Planet Hulk by Greg Pak

Hulk now finds himself on an alien planet in exile from his only home.  Now, he must become the hero he never intended and the leader that he never wanted to be.  With a ragtag group of aliens behind him, Hulk attempts to overthrow a terrible dictator and learn life on a new planet. 

The artwork is amazing in the graphic novel.  There is so much detail that in actuality, many of the teens could probably gather the plot of the story simply from the artwork.  But the plot actually dealt with a larger issue, which is finding a place to belong, even if that means needing to leave your home and make a new one.  There were times in the story, when the writing would be a little slow or hard to read.  Many of the different alien names were very difficult to pronounce.  Reading the book leading up to that one was also very important in order to get the back story of why the Hulk was in exile.  The story leaves the reader, with the Hulk attempting to return to Earth with his new alien friends.  I think that not only does it have a good message, but it also is very entertaining and well drawn.

Fire by Robin McKinley and Peter Dickinson

Fire consists of five different stories, set across the different ages and places that have one common theme:  fire.  They all deal with mythical creatures including a phoenix, hellhound and dragon.  The five different tales all attempt to keep the reader entertained all the while, incorporating the theme of fire. 

The book seemed to really lag a lot from my perspective.  I was actually very disappointed with Robin McKinley's two stories, especially since I had enjoyed her previous work.  Her first one, Hellhound, while not a bad tale, did not even have the element of fire.  It simply had a dog named Flame.  Her second story, First Flight is the longest in the book and starts off much like her other writings.  However, towards the middle, the story begins to get filled with complicated details and lags; making reader simply just try to finish it.  Dickinson's stories were not bad and did all have the element of fire.  His first one, Phoenix, is great and gives high hopes for the book.  The other stories, Fire Worm and Salamander Man, are simply okay and serve their entertaining purposes.  Over all, unless teens simply find the need for a lack of details in some stories and too much detail in others, they may not find it entertaining.  Creating short stories to contain within one book, gives the challenge of creating good characters and plots early within the stories.  Yet, perhaps if some of the unneeded details were left out of First Flight, then it would have been a great story and more details added to others could have also improved them.

Nation by Terry Pratchett

Nation takes place in an alternative universe that is very similar to our own.  It details the events that occur in a small island chain after a large wave destroys everything, leaving only a young man who doesn't have a soul, a British girl traveling and a few others who managed to survive.  They must learn how to now survive and rebuild their nation and all it stood for.

While the reader may think that Nation takes place as an historical fiction novel, subtleties, let the reader know that it may look like the same universe, but it is far different.  In this world, there are tree climbing octopi, a flu that wiped out most of the British royalty and islands that do not actually exist.  Mau is a young man who seems completely lost after the wave.  Not only did he lose his entire Nation, but also he never really became a man.  He questions the gods and why they would allow this to happen, as well as everything else.  Many teens can relate to this need and longing to understand why.  Daphne is a young girl who longs to learn and be different from the requirements of society.  While on the island, she is able to fully come to an understanding of herself and what she is capable of when she is forced to act.  The main characters of the book are merely teens, but they manage to lead several others who come to the island and form a community.  Teens will particularly like the struggle that Mau faces when trying to lead his new group of people and how Daphne also must find out who she really is.  While the most of the book will keep the reader hooked on what will happen next, there is often moments of deep understanding and messages of peace, especially when the two worlds break communication barriers and realize that they are exactly the same.  It is truly an enjoyable and interesting book.

Climbing the Stairs by Padma Venkatraman

Vidya is a young teen girl living with her family in India at the beginning of World War II.  After her father is severly injured, she is forced with her family to move in with her father's family.  She faces struggles at every turn from her living situation, school, her desire to go to college and the overall caste system of India.  Her only solace comes from her grandfather's library, at the top of the stairs.  While the world is waging war outside, Vidya escapes into a world of learning and understanding that only comes from the library.  She at first thinks that the war is beyond her world, but she soon learns that both WWII and even greater war within the Indian people are right on her doorstep.

