Goddess, hero, teenaged girl

Zoe’s Tale by John Scalzi

Scalzi, John. 2008. Zoe's Tale. New York: Tor. 9780765316981. $24.95. Hard Cover.

Annotation:
When Zoe Boutin Perry and her family travel across the galaxy to colonize the planet Roanoke they discover that they are pawns in the battle between the human Colonial Union and the alien Conclave.

Reviews:
Booklist Review (8-01-2008)
Publishers Weekly Review (6-23-2008)

Seventeen-year-old Zoe Boutin-Perry, her family, and a spaceship full of colonists have just jumped through hyperspace to arrive at their new home, the planet Roanoke. They are planning to work hard to make it into a hospitable place for settlements of humans to live. On the journey Zoe has made an awesome new best friend, and might have attracted a cute, poet boyfriend too. That is if her looming alien bodyguards don’t scare him off.

Only, Roanoke isn’t where it was supposed to be. Their government is hiding them from a coalition of alien races who don’t want humans to colonize planets. When they’re found, they’re going to be in serious trouble, maybe the wiped-off-the-face-of-the-planet kind. Zoe will have to use her bravery, cunning, and status as an idol to an alien race, to save the day.

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This day is all there is

Galax-Arena by Gillian Rubenstein

Rubinstein, Gillian. 1995. Galax-arena: a novel. New York: Simon & Schuster. 068980136X. $14.00. Hard Cover.

Annotation:
Three children are kidnapped from Earth and taken to the planet Vexak, where they are forced to perform life-threatening acrobatics for the entertainment of the alien beings called Vexa.

Awards and Reviews:
The Children's Book Council of Australia, Honor Book, 1993
Kirkus Review (9-15-1995)
Booklist *Starred Review* (10-15-1995)

Siblings Joella, Peter and Liane are kidnapped from Earth, forced into a rocket ship and transported to the planet Vexak. There is no hope of escape, the atmosphere of the planet is toxic outside the artificial environment where they are held captive. They will be taught to perform death-defying acrobatics, along with other kidnapped children, in the Galax-Arena. The Vexa are excited by their fear and even more thrilled by their deaths. Human children are not people to the Vexa, they are trained animals. They live day by day, forming fierce friendships or rivalries among themselves in order to survive. How long will they survive the Galax-Arena?

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The miracle girl

The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson

Pearson, Mary. 2008. The adoration of Jenna Fox. New York: Henry Holt. 9780805076684, 0805076689. $16.95. Hard Cover.

Annotation:
After waking up from a coma with amnesia, Jenna Fox discoverers a startling secret about her existence.

Awards:
School Library Journal Best Books, 2008
YALSA Best Books for Young Adults, 2009
Kirkus Reviews * Starred Review* (3-15-2008)

“I used to be someone.
Someone named Jenna Fox.
That’s what they tell me. But I am more than a name. More than they tell me. More than the facts and statistics they fill me with. More than the video clips they make me watch.
More. But I’m not sure what.”

Jenna wakes up after being in a coma for eighteen months. She can’t remember anything and her body feels wrong. Her parents are anxious for her to continue to be their precious daughter. When she does begin to remember, it is too much for a normal person’s memory: an entire history textbook, her baptism as a baby in perfect detail. But she doesn’t remember the accident. What happened to her? Is she even human anymore?

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Saved by a hologram

Shade’s Children by Gath Nix

Nix, Garth. 1997. Shade's children. New York: HarperCollins. 0064471969. $5.95. Paperback.

Annotation:
In a frightening future world where all of the adults have disappeared, four children fight terrifying creatures and their Overlord masters with the help of Shade, a holographic image of a man.

Awards and Reviews:
YALSA Best Books for Young Adults, 1998
Booklist Review (10-1-1997)
Kirkus Review (8-15-1997)

In the frightening future world of Shade’s Children, on your 14th birthday you literally lose your mind. The alien Overlords come to the dormitories where they keep children and take you away to harvest your brain and body parts. They will use them to create the inhuman creatures they use to wage ritual battles among themselves. Fifteen years ago everyone in the world over that age of fourteen disappeared, leaving the children who remained at the mercy of the Overlords.

But some children manage to escape the dormitories and this terrible fate. If they find their way to Shade, an intelligent holographic image of a man, he will protect them and teach them to fight the creatures. But is Shade really helping them or does he have his own cruel agenda to follow?

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What's a bird?

The Sky Inside by Claire Dunkle

Dunkle, Clare B. 2008. The sky inside. New York: Atheneum Books for Young Readers. 1416924221. $16.99. Trade Cloth.

Annotation:
With the help of a robot dog, Barney discovers the secrets of the domed suburb in which he lives and the lies upon which his society is structured.

