MISS PEREGRINE / RANSOM RIGGS reading information

Not a book for Kindle, Ransom Riggs books include strange photos that are part of the fun. The MISS PEREGRINE books are well written and deliciously mysterious and spooky.  Middle-grade and up.  Mild profanity, sexual references, and violence.

**all ratings from GoodReads

MISS PEREGRINE'S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN

(Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, #1) 
by Ransom Riggs

ALA Teens' Top Ten Nominee (2012)
3.77 avg rating — 223,171 ratings

Jacob grew up with stories his grandfather told about an orphanage which housed peculiar children with amazing abilities. As he grew older Jacob assumed these were just great stories. But when his grandfather is murdered, Jacob receives a cryptic message that sends him on a journey to find that orphanage.

What he finds on the Welsh island is amazing. The house is decrepit but the children are just as described. No older than when his grandfather knew them.

As Jacob begins to unravel more about his grandfather’s childhood, he becomes aware of a monster that is hunting him.

Word Count: 84,898
Page Count: 352
Accelerated Reading level: 5.7 / points: 13.0
AR quiz: 145802
Lexile: 890L
--sample pages available
--audio version available

HOLLOW CITY
(Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, # 2)
by Ransom Riggs

4.04 avg rating — 18,826 ratings

At the end of book #1, the children's island home was destroyed, and Miss Peregrine was left in her bird state.  In this book, Jacob and the others flee to London (remember this is during the war) and they seek help for Ms. Peregrine.

Word Count: 95,667
Page Count: 400
Accelerated Reader: 5.7 / points: 15.0
AR quiz: 163783
Lexile: 850L
--sample pages available
--audio version available

MISS PEREGRINE'S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN : The Graphic Novel
(Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children)
by Ransom Riggs
illustrated by Cassandra Jean

4.11 avg rating — 1,320 ratings 

See the description for the first book. 
Profanity and violence.

Word Count: 10,135

Page Count:272
Accelerated Reading level: 3.4 / points: 1.0
AR quiz: 162295


compiled by Pam
updated July 2014 

UNDER THE NEVER SKY reading information

Mediocre writing doesn't keep this formulaic book from being very popular.  I would suggest it for readers who enjoyed I AM NUMBER FOUR.

**all ratings from GoodReads 
*one short sex scene. Alcohol. Violence

ROAR AND LIV
(Under the Never Sky 0.5)

4.11 avg rating — 4,275 ratings

The dynamics between Vale, Roar, and Liv are explored.  It results in Vale making decisions that change the fate of the Tides forever.

Page Count:  68
no reading information available



UNDER THE NEVER SKY
by Veronica Rossi

4.07 avg rating — 42,911 ratings

This story begins with some teens breaking into a damaged Agricultural dome. The backstory is that some of the survivors on this broken-earth are living a high tech existence where they are holed up in a complex of domes where their food is grown and where they are kept safe from the 'outside'.

'Things happen' though and Aria finds herself outside, where thankfully a boy shows up to save her.

Check out a sample yourself.

Reading Information:
Word Count: 87,078
Page Count: 400
Accelerated Reader: 4.1 / points: 12.0
AR quiz: 148732
-- Spanish  BAJO EL CIELO ETERNO


THROUGH THE EVER NIGHT 
(bk#2 Under the Ever Sky)
by Veronica Rossi

4.30 avg rating — 18,096 ratings 

Threatened by false friends and powerful temptations, Aria and Perry wonder, Can their love survive through the ever night?

Word Count: 76,049
Page Count: 352
Accelerated Reading level: 4.3 / points: 11.0
AR quiz: 159991
-- Spanish  BAJO LA NOCHE ETERNA


BROOKE
(Under the Never Sky #2.5)

3.87 avg rating — 830 ratings 

In THE EVER NIGHT the Tides sought selter from the Aether storms.  But the cave they find has memories for Brooke, and events --like her losing Perry-- forces her to consider who she is now.

Page Count:  82
no reading information available

INTO THE STILL BLUE
(bk#3 Under the Ever Sky)

4.35 avg rating — 2,615 ratings

Can Perry and Aria save Cinder?  Can they reach the Still Blue before Sable and Hess?

It's up to Perry and Aria to unit the Outsiders and Dweller to bring order and balance to the world.

Page Count: 400
no reading information currently available 


compiled by Pam
updated February 2014

LEGEND series reading information (Marie Lu)

Marie Lu has become legend for her dystopic series that has earned rave reviews.

