Divergent by Veronica Roth

If you enjoyed The Hunger Games series, you will most likey enjoy this dystopian debut novel by Veronica Roth and the three other books which make up the set in a post-apocalyptic version of Chicago. The story is told through the eyes of sixteen year old Beatrice Prior as she tries to find out who she really is in a society that defines its inhabitants by their personality-related affiliation to five different factions. There is Candor, Erudite, Abnegation, Amity and Dauntless. At age sixteen all adolescents must attend the Choosing Ceremony and select their faction. This will be their faction for life unless they are rejected and exiled to the poverty stricken sector of the factionless.  For Tris (Beatrice), her choice means leaving the relative safety of the Abnegation faction to join the Dauntless, one where traits of strength, courage, ruthlessness and recklessness are actively encouraged. During the rigorous initiation process, she meets and becomes close to Four, who endeavours to look after her despite her determination to forge her own future. If anyone discovers that Tris is in fact a a rare personality type known as "divergent" she faces possible death or the the very least expulsion from the faction.  The following video of author Veronica Roth discussing this book is well worth viewing. All four books are available for borrowing from The Little Library of Rescued Books.  What faction would you choose if you had to? Watch out for Jeanine, the malevolent presence and purveyor of others' lives in the first two books. She's the character you love to hate...along with the big bombastic initiate Molly endeavouring to win a position of dominance in the Dauntless faction. Peter's no angel either.

My Teacher is an Alien by Bruce Coville

My Teacher is an Alien is one of a four-book science fiction series by Bruce Coville. I found this delightful little read in an Ulverstone second hand bookshop during my reminiscent visit back to my hometown after nearly thirty year absence. It will look great on my desk on the first day of third term. It is essentially about three children: Peter Thompson who is somewhat of a nerdy character, Susan Simmons, who is a bit of a drama queen, and bully boy Duncan Douglas. Susan is not happy to arrive back at school after the spring holidays to discover that her favourite teacher, Ms Schwartz, is mysteriously absent and  has been replaced by Mr Smith to whom she takes an instant dislike. After finishing a maths test early Susan decides to write a nasty note about Mr Smith to her friend Stacy, but unfortunately Mr Smith collects it when he is gathering up the tests. Anxious to retrieve the note before he reads it, Susan follows him to his house and that's when she discovers that he is not all is cracked up to be, and could in fact be planning a world invasion. This is also the stage in which I discover the description of the alien in the book does not match the cover on this Lion's edition:

"His enormous orange eyes slanted up and away from his nose like a pair of butterfly wings. A series of muscular looking ridges stretched from his eyes down to his lipless mouth...He smiled at himself in the mirror showing two rows of rounded purplish teeth." 

This cover is probably closer to the mark:

or this French edition which was on track with the eyes:

Anyway, it's still all good fun and a great read. To learn more about the author visit this site; it's worth a look:

http://www.brucecoville.com/