The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau

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the throwback special by chris bachelder

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I'm not a team sports enthusiast. Truly, I'm vehemently anti-athletics of the team variety, since, among more virtuous geopolitical reasons, they remind me of being tortured by jocks as a new wave teen. Still, I relished Bachelder's book, because it isn't really about organized sport. Rather, it's a near-scientific observation of twenty-two men in the throes of middle life who have gathered annually for the last sixteen years to reenact Joe Theismann's 1985 leg-shattering play, known as "The Throwback Special," laced with heavy doses of bittersweet humor - a favorite flavor of mine. Those of you who miss the pleasure of eavesdropping on humans conversing in public spaces* will appreciate the low- and high-brow overheard philosophical gems sprinkled throughout the work as the men, largely begrudgingly, prepare for a ritual many of them are no longer emotionally invested in. Reading it felt like the best kind of being invisible: reader as witness to a c...
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scored by lauren mclaughlin

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A fresh and thought-provoking dystopian young adult novel set in the not-so-distant future where the scored are watched and rated 24/7. Scored masterfully addresses the rapidly disappearing middle class in America, the quiet evaporation of privacy, and what it means when we're always 'on.' Cory Doctorow eloquently sums it up in his Boing Boing review , "This book is the antidote to the pointless hand-wringing about Facebook, reality TV, and the PATRIOT Act, a chance to get out of the trite cul-de-sac where these conversations always end up, and to move into green pastures." Give this to fans of The Hunger Games and Marie Lu's Legend . The easy reading level makes it a superb EAL/ESL alternative to 1984 or Brave New World. Grade 7+
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The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly

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By far the best book I've read this year! Eleven-year-old Calpurnia's world is forever changed when she befriends her Granddaddy, who introduces her to the world of science and gives her a copy of The Origin of Species . Set in Texas at the end of the 19th century, Callie comes up against her future traditional and expected societal role as the only daughter of a wealthy and respected cotton farmer. Her mother explains that she'll be 'coming out' in a few years and Calpurnia just doesn't see the point; she would much rather catalog flora and fauna than bake an apple pie or knit socks for her six brothers. As the year progresses and the end of the century approaches, Callie's mother makes it clear that she needs to spend her time learning 'The Science of Housewivery' instead of spending her time in her grandfather's laboratory. Jacqueline Kelly gives Callie a voice that is at once hopeful and resigned: "So I didn't like to talk patterns...
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