**all ratings from GoodReads

LIFE BEFORE LEGEND
(Legend, #0.5) ebook only
 
3.93 avg rating — 2,290 ratings

This ebook has two original stories that give insight into the lives of June and Day.

Reading Information:
Page Count: 38
no reading information currently available
--sample pages and reviews available


LEGEND
(Legend, #1)

**Starred Review** PublishersWeekly
**Starred Review** Kirkus
**Starred Review** ALA Booklist
**Starred Review** VOYA


4.14 avg rating — 74,701 ratings

15-year-old June was born into an elite family and she being groomed to be a member of an elite military circle. Day on the other hand was born and raised in a slum, and he had become the country's most wanted criminal.

June and Day might never have met except that one day June's brother, Metias, is murdered and Day becomes the prime suspect.  This sets off a search for 'The Truth'.

Word Count: 75,464
Page Count:  320
Accelerated Reading level: 4.8 / points: 11.0
AR quiz: 148251
Lexile: HL710L
--sample pages and reviews available
--read an excerpt


PRODIGY
(Legend, #2)

**Starred Review** PublishersWeekly
**Starred Review** Kirkus
**Starred Review** ALA Booklist
**Starred Review** VOYA

4.30 avg rating — 25,892 ratings

June and Day arrive in Vegas just as the Elector Primo dies.  Anden, the Elector's son fills the political void and with this act  the Republic edges closer to chaos.  The Patriot rebels are eager to help Day rescue his brother, but Day and June have one more mission-- to assassinate the new Elector.

Word Count:  97,881
Page Count: 384
Accelerated Reading level: 5.3 / points: 15.0
AR quiz: 156557
--sample pages available

CHAMPION
(Legend, #3)

**Starred Review** PublishersWeekly
**Starred Review** Kirkus
**Starred Review** ALA Booklist
**Starred Review** VOYA


4.51 avg rating — 5,152 ratings

He is a Legend.
She is a Prodigy.
Who will be Champion? 

 June and Day have found their separate places within the Republic but they are brought back together when a virulent, deadly plague breaks out.

Page Count: 384
no reading information currently available
--sample pages and reviews available

Here is sampler from the Legend Series, featuring excerpts from Legend and Prodigy


compiled by Pam


You might also be interested in:   #1

UNWIND Series reading information (Neal Shusterman)

 In America after the Second Civil War, the Pro-Choice and Pro-Life armies came to an agreement: The Bill of Life states that human life may not be touched from the moment of conception until a child reaches the age of thirteen. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, however, a parent may choose to retroactively get rid of a child through a process called "unwinding." Unwinding ensures that the child's life doesn’t “technically” end by transplanting all the organs in the child's body to various recipients. Now a common and accepted practice in society, troublesome or unwanted teens are able to easily be unwound. 

Set in the near future, Neal Shusterman explores a world if which the transplant organ trade is essentially 'wide open' and abortion is legal, but delayed.

If those two concepts were not horrific enough, Shusterman manages to make them sound entirely possible. 

Fans of Scott Westerfeld's Uglies Series should definitely check this out.  But know, that unlike the Uglies, this series has less 'bubbly' and more horror. 

*Adult Worthy~
**all ratings from GoodReads


UNWIND
by Neal Shusterman

4.22 avg rating — 65,370 ratings

**Starred Review** PublishersWeekly

**Starred Review** SchoolLibraryJournal

UNWIND is an rivoting, fast paced story that develops through the eyes of Connor, Risa, and Lev.

Reading Information:
Word Count: 95,297
Page Count: 352
Accelerated Reading level: 5.0 / points: 14.0
AR quiz: 120008
Lexile: 740L
--sample pages and reviews available


UNSTRUNG  (short e-story)
(Unwind, #1.5)
 3.80 avg rating — 1,740 ratings

From 'tithe' to clapper:  this story reveals what happened to Lev between the time he left CyFi, until he showed up at the Graveyard..

Page Count: 92
no reading information currently available
--sample pages and reviews available


UNWHOLLY
(Unwind, #2)

4.29 avg rating — 11,481 ratings

As Kirkus Reviews says --"A breathless, unsettling read."

Connor and Risa drift apart, as Lev strives to give his life meaning by ministering to other jailed youths.  Starkey wants to become the new Graveyard leader, and Cam is groomed for leadership by an mysterious group that is going to take advantage of his having been completely made from the parts of dozens of unwound teens.

Word Count: 116,298
Page Count: 416
Accelerated Reader: 5.8 / points: 18.0
AR quiz: 154002
Lexile: 860L
--sample pages and reviews available


UNSOULED
(Unwind, #3)

4.25 avg rating — 944 ratings

The Graveyard is destroyed and now Connor and Lev are on the run, searching for a mysterious woman who the government and all who support unwinding are frightened of.  

