it and want to recommend it to everyone who might possibly enjoy dystopian or end-of-the-world type fiction. But please, beware, once you start this one, you won't want to put it down.

Rash by Pete Hautman

Rash by Pete Hautman

Ever since I read Fahrenheit 451 in 8th grade, I've loved dystopian fiction, so Rash, a novel about a near future society where the USA is now the USSA (United Safer States of America) and the main labor force is a MacDonald's owned prison camp system, was right up my alley.*

The year is 2074, and today's teenagers are now in the grandparents. Bo's grandfather was born in 1990 in fact (for the math challenged out there -- that means he would be sixteen now, in 2006 -- like many of the readers). Just about anything that could possibly be considered unsafe is now illegal -- running without a helmet, verbally insulting people, even driving before age 26.

Due to these laws, 24% of the population is in prison, including Bo's father and older brother. Bo himself is sent to prison after he gets into a fight with a boy from school. Prisons have changed a little bit too. The inmates are basically a labor force, and the gulag to which Bo is sent is a factory where MacDonald's pizzas are made (and yes, MacDonald's makes pizzas -- there was an explanation for this, but I'll let Bo tell you about it). In order to escape pepperoni duty, Bo tries out to be a Golden Boy -- which, though he doesn't know it yet, means trying out for an illegal football team.

Rash is an absolutely hilarious look at where society could be headed. I laughed out loud when I read that the driving age was 26 -- as the state where I live is actually trying to gradually raise it from 16 to 18 (though if that gets drivers like my step-sister off the road -- it can't be that bad!).

Can you tell that I loved this book?

*Oh dear, I'm having flashbacks to my elementary school librarian -- she used to say that all the time!

Just in Case by Meg Rosoff

Since I loved How I Live Now, I was very excited to hear that Meg Rosoff had a new book coming out, and Just in Case definitely did not disappoint.

David Case finds his baby brother about to fall off a window ledge, and, deciding that fate has it out for him, he changes his identity, becoming Justin Case (get it?). He meets Agnes, a 19 year old photographer, who wants him to become a model, and he falls into an obsessive love with her. The story that follows is the story of either his nervous breakdown, or of fate actually conspiring against him -- or both. In some short passages, fate actually narrates, telling the reader how much fun it is to play with David/Justin.

I enjoyed this at least as much as How I Live Now -- and it is definitely going on my list of books that I would be happy to see on the Printz honor list this year.