Pretties by Scott Westerfeld

Westerfeld, Scott. Pretties.

Simon Pulse; 2005,

ISBN: 0689865392.

Reader’s Annotation

Tally has everything she always wanted—she’s pretty, her boyfriend’s gorgeous, and she goes to parties every night—but it feels like she’s forgetting something…  

Plot Summary

In the sequel to Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies, Pretties picks up where the plot left off.  Tally Youngblood is pretty now, and she goes to pretty parties and thinks pretty thoughts in New Pretty Town.  Tally’s dearest wish now is to join Shay’s clique called the Crims.  When Tally goes to a party, she encounters a party crasher—Croy, someone she’s forgotten that she knew back in the Smoke.  Seeing him brings back fuzzy memories of her life in the wild before turning pretty.  Tally and Zane, the leader of the Crims, learn from Croy that the “pretty-mindedness” is caused by the lesions.  Croy gives Tally the pills with instructions to take both, but when Tally get scared, she give Zane one.  The two feel the effects right away and start to feel “bubbly” or more sharply focused.  Zane however develops terrible headaches.  They also discover that other can feel bubbly by surges of adrenaline or caffeine, so they teach the Crim how.  Through a series of bubbly pranks, Shay remembers the Smoke too, and how Tally was responsible.  She remembers that Tally “stole” David from her too.  Shay forms her own clique, the Cutters, who stay bubbly by cutting themselves.  Dr. Cable and the Specials, grow suspicious of Tally and Zane, and monitor them constantly.  Dr. Cable even offers Tally a job—with the Specials—which Tally vehemently refuses.  When Zane and Tally finally escape, Tally discovers that the best-laid plans can go wrong.  They meet up with the New Smoke, and there Tally learns that Zane was hurt because the pill she took was supposed to counteract its effects.  When the Specials catch up with New Smoke, Tally refuses to leave Zane (who cannot be moved), behind.  She and Zane are captured by a new unit of the Specials—the Cutters.  And it’s Shay who informs Tally of her fate—she will be turned into a Special too.

Critical Evaluation

The setting and tone of Pretties stand in stark contrast to the more wilderness-oriented setting of Uglies.  Westerfeld weaves a picture of vacuous self-gratification and indulgence.  What to wear to the next party constitutes the greatest problem of any given day.  The concept of being “bubbly” and thinking clearly raises interesting questions for discussion.  One of the greatest subplots of the novel is Tally’s dilemma of loving Zane and David both.  When she was made pretty, she of course, forgot David.  During that time she fell in love with Zane.  As her memories of living in the Smoke return, so do her memories of her time with David.  Tally must choose.  Tally’s broken relationship with Shay shows some of the complexity that comes with any severed friendship.  At the end of Pretties, Westerfeld again leaves you desperate to know what happens next.

Information about the Author

Born in Texas in 1963, Scott Westerfeld is the award-winning science fiction author of Evolution's Darling, So Yesterday and the The Secret Hour.  Westerfeld now divides his time between New York and Sydney, Australia.  For more information about Scott Westerfeld, go to his blog at: Scott Westerfeld

Genre

Science Fiction

Romance

Curriculum Tie-ins

None

Booktalk Ideas

1. David or Zane?
2. Discuss Tally’s decision to share the cure with Zane.
3. How do think the cutting of Shay’s clique really makes them feel better?  Do you think there are similarities to why people in our society cut?

Reading level/Interest age

Young Adult (Age 16+)

Challenge Issues/Challenge Response Ideas

None

Why I included this work

Sequel to Uglies, also, awards for Pretties include:

• CCBC Choices (Cooperative Children's Book Council),
• NYPL "Books for the Teen Age",
• Pennsylvania School Librarian Association (PSLA) "Top Ten (Or So)" Young Adult Books

Great Quote from the Book:

"Everyone in the world was programmed by the place they were born, hemmed in by their beliefs, but you had to at least try to grow your own brain"

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Westerfeld, Scott.  Uglies.

Simon Pulse; 2005,

ISBN: 0689865384.

Reader’s Annotation

If she wants to have the operation to become pretty (and she's been waiting for it for fifteen year), Tally Youngblood must make the choice of whether or not she will betray her friends--or risk being a social pariahby remaining ugly forever.