Cam struggles without Risa and plots to take down the organization that created him to prove to her how much he cares.

Page Count: 416
no reading information currently available
--sample pages and reviews available


compiled by Pam

ASHES Trilogy reading information (Ilsa Bick)

The dystopia ASHES caught the imagination of many YA readers as Ilsa Bick brought Alex, Tom, and Ellie to life.  I know the intense, nonstop action had me turning pages until late at night.  

*This series becomes increasingly violent as it proceeds.  The first book, ASHES, would be suitable for most readers.  By the time we get to volume 3 there is a great deal of violence, sexual situations, and profanity.  I would say that MONSTERS is not suitable for most  middle-graders.  The plot is very complicated and the violence is very graphic and intense.

**all ratings from GoodReads


ASHES
(Ashes Trilogy #1)

Audie Award Nominee for Solo Narration -- Female (2012)
ALA Teens' Top Ten Nominee (2012),

3.94 avg rating — 10,907 ratings

Alex has a brain tumor and she's tired of chemo and the constant day to day struggle to stay positive.  When she hikes into the woods alone it's to consider what her next step should be.  What she doesn't imagine is that it's all going to be taken out of her hands when a huge series of huge electromagnetic pulses blast the United States.

These flashes destroy more than every piece of technology the world.  They do something strange to almost every human being.  Some people it kills outright.  Others it alters their minds so that they can think of nothing better than to chow-down on the next person they meet.

Alex meets up with Tom—a young soldier—and Ellie, a girl whose grandfather was killed by the EMP.  Together they try to survive.  Violence.

Reading Information:
Word Count: 104,605
Page Count: 496
Accelerated Reading level: 5.0 / points: 16.0
AR quiz: 146122
--get sample pages, reviews, and prices


SHADOWS

3.71 avg rating — 3,409 ratings

In SHADOWS there are a number of changes.  We get the story from multiple Points of View, and the tone changes as Alex finds the strange community of Rule, where safety is an illusion.


Word Count: 119,220

Page Count: 528
Accelerated Reading level: 4.9 / points: 18.0
AR quiz: 154948
--get sample pages, reviews, and prices

MONSTERS
(Ashes #3)

3.78 avg rating — 329 ratings

MONSTERS is the exciting finale of Bick's ASHES Trilogy.

Alex finds that The Changed are still changing.  And all the different plot strings come together, as some characters are reunited, while others die.  Graphic Violence, profanity.

Word Count: 197,073
Page Count: 688
Accelerated Reader: 5.2 / points: 30.0
AR quiz: 161577
--get sample pages, reviews, and prices

compiled by Pam
updated June 2014

DARK LIFE series reading information (Kat Falls)

KAT FALLS writes some great dystopia/adventure books for middle-graders.  Her first series, DARK LIFE, was well received, having been nominated for for many awards.

The setting is a future earth where the polar caps have melted and the oceans have risen so much that earth's population is crowded closely on the remaining land. Ty Townsend is part of an experimental community that lives in the ocean's depths. 

DARK LIFE
(Dark Life, #1)
by Kat Falls

*Children's Book Award Nominee (2012)
*Georgia's Children's Book Award Nominee (2012)
*Rebecca Caudill Young Readers’ Book Award Nominee (2012)

3.90 avg rating — 5,558 ratings

Life isn't easy deep under the seas.  Desperate 'topsiders', hungry for food, oppress the underwater pioneers, and pirates wait to steal their goods. As the first child born born to the underwater enclave, Ty has little liking for land dwellers... that is until he meets Gemma. Gemma is feisty and different and she soon engages Ty to help her find her missing brother, who may have been captured by the pirates, or who may have joined them.

Reading Information:
Word Count: 62,350
Page Count:  304
Accelerated Reading level: 4.8 / points: 9.0
AR quiz: 136705
Lexile: 690L
--sample pages and other reviews available
--audio available

RIP TIDE
(Dark Life, #1)

3.94 avg rating — 1,444 ratings

Trouble is everywhere. Ty's parents have been charged with sedition, and now an entire village is missing, while the local underwater fauna are suddenly more dangerous. Was tying up with the Seablite gang a good idea?

Word Count: 67,475
Page Count: 320
Accelerated Reader:  5.3 / points: 10.0
AR quiz: 145219
--sample pages and other reviews available

KAT FALLS author index

You might also be interested in:   #1

compiled by Pam
updated June 2014