More YA Dystopia, You Say?

I don't know why she is in a green bubble. There are no bubbles in the book.

Matched by Ally Condie

[#14 in the 52 Book Challenge]

I’m about three books behind in my challenge. Fail!

I’ll start by saying that I liked this book. You could give me any YA dystopian novel and I would be happy. It’s sort of my favorite genre.

However, I wanted to throw the book against a wall when I was done. Not in the same way that I wanted to throw Twilight against a wall, but I was ticked off. That’s because nobody told me this book is part of a trilogy. The second book, Crossed, comes out in November.

The story is about Cassia, a young girl living in a super-controlled society that is very reminiscient of the societies in The Giver, 1984, and City of Ember. Cassia attends her match banquet at the beginning of the novel, where she is to see the face of the boy that the government has chosen her to be matched with. The face she sees is the familiar face of her best friend, which makes her very happy. However, Cassia sees a second face as well. Suddenly she realizes that the government may have made a mistake. There may be a flaw in their system. Cassia has never been given choices or options, but this mistake forces her to question if that is the best way to live.

Can you say LOVE TRIANGLE? Condie sets it up perfectly, but the triangle is very similar to the one in The Hunger Games. I didn’t know who to root for. Sweet Xander, who has been Cassia’s best friend for life, or the rugged abberation, Ky. The story is dripping with romantic (and sexual) tension, even though it is very PG in nature.

I was rolling right along with this one, enjoying myself, until I hit the last thirty pages and realized that there would not be a satisfying ending. It can’t even be read as a stand alone book because all of the loose ends are left loose. Condie has certain procured my $10.99 for the second book, and probably the third, because now I have to know what happens.

If you are interested in this one, my recommendation is to wait until November so you can go directly into the second book, Crossed, without having to wait!

Merry Christmas!

The Weirdo by Theodore Taylor

At least that’s how it feels over here. It’s like librarian Christmas for me. I’ve come back from spring break to oodles of fun new stuff!

I finally got our activation set for World Book Online, and we get to start using it today with our 8th grade research projects on The Weirdo by Theodore Taylor. I’m kind of becoming obsessed with databases and web research, so this is just the first resource of many that our school will be purchasing.

We also got two huge orders in. One is over a dozen class novel sets, which should make our language arts and social studies teachers very happy (read, children, read!). The other is our first huge fiction order of the year. I have been waiting patiently since October for this one to come in because there is some amazing stuff in that order. Very little makes me happier than putting new fiction on the shelves and having the kids scramble to check them all out.

The best news of all is that my order with Junior Library Guild went through under Title I. I was afraid that my last minute swap for additional levels would not be approved, but it was. JLG is a subscription service that sends new, amazing, well-reviewed titles every month. We were able to get fourteen levels each month for a year. New books every month for a year means I’ve constantly got new stuff to put on the shelf, as opposed to getting everything all at once. I love it. 

To top it all off, I also get to on a field trip this afternoon. I will be chaperoning 6th grade dance students on their trip to SciWorks for a science/dance integration lesson. We will be shooting video in the various exhibits, which should be super cute.

My job itself is a gift because I love what I do, but today especially feels like Christmas. So Merry Christmas to all!

[as I finish typing this, I also just got 10 new Flip cameras and 48 sets of fancy headphones. It doesn't end!]