Uglies Book Review

 

           Uglies begins with Tally Youngblood waiting to turn sixteen. Tally's best friend, Peris,  has just been turned into a pretty, which is what they call you after you get a surgery that makes you supermodel beautiful. Tally, attempting to cheer herself up goes tricking, or pranking, in New Pretty Town, which is where you live right after you become pretty. While in New Pretty Town Tally meets another ugly, Shay, while trying not to get caught by the wardens. Shay and Tally become best friends and Shay reveals to Tally that she has had doubts about this "perfect" society and that she is running away to a breakaway community in the wilderness called The Smoke. After Shay runs away Tally turns sixteen, but is not allowed to become pretty until she finds the Smoke for the authorities, which are called Special Circumstances. Tally goes on a journey to find the Smoke and while there discovers that the bubble head, or pretty, operation gives you lesions in your brain to help keep you peaceful, under control, and from not destroying the environment. Tally attempts to destroy the tracker that Special Circumstances gave her by throwing it into a fire, but when she does, it sends a signal to the authorities that results in the Smoke being destroyed. Tally escapes the destruction of the Smoke, but after agreeing  to take part in an experiment by the Smokies to remove the lesions, becomes pretty.

           I think the theme of the book is that real beauty comes from creative thinking. Everyone in this book's society is "beautiful", but they are not really people that I would want to spend time with, since due to the lesions they all think basically the same. In Uglies, there is a society devoted to making everyone look similar, or the "morphological average". I think that the brain lesions are the author's exaggerated  way of saying that if everyone thinks the same, then there will be less different, dissident, and independent ways of thinking. The authorities in this book justify doing this to people because they say it is the only way to keep from destroying the environment again. I think that it is a good thing to leave nature untouched, but I also think that people deserve to think clearly.

           This book touches on many present day issues, with many people struggling with their self-esteem. Most media emphasizes the message that you have to look a certain way, dress a certain way, and if you don't do that you are a loser, an outcast. In this book the people are raised form birth to think that until they get the surgery they're ugly. Just the fact that they call themselves "uglys" shows that they have been conditioned to think that way. The uglys call each other nicknames based on negative aspects of their personal appearance like,"skinny", "pig eyes", and "fatty".  I think that instead of making everyone look the same so that no one gets picked on, we should instead help to change the collective attitude towards personal appearance.

           I think the reason this book appealed to me was because of the science fiction, the Orwellian aspect of the authorities, and the interesting version of utopia that it presents. I have always been interested in issues regarding the freedom of speech, so this book with its issues regarding the freedom of thinking really grabbed me. I would definitely recommend this book to other people, in fact after I read the first book I went out and read the other two books in the trilogy! I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys science fiction and anyone who likes a thought provoking and interesting read. I really enjoyed reading Uglies.         

I got this picture from here

Schooled Book Review

           

Schooled, by author Gordon Korman,  opens with Capricorn Anderson's hippie grandma falling out of a tree and breaking her hip. Capricorn, who has lived on a farm commune his entire life, is sent to live with a social worker who also grew up on that commune while his grandma is recuperating. While living with the social worker, Flora, Cap has to go to a regular middle school. The "popular" kids at this school have a cruel tradition of nominating the biggest nerd in the school for class president. Cap, who from the beginning at Claverage middle school stuck out from the rest of the kids, is nominated class president. The kids at Claverage though begin to like Cap for his views and personality. Cap turns out to be the greatest president the school has ever had, but when Cap attempts to stop a fight he gets punched in the face. At the end of that school day he gets in an ambulance to talk to his grandmother and to go back to Garland, their commune. The students don't see Cap after that, so subsequently, they think he's dead. Cap meanwhile, doesn’t know that he got the Halloween dance canceled, since he is back and isolated at his commune.  The students though, hold a candlelight vigil outside of the school in the parking lot on the evening of the Halloween  dance. Sophie, Flora's daughter, drives to the commune and picks up Cap to take him to the canceled Halloween dance. They both don't know that it's been canceled though, so they arrive in the midst of the vigil for Cap. Cap then climbs onto a truck and subsequently addresses every student in the school by name, showing that he has somehow memorized every student in the school's name. After Cap has returned to Garland his grandma decides to sell the place, which after sixty years is worth 17 million dollars, and start a charitable foundation.
            I think the theme of Schooled is that things about you can change but your values, ideals, and the way you treat people don't have to. In Schooled, Cap changes some things about himself, like the fact that he develops a love for T.V.  and that he now  enjoys being around other kids, but he doesn't change the way that he is always very nice and pleasant to other people. There is an example of that in the book when Capricorn is talking about his favorite show, Trigonometry and Tears which is a soap opera about high school.  The book says: "Rain said television was a vast wasteland that lowered our standards until we couldn't tell the difference between bad and good. I would never disagree with her, but I thought Trigonometry and Tears was fantastic". That passage from the book was Cap talking about his favorite show. There is also a passage from the book that I think is a good example of Cap being nice. He offers driving lessons to Sophie Donnelly even though she calls him stuff like "My Favorite Martian", "a passing hobo", and "freakazoid".
            There once was a time when I went to a weeklong overnight rock climbing camp in Vermont. While I was there I discovered that I really liked rock climbing, but  even though I didn't know anybody there I didn't decide to change my personality for that week to be a kid who swore a lot or a really hyper type of person.
            I think I enjoyed this book because of the weirdness of it. I liked how through all that the other kids at this school put him through Cap doesn’t emerge as jaded or cynical. He always maintain this trust of other people and he always expects the best out of others, no matter what they put him through. I also just plain liked the plot of the book. It was just fun and you want to keep reading just to find out what happens to Cap on the next page. I would totally recommend this book to my friends because I really enjoyed reading it. Anyone looking for a fun book and a good read should definitely consider this book.

link to another review here: http://www.kidzworld.com/article/14077-schooled-book-review