Midnighters 1: The Secret Hour

Bibliographic Info

Title: Midnighters 1: The Secret Hour

Author: Scott Westerfeld

Publisher: Harper Teen

Publication Date: 2004

ISBN: 978-0060519513

Plot Summary

Jessica Day has just moved from Chicago to the small town of Bixby, Oklahoma.  At first, Jessica is mainly concerned with fitting into her new high school – not sticking out, making friends, but soon she discovers that Bixby’s different.  She starts waking up at exactly midnight to a frozen blue world that belongs to her and four other teens, plus a horde of ancient monsters that seem to have it out for her.

In order to protect herself, and to understand the unusual behavior of the midnight hour monsters, the Midnighters seek to find Jessica’s place in the secret hour.  What they discover spells Jessica’s salvation and the doom of any monsters who cross her path.

Critical Evaluation

The book is captivating as readers seek to unravel the mysteries of this secret hour along with the characters who are trying to make sense of their world.  The world that Westerfeld creates is sometimes marvelous, sometimes terrifying, but is utterly unique and well established.

Reader’s Annotation

Like a dream where you wake up to find yourself in a world similar to your own, but somehow different, and something dark chases you, Midnighters 1: The Secret Hour, takes you on a journey to an alternate reality.  For the characters of the story, however, there is no escape in waking from the midnight hour.

Author Info

Scott Westerfeld is an author of adult and young adult fiction.  He was born in 1963 in Dallas, Texas.  He has held jobs as a textbook editor, substitute teacher, computer programmer, and factory worker.

Scott Westerfeld and his wife Justin e Larbalestier (also a writer) live in New York City and Sydney Australia.  He enjoys Mexican and Thai food and never wears jeans.  Never!

Westerfeld, S. (2011, March 11). Westerblog. Retrieved April 14, 2010, from http://scottwesterfeld.com/blog/

Genre

Fantasy

Curriculum Ties

None

Book Talking Ideas

What if you woke up in a strange world, much like your own, only none of the things you know can protect you from an ancient evil that has it out for you.

In Jessica Day’s new world, she must rely on four strangers to explain the mysteries of the midnight hour, and to save her from the monsters of the night.

Reading Level

12+

Challenge Issues

Some elements, especially weapons, resemble magic

Challenge Responses

Active listening

Refer to library’s collection policy

Provide complaint form

Refer to book reviews

Selection

Introduced through class author/genre study.

Pretties

Bibliographic Info

Title: Pretties

Author: Scott Westerfeld

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Publication Date: 2005

ISBN: 978-0689865398

Plot Summary

In Pretties, the sequel to Uglies, Tally has just received the operation to make her pretty.  Life is all that it should be.  She’s beautiful and popular and even meets a boy, Zane, who is both gorgeous and the leader of a popular clique.  The only problem is, Tally keeps saying the wrong thing.  She’s almost grim when she ought to be “bubbly.”  She also has strange, confusing half-memories of her time in the Smoke, the settlement she lived in while she was rescuing her friend Shay.  With Zane’s help, Tally begins to unravel the confusion and remember the truth of her pre-pretty experiences.

After she connects with a friend from the Smoke and discovers a note dictated by the unlikeliest of all people – herself, she has to make a fast decision to trust the note and take some mystery pills, or not.  What she decides means that she and Zane have got to get out of their city, to escape the tight grasp of the authorities, and more urgently, to save Zane’s life.

Critical Evaluation

This sequel to Uglies is every bit as fast-paced and exciting as the first book.  Tally’s character responds appropriately to the dazzle of graduating to a world where everything is fun, everyone is beautiful, and her brain has been altered to fog over anything but delight.  Still, her natural character peeks through at all the right moments.  The world of Pretties is amazing, but the story never weighs down in the elements of cool.  Instead it is propelled forward by a compelling plot.

Reader’s Annotation

Tally Youngblood is finally pretty, but something inside her won’t just let the champagne and parties dull her mind.  When she meets Zane, she is no longer alone in her feeling that there are frivolous excesses in the pretty world and confusing memory gaps within herself.  Together, they must escape the city to find answers, and to save Zane’s life.

