Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham

"All the reality of a vividly realised nightmare." The Times

"When a day that you happen to know is Wednesday starts off sounding like Sunday, there is something seriously wrong somewhere."

"Triffids" are tall plants capable of aggressive and seemingly intelligent behaviour. They are able to move about on their three "legs", appear to communicate with each other, and possess a deadly whip-like poisonous sting that enables them to kill and feed on the rotting carcasses of their victims.

The Day of the Triffids begins with Bill Masen in hospital, his eyes bandaged after having been splashed with droplets of triffid venom in a lab accident. During his convalescence he is told of the unexpected and beautiful green meteor shower that the entire world is watching. He awakes the next morning to a silent hospital and learns that the light from the unusual display has rendered any who watched it completely blind.

After unbandaging his eyes, he wanders through an anarchic London full of almost entirely sightless inhabitants, and witnesses civilization collapsing around him.

He meets some other sighted survivors and they decide to leave London and start a colony in the countryside...

The Day of the Triffids, Wyndham's first significant novel, has been permanently in print since its publication in 1951, and remains one of his most widely-read and highly acclaimed works.

To read a short biography of John Wyndham, click on the link below:

http://ds.dial.pipex.com/l.j.hurst/jwyndham.htm

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

'..fiction for teen readers that does more than deliver pulse-pounding adventure but also forces introspection into the way we perceive ourselves and others ' The Trades Book Review

Tally lives in a world where your sixteenth birthday brings aesthetic perfection: an operation which erases all your flaws, transforming you from an 'Ugly' into a 'Pretty'. She is on the eve of this important event, and cannot wait for her life to change. As well as guaranteeing supermodel looks, life as a Pretty seems to revolve around having a good time. But then she meets Shay, who is also fifteen - but with a very different outlook on life. Shay isn't sure she wants to be Pretty and plans to escape to a community in the forest - the Rusty Ruins - where Uglies go to escape ' turning'. What Tally finds out in the Rusty Ruins will change her life... This is the first book in a quartet. The other titles are Pretties, Speacials and Extras.

To visit Scott Westerfeld's website and find out how he came to write his dystopian novel, click http://scottwesterfeld.com/blog/

Noughts And Crosses by Malorie Blackman

'Against a background of prejudice and distrust, intensely highlighted by violent terrorist activity by Noughts, a romance builds between Sephy and Callum – a romance that is to lead both of them into terrible danger…'

Callum is a nought – a second-class citizen in a world run by the ruling Crosses…

Sephy is a Cross, daughter of one of the most powerful men in the country…

In their world, noughts and Crosses simply don’t mix. And as hostility turns to violence, can Callum and Sephy possibly find a way to be together? They are determined to try.
And then the bomb explodes…
A gripping, stimulating and totally absorbing novel set in a world where black and white are right and wrong.

Malorie Blackman is a fine, award-winning author whose work is always inclined to provoke debate amongst her readers, and indeed her peers. With Noughts and Crosses she surpasses expectation not only with her subject matter, but with the execution of a stimulating and provocative plot line that often leaves the reader chilled to the bone.

Sephy and Callum have been best friends since childhood, and now they are older and they realise they want more from each other. But the harsh realities of lives lived in a segregated society are beginning to take their toll: Callum is a nought--a second-class citizen in a world dominated by the Crosses--and Sephy is a Cross, and the daughter of one of the most powerful men in the country. The barriers they would have to cross to be together at first seem little more than minor obstacles to the two idealistic teenagers, but soon those barriers threaten not only their friendship but their lives.
 
Noughts and Crosses is written with the passion of an author who has a personal message about the perception of the past, present and future, and Blackman has used the clever device of turning preconceived ideas of racial prejudice upside down to make sure that her point is well and truly made. Deeply disturbing and totally absorbing this novel is intriguing from the outset, with a shocking climax that packs an unforgettable punch. Susan Harrison

Malorie Blackman: Developing negatives - Click here to read the novelist talk to Alison Flood about turning racism upside down in her Noughts and Crosses novels...

About the Author

Malorie Blackman was born in 1962. She qualified in Computer Science and followed a successful career in computing, before becoming a writer at the age of 28. Her first published book was Not So Stupid! (1990), a book of short stories.

Since then she has written many books and scripts, and her popularity has steadily grown. Her scripts for television include several episodes of Byker Grove, Whizziwig and Pig-Heart Boy, and she has also written original dramas for CITV and BBC Education. Her stage play, The Amazing Birthday, was performed in 2002.

She writes for all ages of children. Her picture books include I Want a Cuddle! (2001) and Jessica Strange (2002) and she has written many reader books for early and more confident readers. Her novels include: Hacker (1992); the story of Vicky, who saves her father from being wrongly convicted of stealing from the bank after hacking into the bank’s computer to solve the crime herself; Thief! (1995), about a child who is transported into the future after being accused of a crime she did not commit; and Pig-Heart Boy (1997), the diary of 13-year-old Cameron, who needs a heart transplant. The latter book and its subsequent adaptation as a series for television won several awards, including a BAFTA for best children’s drama in 2000.

Malorie Blackman's most well-known books for young adults are: Noughts & Crosses (2001); Knife Edge (2004); and Checkmate (2005) – which form the Noughts & Crosses Trilogy, the tale of two teenagers, Callum and Sephy.  In 2004, she also wrote a novel entirely in verse, Cloud Busting (2004), which won a Nestlé Smarties Book Prize (Silver Award) the same year.