Plot Summary

Tally Youngblood is fifteen, and is ugly.  Actually, everyone is considered ugly in Tally’s society until they are sixteen, and undergo an operation to make them pretty.  Tally especially misses her friend Perris who turned sixteen, and now lives in Pretty Town across the river.  When Tally sneaks over to see Perris, to her dismay, he tells Tally that he doesn’t want to see her again until she’s pretty.  Tally meets another ugly out sneaking around—a fellow ugly named Shay.  When she and Shay discover that they share the same birthday and the same adventurous spirit, they become best friends.  However, after showing Tally how to ride a hover board, and how to sneak over to the Rusty Ruins, Shay gradually reveals that she does not want to become pretty.  Just before their birthday, Shay disappears, leaving a cryptic message for Tally if she wants to follow her.  But Tally still wants to be pretty.  On her birthday, she’s ready for her operation.  When she’s picked up, though, she finds herself not at the hospital, but at the headquarters of the ominous Special Circumstances forces.  There Tally’s informed that before she will be allowed to turn pretty, she must follow after Shay, find her way through the wilderness to the secret location (known as the Smoke) of runaways.  Carrying a tracking beacon, Tally must signal the location once she’s there.  If she refuses she will remain ugly forever.  Tally does find her way there, and meets up with Shay and David, a free-born young man who guides runaways to the Smoke.  Tally puts off signaling Special Circumstances, and come to have feelings for David.  She learns from David’s scientist parents that the operation to become pretty creates brain lesions that affect a person’s behavior, making them docile and shallow.  Finally, she tries to destroy the beacon, only to find out later that the beacon is rigged to automatically activate if anyone tries to destroy it.  That means that Special Circumstances is on the way—and it’s because of Tally.

Critical Evaluation

Scott Westerfeld creates a dystopian world in such simple and clear detail, that it seems entirely plausible.  Set in what was once the United States, places like the Rusty Ruins give testament to how human civilization got technologically carried away, and was eventually destroyed.  Besides the more obvious themes of what constitute real beauty, Westerfeld touches on themes of environmentalism and loyalty to friends.  Bearing similarities to Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games trilogy, and even to the 1970s movie Logan’s Run, Uglies is book 1 of a series.  These all examine the meaning of true freedom and to what extent government plays a part in controlling our lives.

     

Information about the Author

Born in Texas in 1963, Scott Westerfeld is the award-winning science fiction author of Evolution's Darling, So Yesterday and the The Secret Hour.  Westerfeld now divides his time between New York and Sydney, Australia.  For more information about Scott Westerfeld, go to his blog at: Scott Westerfeld

Genre

Science Fiction

Romance

Curriculum Tie-ins

None

Booktalk  Ideas

1. Describe how the concepts of “pretty” and “ugly” in the novel compare to our own concepts today.
2. If you had the choice, would you want to become pretty?

Reading level/Interest age

Young Adult (Grade 10+)

Challenge Issues/Challenge Response Ideas

None

Why I included this work

Uglies was named as "Best Books for Young Adults" 2006 by the American Library Association

Great Quote from the Book:

"I can't imagine anything worse than being required to have fun."

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

Doctorow, Cory. Little Brother.

Tor Teen; 2008,

ISBN: 0765323117.

Reader’s Annotation

Because the day the bridge blew up was the day Marcus and his friends skipped school, they are under suspicion and continually tracked by the DHS, which isn’t really prepared for computer geek Marcus to counter with a resistance movement of his own.

