February Reads! Ashfall

More post-apocalyptic but definitely dystopian, Mike Mullin's Ashfall shows us how the world might be in the face of a catastrophic event affecting the entire planet. 

Synopsis:

"About Ashfall: Many visitors to Yellowstone National Park don’t realize that the boiling hot springs and spraying geysers are caused by an underlying supervolcano. It has erupted three times in the last 2.1 million years, and it will erupt again, changing the earth forever.

Fifteen-year-old Alex is home alone when Yellowstone erupts. His town collapses into a nightmare of darkness, ash, and violence, forcing him to flee. He begins a harrowing trek in search of his parents and sister, who were visiting relatives 140 miles away.

Along the way, Alex struggles through a landscape transformed by more than a foot of ash. The disaster brings out the best and worst in people desperate for food, clean water, and shelter. When an escaped convict injures Alex, he searches for a sheltered place where he can wait—to heal or to die. Instead, he finds Darla. Together, they fight to achieve a nearly impossible goal: surviving the supervolcano." (from his website - http://www.ashfallbook.com/)

This is an amazing, intense look at a teen's struggle to survive in a world turned to cold and darkness, the stuggle to live through the elements and the horror of fighting for life against those who have lost their own humanity.  This story is not for the feint of heart.  Gripping, intense and tragic.

What are your thoughts?  This would be a great movie, no?? 

Book 3: Sunrise...in the works!

February Reads! Divergent

Divergent by Veronica Roth

Synopsis:

"In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles to determine who her friends really are. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves… or it might destroy her."
(from her website - http://veronicarothbooks.blogspot.com/p/books.html)

Soon to be a major motion picture...http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1840309/
Do you think it can beat out Hunger Games????

 Book 3, still untitled, is due out in October of this year.

February Reads! Hunger Games

We can't talk dystopia without mentioning the Hunger Games...if you haven't read the series yet, here is a synopsis:

"COULD YOU SURVIVE ON YOUR OWN, IN THE WILD, WITH EVERYONE FIGHTING AGAINST YOU?

Twenty-four are forced to enter. Only the winner survives.
In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. Each year, the districts are forced by the Capitol to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the Hunger Games, a brutal and terrifying fight to the death – televised for all of Panem to see.
Survival is second nature for sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who struggles to feed her mother and younger sister by secretly hunting and gathering beyond the fences of District 12. When Katniss steps in to take the place of her sister in the Hunger Games, she knows it may be her death sentence. If she is to survive, she must weigh survival against humanity and life against love."
 (from the Scholastic website http://www.scholastic.com/thehungergames/about-the-book.htm)

So much more than the movie!  Tell us your thoughts.  Did you have to pick up Catching Fire right away after finishing??? I did!

 

February Reads! Resources.

Dystopian novels are still very popular in the Young Adult scene.  Here are a few resources for lists:

http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/4960.Best_Dystopian_Books_for_Teens
http://childrensbooks.about.com/od/toppicks/tp/Dystopian-Novels-For-Teens.htm
http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/syltguides/fullview/R1CU9XFNLVNZUH
http://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-lists/books-hunger-games
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/14/scholastics-top-picks-dys_n_1149644.html
http://busyteacher.wordpress.com/2012/03/13/top-ten-dystopian-novels/

Read one from the list or find one of your own and share a short review as a comment.

Everyone who posts will be entered in the giveaway of a gift card to Starbucks and a free book.

February Reads! Dystopia!

Read the books and join us for discussion online Blog Me a Book!  Online Teen Book Club

 This month we are reading DYSTOPIAN books I will be posting about several different titles in the blog.  Post in the discussion area about what you thought about the books.  Or feel free to pick a title of your own to share with others. 

 Everyone who participates in a discussion by posting will be entered to win a gift card.

Discussions will start February 8, 2013.

 

If you have any questions, please contact the YA Librarian at 936.442.7728 ext.6310 or by email at tperry@countylibrary.org.

 

Awesome giveaway!

2013 giveaway! MCBF Author, Lindsay Cumming's THE MURDER COMPLEX comes out in just 1 year! ...celebrate and enter to WIN advanced copies of books! http://www.lindsaycummingsblog.blogspot.com

Blog Me a Book! November Reads

This month we are reading from the two Keynote Speakers for the

2013 Montgomery County Book Festival.

 

Sherrilyn Kenyon

From the website:

About Infinity: "At 14, Nick Gautier is an average kid who runs with the wrong crowd. But on the night he decides to go straight and refuses to mug an innocent tourist, his crew turns on him and just as he thinks his life is over… a new one begins.

Kyrian of Thrace isn’t just a vampire slayer, he’s a Dark-Hunter and he introduces Nick to a world that he never imagined.

With new enemies who make his old ones look like wimps, Nick must either measure up or get sized for a body bag. It’s kill or be killed and this kid who was born on the wrong side finds a strength inside him that he never knew existed.

Now if he can only find someone to help battle the demons that don’t reside inside... "

Jonathan Maberry 


About the book (from the Simon& Schuster website)
"In the zombie-infested, post-apocalyptic America where Benny Imura lives, every teenager must find a job by the time they turn fifteen or get their rations cut in half. Benny doesn't want to apprentice as a zombie hunter with his boring older brother Tom, but he has no choice. He expects a tedious job whacking zoms for cash, but what he gets is a vocation that will teach him what it means to be human."

We are starting with the first book in each series...Infinity by Sherrilyn Kenyon and Rot& Ruin by Jonathan Maberry.

Join us in a discussion of zombies and other preternatural creatures!

Remember, a post in the discussion is an entry in the drawing for a gift card!  Winner will be drawn on December 3, 2012.  One entry per person.

For more information, contact the YA Librarian at tperry@countylibrary.org.