An Abundance of Katherines

Green, John. An Abundance of Katherines. New York, NY: Dutton, 2006. 

Intended Audience: Ages 13 and older

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Personal Reaction: I read An Abundance of Katherines shortly after reading The Fault in Our Stars and while I loved the story, it did not elicit the emotional turmoil of the Hazel Grace and Augustus.  Colin, a child prodigy, has his heart broken by the nineteenth girl named Katherine, not Catherine, not Katharine, but Katherine.  While he hadn't intentionally dated nineteen girls of the same name, somehow he did and after having his heart broken so many times his best friend Hassan decides to take him on a road trip to get over his breakup. 

On their trip Colin attempts to create an equation to predict relationships and their chance of success.  Both he and Hassan find themselves in the middle of Gunshot, Tennessee and get jobs working to document the lives of residents.  They make friends with Lindsay, Katrina and the other Colin (TOC) and reinvent themselves along the way.  

Author Facts: John Green has a brother named Hank he began communicating with with via videoblogs on YouTube in 2007.  This started a group of nerdfighters who seek to fight for intellectualism and decrease worldwide suck, as well as raising money to help fight poverty.  In school Green was often nerdy and wished to be popular, though never managed to succeed at.  Instead he read a lot, spend a lot of time alone and listened to people's conversations.  

Author Website: http://johngreenbooks.com/

The Maze Runner

Dashner, J. (2009). The Maze Runner. New York, NY: Delacorte Press.

Genre: Science Fiction/Dystopia

Intended Audience:  Ages 13+

Personal Reaction: When I saw The Maze Runner was on the list of required reading for my class I was quite excited.  I found myself drawn into the characters and setting, unsure, as Thomas what exactly was happening.  This was a fast-paced novel with likable characters.

As a general rule I aim to not watch the movie before the book, however, I failed to do so with The Maze Runner.  Therefore, many of my reactions are in relation to how it compared to the film adaptation.  I was annoyed at how the adaptation changed the maze to not having an exit, to having one and Alby not wanting to give the Gladers hope.  In addition to changing the maze, they lacked the telepathic communication between Teresa and Thomas, taking away from the depth of their relationship. As usual, I found the book to be better than the film version, and was quite impressed with the storyline Dashner gave.

Author Facts: James Dashner began his career in accounting and later decided to become an author, he does not miss the numbers game and now writes full-time. He lives with his wife and four children and watches movies when he doesn't know what to write about. He now believes he has the best job in the world and is the luckiest guy on the planet. 

Author Website: http://jamesdashner.com/