I just finished reading Divergent, and it will be worth waiting for the next two installments.  Divergent (young adult fiction) is yet another dystopian fiction piece, taking place in some form of post-apocalyptic future (because, apparently, we are destined to annihilate ourselves and leave the survivors to duke it out over what is left over)...but despite the cynical tone of the first part of this sentence, I liked it.  In fact, I really, really liked it.  Divergent is rather Hunger Games-ish in nature, and does a nice job of laying out a potential future in which we try to avoid more war by separating ourselves into factions, which are based on personality types.  Children grow up with their parents, but when they turn sixteen, they take an aptitude test and go through an elaborate ceremony where they publicly declare whether they stay with the faction they grew up with...or whether they choose another faction at the risk of ostrasizing themselves from their loved ones.  Children can choose to be Dauntless (fearless), Abnegation (selfless), Erudite (brainy), or other factions, and once they choose, they go through an initiation process which weeds out who really gets to stay, and who is turned out to become factionless (think homeless).  For our main character, she discovers after her aptitude test that she is actually Divergent--she doesn't really fit neatly into any faction--and that makes her existence potentially dangerous, much to her surprise.  It's a great story, filled with action, suspense, and even a little bit of romance, and I really look forward to reading Insurgent when it arrives on bookstore shelves in 2012.
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I hope you all had a wonderful summer!  I dug into many, many books over the summer, both in print and on my Kindle.  Here is just a sampling of what I've had loaded on my Kindle or waiting on my coffee table:

The Uglies Series by Scott Westerfeld.  Can you imagine a future where everyone undergoes plastic surgery at age 16?  A future where the people are told that their ancestors (us) wiped themselves out due to their focus on vanity?  This fast-paced, thrilling and frightening series focuses on a culture in the future that has succeeded in eliminating illnesses, life with birth defects, weakness...but what happens if you don't want to be made perfect like everyone else?

Among the Hidden series by Margaret Peterson Haddix.  This seven book series is set in the future as well, but its premise is even creepier in some ways, because it sounds all too plausible.  What would life be like if our government passed a population law forbidding families to have more than two children?  And what would be the consequences if some didn't obey that law?  What would life be like for those forbidden children?

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate is a completely different kind of story, but no less interesting.  Calpurnia is an eleven-year-old girl living in 1899 who gradually discovers all kinds of things about the natural world, thanks to her grandfather, and she gives us an interesting view of the world of a young girl in a large upscale household before the 20th century--when the views of Charles Darwin were considered radical for their time.  Who wouldn't rather study frogs and butterflies and fish in a creek rather than have to practice piano or walk around with a book on their head, practicing how to be a lady?  Calpurnia is a fun girl--she reminds me of Laura Ingalls--and her grandfather is way more interesting and down-to
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by Caitlin Sweenor
Science?  Mystery?  And moving tattoos?  Just what a person who likes science fiction needs.  How about a woman coming to the future doing illustrations on your body?

The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury is a classic science fiction novel that ensues all this and more.  The story contains mini stories inside the story, of the tattoos.  The main character meets the Illustrated Man on a warm September day on a hill.  He walked up to her and asked her if he knew where he could find a job.  She tells him politely that she doesn't know and he tells her that he hasn't had a job in the last forty years.

He said he got the illustrations back in the 1900s.  Though he doesn't want them anymore.  you could see why if these illustrations tell the future.  The first story you will read is about a nursery that changes to whatever you want.  A jungle, the Sahara, even space.  The second story you will read is called "Kaleidoscope."  It is about the first white coming to the world where the blacks had settled on what I believe is Mars.  For the rest you will have to read to find out.

The Illustrated Man has one tattoo on his shoulder that shows the person who is watching the illustrations future, the whole future.  Would you like to know the future?  Read and find out.
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Ah the tale of love, revenge, confusion, and desire.  Many humans face the challenge of getting their soulmate and yet this couple can't seem to get it right.  Wuthering Heights tells the tale of human jealousy, love, and forbidding.  Catherine and Heathcliff just can't seem to realize that they belong together and when they do it's too late.  The feelings you feel in this tale is one that you will feel that you probably felt sometimes too.  It also ensues angst, friendship and companionship.

Today I will be reviewing the Book Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte.  Wuthering Heights goes through the tale of the human love, drama.  This tale takes place in 1801 in the country of England near the towns of Grimmerton, and Thrushcross Grange, in a manor called Wuthering Heights.

The beginning situation is when Mr. Lockwood toes to visit his tenant, Mr. Heathcliff when a snow storm happened and he has to stay at the manor.  While he is staying at the manor he ran into some fournals with the names Cathy Earnshaw, Cathy Heathcliff, and Cathy Linton.  Soon he becomes intrigued by the journals and the connections she has with his tenant Mr. Heathcliff.

One situation that Cathy has is when she has a proposal of marriage from Edgar Linton but she is in love with Heathcliff too.  To Nelly, the servant, she acknowledges this and says, "My greatest thought in living is Heathcliff.  If all else perished and he remained, I should still continue to be, and if all else remained and he was annihilated, the universe would turn into a mighty stranger I should not seem part of.  Nelly I am Heathcliff!" she is conflicted by it.

