Wolf by Wolf

Wolf by Wolf
by Ryan Graudin

Wolf by Wolf was hard to put down!
Set in an alternative historical time--Hitler has won World War II and is in power--a girl named Yael has survived brutal treatment and escaped from a Nazi death camp.
Now a teenager, Yael is part of the underground Resistance force, and she has a top secret, very dangerous mission: impersonate a famous German teenager (who happens to be the winner of a prestigious annual motorcycle race) so that she can win the next race, meet Hitler in person, and kill him.
Luckily Yael has some special powers that allow her to "skinshift", the result of horrible human experimentation she underwent as a little girl in the concentration camp.
She can make herself look like anyone.
But that is the easy part...winning the fiercely competitive motorcycle race across the continents, and then figuring out a plan to assassinate Hitler--and escape alive--are two unfathomable challenges she faces.
The sequel to Wolf by Wolf is Blood for Blood...you won't want to miss it!

The Girl Who Drank the Moon

The Girl Who Drank the Moon
by Kelly Barnhill

This fantasy novel received the 2017 Newbery Medal.
It's about a sweet, kind witch--Xan--and the baby girl she adopts and raises, Luna.
It's also about a dysfunctional/dystopian town (reminded me of Jonas's town in The Giver) where every year a baby is sacrificed by the people in charge "for the good of everyone"...but really, it's just to keep the townsfolk scared and powerless.
As Luna approaches her 13th birthday and learns more about her past and her own magical powers, she embarks upon a great and dangerous adventure with her dear friends, a Swamp Monster and a Tiny Dragon....what unfolds is both creepy and beautiful.

Fallout

Fallout
By Todd Strasser

What if the Russian government had actually launched a nuclear bomb at the United States in 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis?
During those scary years, some people--like author Todd Strasser's own family--actually dug out bomb shelters under their homes and stocked them with food, emergency supplies, and water. But what would it really be like to spend two weeks underground, surviving an attack? Especially if there were too many people for the shelter, and too few supplies...
Strasser explores this scenario in Fallout, a fictionalized account of survival during the worst WHAT IF? you might be able to imagine.
This is a pretty dark story, but a good one...it's a page-turner, and one that really questions the logic of building and keeping nuclear weapons in the world.

The Beast of Cretacea
By Todd Strasser

Maybe you've never read the classic Moby-Dick...I haven't (yet!)...but this sci-fi retelling of Herman Melville's epic adventure on a whaling ship may make you want to check it out!
Set in the future, when Earth is covered by a Shroud of thick pollution, food and all other resources are scarce.  Humans struggle to survive--at least most of them do.
Ishmael, age 17, has no other choice than to be transported to another galaxy to harvest resources from a different Earth-like planet--that way he can make money to get his parents off of Earth and somewhere safer.
Little does Ishmael know that by joining the crew of the mighty Pequod, dangerous adventures lie ahead: a giant, lethal underwater beast the captain of the Pequod is obsessed with hunting down, savage pirates, gentle islanders etching out an alternative way of life on land, new friends--and new enemies.
All of this for a boy who has never eaten solid food, taken a shower, nor seen the ocean...
A page-turner!

Shadows of Sherwood

 
Shadows of Sherwood: A Robyn Hoodlum Adventure
By Kekla Magoon

I've always loved the tales of Robin Hood, so when I heard about this brand-new series with a dystopian, urban twist--the Robyn Hoodlum Adventures--I was pretty excited!
This first book in the series, Shadows of Sherwood, introduces Robyn, a street-smart teen with a daring taste for adventure, and her eclectic merry band of new friends. From a mixed-race family of political importance and privilege, Robyn suddenly finds herself alone and terrorized one night when her parents are disappeared by the very creepy Sheriff Marissa Mallet.
Nott City is changing, and not for the better; an evil governor, Ignomus Crown, has taken power and Sheriff Mallet will stop at nothing to please him. Innocent people are being arrested all over town, and Robyn finds herself at the top of the Most Wanted list once she begins to bravely help the poor and needy citizens of the city....
Stay tuned for more from Kekla Magoon!

The Thickety

The Thickety: A Path Begins
By J.A. White

Witchcraft, fantasy, horror, magic...this first book in the Thickety series (4 books altogether) is pretty gripping!

Kara Westfall, a young witch, must figure out whether her powers are evil or for good--or some strange combination of the two... Long ago her mother was murdered before her eyes by the community for being a witch, and Kara has always wondered about her mother's powers and how they were used. The community watches Kara closely to determine whether she should share the same fate as her mother.

Isolated on an island, the town Kara lives in with her dad and little brother borders a creepy forest, the "Thickety." In this magical forest live horrific beasts and strange beings. Kara must enter the Thickety in order to find out the answers she needs to know...

Uglies

Uglies
By Scott Westerfield

Loved the premise of this dystopian series! Uglies is the first of four books.

As Tally is about to turn 16, she anticipates the operation every person in her city gets to turn them "pretty"; after that, teenagers lead a carefree and beautiful life full of parties in New Pretty Town, as Tally has observed  from across the river.

However, one evening Tally meets Shay, who is also about to turn 16 and has a different--and rebelious--personality, and a dark outlook on what it means to be turned "pretty".

