Impossible by Nancy Werlin.

Released September 2008.

Lucy is a normal teen, heading out to her prom, as long as she can ignore her mad birth mother, who is homeless and every so often returns to shout warnings at Lucy.  Lucy tries to protect her adoptive parents and her friends from her birth mother, but in doing so doesn’t hear the warnings in time.  Lucy comes from a long line of women, cursed for generations by an evil being.  At age 18, they are all pregnant with daughters and forced to try to undo the curse.  They have all tried alone until Lucy, who has a family who loves her and a boy who will fight along side her.

Werlin has crafted a novel filled with twists and turns, stomach wrenching surprises, and a timelessness but modern feel.  Lucy is a great female character who displays a winning innocence but amazing strength as well.  The adults in the story are also well portrayed with their own worries, lives and issues as they face the curse along with their daughter.  The book has deft pacing too, which works well along with the story, sometimes dashing headlong and alarmed and other times seeming as if there is all the time in the world. 

Werlin has created another book that teens will love to immerse themselves in.  Highly recommended for fans of fantasy, but it will also appeal to teens who don’t usually read that genre.  Appropriate for ages 14-17.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

Released October 2008.

If there was one book I really wanted to get my hands on at ALA, this was it.  Scholastic was only giving them out for a limited time at their booth when Suzanne Collins was signing, which didn’t work with my schedule.  I left disheartened, but then my husband surprised me with a signed copy!  Definitely worth cutting his session short for!  And now, I will actually let him read it too.  Aren’t I sweet?

Anyway, back to the book. 

Katniss regularly escapes the Seam by going outside the fence and into the forest to hunt.  She is great at using a bow and at trapping.  Using this skill, she keeps her mother and younger sister fed.  Every year, two names are drawn from each region of the country to join the Hunger Games.  This isn’t an honor, it’s a death sentence, because the youth who are selected are forced to fight to the death in a unique arena run by the government.  At the selection, Katniss’ younger sister is selected and Katniss offers herself instead.  Now she must leave everything she knows behind and head to the Capitol, a place where people live in luxury and the Hunger Games are entertainment.  Katniss must package herself to be interesting and worthy of investment if she is to find sponsors who will help keep her alive.  So the games begin even before the arena.

I adored Collins’ Gregor series, and consider it one of the best fantasy series for preteens that is out there.  This new series is a natural extension of Gregor.  It is even darker, more political, and more haunting.  As in Gregor, Collins’ characters are filled with flaws, face impossible decisions, and remain true to themselves.  They are gutsy characters who rebel and refuse to be trodden upon.  In short, they are a joy to read. 

Collins’ world building here is very well done as well.  Dystopian societies in books for teens can be disappointing, but Collins knows just how much detail to offer to make it fascinating and leave you wanting to know just a little more.  Best of all, her details fit together like puzzle pieces as you discover them.  Perfection.

Highly recommended, this is a contender for the best science fiction for teens this year.  A perfect book for booktalking to middle school audiences.