2012-2013 GPBA List
Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Septys
Divergent by Veronica Roth ***WINNER***
The False Princess by Eilis O'Neal
Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan
*The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
​Jump by Elisa Carbone
The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney
The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson
Notes From the Blender by Trisha Cook and Brenda Halpin
Now is the Time for Running by Michael Williams
Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A. S. King
*Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanan
*The Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson
Stick by Andrew Smith
Stupid Fast by Geoff Herbach
This Girl Is Different by J.J. Johnson
What Can't Wait by Ashley Hope Perez
What Comes After by Steve Watkins
Divergent - Veronica Roth
In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.
During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.
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I was slow to warm up to this series but once I read this book, I was well and truly hooked! I enjoyed the strong female protagonist, I loved the distinct world-building of a functioning, yet separated society in an isolated area of a dystopian world and I especially loved how the different factions functioned.
What Comes After - Steve Watkins
After her veterinarian dad dies, sixteen-year-old Iris Wight must leave her beloved Maine to live on a North Carolina farm with her hard bitten aunt and a cousin she barely knows. Iris, a vegetarian and animal lover, immediately clashes with Aunt Sue, who mistreats the livestock, spends Iris’s small inheritance, and thinks nothing of striking Iris for the smallest offense. Things come to a head when Iris sets two young goats free to save them from slaughter, and an enraged Aunt Sue orders her brutish son, Book, to beat Iris senseless - a horrific act that lands Book and his mother in jail. Sent to live with an offbeat foster family and their "dooking" ferrets, Iris must find a way to take care of the animals back at the farm, even if it means confronting Aunt Sue. Powerful and deeply moving, this compelling novel affirms the redemptive power of animals and the resilience of the human spirit.
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The story opens with a news article, so the reader is told where it will end up, but by half way through when you actually do meet the point of the news article …. so many things happen to the teen protagonist I couldn’t possibly figure out how she navigates her way through. She defies those in authority around her to do what she feels is right in her heart and while the bad things remain present, they are temporarily neutralized and things start looking up for the teen as she finds an inner strength she didn't know she had.
Reader Advisory Warning: This story touches on verbal and physical abuse, including assault and physical animal abuse with a gruesome animal death. This made for very difficult reading for me but ultimately ended with a powerful message of doing what is right for those with no voice of their own.
Ready Player One - Ernest Cline
IN THE YEAR 2044, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he's jacked into the virtual utopia known as the OASIS. Wade's devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world's digital confines, puzzles that are based on their creator's obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them.
But when Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade's going to survive, he'll have to win—and confront the real world he's always been so desperate to escape.
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If you are a gamer, and even if you’re not, I think you will enjoy this book. I found it smart and thoroughly enjoyed the pop-culture and geek-world references. This dystopian book isn’t set centuries in the future, it is only a few decades from now, and I felt the world-building (or world societal destruction) the author created was scary in its totality, attributing the decline to energy crisis’, widespread crop failure and population explosion without enough resources for all.
The gaming world is created as a way for people to escape their reality, and many aspects of their lives are spent in that world - including school, dating and even some jobs. Though eating and sleeping and other day-to-day things must be done in the real world, everyone does their best to spend as little time in the real world as possible since they prefer the lives they created in the gaming world.
Heidi Y.