When Shay runs away from the city in search of a mythical community of outlaws in a place called the Smoke, Tally must decide how important it is to be "pretty", and what kind of friend she will be to Shay.

Downsiders

Downsiders

By Neal Shusterman

An intriguing tale of an alternate, secret world below New York City streets by the masterful Neal Shusterman--but unlike in Gregor the Overlander, this Downside world is inhabited by humans.

14-year-old Talon is a curious Downsider youth, drawn to the surface (the Topside) and interested in the snowy, sunny world above. Seeking out medicine for his ill little sister, Talon meets a Topsider girl named Lindsay. They strike up an important friendship/romance, but ultimately must make difficult decisions about which world they will choose.

Loved it!

Little Brother

Little Brother

By Cory Doctorow

Selected for San Francisco's One City One Book project this fall, I found many copies of Little Brother at my neighborhood SFPL and decided to check it out.
Glad I did!

I love that the setting is San Francisco; I love that Marcus, the 17-year-old genius hacker protagonist, lives in Portrero Hill and goes to high school in the Mission. Even eats pizza from Goat Hill pizzeria!

But mostly I love that in this dystopian story, a bunch of smart kids are able to go up against a Department-of-Homeland-Security-gone-bad and stand up for their constitutional rights to privacy and free speech.

If you love real-life stories of hacking security systems and exposing hard-to-hear truths, you will appreciate the techno-battle Marcus fights against his own government, which claims to be protecting the citizens of San Francisco from terrorism.

Recommended for ages 13 and up.

The Giver Quartet

The Giver
Gathering Blue
Messenger
Son
By Lois Lowry

This summer I decided to check out the whole Quartet from the library--well, actually just the three books following The Giver, because I had already read that one and written about it here.
What a treat! I enjoyed so much how characters appear and reappear throughout the different stories, and how themes weave together and overlap.
In Gathering Blue, we learn about the difficult life of young Kira, and also of her special gift--which the leaders in her community are trying to manipulate in order to control the future.
Messenger is the story of Matty, who was just a rascal of a boy in Gathering Blue. He too has a special gift he is learning to understand and use for good. The depictions of the Forest are creepy and unnerving in this one!
And finally, in Lois Lowry's latest wonderful book Son, Jonas and Kira from previous stories are again important characters...but this is the story of Claire, a "Birthmother" from the same community in The Giver, searching for her stolen son, Gabe.

The Maze Runner

The Maze Runner
By James Dashner

Oh man, this is definitely a page-turner. It seriously kept me up at night.
For those who love The Hunger Games, Dashner's dystopian world will probably interest you...
This story is about a 16-year-old boy, Thomas, who finds himself trapped inside a giant maze along with a hundred other teenage boys. They have all had their memories wiped out, and they spend their days trying to survive--and find a way out. There are huge half-mechanical, half-insect monsters hunting them down, spying creatures combing the landscape, and the maze walls shift each evening...this is a world no one would want to find themselves in, especially at night. And it appears to be a giant puzzle with no solution. Enter Thomas, who seems to know something no one else knows...

The Arrival

The Arrival is told purely through pictures--no words at all. The illustrations, as usual, are captivating, whimsical, and full of wild details. This is the story of one man who leaves his wife and little daughter to seek out a better life in a new place...the settings are fantastical, with creepy beasts and other threats, and bizarre contraptions for traveling, and everyday use. The man must make his way through this strange new "city", and luckily he meets some other immigrants who help him out. They tell their own stories of arrival. Finally, the man has enough money to send to his family in a "letter," and he waits for their arrival...This graphic novel really blew me away, I have to say. It is beautiful.

The Arrival By Shaun Tan
I just love Shaun Tan's books. And this one is really brilliant.

The Giver

The Giver
By Lois Lowry

Let the Jonas avatar tell you about this book (see Voki, below)!

Wow.  I LOVED this book.  I've heard about it for years, and am so happy to have finally read it!
Although there is a gentler dystopian premise than in The Hunger Games, this novel is just as powerful.  I love how the author gradually reveals the very disturbing aspects of the "perfect" society where the story takes place...and 12-year-old Jonas, the main character, is slowly awakened to what he has never been aware of before (colors, hills, joy, pain...).
On a separate note, I still remember when Lois Lowry visited my elementary school!  I think I was in 4th grade, and I know I bought one of her Anastasia Krupnik books.  Ms. Lowry signed it for me, of course, and I was hooked--I read them all.  She is still one of my favorite children's authors.
 (ISBN: 978-0-395-64566-6)

The Hunger Games

The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay
By Suzanne Collins

I stayed up very, very late on many nights reading each of the three books in this trilogy.  And that's saying something, because I have a toddler who wakes me up every morning at 5 am.  I also missed my bus stop more than once because I was so engrossed in this story.
Suzanne Collins is a brilliant storyteller and writer. At times, the violence in her premise really sickened me: an arena-based "reality show," where children kill other children as the whole country watches. How much more horrible can you get than that?  But then the sweet love story, the strength and perseverance of the main character Katniss, the thread of friendship and loyalty, and the secret plotting of a revolution kept me reading.  The realistic and horrific combination of flair and grim dystopia is just fantastic.  This is a jarring, provocative and important story. It would be a great choice for a book club! I couldn't stop talking about The Hunger Games once I finished. I'm still talking about them.