Plot Summary

The afternoon that Marcus and his friends Darryl, Vanessa (Van), and Jolu decide to skip school, is the day that terrorists blow up the San Francisco Bay Bridge.  In the mad scramble with crowds trying to get to shelter, Darryl gets stabbed.  As the four frantically try to help Darryl, they instead get arrested for suspicious behavior by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).  Taken to a secret prison as “enemy combatants”  they are subjected to psychological torture and humiliation at the direction of “Severe Haircut Woman”.  When finally Marcus, Van and Jolu are released and threatened if they tell anyone what happeded, they discover that San Francisco has become a police state.  They respond to their ordeal in different ways.  Marcus, upon learning that Darryl has been taken to a secret prison on Treasure Island, gets mad.  Under his code name, W1n5t0n (Winston), Marcus develops and organizes a resistance movement.  During this time he develops a relationship with Ange, who supports him in his efforts.  As the story progresses, the danger and stress level grows.  Marcus finally confesses to Darryl’s  father, and to his own parents, who in turn take him to a reporter.  Marcus again get arrested by the DHS, and this time is tortured, (recorded on video) by waterboarding.  Thanks to the reporter, and consequently the governor, Marcus is rescued, and Darryl is found and saved.  Happy ending except, nothing happens to the DHS.

Critical Evaluation

Doctorow allowed the protagonist, Marcus show complexity.  In the beginning, Marcus seemed the classic hero—he was David, to the DHS’s Goliath.  I was kind of expecting Doctorow to make Marcus a one dimensional good guy.  As the plot progressed, however, the lines blurred.  One way that Doctorow highlighted this was to show how even some of Marcus’ closest friends would not stand with him completely.  On both sides of the security/privacy issue, there was represented a range of gray area.  Marcus’ own code of ethics throughout the book is summed up in the part of the Bill of Rights which he quotes.  When Marcus demonstrated how to reprogram the RFIDs, he dramatically made his point about privacy and surveillance.  The downside of that, was that innocent people were unavoidably hurt in the process.  Some might simply call that collateral damage, but Marcus did begin to squirm as he saw jammers going overboard with the procedure, and he did try to call them off.  When Marcus finally tells the truth to his parents, there was a feeling that he was giving up the fight.  But Marcus finds (especially with his dad), that there’s power in the truth, and he learns that there are appropriate and legal ways to fight back against injustice.  He finds that he has many more allies in the battle by speaking the truth—allies such as his parents, Barbara Stratford—the reporter, and Darryl’s father.  The truth becomes a much more effective weapon in the end. 

Information about the Author

Cory Doctorow considers himself to be much more than a science fiction writer.  Born in Toronto, Canada, he is an activist, journalist and blogger (He is co-editor of Boing Boing).  Doctorow lives in London, and is also the author of For the Win.  For more information, go to Craphound.com.

Genre

Science Fiction

Horror

Curriculum Tie-ins

Civics

Social Studies

Booktalk  Ideas

1. How should we balance our right to privacy with our need for safety?
2. Discuss Marcus’ father’s response throughout the book and contrast that with his response after Marcus confesses the truth.

Reading level/Interest age

Young Adult (ages 13+)

Challenge Issues/Challenge Response Ideas

Political issues

Sexual content

Be ready with a copy of the library’s selection policy

Be familiar with similar works in the collection

Refer to site: YALSA’s Best Books for Young Adults

Why I included this work

The political and moral themes help readers to consider their basic rights, and hopefully not take them for granted.

Other awards and honors:

•  2009 White Pine Award
•  2009 Prometheus Award. and the
•  2009 John W. Campbell Memorial Award
• Finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Novel.

Great Quote from the Book:

"I can't go underground for a year, ten years, my whole life,

waiting for freedom to be handed to me.

Freedom is something you have to take for yourself."

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games.

Scholastic; 2008,

ISBN: 0439023521.

Reader’s Annotation

Katniss voluntarily takes her sister’s place in the Hunger Games—a violent fight to the death imposed by the Capitol of Panem for the entertainment of the viewing public, on the children from the outlying districts, as a punishment for past rebellion and to discourage future uprisings.

Plot Summary

Katniss Everdeen is a survivor, and in her country of Panem (in what used to be the United States), she also works tirelessly to help her family (her mother and sister Prim) survive.  Katniss enjoys her illegal hunting time because she can get out into the wild and also spend time with Gale, her handsome, close friend.  Panem consists of twelve outlaying districts (and a rumored thirteenth), surrounding the all-controlling Capitol.  Because the Districts once rebelled against the Capitol, the government now forces the Districts to participate in gladiator-style Hunger Games—each district must select by lottery one boy and one girl.  When 12-year-old Prim’s name is chosen, Katniss doesn’t hesitate to take her place in the Hunger Games.  What follows is Katniss’ journey with fellow District 12 contestant Peeta, the baker’s son, to the Games which are nationally televised for the Capitol’s amusement, and the Districts’ punishment.  Throughout the Games, Katniss must make choices—who to trust for now, who to kill, and how to survive until the end.

