April Books

It is now the middle of May and I realized that I hadn't posted April's books, oops.  Anyways, it wasn't a huge month for books.  I did enjoy several that I read, I was however stuck on one book for much of the month.  I was reading The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley, and while I didn't love the story it was okay, I just couldn't get myself to pick it up.  As I was supposed to be reading that for Book Club, I put off reading other things.  


Gathering Blue
240
Lois Lowry

Messenger
176
Lois Lowry

I read The Giver many years ago and really liked it.  It wasn't until a few years ago that I heard there were sequels to the story.  I put them on my Amazon wish list a long time ago, but didn't get around to ordering them until this past December.  When I finally read them, I enjoyed them.  I was expecting them to be more sequels than they were though.  They didn't seem to tie into The Giver, but they did into one another.

As for what they are about, well they are your standard dystopian story.  In the future when the world has destroyed itself the people must once again grow a society.  In this particular society some of the people have special talents and those talents are exploited by others.

The Declaration
Gemma Malley
320
The Resistance
336
Gemma Malley

Again these were set in the dystopian future.  What would you give to be able to live forever?  In the future Longevity has been invented and it allows you to do just that.  The only problem with loving forever, eventually you have too many people alive on the planet.  The solution, makes those who take the drug sign a declaration that they will never reproduce.  The story focuses on a girl that is a surplus, a child born to those that were not supposed to have kids.  She lives in a home and is always told what a drain she is on society.  When she eventually gets out she learns what life is really like.

I really liked these stories and hope the author finishes it up soon.  I read them a while ago, but I am pretty sure they were clean reads.

Half Brother
384
Kenneth Oppel
This was not set in a dystopian world, yes I do occasionally read ones that aren't.  Rather this was set in the '70's and is the story a boy with two scientist parents who are out to prove that chimps can learn language.  They decide to raise a chimp as a member of their family and try to teach him to communicate.  The boy is initially reluctant to accept this idea, but the chimp grows on him and he does come to love him as a brother. 

I thought this was a fun read.  I liked the ideas it presented along the lines of what makes us human.  Does our ability to verbalize make us a person, to love, to think, to share?!?  A relatively clean story with a bit of teenage boy growing-up-isms, I think a few minor swear words as well.

The Sky Inside
229
Clare B. Dunkle
Again a dystopian novel of a world inside of a dome.  If you leave the dome you will die.  That is what our protagonist has always been taught.  However, his sister, who was a wonderkid (apparently all children come from the Stork, a rail car that brings them in) has been recalled as being too instable, the kids were too smart and were questioning the world.  Well when his sister is taken away, he decides that he must save her, and he will brave the outside to do so.

I liked the innocence of the kid and his willingness to give everything of himself to his sisters safety.  It was particularly funny as he is outside for the first time and receives a sunburn, when it blisters and peels he thinks his skin is falling off and he is dying, just as they always told him he would.  Also a clean story.

Total Pages for April: 1685
Total for 2011: 11113