The Forest of Hands and Teeth

by Carrie Ryan

Summary:
Mary has lived her entire life in a village surrounded by forest. A forest she has never set foot in. A forest overrun by the Unconsecrated. But then the Unconsecrated finally break through the wall protecting her village, and only she and a few others escape into a protected passageway that goes through the forest. Now they are forced to move forward, to see if anyone else has survived the return which turned so many people into the undead. But the forest of hands and teeth hides many secrets, and few will survive learning them.

Review:
I am not a huge zombie book fan, and for whatever reason didn't know this book was about zombies when I started it. That said it also took me about half the book to realize the Unconsecrated were zombies. The book uses them as peripheral characters, though ones who have a constant impact on the actions of Mary and the rest. It's very well written, and definitely a great read for teens looking for a not typical series. The second two books were great as well!

Genre: Zombie Fiction
Age Level: 8th Grade

Revolver

by Marcus Sedgwick

Summary:
When Sig finds his father dead on the ice, he thinks that things can't possibly get worse.  They, along with his sister and stepmother, have lived a hard life in the Artic Circle, though they have always been lucky his father has been able to find work as a surveyor wherever they have been.  But he is about to find out that even the dead keep deadly secrets.

Review:
Revolver is told though Sig's perspective as he struggles not only to deal with the death of his father but with the accusations of a man who has hunted them, unknown to Sig and his sister, since the death of their mother 10 years ago.  It weaves a realistic tale of the harsh Artic life that many life with a story of survival.  It is well written, though the end is a little preachy when Sig decides not to shoot the man himself.  A good read for boys especially. 

Genre: Historical Fiction
Age Level: 7-8th Grade

Alabama Moon

Alabama Moon

Author: Watt Key

Publisher: New York : Farrar Straus Giroux, 2006.

Plot Description:

This book follows Moon, a young boy who was raised in the forest’s of Florida by his father.  When his father dies, he is faced with deciding whether or not to keep to the codes his father taught him –to distrust people and the government and to keep living in the forest on his own- or to learn to embrace the outside world he has had little contact with.  Along the way he learns that while there is both good and bad people and events in the outside world, the relationships he makes along the way are what make life worth living.

Review:

I thought that this book was extremely well written.  It is believably told from a 10 year olds point of view, albeit a very mature 10 year old in terms of survival skills and his own thought process.  The ways in which he learns to deal with loss and confronts a way of life that he has only glimpsed would be interesting to anyone.  I think that it is an excellently told story of the ways in which we must adapt to changing situations and learn to confront that what we have been taught is not always correct.

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Reading level: 6^th Grade

Similar Books: Hatchet

Reader’s Advisory:

Subjects/themes- survival, wilderness, loss, death, father-son relationships

Awards- CA Young Readers Award 2010

Character names/descriptions-

            Moon- Young orphan who grew up in the woods

            Kit- Friend Moon makes at boys facility who runs away with Moon for the adventure of a 

                    lifetime

            Hal- Bully at the boys facility who Moon befriends

            Wellington- Rich lawyer who builds a huge property in the woods near Moon’s house

            Sanders- The local constable who will stop at nothing to get Moon to jail

Annotation- A young boy learns to survive in the world after growing up in the wilderness.