Tally Youngblood, at 15 and 3/4 still one of the Uglies, is desperate for escape from the drudgery of waiting for that magic 16th birthday when she can redesign herself in the process of surgically becoming one of the Pretties. She'll be granted a whole new lease on life with a body of choice, including fresh, unblemished skin and re-ground bones, and the big move across the river to New Pretty Town, a city dedicated to the mindless pursuits of pleasure and decadence. How “bubbly!” What?! Yes, it’s true, it’s too true, but is it too good to be true? Only Scott Westerfeld knows for sure.
Tally’s new friend, Shay, who teaches her the thrills and chills of hover-boarding in their last days of ugliness, heads off to join the Smokies, who occupy land out west somewhere in a communal effort to remain true to themselves and live as nature intended. Tally is horrified but intrigued until the Department of Special Circumstances (yes, the Specials!) offers her a deal she can’t refuse: help them locate Shay and the other Smokies, or die trying. Well, it’s not that drastic, but if she refuses, she’ll remain an Ugly forever.
Talk about an adventure! Tally almost dies trying, having made the "big mistake" and slept among the white tiger orchids, but once she’s discovered Smoke, she doesn’t want to leave. One takes the rebels at face value, so to speak, no alterations necessary. David, who was born there (oh yes, she must meet his parents,) introduces her to a non-engineered society, that is, one built upon the tragic lessons of the Rusties but stopped well short of the plastic conformity of the Pretties, a place where work gloves and warm sweaters are worth a fortune in “SpagBol.”
And then, and then… as I said earlier, only Westerfeld knows for sure whether Tally will betray her new friends to the Department as promised. She does, after all, discover from David’s parents the secret of the lesions, and David’s kisses are quite warm, hmmm, yes. So…. what’s next? Some pretty special adventures hover just around the corner, if you know what I mean. Do you?
Showing posts with label science fiction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label science fiction. Show all posts
Monday, May 19, 2008
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Life As We Knew It
Miranda lives in a small Pennsylvania town where potential prom dates rule thoughts of spring. That and the fact that her best friend Megan is undergoing some “born again” alterations in her lifestyle and mindset are enough to occupy Miranda without TV news warnings of a potential asteroid strike.
Heavens above, an asteroid strike on earth?! No, silly, on the moon, no need to worry. Still, a certain frisson of fear ripples through her family as they stand outside one night, awaiting the event that will forever change Life As We Knew It. The asteroid actually knocks the moon a tad off its axis, thereby causing cataclysmic damage to earth: tsunamis destroy coastal areas, and earthquakes and volcanoes inflict damage beyond belief, the worst being clouds of ash which produce the dreaded effects of a nuclear winter.
What’s a girl to do? Susan Beth Pfeffer’s answer is what makes this story so appealing; she focuses on Miranda and her family, giving the Hollywood disaster scenes scant attention. Her quick-thinking mother enlists the aid of the children and their older neighbor, Mrs. Nesbitt, to stock the house with food, batteries, candles and water. Her younger brother is sent home from baseball camp that summer when they run out of food. Other brother, Matt, chops the backyard trees into so much firewood that the family is pushed out of the downstairs living spaces into the sunroom with the wood stove. We watch her father and his new wife bravely drive west after a tearful family reunion. With no school and no transportation, Miranda tries ice skating on the pond until the polluted air forces her inside, ever inside into a tighter and more confining space. A virus strikes the family, already weakened as their food supply dwindles, but the local hospital has become a dead zone. And then, in what seems like the nick of time, Miranda courageously ventures into town through the piles of fallen snow.
Stop. Slow down a minute and follow the domino effect of little sunlight and no power for electricity, water, and heat. No hints here; just think about it, all the way down the food chain….
If you’ve already read this, let me know if you think the story is plausible, and if there truly is a reason to be hopeful. What would YOU do?
(HHSLibrarian also podcasted on this title a while back.)
Heavens above, an asteroid strike on earth?! No, silly, on the moon, no need to worry. Still, a certain frisson of fear ripples through her family as they stand outside one night, awaiting the event that will forever change Life As We Knew It. The asteroid actually knocks the moon a tad off its axis, thereby causing cataclysmic damage to earth: tsunamis destroy coastal areas, and earthquakes and volcanoes inflict damage beyond belief, the worst being clouds of ash which produce the dreaded effects of a nuclear winter.
What’s a girl to do? Susan Beth Pfeffer’s answer is what makes this story so appealing; she focuses on Miranda and her family, giving the Hollywood disaster scenes scant attention. Her quick-thinking mother enlists the aid of the children and their older neighbor, Mrs. Nesbitt, to stock the house with food, batteries, candles and water. Her younger brother is sent home from baseball camp that summer when they run out of food. Other brother, Matt, chops the backyard trees into so much firewood that the family is pushed out of the downstairs living spaces into the sunroom with the wood stove. We watch her father and his new wife bravely drive west after a tearful family reunion. With no school and no transportation, Miranda tries ice skating on the pond until the polluted air forces her inside, ever inside into a tighter and more confining space. A virus strikes the family, already weakened as their food supply dwindles, but the local hospital has become a dead zone. And then, in what seems like the nick of time, Miranda courageously ventures into town through the piles of fallen snow.
Stop. Slow down a minute and follow the domino effect of little sunlight and no power for electricity, water, and heat. No hints here; just think about it, all the way down the food chain….
If you’ve already read this, let me know if you think the story is plausible, and if there truly is a reason to be hopeful. What would YOU do?
(HHSLibrarian also podcasted on this title a while back.)
