05.15.08
We Have a Winner!
Congratulations to author Scott Westerfeld! His exciting and thought-provoking book Uglies has been chosen as the winner of the Florida Teens Read Award for 2007-2008. Over 1,300 of you voted for your favorites from the list of titles below. Just in case you didn’t know, Uglies is the first in a trilogy plus one. Be sure to read Pretties, Specials and Extras, too.
A new list of 15 books has been released for Florida Teens Read 2008-2009. If you’d like to read some great books this summer, go to http://www.floridamedia.org/ which is the web page for the Florida Association for Media in Education (FAME). Click on Florida Teens Read–Current Titles to read about the new titles. A new blog site will be posted in August with more thought questions and a place for you to talk about what you’ve read with other Brevard teens.
BaileyEJHS said,
May 20, 2008 at 8:29 pm
Consider how much importance we place upon appearance. Is our society heading toward a future like the one Tally lives in?
Currently, the American society is based off of appearance and possessions. Almost every teenager has a cell phone, a computer, or an ipod( or mp3 player), while there are children in other countries who can’t even get their hands on food. Every day, teenagers struggle to pick out the best clothes, have the best shoes, and pile on pounds of makeup, when kids are dying of hypothermia in third world countries. The basis of society is conformity, not personality or depth. Presently, America is drawing away from the very foundation it was formed on: Individuality. Western civilization has the chilling potential to turn into a society like Tally’s in Uglies. Everyone struggles to be tan and skinny. With more people getting plastic surgery everyday, America has the possibility to turn into a society of Littlies, Uglies, Pretties, Middle Pretties, and Crumblies. Although the thought of a communistic, dictated society is very alarming, it will never happen in our generation. Thanks to the structure of the government, drastic requirements and rules can not be imposed on society, if they do not abide by the constitution, and pass through a system of checks and balances. I believe the change could even happen generations after our children, even though the Earth isn’t expected to last that long. Ugglies is very similar to The Giver. In both stories, the main characters find out about rebel societies, that do not conform. Hopefully there will always be that alternative, due to human nature, if the phenomenon occurs to our society.