Putnam, 2011
The year is 2130, and the Republic with its Elector Primo is
now in control. The citizens of the
different parts of the new Los Angeles must fight against two fronts – the colonies
trying to destroy the regime and the terrible sickness that decimates the
poorer sectors of this new nation.
June doesn’t know about this struggle. She and her brother Matias live in a high
rise, literally above all the chaos the Republic tries to hide. She and Matias are some of the precious few
to receive the vaccinations to ensure their health. Although her parents died when she was
little, Matias takes more than excellent care of her. In fact, June is the only one to go through
the Trial with a perfect score, leading her into the ranks of those loyal to
the Republic.
Day lives a life of theft, deceit and invisibility. Lurking in the shadows of the poor sectors,
he sees the lack of food and healthcare take the population into despair. The only way he knows how to alter the
situation is to fight against the Republic and steal what should be shared with
all citizens – the vaccinations needed against this new outbreak. The Republic knows about him, but his
elusiveness has created a shadow figure for them. They know he’s there, but not what he looks
like, where he lives, or how he manages to do the things he does.
June and Day’s lives will emerge one fateful night that will
send them both on a quest for revenge…
Marie Lu writes an excellent dystopia novels that fans of this
genre will fly through. Her characters
are colorful and jump out of the page, but it’s the future of the world as we
knew it that permeates the reader’s emotional response. Told in two voices, the reader gets to
intimately know both sides of society as well as be privy to each character’s
thoughts and personal lives. If you have
readers who clamor for more dystopia titles, hand them this one....
Fiewel and Friends, 2012
Radley remembers her parents dropping her off at the airport
so she help with relief work for the children of Haiti. It’s a passion of hers and has decidedly
changed her life, but not as much as when she returns back to the United
States.
Upon arrival, she knows something is wrong. First of all her parents are nowhere to be
found. Secondly, the way the soldiers
treat her after she lands is beyond the typical TSA thing most passengers
coming back from overseas deal with.
There’s a sense of urgency, danger.
Radley returns to a different United States than when she left.
The American’s People’s Party has taken over the
country. With the assassination of the
President, the United States is left in turmoil with a renegade government
trying to take control through force.
Radley realizes this right away.
Now there are curfews, bank accounts are drained, people are missing, and travel restrictions
are tight. There are also APPs
everywhere, catching those that break the rules and beating them.
All Radley wants is to go home and find her parents. But her path leads to even more devastation,
both emotional and physical. Everyone is
desperate, and personal survival above others is dominant. Little food, roaming soldiers, broken homes. Radley has heard Canada is a place of
safekeeping, so that is where she begins her trek…and also where she encounters
people and places that will change her life.
Karen Hesse is a beautiful writer and this is more than
apparent in this YA dystopia novel. Her
words blend with the personal photographs she uses that are scattered
throughout the book. This book is also unique
in its genre. Hesse centers her book
around the journey and how the main character changes emotionally through it from the people she meets and the places she stays. While other dystopian books have a flair of
action-packed situations with daring and fearless characters, Hesse’s book
takes a gentle approach, looking more at the weakness of her character and how
she becomes stronger. It will take a
different reader who can adjust to this change in genre to enjoy this
pictorial novel with a nearly poetic flair.
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