Author Info

Scott Westerfeld is an author of adult and young adult fiction.  He was born in 1963 in Dallas, Texas.  He has held jobs as a textbook editor, substitute teacher, computer programmer, and factory worker.

Scott Westerfeld and his wife Justine Larbalestier (also a writer) live in New York City and Sydney Australia.  Westerfeld enjoys Mexican and Thai food and never wears jeans.  Never!

Westerfeld, S. (2011, March 11). Westerblog. Retrieved April 14, 2010, from http://scottwesterfeld.com/blog/.

Genre

Science Fiction

Curriculum Ties

Political Science

Philosophy

Book Talking Ideas

Imagine yourself at the best party among the coolest kids you’ve ever met, but for some reason, you’re not having the time of your life.

Reading Level

12+

Challenge Issues

Self-inflicted starvation

Self-mutilation

Challenge Responses

Active listening

Refer to library’s collection policy

Provide complaint form

Refer to book reviews

Selection

Sequel to ALA Best Book Uglies.

Uglies

Bibliographic Info

Title:  Uglies

Author:  Scott Westerfeld

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Publication Date:  2005

ISBN:  9780689865381

Plot Summary

Tally stares out of her window in Uglyville to the party towers, tethered hot air balloons, and fireworks in New Pretty Town.  With only three months left until her 16^th birthday, all she can do is wait until that day when she’ll be surgically stretched and shrunk in all the right places, her face transformed into whatever gloriously beautiful design the Pretty Committee chooses.  Only then will she join her best friend Peris and the party in New Pretty Town.  It’s what she’s been waiting for for forever.

When Tally meets fellow ugly, Shay, life is bearable again.  Shay teaches Tally to hoverboard, and the two come up with clever pranks to pass the time.  At least Tally’s passing the time.  More than once Shay talks about not wanting the operation to turn pretty.  Somehow she’s content with the way she and Tally look as uglies.  She also talks about a mysterious guy who she can supposedly summon in the Rusty Ruins, a ruined city from the days when people carelessly destroyed nature, each other, and finally themselves.  Just before the two are set to turn sixteen and pretty, Shay springs something major on Tally – there’s a group of people living out in the wilderness who never turn pretty and Shay’s running away to join them.  She wants Tally to come too.

Tally stays behind with only a cryptic note telling her where her friend has gone.  Then, on the day when it’s all set to end – the confusion over letting Shay disappear into the wild by herself, the longing for her best friend Peris, the waiting to turn pretty – the authorities inform Tally that she’ll either follow Shay’s note to uncover a troublesome group of renegades, or Tally will stay ugly forever.  Her decision leads her on a journey that changes everything, inside and out.

Critical Evaluation

Uglies stars out as a journey into a fantastical futuristic world of floating cars, hovering bridges, and goods that appear out of a hole in the wall and recycle themselves into dust just as quickly.  It’s a world of flawless beauty and absolutely carefree lifestyles.

As the story progresses, the dark side of this carefree life starts to show.  The story leaves readers questioning how much freedom people are willing to hand over in favor of comfort and ease.  It also shows the power of manipulation that makes people give up everything – their appearance, their interests, their certainties, in order to be normal.

Reader’s Annotation

What would you give up to join a world of ultimate perfection?

Author Info

Scott Westerfeld is an author of adult and young adult fiction.  He was born in 1963 in Dallas, Texas.  He has held jobs as a textbook editor, substitute teacher, computer programmer, and factory worker.

Scott Westerfeld and his wife Justin e Larbalestier (also a writer) live in New York City and Sydney Australia.  He enjoys Mexican and Thai food and never wears jeans.  Never!

Westerfeld, S. (2011, March 11). Westerblog. Retrieved April 14, 2010, from http://scottwesterfeld.com/blog/

Genre

Science Fiction

Curriculum Ties

Environmental Science

Philosophy

Book Talking Ideas

Discuss:  How much do you think the media influences your idea of pretty?

Reading Level

12 and up.

Challenge Issues

Drinking, alludes to casual sexual encounters.

Challenge Responses

Active listening

Refer to library’s collection policy

Provide complaint form

Refer to book reviews

Selection

Noted as an ALA Best Book for Young Adults in 2006.