I love dystopian novels. What I love most is trying to figure out what the heck happened? Why did this happen, and what was the world like before this happened? I really love books that are based on Earth, but you can’t tell until you read part or all the way through. The whole idea of “what the heck happened” was the inception of my novel, The Incident. I wanted to begin with the inciting event that caused the world to get knocked off-center and go from normal to not. I wanted to show the changes that would make it impossible for us to recognize the world as the one we live in.
In The Incident, a YA post-apocalyptic novel, seventeen-year-old Josh has prepared for any emergency, but when the storm of the century hits, he learns no one is ever prepared enough, while, sixteen-year-old Emma is on a mission to save the world. She gets caught in the same monster storm, and her fight for survival in the post-storm world becomes a battle for her life.
Emma and Josh struggle to save themselves and the people they love in a world forever changed by the cataclysmic storms. Together they forge through an unrecognizable landscape where the rules have changed, and it takes more than luck to survive.
This book is closer to MG than YA, but great all the same. It takes place underground and the lights keep going out. How creepy is that! I couldn’t wait to find out why they were down there and see if they could get out! While I was reading it, I kept wondering what happened? What made them go underground, and why did they stay? I won’t tell you what happens, but I will say this book was thought-provoking and a really fascinating read.
Ember is the only light in a dark world. But when its lamps begin to flicker, two friends must race to escape the dark. This highly acclaimed adventure series is a modern-day classic-with over 4 MILLION copies sold!
The city of Ember was built as a last refuge for the human race. Two hundred years later, the great lamps that light the city are beginning to dim. When Lina finds part of an ancient message, she's sure it holds a secret that will save the city. Now, she and her friend Doon must race to figure out the clues to…
Like so many other readers, I grew to love Katniss. She only did her, you know? She spoke her truth, and she won followers by being strong, even when she felt she wasn’t. I would have chosen the first book, but I think it’s on all the lists, so I chose this one because it brings resolution to the horror of what people in the lesser districts had to endure during the games, and it puts an end to that violence and injustice.
The final book in the ground-breaking Hunger Games trilogy. Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games twice. But now that she's made it out of the bloody arena alive, she's still not safe.
The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge.
Who do they think should pay for the unrest? Katniss.
And what's worse, President Snow has made it clear that no one else is safe either. Not Katniss's family, not her friends, not the people of District 12.
now a major feature film starring Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson & Liam Hemsworth
I love strong female protagonists and Tris doesn’t disappoint. I love when she does the same physically demanding stunts the guys do without batting an eye. What a tough cookie! I didn’t mind the romance, but that’s not really my thing. The story was intriguing enough to make me wonder what had happened to create this world, and I was always rooting for Tris to find out answers to the questions she had.
The explosive debut by No. 1 New York Times bestselling author Veronica Roth.
DIVERGENT - a major motion picture series.
For sixteen-year-old Tris, the world changes in a heartbeat when she is forced to make a terrible choice. Turning her back on her family, Tris ventures out, alone, determined to find out where she truly belongs.
Shocked by the brutality of her new life, Tris can trust no one. And yet she is drawn to a boy who seems to both threaten and protect her. The hardest choices may yet lie ahead....
This story is on the younger end of my referral list, and the protagonist is a young boy, but I really love it because it made me think. Jonas may be young, but he questions the reasoning and logic behind so much of what he is expected to accept at face value. This story challenges readers on every page to put the pieces together as Jonas does, and it holds lots of surprises! I loved the high moral standards Jonas had.
THE GIVER is soon to be a major motion picture starring Jeff Bridges, Katie Holmes and Taylor Swift.
Now available for the first time in the UK, THE GIVER QUARTET is the complete four-novel collection.
THE GIVER: It is the future. There is no war, no hunger, no pain. No one in the community wants for anything. Everything needed is provided. And at twelve years old, each member of the community has their profession carefully chosen for them by the Committee of Elders.
Jonas has never thought there was anything wrong with his world. But from the moment he is…
Clarke is a natural leader who wants to take care of everyone but herself, and she will sacrifice her safety for others all in a world that defies the logic of the one she’d always known. She is frail and emotional, but tough when she needs to be, and she develops close bonds with just a few special people, while caring about all, even the ones she wants to shoot with a rifle or hang by a rope.
The Hunger Games meets Lost in this spectacular new series. Now a major TV series on E4.
No one has set foot on Earth in centuries - until now.
Ever since a devastating nuclear war, humanity has lived on spaceships far above Earth's radioactive surface. Now, one hundred juvenile delinquents - considered expendable by society - are being sent on a dangerous mission: to re-colonize the planet. It could be their second chance at life...or it could be a suicide mission.
CLARKE was arrested for treason, though she's haunted by the memory of what she really did. WELLS, the chancellor's…
As a child, one of my favorite places was in the top branches of a tree. From up there I could watch the world pass by, remaining invisible. I could make up stories about the world below and no one would challenge me. The second best place for me was inside the story of a book, the kind that took you to magical places where children always found a way to win the day. I knew when I “grew up” I would write one of those empowering books. I became a middle school teacher and have since read many wonderful books for this age. Enjoy my list of favorites.
Where do you turn when the only adult who gets you, your grandpa, is gone, and the world seems to be in self-destruct mode?
On his 12th birthday, Thomas runs away to the forest he used to visit with Grandpa. It is dying. Will saving it from a deadly parasite bring him closer to Grandpa or make his world safer? Before he can find out, he is enticed into a magical world under an attack of a different kind.
Welcomed by a garden of talking plants, mind-reading creatures, tree-climbing, nature-loving beings, Thomas conquers the stinging, prickly hedge that guards the portal to this alternate world. At last, a place where he fits in. A place that needs him. But what about his and Grandpa’s forest?
“…a magical book...” John Perkins, New York Times best-selling author
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