Tag: Enders Game

#AtoZChallenge – X

It’s X day!

X is one of the hardest letters in the alphabet to find a book for. Fortunately there IS a book I can use:

It’s Xenocide by Orson Scott Card! It’s part of the Ender’s Game series. Here’s a bit about it:

The war for survival of the planet Lusitania will be fought in the hearts of a child named Gloriously Bright.

On Lusitania, Ender found a world where humans and pequininos and the Hive Queen could all live together; where three very different intelligent species could find common ground at last. Or so he thought.

Lusitania also harbors the descolada, a virus that kills all humans it infects, but which the pequininos require in order to become adults. The Starways Congress so fears the effects of the descolada, should it escape from Lusitania, that they have ordered the destruction of the entire planet, and all who live there. The Fleet is on its way, and a second xenocide seems inevitable.

Don’t judge me. It’s late in the game and I’m exhausted. Two more days to go!

Can you think of a book that starts with X?

Tags Enders Game, Orson Scott Card, Xenocide

Books Children Young Adult

Monica Strang The Starburst Juju

Post author By Pam
Post date 6:00 am
2 Comments on Monica Strang The Starburst Juju

The Starburst Juju by Monica Strang

I know what you’re thinking. Starburst Juju? What IS that? It sounds like some sort of space age food. But it’s not. At least. partially. It does have to do with space though. Aliens actually.

Pepper, a 15-year-old girl living in the aftermath of an economically collapsed earth, prepares to witness the annual abduction of humans by extraterrestrials. When its Pepper’s parents who are taken, she learns that they are not the humble human schoolteachers she thought she knew, but two of the most powerful inventors throughout many worlds. Desperate to find them, Pepper will do anything to get them back, even if it means finding the otherworldly Starburst Juju, a stone that can free her parents from alien confinement.

When Pepper’s schoolteacher parents are abducted by nasty creatures, Pepper and her best bud Parker go on a quest to find her parents. Along the way they meet a talking “cat , lots of aliens (many of them good), and attend school to learn how to fight the bad aliens.

Think Ender’s Game. With a bit of Divergent thrown in.

It’s good, clean fun that’s just right for middle graders!

Know what else is awesome?

A percentage of this purchase will go to Book Trust, whose mission is to deliver choice and ownership of books to children from low-income families, increasing their literacy skills and fostering life-long learning.

^^THAT^^

What’s not to love?

Tags alien, Divergent, dystopian, Enders Game, Hunger Games, Middle Grade, Pepper, Starburst Juju

Young Adult

It’s Monday! What are you Reading? From Picture Books to YA!

Post author By Pam
Post date 12:00 pm

It’s Monday! What are you Reading? From Picture Books to YA!

Here’s a meme that has us written all over it, doesn’t it? I love Sheila’s It’s Monday! What are you Reading? But this one features kids lit and is a little bit more streamlined for us, yay!

Here I go!

This Monday I am reading: The 5th Wave by Rick Yancy. I’m sure you’ve seen my pic with him; I’ve sent it to anyone who has eyeballs.

I won’t bore you with the pic of Rick and me. Anyway…What happens if the aliens invade and you’re one of the only survivors?

I mean, really?

I guess I better stock up on

something…?

Tags Aliens, dystopian, Enders Game, GoodReads, Rick Yancy, The 5th Wave, The Passage, YA

Books Giveaways

Ender’s Game – An LDS Author Giveaway!

Post author By Pam
Post date 11:30 pm
29 Comments on Ender’s Game – An LDS Author Giveaway!

Did you know that LDS (Latter Day Saints aka Mormons) have a long history of writing? It’s true! To be sure, they write alot about their faith, but many of them do not write religious texts and write popular fiction.

The author I am featuring today is Orson Scott Card (YES), author of Ender’s Game, Ender’s Shadow, and Speaker for the Dead. Here’s a brief synopsis of Ender’s Game found on Card’s website:

“Andrew “Ender” Wiggin thinks he is playing computer simulated war games; he is, in fact, engaged in something far more desperate. The result of genetic experimentation, Ender may be the military genius Earth desperately needs in a war against an alien enemy seeking to destroy all human life. The only way to find out is to throw Ender into ever harsher training, to chip away and find the diamond inside, or destroy him utterly. Ender Wiggin is six years old when it begins. He will grow up fast.

But Ender is not the only result of the experiment. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway almost as long. Ender’s two older siblings, Peter and Valentine, are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. While Peter was too uncontrollably violent, Valentine very nearly lacks the capability for violence altogether. Neither was found suitable for the military’s purpose. But they are driven by their jealousy of Ender, and by their inbred drive for power. Peter seeks to control the political process, to become a ruler. Valentine’s abilities turn more toward the subtle control of the beliefs of commoner and elite alike, through powerfully convincing essays. Hiding their youth and identities behind the anonymity of the computer networks, these two begin working together to shape the destiny of Earth-an Earth that has no future at all if their brother Ender fails. ”

Doesn’t that sound interesting? I hope so, because I have good news: I am giving away my OWN personal copy of Ender’s Game for one lucky winner!Â I am teaming up with my buddy Inspired Kathy at I Am A Reader, Not a Writer to bring you this giveaway.Â She is highlighting LDS authors all month which I think is a FABULOUS way to introduce these great writers (Stephanie Meyer, anyone?).

So here’s the giveaway