Some kids are identified by their parent's profession: the preacher's kid, the doctor's kid, the principal's kid, the mayor's kid. Jazz is defined by his father's profession: serial killer. Billy Dent is the most notorious super-serial, claiming 123 victims in his decades long spree. Worse than being the serial killer's kid was that every day was take-your-kid-to-work day for Billy. Jazz learned how to separate a hand from it's fingers, how to stalk a victim, and how to commit the perfect crime without getting caught.
Sawyer's life has been all planned out by his parents: attend their alma mater, become an insurance actuary, and ever do anything interesting...ever. And he has complacently followed their plan for years, dating Zoe because they like her, working at the ice cream store owned by a family friend, taking all honors classes...until he meets Grace. Grace is different from anyone he has ever met. She breaks the rules, and she makes him want to break them too. It starts harmlessly enough, helping her steal a model UN treaty (come on it is Model UN!) but becomes a slippery slope.
Did that title catch your eye? Elvie's dreams of becoming an engineer on a new Mars colony get complicated when she finds herself knocked up the night before her PSAT. Cole, the dreamy new transfer student from Wisconsin, and father of the child, disappears the day after she tells him. Left on her own with only her emergency-prepared father, and quirky best friend Ducky, Elvie enrolls at the Hanover School for Expecting Teen Mothers. Aboard a renovated cruise-liner, Elvie awaits the arrival of 'the goober', and continues to dream of Mars.
One of my favorite books of all time is Unwind by Neal Shusterman. The epic story takes place after a second civil war, fought over the morality and legality of abortion leads to peace through the Unwind Accords. This agreement outlaws abortion...however, from the ages of 13 to 18 any child may be unwound by their parents.
Ismae is saved from a marriage to an abusive pig farmer by The Convent of Mortain, devoted to serving the god of Death and carrying out his wishes. She is taught how to kill with her hands, a variety of weapons, and most importantly, poisons. When her second assassination goes wrong and her true purpose is discovered, she is sent to court as the escort to Gavriel Duval, an aloof and distant Breton noble to protect Anne, Duchess of Brittany. Duval and Ismae form an uneasy alliance, neither trusting the other, in an attempt to discover those that plot against Anne and Brittany.
Hazel has been hovering on brink of death for over 2 years. At 12 she was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and just when all was lost she was entered into a drug trial which holds the cancer at bay, never curing her, but keeping it from killing her. But she knows her time is limited. Because of the disease she cannot go to school and mostly sits around the house reading and watching America's Next Top Model.
I am not exactly a huge football fan...ok so about the only reason I will attend a football game is to watch the marching band. However, there is one book that has gotten me more than a little interested in the sport, Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock.
Beatrice has grown up in post-apocalyptic Chicago, where the community is divided into 5 factions, each focused on a different value. Candor values honest, Amity values happiness, Erudite values information, Dauntless values courage and Beatrice's faction, Abnegation values selflessness. But Beatrice isn't a very good member of Abnegation, selflessness doesn't seem to come naturally to her like it does for her brother Caleb or her mother. At 16, every member of the community undergoes the test to find out what faction they will choose to live in as an adult.
