A dystopian thriller with a touch of romance

In the fast-paced Legend by Marie Lu the action never stops!  The story takes place in futuristic Los Angeles - there's no "United States" any more, just an ending war between the Republic and the Colonies - and it's told in alternating chapters by the two main characters, both 15 years old.  Day is the Republic's most wanted criminal; he's trying desperately to find a cure for the plague that has infected his little brother. June is brilliant and wealthy, heading for a prestigious career in the Republic's military.  When June's brother is killed, Day is the prime suspect - she's out to get him, but when their paths finally cross...a lot changes.  Besides falling for each other, they learn something really nasty that the Republic government is up to.  How can they put a stop to it, when Day is captured and his execution date is set?  Younger middle schoolers may not like the violence, but older students (and, yes, high school kids), especially fans of "The Hunger Games"-type books, won't be able to put this one down.

What if you could fly?

That would be pretty cool, right?  Maybe...or maybe not, according to The Girl Who Could Fly by Victoria Forester.  Piper McCloud lives on a farm in Lowland County.  Her parents have usually kept her apart from the other kids, because they worry what would happen if anyone else knew she could fly.  After Piper is allowed a rare appearance in a local baseball game and makes an amazing play, her secret is out.  But wait - in rushes a helicopter and black sedans (what the heck??), whisking her away to a special school where she'll be safe.  The school is an incredible underground facility where she meets other children who have unique talents, such as shrinking/growing, conjuring up weather systems, and phenomenal strength.  Then Piper and the others find out this is actually a very bad place for them to be, because - well, I won't give it away. The pace of the book is uneven (slow start, slow ending, ups and downs in the middle), and a lot of the characterization is pretty one-dimensional, but you still might enjoy reading about kids with super powers and wondering...which super power would you want to have?

Dystopia + romance = wow!

I've read dystopian novels (a lot) and romance (a little), and I was very impressed with that combination in Matched by Ally Condie.  Cassia lives in the Society, which determines everything about her life - what she'll eat, where she'll work, and when she'll die.  Now that she's turned 17, she'll learn who her Match is...the person she'll marry.  She's thrilled to find out she's been matched with Xander, a close friend from childhood.  But when she puts his microcard into her computer, she's stunned when an additional face is flashed before her - her friend Ky.  An Official later confirms that is was only a mistake, but Cassia starts seeing Ky in a different light.  She discovers romance and creativity, and soon she's questioning the idea of blindly following all the rules imposed by Society.  An excellent, thought-provoking story that's continued in the next book, Crossed.

A Boov named J.Lo

The last book I read was subtle science  fiction, but The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex is in-your-face sci fi...and funny, too!  It's a relatively long book and almost too complicated too describe. Gratuity "Tip" Tucci is writing an essay about Smekday, which  honors the day that the alien Boovs took over the Earth and renamed it Smekland in honor of their glorious Captain Smek.  So what should she start with: when she makes friends with a Boov named J.Lo?  The trip she takes with J.Lo and Pig the cat to Happy Mouse Kingdom?  The car they ride in - Slushious - which now floats, thanks to J.Lo?  Or maybe the battle against the obnoxious Gorgs, which clone themselves and travel around by means of...wait for it...teleclone booths?  If you like crazy, silly, laugh-out-loud books, you've got to try this one.

It's science fiction...isn't it?

Yes, it's sci fi, but it's not hard to believe that Dark Life by Kat Falls could really happen.  After the Rising (of the ocean, that is), a good chunk of our continent is under water.  Life on the Topside is getting pretty crowded, so some brave pioneers have formed an undersea territory, which is now their home.  Ty lives there with his family, and you soon learn he's a bit different from your average teenager - he's developed both a "shine" from eating so many bioluminescent fish and a special ability (I won't give it away) that some refer to as a Dark Gift.  He meets Gemma, a Topsider girl who's searching undersea for her brother, and soon they're on the run from the dangerous Seablite Gang, a group of outlaws led by the very scary Shade.  Action! Adventure!  And some very cool descriptions of the bizarre plants and animals that live in the deep.  I'm happy to see there's a sequel...Rip Tide.