Critical Evaluation

Once the names are drawn, the plot takes off, and you can’t put the book down.  Collins has created a dystopian society where the children are made to bear the punishment for previous generations.  The psychological agony of being forced to watch children fight for their lives, being presented as a form of entertainment is unimaginable. Katniss is at first bewildered as the events surrounding the Hunger Games, but with their advisor Haymitch, a drunken, cynical older man, Katniss and Peeta begin to talk strategy.  Katniss doesn’t want to work with Peeta—she doesn’t want to know him or care about him because she knows that ultimately she will have to kill him or be killed by him.  Her resolution falters though, when Peeta admits in a pre-game, televised interview that he loves Katniss.  As the games progress, Katniss and Peeta are drawn together, and eventually find a way to rebel.

About the Author

As a successful writer for several children’s television shows including Clarissa Explains It All and The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo, Suzanne Collins has established a range of writing experience.  It was with her writing of the bestselling Underland Chronicles, however, that Collins really made her mark in children’s literature.  In the award-winning The Hunger Games trilogy, Collins explores the effects of war and violence on young people. Collins lives with her family in Connecticut. For more information, go to: http://www.suzannecollinsbooks.com/index.htm

Genre

Science fiction

Fantasy

Action

Horror

Curriculum Tie-ins

None

Booktalk Ideas

1. Peeta or Gale?
2. Describe Katniss’ relationship with Haymitch.
3. Are there any parallels to the Hunger Games in our society? Have there ever been?

Reading level/Interest age

Young Adult (grades 9-Adult)

Challenge Issues/Challenge Response Ideas

Violence

• Present the library’s selection policy
• Be familiar with similar works in the collection

Why I included this work

Collins wons innumerable awards and honors for The Hunger Games including:

• An American Library Association Top Ten Best Books For Young Adults Selection
• 2008 CYBIL AWARD--Fantasy & Science Fiction

Great Quote from the Book:

Katniss Everdeen: “It’s not a fair comparison really. Gale and I were thrown together by a mutual need to survive. Peeta and I know the other’s survival means our own death.”

House of Stairs by William Sleator

Sleator, William. House of Stairs.

Puffin; 1991 (originally published in 1974),

ISBN: 0140345809.

Reader’s Annotation

Five teenagers find themselves in a strange place—a place seemingly with no walls, no floors, no ceilings—only flights of stairs, a basin of running water, and a strange machine that sometimes produces food.

Plot Summary

Five teenagers—Peter, Lola, Blossom, Abigail and Oliver—each an orphan, and none of them know the others until they find themselves in a strange, mysterious place.  No ceilings, floors or walls can be found—only stairs. There is also a strange red machine, a machine that they slowly learn love and trust, and to let virtually rule their lives as they figure out how to survive in that awful place. Peter is a nice, but kind of slow boy. Lola is the juvenile delinquent. Blossom’s a spoiled girl her grew up with wealth, but is recently orphaned. Abigail is a pleasant girl, but one who is easy swayed by others. And Oliver is an outgoing, generous, self-confident athlete.  As the machine’s manipulations of them take a sinister turn, they each have to decide just how far they will go.

Critical Evaluation

This book has been around a long time, and because of its suspenseful, chilling plot, it still captivates and horrifies readers.  The “house of stairs” isn’t a hospital, or another institution, or anything that Peter, Lola, Blossom, Abigail and Oliver can figure out.  The story is told mostly from Peter’s point of view.  Their lives soon revolve around the mysterious red machine.  At first the machine generously produces food, then it only produces food when the teens dance in a certain way, finally they learn that it will only produce food in response to their violence and aggression.  The focus of the story really isn’t on the enigmatic setting, or even the machine itself.  The focal point is the five characters themselves—their strengths, weaknesses and most importantly how they relate to each other, and to the machine.

