What to read after Mockingjay

It seems fitting, with the Catching Fire soon being released in movie form, that I came across this little article yesterday:

"10 books to read after the Hunger Games Trilogy"

Each of the books on the list is pictured and followed by a brief description.

The Red Kayak by Pricilla Cummings

Synopsis: Brady Parks faces a life-changing moral dilemma in this coming-of-age story of redemption.  Set in a tiny fishing/crabbing town, the story follows Brady, a 9th grader who is called to help in the search for a woman and her young child who have gone missing while kayaking.

The story isn't as much about his heroic attempt to rescue the child.  Rather, it's about the moral obligation to "do the right thing" in the face of losing everything - your friends, your family's respect, and your freedom.  More than that, it's a story about guilt and redemption, loss and acceptance, trust and responsibility.

Brady learns that harboring secrets and trying to face the unimaginable on one's own can only do harm, and that revealing the truth, while painful and scary, has the very real power to set everyone free from the prisons they create in their own minds.

Genre:  Realistic Fiction

Pages: 208

Level: easy/intermediate

Author's website

The Sequel to this book is The Journey Back.

Opening paragraphs of The Red Kayak:

After all this time, I still ask myself: Was it my fault?

Maybe.  Maybe not.

Either way, I wonder what would have happened if I'd called out a warning.  Or kept my mouth shut later.  Would J.T. and Digger still be my best friends?  Would the DiAngelos still be living next door?

One thing's for sure: If none of this had happened, I'd be out there crabbing every day, baiting my pots in the morning and pulling them in after school.  Fall's a great time for catching crabs before the females head south and the males burrow into the mud.  I could fix the engine on the boat easy if I wanted.  It's not broken like I told Dad.  Probably nothing but some air in the lines from settin' there so long.  I could bleed the engine tonight, set my alarm for 4 a.m., and be on the river before the sun was up over the tree line.

Don't think it didn't bother me, the way those traps sat all summer, stacked four deep against the back of Dad's tool-shed. Some never even got hosed off, they were stashed in such a hurry.  Be a lot of work to clean 'em up and rezinc them, too, so they don't corrode.  In just a few days, though, I could have four rows of twenty-five sunken pots out there, each one marked with a fresh-painted orange buoy, and all one hundred of those pots soaked and baited with razor clams.  Afternoons, I could be hauling in crabs hand over fist, and right now, a bushel of big number-one jimmies would fetch me seventy dollars from the wholesaler -- maybe even more, since the price of crabs has gone through the roof.

But, this is all so complicated.  I can't go back out on the water.  Not yet anyway.  I can't help it; I keep asking myself, What if this, what if that?  And then in my mind I see that red kayak...

Read More

Unwind

Synopsis:  What if your parents could "unwind" you...have you sent away and harvested for parts to be used for other peoples' medical needs?  What if you were born without parents and had to prove yourself in a state home, or else?  What if you were born for the sole purpose of being tithed by your family?  This novel explores some pretty intense topics:  What power should parents have over the lives of their children?  What is a soul, and do they exist at all?  When does life begin?

The story follows three young people, Connor, Risa, and Lev, all with widely different backgrounds.  All three end up running from the authorities to avoid being unwound.  Along the way, they learn a lot about their world and the inhuman things that human beings are capable of.

Can they survive until they turn 18, when no one will have the power to unwind them?

(This novel is the first in a trilogy, along with a 60 page short story sequel available as an e-book at Amazon.  The second novel, Unwholly, is available now.  And coming soon will be the third, Unsouled.)

Genre: science fiction

Pages: 335

Level:  intermediate/mature

Author's website

Opening paragraphs:

"There are places you can go," Ariana tells him, "and a guy as smart as you has a decent chance of surviving until eighteen."

Connor isn't so sure, but looking into Ariana's eyes makes his doubts go away, if only for a moment.  Her eyes are sweet violet with streaks of gray.  She's such a slave to fashion -- always getting the newest pigment injection the second it's in style.  Connor was never into that.  He's always kept his eyes the color they came in.  Brown.  He never even got tattoos, like so many kids get these days when they're little.  The only color on his skin is the tan it takes during the summer, but now, in November, the tan has long fade.  He tries not to thing about the fact that hel'll never see the summer again.  At least not as Conner Lassiter.  He still can't believe his life is being stolen from him at sixteen.