Have you ever wished you could fly?

If so, Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment by James Patterson will definitely get your attention. Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, the Gasman, and Angel are six kids living on their own. Why? They started out living in cages in an evil laboratory called the School. They're part of an experiment - they're 98% human and 2% bird! So yes, they have wings and can fly. Sounds pretty cool, except for the fact that the nasty scientists want them back and are chasing them down with the Erasers, wicked mutants of humans and wolves. The adventure starts when the Erasers manage to kidnap Angel and the rest of the gang has to figure out how to get her back. And Max was told she has to save the world - no biggie, right? And what's up with the violent, bizarre headaches and the Voice in her head? There is SO much going on this book...no surprise that it's the first in the Maximum Ride series.

Dystopian thriller for fans of The Hunger Games

I bet you'll think of The Hunger Games if you read Divergent by Veronica Roth. In a future Chicago (check out the skyline on the cover), everyone is divided into five factions: Abnegation, Amity, Candor, Dauntless, and Erudite, each of which values a certain character trait. On your 16th birthday you undergo an aptitude test, and then you're given the choice of switching from your birth faction to another one. And that's what Beatrice (Tris) does - she leaves the safe but boring selflessness of her Abnegation family for the wild, fearless Dauntless. A big part of the book is about her initiation and the intense physical and mental tests and simulations she and the other initiates have to go through - not all of them will make it. And in a sub-plot that's minor up until the end, Tris learns that the Erudite are planning a war to take over the Abnegation faction, and they have a plan to get the Dauntless to do their dirty work. Be warned that the violence is more graphic than The Hunger Games, but the tone of the book and sense of fast-paced survival is quite similar.

Fun for your inner geek

Okay, this was just plain fun! The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook by Eleanor Davis is what good graphic novels are all about - illustrations that depict ideas way better than words could. Julian Calendar is "outwardly: a nerd. But inwardly...an ultra nerd." He doesn't think he'll ever fit in at his new school, until he learns that bad girl Greta Hughes and sports jock Ben Garza are secret scientists, too. (I keep going back and looking at the drawing of their hideout - amazing, amazing details.) They form the Secret Science Alliance, but then Evil Dr. Stringer rips off their invention notebook. He plans to use some of the kids' ideas to steal something valuable from the local museum....can they stop him in time? With crazy inventions from the Kablovsky copter to the Stinkometer and lots of action, I bet you'll enjoy this one (and even get a painless dose of science on the side).

Chilling and mesmerizing

Wow. Once I started reading Unwind by Neal Shusterman, I could hardly put it down. The main idea is creepy, the pace is almost non-stop, and the way some of the characters changed (some for the better, some for the worse) was both believable and fascinating. The time is in the future; parents can choose to have their children ages 13 to 18 unwound - although "technically" they're alive, all of their body parts are harvested and given to others. This story follows Connor and Risa, as they desparately try to avoid the harvest camp, and Lev, the 10th child born to a family whose religion considers him to be a tithe - being unwound is his sacred duty. The action starts immediately, and the twists and turns made me feel like I was on a roller coaster. Some of the ideas might be a little too intense for younger readers, but this would be amazing for older students to read and discuss - so many questions come up! When does life begin? When does it end? I was thinking of this book long after I finished it.

What does it mean to be human?

If you're a sci fi fan, check out the award-winning The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer.  Matt Alacran is a clone of El Patron, the ruler of Opium, a country between the United States and Aztlan (formerly Mexico), where workers called "eejits" - humans whose brains have been clamped - work endlessly in the poppy fields.  After being raised by the mother-like Celia in relative poverty, Matt ends on up El Patron's luxurious estate. Even thought El Patron lavishes all sorts of attention on Matt, he's despised by almost everyone else because he's a clone and not even considered to be human.  Usually clones' brains are more or less destroyed at birth, and eventually Matt learns why he's been allowed to grow and flourish - he's going to be harvested for body parts to keep El Patron (already over 140 years old) alive.  How can he escape?  Although the ending is a bit rushed, the rest of the book is a thought-provoking idea of the future.

