Black Out by Robison Wells

Prom turns surreal as police show up & start rounding up students.  Aubrey faces the real possibility that they are looking for her.  Do they know that she can make herself invisible?  And if so, what do they want with her?  As she runs from the police, she finds help in a childhood friend, Jack.  Together they set out to figure out what is going on and why the police are treating children as terrorists.

Content Notes:                       

This book has some bad language & violence.  If made into a movie, it would be rated PG-13.

 

Teacher Notes:

I enjoyed this book but would probably recommend it for Jr. High students and up.

The Enemy by Charlie Higson

No one is really sure what caused it, but parents in London suddenly began to get sick.  Not only sick, but as the illness continued, these parents turned on their children and began to hunt them.  Children are forced to join together, but can they really outwit the zombie parents and survive this deadly illness?

Content Notes:

This book contains bad language including deity swear words.  This book would probably be rated PG-13 for the language.  The violence is pretty grotesque (zombies!) but it isn’t exceptionally graphic.  This book also does not contain any boy/girl relationship issues.

 Teacher Notes:

I was pretty pumped because up until probably half-way through there wasn’t any bad language!  That doesn’t happen very often with books any more.  Then the language started.  It wasn’t horrible, but I would not recommend this book to younger 6^th grade readers.  The book is also written in shifting points of view, so if your reader has trouble keeping up with characters, this may not be the best book for him or her.  There were a couple of times I had to go back to previous chapters to re-read in order to keep up with who was doing what.

The Vault of Dreamers by Caragh M. O'Brien

In a world where the only hope of receiving an education is through participation in a reality tv school, Rosie struggles to remain within the top 50 students who will make the cut to stay.  As Rosie struggles to remain, she uncovers a startling mystery about the school and what really occurs during the night. This discovery leads to a fight for her life as she tries to outwit the people in charge.

Content Notes:

The book mentions the word “sex” one time and is a vague reference to something that occurs in a rough part of the country.   

Teacher Notes:

I was able to read a pre-released copy of this book (it is scheduled to be published September 16, 2014).  I read another series by this author (Birthmarked) and while that is more Jr. High/High School appropriate, The Vault of Dreamers would be appropriate for middle school students and up.   This book was a little more Sci-Fi in nature and had an interesting cliff hanger twist at the end of the book.  I enjoyed it!

The Pearl Wars: Skyship Academy by Nick James

Set in the future, this action packed novel written by Nick James explores the possibilites of a world struggling to survive.  Following several wars, the earth has been divided into three factions, a ruthless surface government, the Skyship dwellers, and the Fringers.  The groups spend their time competing for Pearls, giant mysterious orbs fallling from space that are used as electricity.  When Jesse Fisher, a Skyship dweller, and Cassius Stevenson, a Surface operator, compete over an orb strange things begin to happen and they quickly discover that not everything in their world is exactly how it appears.

Content Notes:
There is some slight language and fighting in this text which would earn it a PG rating. 

Teacher Notes:
This book has a lexile level of 640.  Struggling readers may want to create Somebody Wanted But So summary statements for each chapter or create a summary picture book as they read to comprehend the text.

Similar Books:
I honestly haven't read anything exactly like this book!  Another mystery/dystopian book I would suggest is Ashes Ashes by Jo Treggiari.  Other space books would be the Star Wars series of books.