Malorie Blackman lives in Kent. In 2007 she collected stories and poems for the book Unheard Voices, commemorating the bicentenary anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade. Her latest books are The Stuff of Nightmares (2007) and Double Cross (2008). She was awarded an OBE in 2008.

She has recently contributed to Free? (2009), a book of stories celebrating Human Rights.

Find out more about the Author by visiting her website here...

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Nominated for the Booker Prize and one of Mr Jenkins' favourite novelists...

'A story of love, friendship and memory, Never Let Me Go is charged throughout with a sense of the fragility of life.'

When an unorthodox teacher breaks ranks and spells the truth out to her bemused charges, we are not entirely surprised....

'You were brought into this world for a purpose, and your futures, all of them, have been decided.'

From the very first page of this thrilling dystopian vision, hints have been dropped that the pupils of Hailsham, an exclusive boarding school, are not ordinary children. There is, primarily, the way that the novel's narrator, Kathy H, who is now 31, peppers her story with unexpected and incongruous vocabulary: who are the 'donors' for whom she is a 'carer', and what does it mean when they 'complete'? Why is Kathy so proud of her meagre trappings of independence - a bedsit and car - and so alert to the jealousy they might inspire in others?

As Kathy's reminiscences of her schooldays unfold, and we learn more of her and her friends Tommy and Ruth's peculiar upbringing, the sense of mystery deepens: not only are the children clearly being groomed for an obscure mission, but their lives are also marked by other inexplicable rituals and processes, apparently designed to cut them off from the outside world.

On a cursory read, Ishiguro's novel could be seen simply as an unusual piece of nightmarish science fiction blended with an evocative reworking of the traditional boarding-school story. The deceptively plain - at times even bland - tone and style of Kathy's narration reinforce the idea that one is reading the jeu d'esprit of an exceptionally talented novelist, an exercise in manipulating form and content. But Never Let Me Go packs an emotional punch that is hard to resist. Achieved through the combination of barely articulated horror and stoical acceptance, it leaves one feeling that Ishiguro has confronted nothing less than human beings' ability to deal with their own mortality.

In a beautifully sketched moment, the three friends make a journey to see an abandoned boat, run aground in some marshes. It is simultaneously an emblem of entrapment and of the possibility of escape; but it occurs to none of them to pursue the latter option. 'At least we've seen it now,' says Tommy, with a poignancy that typifies this wonderfully understated novel.

Future imperfect - Kazuo Ishiguro explains how a radio discussion helped fill in the missing pieces of Never Let Me Go...

About the Author

Kazuo Ishiguro is the author of six novels, A Pale View of Hills (1982, Winifred Holtby Prize), An Artist of the Floating World (1986, Whitbread Book of the Year Award, Primio Scanno, shortlisted for the Booker Prize), The Remains of the Day (1989, winner of the Booker Prize), The Unconsoled (1995, winner of the Cheltenham Prize), When We Were Orphans (2000, shortlisted for the Booker Prize) and Never Let Me Go (2005, shortlisted for the MAN Booker Prize).

He received an OBE for Services to Literature in 1995, and the French decoration of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1998.

As Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro's unsettling story of a community of clones, comes to cinema screens, Rachel Cusk finds herself both intrigued and repelled by the novel...

Andrew Garfield and Mark Romanek on Never Let Me Go's existential questions

The star and director talk Japanese cinema, the dangers of praise and the challenges of bringing Kazuo Ishiguro's bestselling novel to the screen:

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

'The Hunger Games is a searing novel set in a future with unsettling parallels to our present. Welcome to the deadliest reality TV show ever... '

Katniss Everdeen is a survivor.

She has to be; she's representing her District, number 12, in the 74th Hunger Games in the Capitol, the heart of Panem, a new land that rose from the ruins of a post-apocalyptic North America.

To punish citizens for an early rebellion, the rulers require each district to provide one girl and one boy, 24 in all, to fight like gladiators in a futuristic arena. The event is broadcast like reality TV, and the winner returns with wealth for his or her district.

With clear inspiration from Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" and the Greek tale of Theseus, Collins has created a brilliantly imagined dystopia, where the Capitol is rich and the rest of the country is kept in abject poverty, where the poor battle to the death for the amusement of the rich.

Impressive world-building, breathtaking action and clear philosophical concerns make this volume, the beginning of a planned trilogy, as good as The Giver and more exciting.

About the Author

Suzanne Collins has had a successful and prolific career writing for children's television. For preschool viewers, she penned multiple stories for the Emmy-nominated Little Bear and Oswald. She has worked on several Nickelodeon shows, including the Emmy-nominated hit Clarissa Explains it All and The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo. She received a Writer's Guild of America nomination for co-writing the critically acclaimed Rankin/Bass Christmas special, Santa, Baby! And most recently she was the head writer for Clifford's Puppy Days. Suzanne Collins made her mark in children's literature with the New York Times-bestselling Underland Chronicles, which started with the acclaimed book Gregor the Overlander. In The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins continues to explore the effect of violence on those coming of age. She was inspired to write The Hunger Games when an idea formed whilst she flicked between television channels broadcasting real war coverage and reality television programmes.

Learn more about the author by clicking here...

'Catching Fire: Suzanne Collins' Hit Young-Adult Novels' read Time Magazine's review here...

Watch an interview with Suzanne Collins discussing The Hunger Games Trilogy...