Ariana's violet eyes begin to shine as they fill with tears that flow down her cheeks when she blinks.  "Connor, I'm so sorry."  She holds him, and for a moment it seems as if everything is okay, as if they are the only two people on Earth.  For that instant, Connor feels invincible, untouchable...but she lets go, the moment passes, and the world around him returns.  Once more he can feel the rumble of the freeway beneath them, as cars pass by, not knowing or caring that he's here.  Once more he is just a marked kid, a week short of unwinding.


Read more

Lockdown (Escape from the Furnace series)

Synopsis: Taken from Google Books.

Macmillan, Oct 27, 2009 - Juvenile Fiction - 288 pages

Furnace Penitentiary: the world’s most secure prison for young offenders, buried a mile beneath the earth’s surface. Convicted of a murder he didn’t commit, sentenced to life without parole, “new fish” Alex Sawyer knows he has two choices: find a way out, or resign himself to a death behind bars, in the darkness at the bottom of the world. Except in Furnace, death is the least of his worries. Soon Alex discovers that the prison is a place of pure evil, where inhuman creatures in gas masks stalk the corridors at night, where giants in black suits drag screaming inmates into the shadows, where deformed beasts can be heard howling from the blood-drenched tunnels below. And behind everything is the mysterious, all-powerful warden, a man as cruel and dangerous as the devil himself, whose unthinkable acts have consequences that stretch far beyond the walls of the prison.

Together with a bunch of inmates—some innocent kids who have been framed, others cold-blooded killers—Alex plans an escape. But as he starts to uncover the truth about Furnace’s deeper, darker purpose, Alex’s actions grow ever more dangerous, and he must risk everything to expose this nightmare that’s hidden from the eyes of the world

Escape from the Furnace series book trailer and background publishing information (includes excerpts of other books in the series.  Parental guidance suggested.  Though this is a young adult title, with a 15-year-old protagonist, it is science fiction/horror and includes graphic scenes, violence, and some language.  Click HERE to got the PUBLISHER'S WEBSITE to view TRAILER and read excerpts.

Other books in the series:  Solitary, Death Sentences, Fugitives, Execution

Genre: Science Fiction/Horror

Pages:  273

Level: intermediate, advanced/mature

Author website

First paragraphs:

If I stopped running I was dead.

My lungs were on fire, my heart pumping acid, every muscle in my body threatening to cramp.  I couldn't even see where I was going anymore, my vision fading as my body prepared to give in.  If the siren hadn't been hammering at my eardrums, then I'd have been able to hear my breaths, ragged and desperate, unable to pull in enough air to keep me going.

Just one more flight of stairs, on more and I might make it.

I forced myself to run faster, the metal staircase rattling beneath my clumsy steps.  Everywhere around me other kids were panicking, all bolting the same way, to safety.  I didn't look back to see what was behind us.  I didn't need to.  I could picture it in my head, its demonic muzzle, silver eyes, and those teeth, like razor wire.

Someone grabbed my arm, pulling me back.  I lost my balance, spilling over the railing.  For a second, the yard appeared five stories beneath me and I almost let myself go.  Better this way than to be devoured, right?  Then the beast shrieked through its wet throat and I started running again before I even knew I was doing it.

I heard the rattle of the cell doors, knew they were closing.  If I was caught out here, then I was history.  I leaped up the last few steps, hurtling down the narrow landing. The inmates jeered from their cells, shouting for me to die.  They stuck out their arms and legs to trip me, and it almost worked.  I staggered, lurched forward, falling.

To read more...click here.

Everneath - by Brodi Ashton

Synopsis:  In this modern twist on the Persephone myth, Seventeen-year-old Nikki Beckett has just returned from the underworld, having spent the last six months in a place called Everneath. She has been given only six months to spend with her family, friends, and her boyfriend Jack before she has to return to Everneath forever. Her heart aches for Jack, and now that she is back, she longs to spend as much time with him as possible. However, Cole, the one responsible for taking her to Everneath, has other plans. He is certain she is the one who can help him take over the throne and has followed her back home. Using all of his power he tries to convince her to come back with him to Everneath and become his queen. 



Genre:  fantasy, romance, mythology

Pages:  370

Level:  intermediate, advanced/mature

Author's website

Opening paragraph:

The Everneath.

History books call it the Underworld.  Or even hell.

But I know it's neither.  It is really call the Everneath,

and it's not a place for the dead.  It's a place for the

Everliving--beings who have discovered the secret to

eternal life.  It's a place for their Forfeits--the humans

who give up everything to nourish the Everliving.  It's

the world caught between this one and the next, a layer

between Earth and hell.  I know because I was a Forfeit.