Reviews:
Booklist *Starred Review* (05-15-2008)
School Library Journal Review (5-1-2008)
Kirkus Review (1-1-2008)

Martin lives in the domed suburb of HM1. He’s never seen a cloud or a bird because the air outside isn’t fit for humans to breathe anymore. Martin’s younger sister Cassie is a genetically enhanced “Wonder Baby.” Wonder Babies were all the rage when they first came out on the market. The television ads promised supersmart, charming kids, and parents were ecstatic when the “stork” railway cars delivered them to the suburbs. They read before they’re two and question their parents on their feeding schedules. That’s the problem with the Wonder Babies: they ask too many questions, questions that the suburb residents have learned that it’s in their good interest not to ask.

One day there is an announcement that the Wonder Babies have been recalled. A stranger comes to the suburb to take Cassie and the other little children away. Martin’s mother and father won’t discuss where she’s gone. Martin is determined to find her, he is her big brother after all. With the help of his modified robot dog, Martin will venture out of the suburb and discover what is beyond The Sky Inside.

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Capture the piggy

Interstellar Pig by William Sleator

Sleator, William. 1984. Interstellar pig. New York, N.Y.: E.P. Dutton. 0525440984.

Annotation:
Barney’s boring beach vacation turns exciting when three exotic strangers move into the cottage next door and teach him to play the space role playing game Interstellar Pig.

Awards:
California Young Reader Medal, Young Adult, 1985
ALA Notable Children's Books, 1985
Kirkus Reviews *Starred Review* (5-15-1984)

The game of Interstellar Pig is played on an amazing board showing outer space. Stars glitter on its darkest-black background. Unusual planets seem to hover in 3-D relief. Choose a character card and you might become a reptilian man from the planet Ja-Ja-Bee with an intelligent parasitic slug-tongue, or some semi-sapient lichen from Mbridlengile who devour everything in their path. The goal is to capture the Piggy card or your home planet blows up at the end of the game.

While on a boring beach vacation with his parents, Barney learns this game from three strangers staying at the cottage next door. Why do they seem to look different to whoever is looking at them and talk like they’re using a thesaurus? Why are they so interested in looking around the place where Barney is staying? A house formerly occupied by an insane sailor who strangled a shipwreck survivor because he thought the man turned into the devil. Why are they so obsessed with playing Interstellar Pig and what will happen now that Barney is involved in their game?

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Hoverboarding adventure

Uglies by Scott Westerfield

Westerfeld, Scott. 2005. Uglies. New York: Simon Pulse. 0689865384 $6.99. Paperback.

Annotation:
Tally waits impatiently for her 16th birthday and the operation that will make her beautiful. When her friend Shay runs away to a secret community outside of the city, Tally is forced to find her or she will never be allowed to become pretty.

Awards:
School Library Journal Best Books, 2005
School Library Journal Best Books, 2005
YALSA Best Books for Young Adults, 2006

Sparkling eyes. A dazzling smile. Full lips in a symmetrical face. No fat, no scars, no acne.

In Tally’s world, all of this can be had with a standard surgical procedure. Everyone has it done on their 16th birthday and Tally can’t wait for hers. Afterwards she gets to move to new pretty town and spend all her time having fun in the party towers and pleasure gardens.

Tally is shocked when her new friend Shay tells her that she doesn’t want to become pretty. You become vapid and never have any adventures after the surgery Shay says. She plans to run away to a secret community outside of their city where people keep their unaltered faces for the rest of their lives.

Tally promises to keep Shay’s secret, but Special Circumstances, people altered to look scary and cruel, come to question Tally about Shay’s disappearance. They want Tally to track down Shay and lead them to the secret place she went, or they’ll never let her turn pretty. Will Tally betray her friend in order to become beautiful?

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Special Students

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Ishiguro, Kazuo. 2005. Never let me go. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 1400043395, 9781400043392. $24.00. Trade Cloth.

Annotation:

Kathy H., a caretaker for organ donors, describes her adolescence at the secretive Halisham School and the consequences her time there had for her life.

Awards:
School Library Journal's Adult Books for High School Students, 2005
New York Times Notable Books, 2005
ALA Notable Books, 2006
Library Journal Best Books, 2005
Alex Award, 2006

What is the purpose of the Halisham School? It’s a peaceful boarding school in the English countryside, sheltered from the rest of the world. As Kathy H. grows up there her future life is only hinted at. She’s been told that she and the rest of her classmates are “special” and different from the teachers at the school, She knows that she has to take good care of herself, not smoke or damage her body. What are the “donations” she’s expected to make when she’s grown. Who is the strange woman who comes each year to collect the best of the students’art work for her gallery and why does she cringe when she comes near the Halisham students? Secrets and rumors make up a lot of what Kathy and her friends know. Kathy will discover the truth about Halisham and the purpose of her life in the startling conclusion of Never Let Me Go.