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Teen SRC 2022 – Life as We knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Written by Miriam Tang
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I would recommend the book Life as We Knew It written by Susan Beth Pfeffer because it is practical and heavy-hearted. The story begins with a meteor unexpectedly crashing onto the moon and knocking the moon closer to the earth. It might’ve seemed negligible, but according to the book, this caused tsunamis and floods, earthquakes, and volcanoes, which caused the ashes to block the sun. The blazing hot summer suddenly turned to Arctic winter, and people died from freezing temperatures, diseases and starvation. This horrific situation forces Miranda to grow up quickly to save her friends and family, and she inevitably discovers what is truly important in life. 

Most of the story was practical because of the procedures they took to survive this disaster, such as gathering as much food and supplies (candles and batteries), filling up the gas, chopping wood and restricting daily spending. This book is heavy-hearted because most of the story is depressing and despairing. The characters had to sacrifice a lot while struggling to physically and mentally keep going and survive to the very end. “Life as We Knew It” is told in a form of journal entries, and I found it a unique way to narrate the story. Since it’s told in a first-person perspective, it is easier to understand and “experience” the story. 

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Teen SRC 2022 – The Giver by Lois Lowry

Written by Ethan L
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The Giver, Book by Lois Lowry (Paperback) | www.chapters.indigo.ca

The Giver by Lois Lowry is about Jonas, a 12 year old boy, lives in a community of sameness. There is no pain, fear, conflict, or hatred, actually, there are no feelings in this society. Everyone basically looks and acts the same, they act as if they are robots sometimes. There is no things such as racism, discrimination, homophobia in this community. Everyone loses their individuality, but don’t question it because they don’t remember their life before moving into the community. In this place, they have ceremonies every December to celebrate the children’s birthday, and on their 12th ceremony, they get assigned a job. Jonas gets assigned to be the new receiver of memory, which is the only person in the society that has memories of things that don’t exist in the community. His trainer, the receiver before him, the giver, transfer memories to Jonas every training session. During their training, Jonas starts feeling feelings for the first time, and he thinks that the rest of the community should have these memories too. He also realizes that all the strict rules the society has enforced isn’t a good thing since it removes freedom from others.

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Teen SRC 2021 – The One by Kiera Cass

Written by Olivia X
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The One (The Selection, Book 3) eBook by Kiera Cass - 9780007581214 | Rakuten Kobo Ireland

At first I wasn’t particularly drawn to the entire The Selection series, because I had read some of the summaries online, and I just didn’t feel all that inclined to read about a bunch of princesses trying to win over a prince’s heart. I decided to give the general plot of The One by Kiera Cass the benefit of the doubt, though, and tried to convince myself that there would be other aspects of the books that I would like. Glad to say I was right about that!

First of all, even though I admit the plot does sound kind of ridiculous, Kiera does have a way of illustrating it and making it feel more real. I actually did enjoy the fantasy, some of the plot twists, and most definitely the romance. I like how you can slip into their world and kind of escape from reality when you are reading.

What did I hate? The characters. For the love of God, could you please give us some actual, decent characters who don’t have the classic “nobody-likes-me” mindset. It gets so annoying, and honestly just gets in the way of most of the other amazing stuff that is worth reading in the book. America’s attitude was just completely off, in my opinion, and the other characters had no personality.

I still feel rather disappointed by this book, but I am glad that there were at least a few things that I found enjoyable. I probably will get around to reading the other books, although I wouldn’t exactly say I’m excited for them; I’d say maybe a five out of 10 for this novel.

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Teen SRC 2021 – Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

Written by Olivia X
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Red Queen : Aveyard, Victoria: Amazon.ca: Books

Funny story: When I was around eight, I was strolling around at KidsBooks and found a book with an amazingly intricate cover design. I ended up buying it just for the cover.

Four years later, and I find it at the top of my closet collecting dust. I decided to do some research, and quickly came to realize that the book in my hands was the fourth book in Victoria Aveyard’s viral, best-selling series Red Queen.

I CANNOT BELIEVE I WAITED SO LONG TO START THIS SERIES. Red Queen was actually a book I won for the weekly teen summer reading, and gosh am I glad I read it. Writing style was on point, the “red and silver blood” thing is such a creative twist on real-world discrimination, and the ideas for the plot were simply mind-blowing. Even the covers give you something to cry about. 9/10; totally recommend and absolutely worth your time.

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