Ender's Game: Earth is Losing...

After decades of battle against insect-like aliens, we still haven't found a general who can defeat them.We're running out of soldiers, we're running out of spaceships, and we're running out of hope. But maybe, with the right training, one special boy can be molded into a hero.

Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card, tells the story of Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, who's only six when he's recruited to Battle School to learn strategies to defeat the aliens. I'm excited to see the movie adaptation next year, but you should definitely read it first, so why not now, before the hype starts and you hear spoilers?

Middle School Mayhem

I read so many books that sometimes it's really hard to think about what to write about for this blog; other times, the universe just seems to pull out a topic and advertise it in neon lights. With arrows. And a fog horn. I was talking with a middle school teacher the other day and she was saying how there are so few good books for middle school students. My library is also currently working on a program called Middle School Mayhem. So obviously my post needs to be some of my TOP middle school reads. Without further ado, my fave middle school reads:

Go Where No One Else Has Gone

Can you imagine yourself being cryogenically frozen? Neither could I until I read Across the Universe by Beth Revis. At the very beginning this book grabs your attention with vivid details of the whole process of being frozen. I read the introductory chapter online and then waited anxiously for the book to be published. The main characters parents are being frozen for an expedition across the universe that will take 300 years! Her choice is to stay on Earth with family and friends or accompany her parents on the journey while frozen. Timing is everything for this expedition! Without giving too much away this story has a society in which its inhabitants are emotionless and strictly obedient to their leader with the added complications of time and space travel.

Nice thing is, a sequel titled A Million Suns is due out January 12, 2012! Yeh!