Information about the Author

William Sleator has written more than 30 books for young adults including Interstellar Pig, The Green Futures of Tycho, Strange Attractors, The Spirit House.  He received a degree in English from Harvard in 1967, and published his first novel, Blackbriar, in 1974.  For more information go to: http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/s/william-sleator/

Genre

Science Fiction

Suspense

Thriller

Curriculum Tie-ins

Psychology

Booktalk Ideas

Can you think of any other actions that the characters could have taken I response to the machine?

This book is set in the unspecified future—Do you think things like could happen today?

Reading level/Interest age

Young Adult (grade 9+)

Challenge Issues/Challenge Response Ideas

• Intense psychological abuse
• Be ready with a copy of the library’s selection policy
• Be familiar with similar works in the collection
• Refer to awards and other information: Authors4teens
  

Why I included this work

I read this book back in middle school in the late 70s, and it has always kind of haunted me.  I was not surprised that it is still well read. Among the honors The House of Stairs are:

• A YALSA Best of the Best Books 1970-1983
• A YALSA Best Book for Young Adults, 1974
• A YALSA Best of the Best Books for Young Adults 1966-1986, American Library Association, 1988
• One of YALSA's 100 Best of the Best Books for Young Adults, 1967-1992, 1994
• One of the 100 Best of the Best Books for Young Adults Published During the Last Four Decades of the Twentieth Century, 2000

Great Quotes from the Book:

"The whirring around them had been going on for quite a long time."

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

Card, Orson Scott. Ender’s Game.

Tor Science Fiction; 1994,

ISBN: 0812550706.

Reader’s Annotation

Ender Wiggin, the young boy who is the greatest hope to save Earth from destruction by the alien “Buggers”, must learn his lessons at Battle School quickly in order to be ready in time to lead the fleet to victory. 

Plot Summary

The Buggers are coming!  Seventy-five years since the last encounter with these alien invaders, and the Interplanetary Forces (IF) believes that another war is imminent. They decide that their best hope is to make a preemptive strike.  Their whole strategy lies in finding a child who has what it takes to become the commander who can save the human race from annihilation. Ender Wiggin, the third child in a society where birth control is strictly enforced, just may be that one.  So he finds himself swept off to Battle School—leaving his home, including his horrible bully of a brother and his sister Valentine, the one person in the world who loves Ender completely.  Once in the space-based training school, Ender is no longer allowed to be a child, nor can he afford to be.  He learns his lessons in pain and loneliness, little realizing that the strategists who have been monitoring his every move, weighing and evaluation its significance. For the IF, time is running out and they desperately step up Ender’s training—but will they push him too far?  Can the human race be saved without destroying Ender?

Critical Evaluation

The human race has been attacked before by a hive-minded alien force, and the Interplanetary Force (IF) knows that another attack is coming soon.  The IF believes that their only hope lies in finding a child—the right child—who will have the right blend of courage, creativity and compassion to command the IF forces.  The irony of taking a six-year-old boy like Ender Wiggin and grooming him to be the commander of a great military force shows starkly as the IF uses “games” as a training tool.  Life in the Battle School is a mixture of familiarity and isolation for Ender—just as he becomes familiar with his team and fellow students, he is whisked away and isolated yet again.  Even Ender recognizes that his success in the Battle Room is a blessing and a curse—he is quickly recognized as being “the one to beat” and that generates both admiration and resentment in the Battle School.  From the IF officials, however, it only earns Ender more work, seemly impossible challenges and a cold-hearted puppet/puppeteer relationship.  The plot line is flawless as it takes the reader through Ender’s progress in Battle School, his longing for his beloved sister Valentine, and his ultimate understanding of what’s at stake.  The IF finally lays down its cards with Ender, and explains directly what they want from him—or are they really telling the truth?  Can Ender believe them?  Who can he trust?