I would give anything to change this.

Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl - by Jesse Andrews

Synopsis:  17-year-old Greg and his best friend Earl make movies together.  Usually, their scripts are silly and the "actors" are puppets or Greg's cats.  But, one day, Greg's mom encourages Greg to visit an old friend in the hospital.  Rachel has been diagnosed with leukemia.  During their visits, Greg tells Rachel about his movies...even lets her borrow a few.  Somehow, everyone at school finds out about the movies, and a few teachers ask Greg and Earl to make a movie especially for Rachel...



Genre:  realistic fiction

Pages:  295

Level:  intermediate, advanced/mature...some mature language and themes (parents may want to preview this title first)
  
Author website

Opening paragraphs:

So in order to understand everything that happened, you have to start from the premise that high school sucks.  Do you accept that premise?  Of course you do.  It is a universally acknowledged truth that high school sucks.  In fact, high school is where we are first introduced to the basic existential question of life:  How is it possible to exist in a place that sucks to bad?

Most of the time middle school sucks even worse, but middle school is so pathetic I can't even bring myself to write about it, so let's focus on high school.

all right.  Allow me to introduce myself:  Greg S. Gaines, seventeen.  During the period described in this book, I was a senior at Benson High School in lovely inner-city Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  And before doing anything else, it is necessary for us to examine Benson and the specific ways in which it sucks.

So, Benson is on the border of Squirrel Hill, an affluent neighborhood, and Homewood, a non-affluent neighborhood, and it draws about equal numbers of students from both.  On television, it's usually the rich kids who assert control at a high school; however, most of Squirrel Hill's genuinely rich kids go to the local private school, Shadyside Academy.  The ones that remain are too few to impose any kind of order.  I mean, occasionally, they try to, and that tends to be more adorable than anything else.  Like when Olivia Ryan freaks out about the puddle of urine that appears in one of the stairwells most days between 10:30 and 11:00 a.m., shrieking at bystanders in an insane, misguided attempt to try to figure out who did it.  You want to say, "Liv!  The perpetrator has probably not returned to the scene of the crime.  Pee Diddy is long gone by now."  But even if you did say that, she probably wouldn't stop freaking out.  And anyway, my point is that the freak-out doesn't have any measurable effect on anything.  It's like when a kitten tries to bite something to death.  The kitten clearly has the cold-blooded murderous instinct of a predator, but at the same time, it's a cute little kitten, and all you want to do is stuff it in a shoebox and shoot a video of it for grandmas to watch on YouTube.

Crewel - by Gennifer Albin

Synopsis:  Book 1 in the Crewel World trilogy:  Adelice is gifted with the ability to weave time with matter and is chosen as a Spinster.  It is a life of privilege, laced with secrets and lies.


Genre:  fantasy

Pages:  368

Level:  ages 12 and up, intermediate difficulty

Author's website:  genniferalbin.com

First 5 paragraphs:

I can count the days until summer draws to a close and autumn seeps into the leaves, paint them ginger and scarlet.  Right now, though, the dappled light of mid-afternoon is glorious emerald, and it's hot on my face.  With sun soaking into me, everything is possible.  When it is inevitably gone--the seasons programmed to begin and end with smooth precision--life will take its predetermined route.  Like a machine.  Like me.

It's quiet outside my sister's academy.  I'm the only one waiting for the girls to be released.  When I first began my testing cycle, Amie held her pinkie finger up and made me swear to meet her each day after I got out.  It was a hard promise to make, knowing they could call me anytime and sweep me away to the Coventry's towers.  But I make it, even today.  A girl has to have something constant, has to know what to expect.  The last bit of chocolate in the monthly rations; the tidy ending to a program on the Stream.  I want my little sister to be able to count on a sweet life, even if the heat of summer tastes bitter now.

A bell tolls and girls pour out in a surge of plaid, their giggles and shouts breaking the perfect stillness of the scene.  Amie, who's always had more friends than me, bounces out, surrounded by a handful of other girls in the awkward stages of early adolescence.  I wave to her and she dashes toward me, catching my hand and pulling me in the direction of our house.  Something about her eager greeting every afternoon makes it okay that I don't have many companions my age.

"Did you do it?"  she asks in a breathless voice, skipping ahead of me.

I hesitate for a moment.  If anyone will be happy about my mistake, it will be Amie.  If I tell her the truth, she'll squeal and clap.  She'll hug me, and maybe for a moment I can leach her happiness, fill myself up with it, and believe everything is going to turn out fine.

Read more - click here.