Confession: I like teenager books. Maybe it's because I never liked reading in high school because the books we read in school I thought were boring, or because I prefer quick, easy reading to books with words I have to look up in the dictionary. Maybe it's because I'm still a kid inside or I prefer to stay away from adult themes. Whatever the reason, I really like teenage science fiction books especially. Here a few titles I've read somewhat recently:
Last night I finished, The Maze Runner by James Dashner. I had a little trouble getting really interested in it, but once I did, I was hooked and finished it in less than a week. I like the whole concept of the book. It's about a bunch of teenage boys who show up in a glade surrounded by an impossible maze. They remember nothing of their former lives, but they live pretty happily in this glade working hard to keep their physical needs met and even harder to try to solve the maze. I was never convinced that any of the characters were as smart as they were supposed to be (Orson Scott Card does this really well in Ender's Game), but I enjoyed it anyway. I'm pretty excited to read the next book in the series, The Scorch Trials.
Tonight, I went to a book signing for Illusions by Aprilynne Pike. Four years ago, I was playing games at a friend's house, and she told me about a story her sister-in-law just got published called Wings. When I moved to North Carolina, I discovered the book in the library and read it. It was quite good! Definitely an early teen romance book, but I liked it anyway. The second book, Spells, was even better. I now look forward to reading Illusions. I find it interesting that one person I talked to four years ago directly affected my evening tonight. I would not have gone to that book signing if I had no connection to the author. It makes me wonder how the things I've said to other people have affected them.
Anyway, this was a quadruple book signing! Four authors, many books! The books by two of the authors seemed especially ridiculous to me---vampire romance novel with 10 books in the series and mucho teenage angst going on. I enjoyed twilight, but this just seemed over the top. One author stuck out to me though. When Veronica Roth said she likes The Giver and read Ender's Game seven times, I immediately liked her. Her personality and vibrance increased that liking even more. I could totally see myself being friends with her. Then I read the plot summary of her debut novel, Divergent, and I liked her even more. It's my favorite genre---young adult dystopia! More amazing is that she's only 22. I used to always think authors were older than me. Now they are my friends. I look forward to reading Divergent and hope it's even better than I'm imagining.
In response to this article, I don't think any of these books are inappropriate for teens. They might be too dark for younger children, but I'd much rather see a teenager reading these books than watching much of the lousy TV shows and PG-13 movies that are popular today. (Don't get me wrong---there are some good new TV shows and PG-13 movies, but I'd say the majority are just a waste of time.)
And now that I'm pretty much out of vacation days at work and thus will not be taking any more cool trips around the world for quite a while, I should find plenty of time to read all of these books.
- Uglies Series
- The Maze Runner
- The Hunger Games Series
- The Roar
- The Supernaturalist
- The Adoration of Jenna Fox
- Running Out of Time
- Found (The Missing Series)
Last night I finished, The Maze Runner by James Dashner. I had a little trouble getting really interested in it, but once I did, I was hooked and finished it in less than a week. I like the whole concept of the book. It's about a bunch of teenage boys who show up in a glade surrounded by an impossible maze. They remember nothing of their former lives, but they live pretty happily in this glade working hard to keep their physical needs met and even harder to try to solve the maze. I was never convinced that any of the characters were as smart as they were supposed to be (Orson Scott Card does this really well in Ender's Game), but I enjoyed it anyway. I'm pretty excited to read the next book in the series, The Scorch Trials.
Tonight, I went to a book signing for Illusions by Aprilynne Pike. Four years ago, I was playing games at a friend's house, and she told me about a story her sister-in-law just got published called Wings. When I moved to North Carolina, I discovered the book in the library and read it. It was quite good! Definitely an early teen romance book, but I liked it anyway. The second book, Spells, was even better. I now look forward to reading Illusions. I find it interesting that one person I talked to four years ago directly affected my evening tonight. I would not have gone to that book signing if I had no connection to the author. It makes me wonder how the things I've said to other people have affected them.
Anyway, this was a quadruple book signing! Four authors, many books! The books by two of the authors seemed especially ridiculous to me---vampire romance novel with 10 books in the series and mucho teenage angst going on. I enjoyed twilight, but this just seemed over the top. One author stuck out to me though. When Veronica Roth said she likes The Giver and read Ender's Game seven times, I immediately liked her. Her personality and vibrance increased that liking even more. I could totally see myself being friends with her. Then I read the plot summary of her debut novel, Divergent, and I liked her even more. It's my favorite genre---young adult dystopia! More amazing is that she's only 22. I used to always think authors were older than me. Now they are my friends. I look forward to reading Divergent and hope it's even better than I'm imagining.
In response to this article, I don't think any of these books are inappropriate for teens. They might be too dark for younger children, but I'd much rather see a teenager reading these books than watching much of the lousy TV shows and PG-13 movies that are popular today. (Don't get me wrong---there are some good new TV shows and PG-13 movies, but I'd say the majority are just a waste of time.)
And now that I'm pretty much out of vacation days at work and thus will not be taking any more cool trips around the world for quite a while, I should find plenty of time to read all of these books.
2 comments:
I LOVE teen books as well. We had Aprilynne come to our school to talk with the 7th & 8th grade students and she was amazing! I just bought her 3rd book as well. She highly recommended "Maze Runner" to me and it is on my summer reading list. I loved Hunger Games, Uglies and most of the other books you mentioned. Keep me posted of other books you like!
young adult dystopia...pretty obscure genre, but sounds cool. I like sci fi lit as well sometimes...I read Foundation and the sequel I think a few years ago, good read, and Ender's game of course. But I was always more into Fantasy growing up (Wheel of Time, Alvin Makes, many others). Fun times, I could use a good novel about now.
Post a Comment