Matched
By Allie Condie
Seventeen-year-old Cassia Reyes has waited her whole life to attend her Matching ceremony. She is dressed in a beautiful green dress, fed delicious food, and given her "Match", the boy she will someday marry. Cassia is surprised to find out that her Match is her very best friend, Xander. Upon being matched, each teen is given a box with a data card containing information on the other. Although Cassia knows a lot about Xander already, she is eager to see what his data card says. She slips it into her computer and is immediately show a picture of her Match. The only problem is....the Match shown is not Xander. In a society where there are no mistakes and each decision is made for the individuals, errors are not acceptable. Cassia is counseled by an Official about the mistake and told that someone must have pulled a prank on her, but Cassia has a hard time believing this and begins to wonder about the other boy. Her friendship with him grows and, in a life with no choices, she yearns to choose who she will marry. This rebellious attitude causes Cassia and her family much trouble and endangers the life of the other boy. Cassia must decide what she is willing to risk in order to be happy.
I have read so many great reviews of this book that I couldn't wait to read it. It was not disappointing! The characters are well-rounded and the author does a great job of setting up this futuristic world. Readers will be anxious about the release of the next book in this series (trilogy?). The only negative thing I could possibly say about this book is that it doesn't seem very original. It is kind of a combination of The Giver, Candor, Hunger Games, and The Uglies. The good thing is...I liked all of those books, so I thought this was great.
Rated: 4.5
Recommended for: All high school readers
You Can't Read This: Why Books Get Banned (Pop Culture Revolutions series)
By Pamela Dell
This book is a concise source on book banning, where it originated, and possible reasons for censoring books. It is an entertaining read and includes many photographs, pictures of political cartoons, a timeline, and an extremely useful bibliography. Many of my students are required to write papers on a specific book on the "banned" or "challenged" lists. This will be a wonderful source for them.
Rated: 4
Recommended for: All high school students
