Utopia is the new hot like the oh-so-2-years-ago vampire genre was

Long weekends are for reading, and this 5-day break gave me the opportunity to read Matched by Ally Condie.  And this whole Utopia genre is the new hot like the oh-so-2-years-ago vampire genre was.

This book is Uglies meets Hunger Games meets The Giver and now meets Matched.

Same premise...main character goes most of her life OK with the society's choice for her.  She goes through the matching ceremony and gets "matched" to her life-long friend.  Yay.  But then the conflict starts and like any great Utopian society book, the main character starts to think about how things will go if he/she makes some choices on her/his own.  And her choices begin with her match.

And that's where the issues start.  This book weaves in a really strong love story with twists and turns.  I could hardly put it down.  Thankfully, a 9-hour drive home helped me out.

Matched will give you 21 Reading Counts points.  The sequel, Crossed, just came out.  I can hardly wait to check it out.  I hear it's coming to the WMS library really soon.

Thanksgiving weekend makes me realize that I'm thankful for good books.  Which one are you reading right now that you can't put down?

Uglies + The Giver + Hunger Games = The Same

Hey upcoming Holt freshmen!  You won't want to miss out on Uglies if you haven't read it already.  It is so similar to The Giver and the Hunger Games that I'm thinking I could teach all three books at the same time and have the same exact discussion going.

Uglies is a sci-fi book which has an alternate world just like Giver and Hunger Games.  I don't really like sci-fi but this is so interesting.  I'm fascinated how the book parallels our own world and how we value "being pretty" with happiness.  When in reality that's not what the world should be about.  It has such a great theme--some really great life-learning lessons.

The main character in all 3 books struggles to learn the truth about what they thought they knew was real and what reality actually is.  The reader follows their journey as they learn the real truth about the world.

I really think you all should give this one a try.  The author is coming to town this fall...I can't wait to meet him too!  Looking forward to reading Pretties before he comes to town.

OK, so just about 2 weeks until school.  Have you completed your summer reading?