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Maximum Ride The Angel Experiment
Okay, if you haven't been here yet, and I know at least one avid reader who hasn't, you need to get here fast! And speed is what it's all about in James Patterson's incredibly successful (according to all kid readers) first attempt at YA literature. Maximum Ride and her team of five fled The School, where they were "lab rats" raised in cages, to seek sanctuary in the real world. Well, the world has become all too real for Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, the Gasman, and Angel, and the "Erasers" are after them, and how!
Never mind always having to scavenge for food, improve their flying, and discover each others' talents. That's all in a day's work. Flying? Yes, these six are 98% human and 2% bird; products of an experimental recombinent DNA experiment back at The School, they sport wingspans of up to 14 feet.
But those nasty, flying, wolf-like "Erasers" won't give them a moment's rest, as the flock pursues two vital pieces of information: the identity of their true parents, and the location of Angel, kidnapped by some of the worst bad guys in teen fiction. Hang on for a wild ride because Patterson has indulged us with two more books, and you won't want to miss a single page.
Send us a post from your journey, IF you can catch your breath.
Never mind always having to scavenge for food, improve their flying, and discover each others' talents. That's all in a day's work. Flying? Yes, these six are 98% human and 2% bird; products of an experimental recombinent DNA experiment back at The School, they sport wingspans of up to 14 feet.
But those nasty, flying, wolf-like "Erasers" won't give them a moment's rest, as the flock pursues two vital pieces of information: the identity of their true parents, and the location of Angel, kidnapped by some of the worst bad guys in teen fiction. Hang on for a wild ride because Patterson has indulged us with two more books, and you won't want to miss a single page.
Send us a post from your journey, IF you can catch your breath.
Friday, May 18, 2007
Welcome to the Monkey House
Welcome to the Monkey House, by Kurt Vonnegut, is one of the few remaining Vonnegut books on our shelves, and it's a beat up copy at that. What is it about this man that tickles our funny bones and makes us weep in frustration and nostalgia?
I asked two students that very question.
One replied that "Vonnegut knows what a reader wants to hear." Well, yes, especially if you believe that dogs are smarter than their people.
The other called him "the dark humor man, the funny grampa who embarrasses the bride on her wedding day with his views on everything." Too true, although whatever he uttered would be the truth.
Want a vision of the future? Read the first and last stories in this collection, and then, like Harrison Bergeron, treasure your imperfections in the face of mediocrity. Just be sure that, unlike Lou and Emerald Schwartz, you occupy a cozy bed in your own room while you read these wickedly funny stories.
And for Vonnegut's own words on whatever life throws at us? "Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterwards."
Kurt Vonnegut, novelist and essayist, died this past April at 84.
My favorite? Miss Temptation, in which Cpl. Fuller, upon return from the Korean War, learns from an alluring and decent young woman how to be a human being again.
What's yours?
I asked two students that very question.
One replied that "Vonnegut knows what a reader wants to hear." Well, yes, especially if you believe that dogs are smarter than their people.
The other called him "the dark humor man, the funny grampa who embarrasses the bride on her wedding day with his views on everything." Too true, although whatever he uttered would be the truth.
Want a vision of the future? Read the first and last stories in this collection, and then, like Harrison Bergeron, treasure your imperfections in the face of mediocrity. Just be sure that, unlike Lou and Emerald Schwartz, you occupy a cozy bed in your own room while you read these wickedly funny stories.
And for Vonnegut's own words on whatever life throws at us? "Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterwards."
Kurt Vonnegut, novelist and essayist, died this past April at 84.
My favorite? Miss Temptation, in which Cpl. Fuller, upon return from the Korean War, learns from an alluring and decent young woman how to be a human being again.
What's yours?
Friday, February 23, 2007
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Got an electronic thumb? How about your Sub-Etha-Sens-O-Matic? If you wanna' be a hoopy frood, grab a towel and let Douglas Adams guide you into outer, way outer, space.
Ford Prefect, seasoned traveler and man about space, has one more entry to make in the Hitchhiker's Guide but got stuck on Earth for far too long upon completion (of the entry, not of Earth!) Rescuing Arthur Dent in the nick of time as the Vogons blast the planet into smithereens in order to create their own freeway, Ford and Arthur hitch a ride out of destruction and into the wackiest version of space in sci fi lit.
Meet Zaphod Beeblebrox, galactic president and proud owner of two heads and three arms, his girlfriend, Trillian, former Earthling herself, and Marvin, their depressed, rather intelligent computer who so depresses the policeship computer that it commits suicide, but that's another story. Y'see, it turns out that Earth was really nothing more than an organic computer designed to formulate the answer to the question: "Well, what's the question to the answer, "42?"
Confused yet? Can't imagine why. Get a good night's sleep, tighten your belt, and let us know how you survived. Yes, yes, you clearly had a towel but write us a note anyway.
Ford Prefect, seasoned traveler and man about space, has one more entry to make in the Hitchhiker's Guide but got stuck on Earth for far too long upon completion (of the entry, not of Earth!) Rescuing Arthur Dent in the nick of time as the Vogons blast the planet into smithereens in order to create their own freeway, Ford and Arthur hitch a ride out of destruction and into the wackiest version of space in sci fi lit.
Meet Zaphod Beeblebrox, galactic president and proud owner of two heads and three arms, his girlfriend, Trillian, former Earthling herself, and Marvin, their depressed, rather intelligent computer who so depresses the policeship computer that it commits suicide, but that's another story. Y'see, it turns out that Earth was really nothing more than an organic computer designed to formulate the answer to the question: "Well, what's the question to the answer, "42?"
Confused yet? Can't imagine why. Get a good night's sleep, tighten your belt, and let us know how you survived. Yes, yes, you clearly had a towel but write us a note anyway.
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