With Wuthering Heights as you read you will find that there is a theme in between the lines.  Emily Bronte was trying to send that love will go on even after death.  At the end of the story they say that you could still see Cathy and Heathcliff's spirits
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Our book clubs have taken off lately...we started with one, and we are now up to four separate groups with very distinct taste in different types of books.  Lately, I have read a wide variety of books that I loved.  Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse was simply fantastic.  Her books in verse are short, but powerful...this book about the Dust Bowl was a page turner till the end.  Smile by Raina Telgemeier was a great graphic novel/autobiography, with Raina telling the story of how she knocked out her front teeth in middle school (ouch), and the years of pain and trauma she had to endure to get her smile looking reasonable again.  The Forest of Hands and Teeth surprised me by involving zombies as fringe characters (I was expecting The Village), but I found it very interesting and will recommend it to one of the book clubs.  The best, though, has been Boneshaker.  The Sci-Fi book club seems to eat books for breakfast, and getting a book that they hadn't already passed around was a challenge.  However, Boneshaker appears to be a hit. 

If you are wondering about Steam Punk, Boneshaker is a great way to segue into the genre.  Set in our past--an alternative one where the Civil War didn't end after five years and Andrew Jackson fights for the wrong team--this book tells a very interesting story about a post-apocalyptic society living in the territory of Washington, where Seattle has been walled off to protect the outside world from a deadly gas, zombies are frighteningly fast inside those walls, and there's a deep mystery surrounding what on earth happened to cause it all fifteen years before--and is the villain behind the "boneshaker" that caused it all still alive within those city walls?  A great page-turner, one I can't wait to finish.
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Mockingbird 02/01/2011
 
A student recently asked me to read the story Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine, and I was pleasantly surprised.  This is a great book for middle grade readers.  Caitlin gives us a very personal view of her world as she knows it.  Her brother has died in a school shooting, leaving her and her father to try to pick up the pieces of their lives.  What makes this story even more compelling is that Caitlin has Asberger's syndrome, a syndrome on the autism spectrum.  Through her eyes, we begin to understand the "weird" behavior that can be associated with Asberger's.  Caitlin's logic and thought processes are very interesting as she finds her own way to heal from family tragedy and begin to find acceptance and friendship with her peers.  I wasn't sure what to expect from this novel, but I really enjoyed it, and I'd like to think I got a little glimpse into the logic of
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I just finished reading Maze Runner and The Scorch Trials by James Dashner.  If you liked the Hunger Games, then this new series is for you.  Maze Runner and Scorch Trials are the first two books in a series about a teenage boy, Thomas, who awakens at the beginning of the first book to find that he is in the pitch dark...with no memories.  His memory is wiped, leaving him with almost nothing about who he was and how he lived...and then he finds himself thrust into a creepy place (world? arena?) called The Glade, which proves to be the center of a ginormous maze.  Thomas finds himself in the company of many other teenage boys who have been trying for two years to find a way out of The Maze, and as soon as he arrives in The Glade, the Gladers are surprised when another teenager is dumped into their midst...and she's a girl.  There are so many plots twists and harrowing circumstances for Thomas and his comrades, and these books are both quick reads.
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The book clubs right now are reading Among the Hidden, by Margaret Peterson Haddix, and Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie, by David Lubar.  Both of these books are fantastic for their respective audiences.  For anyone who has ever felt awkward in school, particularly in the upper grades (and who hasn't?), Freshmen hits the nail on the head in capturing that anxiety and frustration of transitioning to high school, in a funny, sarcastic way.  The main character, Scott, finds that homework takes forever, seniors like to torture underclassmen, the girl he knew in Kindergarten is now fantastically beautiful and doesn't know he exists...oh yeah, and his parents inform him that he is about to lose his status as the youngest in the household.  We can all identify with Scott and root for him as he stumbles his way through his first year of high school...hopefully while avoiding the upperclassmen who want to try to hang freshmen up on doorways by their hoodies...

For those not interested in reliving the torture of freshman year, Among the Hidden is a choice that will appeal to girls and boys across many grade levels.  Imagine it's slightly in the future, and the government has passed a population law allowing only two children per family...and your family decides to have a third child anyway.  You're a shadow child, not allowed outside for fear of being discovered...no friends...no birthday parties...you have to eat dinner on the stairs in case a random visitor decides to drop in at dinner time.  Now imagine, one day, you discover that you're not the only shadow child out there.  What do you do?  Among the Hidden is a well-crafted series of science fiction which explores an idea that is too easily imagined.  Chilling.
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Book Clubs! 10/17/2010
 
Book clubs are starting up!  So far, we have a book club for upper elementary grades, as well as a book club for the 7-12 grades.  For participants, there is a Blackboard account for students to log into, read any instructions or posts from Mrs. Howansky, and respond to any discussions.  The 7-12 group is currently reading The Graveyard Book and is about to vote for the next book selection; the elementary group is just getting started, with the book title to be determined.  For anyone who is interested, see Mrs. Howansky.  It's exciting to see students hear about the book club from word of mouth, who come into the library asking to join!
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Are you interested in stories about Al Capone and other 1930s gangsters?  Wonder what it would be like to live on Alcatraz island? Then read Al Capone Does My Shirts.  This book was not what I expected, and that's a good thing.  Believe it or not, prison guards and their families lived on Alcatraz Island, home of the nation's most notorious prison, during the early 20th century.  I loved this story about Moose Flanagan, a twelve-year-old boy who is very anxious about moving to Alcatraz Island with his family in 1935.  Who wouldn't be nervous, when you have to share an island with dangerous criminals?  Moose has to deal with being the new kid in school.  He also has the added challenge of an autistic older sister, Natalie, for whom Mom is desperately trying to find a school that will take her.  And he has to live on the same island as the notorious gangster Al Capone.  How will Moose handle a new school, an autistic sister, and the prison warden's daughter  
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