Kill Order by James Dashner

This prequel to The Maze Runner really had my attention. In fact I found it a more enjoyable read than the  original trilogy. It is set thirteen years prior to the cage landing in The Glade which introduced the reader to the original dystopian novel. I certainly feel closer to Mark and Alec than I did the majority of the characters in The Maze Runner with the exception of maybe Chuck because the main focus of the narration is for the major part on these two alone. Life in the solar flare-ridden pre-maze adventure beginning in the tunnels under  New York really draws the reader in. Mark, Trina and soldiers Alec and Lana survive a dismal existence in the city after the Sun Flares, and the ensuing tsunami  which leave them stranded in a sky scraper. After two weeks they endeavour to make their way to safer territory in the Appalacian Mountains of Northern Carolina. The novel is narrated on two levels, in that these first challenges and battles they face against the Sun Flares are interwoven as dreams relived by Mark within the present (one year on) where the main characters have to deal with the  ravages of the virus the Flare which has been released on the surviving population by an elite group playing God. The remaining world's population turns on itself and Alec and Mark must make some serious decisions and question their own humanity in order to survive and rescue friends. I look forward to Dashner's proposed novel which will provide the final link between this plot line and The Maze Runner triolgy

Hitler's Daughter by Jackie French

Mark, Anna, Ben and Little Tracey have a game they play each morning as they wait for the school bus; they make up stories. This time it's Anna's turn and she has an enthralling one to tell about Hitler's daughter, a daughter only a few select people in the Third Reich know about. Mark is particularly captivated with the story and Germany's dark history. But what is reality and what is imagination? It's difficult to tell until Anna reveals some startling news at the end of her two week narration. This book skips between the two stories, the one about the lives of the bus stop friends, and the one about Heidi, the unacknowledged daughter of Adolf Hitler, story set back in World War 11 Germany. It throws up many questions, like what it would be like to be a child of someone evil?  How can someone love someone who commits terrible crimes? This novel was first published in 1999 and has sold over 100, 000 copies in Australia alone. It has also received a lot of critical acclaim in many countries and it would be great if every upper primary student had the opportunity to read this book.