Jonas' world is perfect. Everything is under control. There is no war or fear of pain. There are no choices. Every person is assigned a role in the community. When Jonas turns 12 he is singled out to receive special training from The Giver. The Giver alone holds the memories of the true pain and pleasure of life. Now, it is time for Jonas to receive the truth. There is no turning back.

"How could someone not fit in? The community was so meticulously ordered, the choices so carefully

made."

Understanding The Giver

"Chilling and engrossing" -The New York Times Book Review

"The sheer authenticity of the novel and its presentation are disquieting - and totally riveting" -Boston Globe -Horn Book

"A riveting courtroom drama that will leave a powerful, haunting impression on young minds." -Publishers Weekly

The Hunger Games is set in an unspecified future time when things have gone pretty spectacularly badly for humanity. The world, or the bit of it we can see, is dominated by a ruling caste who live in luxury in a city called the Capitol. The rest of us live like peasants in 12 districts that are strictly cordoned off from the Capitol and one another. Life in the districts sucks: it's mostly hard labor--mining coal and farming and working in factories--in dismal conditions.

To make things even dismaler, once a year each district is required to give up two of its children, chosen by lottery, and enter them in the Hunger Games. The kids are dropped into an enormous arena strewn with traps and hazards, with a heap of weapons and supplies in the middle. The last child alive wins a lifetime of luxury and celebrity. The action is filmed and broadcast to the entire world.

Try the book…

Because I CAN’T wait for the movie

Jason Blake is an autistic 12-year-old living in a neuro-typical world. Most days it's just a matter of time before something goes wrong. But Jason finds a glimmer of understanding when he comes across PhoenixBird, who posts stories to the same online site as he does.

The Very Ordered Existence of Merilee Monroe

“There’s a thin line between genius and bottom-barrel stupidness. I hover delicately on a tightrope between

the two, wondering where I’ll land if I ever fall.”

Merilee has no friends, but during the first chapter of the story, she meets a boy named Biswick O’Connor who is somewhat the same as her, but whom she can’t really be friends with, because of her Very Ordered Existence, or VOE. Biswick wants to be friends with Merilee, much to her chagrin (she does not want to show it in such a mean way).