About the Author

Orson Scott Card was born in Richland, WA, and raised in Santa Clara, CA.  He served as a Mormon missionary in Brazil and attended BYU where he was a theater major, but began his writing career primarily as a poet. Card first wrote Ender’s Game as a short story while working at the BYU press, and submitted it to several publications. The idea for the later novel, of the same title came from the short story and was eventually purchased by Ben Bova at Analog Science Fiction and Fact and published in the August 1977 issue.  For more information, go to:  http://www.hatrack.com/

Genre

Science Fiction

Curriculum Tie-ins

Bullying

Booktalk Ideas

1. Do you think that the need of the IF to defend Earth justified the way they took Ender from his home and raised him in the Battle School?
2. Discuss the relationship between Valentine, Peter and Ender.

Reading level/Interest age

Young Adult

Challenge Issues/Challenge Response Ideas

Violence

• 2008 Margaret A. Edwards Award
• Winner of both the Nebula and Hugo Awards http://www.nicholaswhyte.info/sf/nh2.htm

Why I included this work

It was recommended to me by some teenage boys who enjoy science fiction.

Winner of YALSA's Margaret A Edwards Award

Winner of the Nebula and Hugo Awards http://www.nicholaswhyte.info/sf/nh2.htm

Great Quote from the Book:

“This would not have a happy ending.  So Ender decided he'd rather not be the unhappiest at the end.”

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Collins, Suzanne. Catching Fire.

Scholastic; 2009,

ISBN: 0439023491.

Reader’s Annotation

Katniss and Peeta, unprecedented co-victors of the Hunger Games, begin their victory tour, only to discover that the country is teetering on the brink of revolution, and they are the catalysts.  Will they survive the demands placed on them, as well as yet another trip to the Hunger Games arena?

Plot Summary

After skillfully forcing the organizers of the nationally televised Hunger Games to let both her and her friend Peeta survive, Katniss Everdeen now faces even greater battles.  The Hunger Games, a gladiator-style fight to the death, has been hosted by the government of Panem (a country in what used the United States) as a way to punish the outlaying districts for past rebellion and to discourage any future attempts at rebellion.  The story begins with Katniss and Peeta beginning their victory tour of the districts, only to be stunned by an unexpected return to the Hunger Games arena.  Will Katniss survive again, and will she rise to the mounting calls to become the “Mockingjay”, or the symbol of the rebellion?

Critical Evaluation

Once again, Suzanne Collins delivers on a fast-paced, compelling story that grabs readers and draws them into the action.  In this sequel to The Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen’s eyes are opened wide by the brutal reality of the Capitol, and its tyrannical grip on the twelve districts.  When she and Peeta make their victory tour, several incidents with rebellious overtones happen, and it the merciless response that shocks Katniss.  She discovers that more and more people look to her as their symbol of the resistance, but Katniss just isn’t sure she can rise to be their “Mockingjay”.  But when the devious President Snow steps up the action by creating a special Hunger Games of all the former victors, Katniss finally gets it.  It is in the abbreviated Hunger Games that we really see Katniss’ strength of character come through.  She works with other victors as she can, protects Peeta at all costs, and always looks for a way to fight back against President Snow.

About the Author

As a successful writer for several children’s television shows including “Clarissa Explains It All” and “The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo”, Suzanne Collins has established a range of writing experience.  It was with her writing of the bestselling Underland Chronicles, however, that Collins really made her mark in children’s literature.  In the award-winning The Hunger Games trilogy, Collins explores the effects of war and violence on young people. Collins lives with her family in Connecticut.   For more information, go to: http://www.suzannecollinsbooks.com/

Genre

Science Fiction

Horror

Curriculum Tie-ins

None

Booktalk  Ideas

1. Discuss the various relationships between Katniss, Peeta and the other victors.
2. How would you characterize Katniss’ friendship with Cinna and with her stylist team?

Reading level/Interest age

Young Adult (12+)

Challenge Issues/Challenge Response Ideas

Violence

• Refer to YALSA's Teen's Top Ten
• Present library's selection policy
• Be familiar with the work, and with comparable works in the collection 

Why I included this work:

After the thrill of The Hunger Games, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on Catching Fire

Great Quote from the Book:

President Snow to Katniss:  "Katniss Everdeen, the girl who was on fire, you have provided the spark that, left unattended, may grow into an inferno that destroys Panem," he says.

"Why don't you just kill me now?" I blurt out.

"Publicly?" he asks. "That would only add fuel to the flames."