I have just finished two incredible books that are vastly different. The first one is Divergent by Veronica Roth. It is the first of a dystopian trilogy, we are introduced to Beatrice. She is Abnegation one of 5 factions that mankind must choose from in the future. Her faction is dedicated to selflessness, although she has a hard time being selfless. On her aptitude test she is told that she is Divergent, a dangerous thing to be. She is told to never tell anyone what she is. On her 16th birthday she chooses to join the Dauntless faction, which honours bravery. Here she takes a new name, Tris, and falls in love with her instructor. This is a great book if you love dystopian fiction! I found it very hard to put down once Tris switched factions, train jumping and all sots of daredevil stunts made my heart jump more than a little and I couldn't wait to find out what being divergent really meant.
The second book that I just finished was a heartbreaking story of Ambrose in Word Nerd. At the beginning of the book Ambrose is nearly killed by bullies when they slip a peanut into his sandwich as he is allergic. His overprotective mother then pulls him out of school and he does correspondence. This is fun for him for about 2 weeks and then he convinces his neighbor upstairs, who has recently been let out of prison, that they should join a Scrabble club. This book was excellent to read as a parent. I hope that I am not as overprotective as Ambrose' mother but then again I would probably not give my son a neon pink fanny pack to hold his Epi pen in. I really couldn't help but love the geeky unfiltered humor of Ambrose and have sympathy towards him when it came to his mother. I think that this is an excellent read and should be part of every school curriculum.