The Maze Runner

Kidsbooks had its annual sale this week and I went to pick up World's End but needless to say I couldn't resist a few other choices. It doesn't help when you run into your favorite teacher librarians recommending books.

Linda from Maple Grove School always has great recommendations and she recommended The Maze Runner by James Dashner, and I thought that this would be a book that would appeal to my students. I really enjoyed it, it kept me reading this weekend! Again this is a book that is for your better seventh grade readers and also good for high school readers. Thomas finds himself literally thrust into a world where he nor anyone else has much memory of what happened before they arrived in The Glade, a community surrounded by a maze with no apparent way out.

This is the first in a series and one almost feels as if you are in a level of a computer game (not that I have played many of those) except of course most of us don't actually want to be a pawn in such a game. It reminded me also a bit of the classic Lord of the Flies but with nicer people generally. Well of course there are villains but again there is an external enemy so that helps a bit with internal politics plus we learn that these boys have been specially selected. Today I learned how to embed video and you can view a bit of a preview.