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Uglies

As I mentioned previously, I'm always on the look out for new books my students will be interested in reading for themselves. Reading "choice" books are part of their grade throughout the district, but we always have many students that just don't do it. Over the years, I've become pretty flexible on what constitutes a "choice" book, rather than using the list provided by the school library. For example, I had a student who read a book about guns - the history of guns, their invention, how the early versions worked, etc. There were a lot of pictures, but most of the language was technical and definitely more complicated that some books I've seen on the library's list. Plus the kid's hobbie was building guns, so he was very interested. (yes, in rural schools guns occupy an interesting ethical arena... if a kid forgets the hunting rifle in his gun in the truck, does he really HAVE to be tossed out of the school forever?)

Every year we have books that become very popular. This year it's the Twilight series. Last year it the Ugliesseries by Scott Westerfeld. They weren't too bad... Ugliesis set in the future, possibly in the USA. However since no countries seem to really exist - just city-states - it's hard to tell. In this future society, once teens turn 16 they are sent off for plastic surgery to become "Pretties". A surgically enhanced society where no one is ugly. At least not after 16. Before that, the kids (called Uglies) are stuck in a sort of boarding school where they play tricks on each other and become educated. However, there's not much mention of education.

The story centers around a character who is forced to go on a secret mission to find a rebel camp where no one has the surgery. They all *gasp* stay "ugly". The character is told that she won't get her own surgery if she doesn't find this camp and turn them all in. Faced with a lifetime of ugliness, she sets off. The story has a great undercurrent of what freedom of choice really is, making decisions based on superficial ideas, what the true meaning of beauty is and who really controls our lives. There's also some major digs on the environmental wastefulness of the 20th century population.

Although the main character is a girl, there is enough action for boys to get into the story. Lots of jumping off of buildings and skateboarding tricks.
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traveler hudd said…
Lovin' your blog! You've been tagged :)

http://laurensadventuresinteaching.blogspot.com/2008/12/tag-im-it.html
11:59 PM
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