Brain cramp

Okay, I kept thinking, "Um....what?" as I read Brain Camp, a graphic novel by Susan Kim and Laurence Klavan.  Definitely different.  Underachievers Lucas and Jenna are sent to Camp Fielding, which claims to "prepare any child for the SATs and beyond."  It doesn't take long for them to discover a lot of weird stuff is going on, such as campers disappearing, counselors coming into the cabins at night with hypodermic needles, and kids acting like zombies.  Lucas and Jenna, besides starting to fall for each other, find out the truth (it involves a giant alien bird!), but can they get help before they get transformed themselves?  While the illustrations are appropriate for older middle schoolers, some are not for the squeamish. The pace of the story felt jumpy and rushed to me, but I know an eighth-grader who read this and really liked it.  If you're into graphic novels, check it out.

Remind me not to go to Mars...

Well.  I'm not sure if I'm exhausted or glad or what after finishing Black Hole Sun by David Macinnis Gill.  I had a hard time getting into this book, but true sci-fi fans may enjoy it. Living on Mars, Durango is a teenage mercenary - a gunman or soldier who will do anything for money.  He and his crew have been hired to protect a group of poor miners from the nasty, cannibalistic Draeu and their equally evil queen.  Some parts of the book are clever and funny, like the conversations between Durango and the snarky Mimi - an Artificial Intelligence that has been flash-cloned to Durango's brain (got that?).  But I had problems with all the action - there was so much happening so fast, that I couldn't picture it, which was frustrating.  And I could never figure out what the title was supposed to mean!  The book is getting good reviews, though, so if you're comfortable with sci-fi and a higher reading level, give it a shot.

Oh. My. Gosh.

I can't remember the last time I was so quickly drawn into a book as when I read The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins!  This amazing story had my attention from the first page.  North America no longer exists; now there's the country of Panem, which consists of the cruel Capitol and twelve surrounding districts.  Every year the Capitol makes each district send one boy and one girl to the Hunger Games, a battle to the death, which all the citizens of Panem are required to watch on live TV.  When Katniss Everdeen volunteers to take her younger sister's place in the Games, she has to battle not only the other 23 "tributes," but also harsh terrain, weather that's gleefully manipulated by the Capitol, and her own uncertain feelings towards Peeta, the other tribute from Katniss' district.  The plot twists, turns, and constantly keeps the reader on edge.  This absolutely riveting book is followed by two more: Catching Fire and Mockingjay.

Found a great one!

The action, adventure, and time travel in Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix had me hooked from the start! A plane mysteriously appears at an airport, and the only passengers are thirty-six babies...not an adult - even a pilot - in sight. Thirteen years later, two 13-year-old friends, Jonah and Chip start receiving threatening messages like, "Beware! They're coming back to get you." Jonah thinks it has something to do with the fact that he's adopted, and soon Chip learns that he's adopted as well. The boys learn that the FBI was involved with their adoptions, and together with Jonah's sister, Katherine, the three find out about lists of "Survivors" and "Witnesses," see two people appear or disappear, and end up in a time travel trap in a cliffhanger ending. This fast-paced and thought-provoking book is the first in the Missing series; Sent is on the shelves, and Sabotaged will be published in August 2010.

It's a bird...it's a plane...it's a whale?

This was a new genre for me: steampunk. It's like science fiction, but it's set in the past. In Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld (yes, the author of the Uglies series), the story takes place during the time of World War I. Prince Alek's own people of the Austro-Hungarian Empire have turned on him, and he's on the run in a Stormwalker - an amazing mechanical contraption made by the Clankers. Deryn has disguised herself as a boy so that she can enter the British Air Service. She ends up on the Leviathan, a wildly imaginative (and living!) airship creation of the Darwinists. War is threatening, and when Alek and Deryn's paths cross, they're in for quite an adventure. Westerfeld does a great job making the inventions and "fabricated beasties" both fascinating and plausible for the time frame of the book, and Keith Thompson's detailed illustrations helped me picture the excitement. About the only thing I didn't like was the book's ending...it needs to be completed with a sequel.