The Silver Kiss

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Klause, Annette Curtis. The Silver Kiss. New York: Delacorte Press, 1990.

Annotation: A mysterious young man with a dark secret shows up and helps a teenage girl dealing with a dying mother and an emotionally absent father in a town that recently had a string of strange murders.

Book talk:

Should I let him in? He had blood on his face the other day. He was eating something. A bird? But he seems lonely and full of despair. Like me and how my father is always with my mother at the hospital. It’s just me at this house alone all the time because they won’t let me see her. And now my best friend is moving away. Maybe he’ll understand about loneliness and the pain of death. But what about the blood? And the murders here recently? What if he is the killer? I believe he’s been watching me. But again his voice sounds like he’ll understand. Should I let him in?

Awards: 

• 1991 Locus Award for first novel
• Oklahoma Sequoyah Young Adult Book Award
• Maryland Black-Eyed Susan Award
• South Carolina Children's Book Award
• California Young Reader Medal
  

Awards source: http://www.locusmag.com/SFAwards/Db/NomLit71.html#2881-1990 and http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780440213468

The Giver

Image credit: LibraryThing.com

Lowry, Lois. The Giver. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1993.

Annotation: Sometime in the future, a 12-year-old boy is assigned the profession of receiving all of humanity’s memories. As he receives more memories, he realizes his world isn’t as perfect as it is intended to be.

Book talk:

What do you want to do when you are older? Well, Jonas has no choice. The elders of his community pick out everyone’s professions and assign them to the children at a Ceremony of Twelve. In fact, his community doesn’t have much choice at all or knowledge of anywhere else. It is a perfect world. There is no fear or pain. Children do not grow up with their birth mothers, but with assigned families. People who break rules and older adults are “released.” But Jonas is given a special profession – the receiver of memory. Now he is assigned to remember all the memories the Giver will pass on – all the memories for the entire community. He alone will now bear the burden of all the people’s memories so that the others won’t have to, including war and disease, but also freedom and love. What does Jonas do with his new knowledge? What should he do?

Awards:

• Newbery Medal Book
• ALA Notable Children’s Book
• ALA Best Book for Young Adults

Awards source: http://www.randomhouse.com/teachers/guides/give.html