Climbing the Stairs is a great story about a young girl who struggles against the constrains of her society.  She wants to be more than just a married housewife, which is the expectation of women at that time and from her caste.  She wants to go to college and eventually become a doctor like her father, the one who has inspired her.  But her father's traditional family make that task a difficult one.  For teens, they will relate to Vidya's struggle to find herself among the ideas of what others think as well as adjusting to a whole new life.  She is at a new school with no friends, she is looked down upon by her extended family and is now unsure of herself when faced with a potential boyfriend.  In the beginning the story lags a little, slowing the pace of the book.  However, after the incident with her father, things begin to happen very quickly and pull the reader into her world.  Because Vidya is so open and expressive in the book, it is easy to empathize with her and know where she is coming from and what she is thinking.  I think that teens will not only appreciate her honesty but also her courage in all the trials that she faces.  The book is wonderfully written and an interesting perspective of World War II.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games take place in a future where the continent of North America has been replaced by a much smaller continent named Panam.  It is ruled by the Capitol and divided up into 12 different districts.  This keeps the people from leaving as well as gives the Capitol control over everyone.  There once were 13 districts, but when district 13 lead an uprising, the Capital quashed it and destroyed the whole city.  Katniss Everdeen is a 16 year old girl in the impoverished District 12 who lives in the Seam.  After the death of her father, it was up to Katniss to provide for her family, which consist of her, her mother and her sister Prim, who is the only person that Katniss actually loves.  With the help of her friend Gale, she hunts in the woods that is beyond the limits of the fence in order to hunt food and to sell it in the black market.  This allows her to know practically everyone in town.  The story begins on the day of the Reeping, a day in which every boy and girl between the age of 12 -18 has their name placed in a big bowl and pulled out, in order to compete in the hunger games where they will be a tribute.  The hunger games occur in order to remind the people of the beating that district 13 took and who is actually in control.  It is mandatory that people compete and everyone else watch.  During the Reeping, Prim's name is called.  Katniss steps up to volunteer to take her sister's place.  The boy tribute is Peeta Mellark, the baker's son, who one time gave bread to Katniss when her family was starving.  Soon after the Reeping, Katniss and Peeta are taken away, where they are given moments to say good-bye to family and friends.  She gives specific instructions to her family on what do if something were to happen to her.  She is also given a promise by the baker that he'll make sure that Prim is fed.  She is also visited by her best friend Gale who is jerked away before he can tell her something.
On the train they meet with their mentor, a former winner of the Hunger Games from district 12, Haymitch.  There have been very few winners from district 12, meaning that most winners come from the wealthier districts.  Haymitch, upon his win is given a great amount of wealth and spends most of his days drunk.  He manages to sober up enough to actually give advice and help Katniss and Peeta in order to stay alive.  Once they arrive, they begin to train and are also introduced.  The Games are also an extreme form of entertainment and serve as like a red carpet to an awards show, having an almost fashion show at the beginning.  Katniss and Peeta emerge, thanks to their stylist Cinna and Porsha, almost engulfed in synthetic fire.  They are an immediate hit with the crowd.  Over the course of the next couple of days, they train and learn new skills, as well as conduct interviews with the public.  In the last interview, Peeta reveals his true feelings for Katniss on live television, professing his crush and love for her.  She is shocked, but now realizes that she may have an new angle to play in the Games, that of star-crossed lovers.  This could help her gain sponsors, people who will buy gifts and send into the games whenever they are in need.  Each tribute is also given a score to determine their chance of survival in the Games.  Most Careers (those from wealthy districts who make a living out of competing in the Game) get the highest scores, 10s.  Most are lucky to get past a 7.  Peeta scores an 8 and Katniss an 11, which the highest score that anyone has ever received.
Finally the day arrives, when they are thrust into the games.  Haymitch's only advice is to run and find water.  Don't dare go into the Cornucopia, a large area full of supplies they will need in order to survive.  Katniss semi-ignores that command and grabs the two closest things to her, a sheet of plastic and an orange backpack.  It is in these first moments, that causes the greatest blood bath of the Games.  Katniss runs and doesn't stop until it's night.  At the end of each night, the Capitol anthem plays and also shows a list of who has died that day.  Each death is marked by a cannon shot.  That first day has 11 dead.  Katniss unloads her pack and finds a few supplies:  a water bottle, some small amounts of food, night vision glasses, a knife and a sleeping bag. She climbs high in a tree and tries to sleep.  However, she soon hears the Careers coming her way...and Peeta is with them.  The next few days she heads in the opposite direction, catching food and trying to find water.  She is near death when she stumbles upon a pond.  There she rests for a day, but it doesn't last too long.  The Game Makers (officials who keep the Games interesting), set the entire area on fire.  In her escape, Katniss is badly injured.  She is then found by the Careers and Peeta.  In an attempt to take them out, Katniss drops a trackerjacker nest on the whole group.  Trackerjackers are vicious Muttations that were created by the Capitol.  These insert a poison that can be deadly.  That kills two of them, but still leaves more.  Katniss is also stung, but manages to take the bow and arrows and is soon helped by a small girl from District 11.  She is only 12, but looks about 10.  Her name is Rue.  Katniss and Rue form a friendship and alliance to help each other.  They plan on blowing up all of the Careers supplies.  They manage to this, even though Katniss is injured and left deaf in her left ear.  When trying to meet up with Rue later, she finds Rue captured and is then speared by the boy from District 1, who Katniss then kills.  Katniss stays with Rue, holding her and then singing to her as she dies.  She covers Rue's body with flowers in an effort to show respect to Rue and anger the Capitol.  A couple of days later, it is announced that a new rule will allow members from the same district team up and win.  Katniss sets out to find Peeta, who has been injured and left for dead by the Careers.  Once she finds him, Peeta is near death.  Katniss does what she can to help and nurses him back to health with the help of home remedies and some medicine, she got at the feast.  During that time, she begins to develop a close relationship with Peeta and starts to confuse acting and reality.  Once they are finally better, they venture out for food and find out that there are three left, them and Kale, a Career from District 2.  They decide to have a final showdown.  But the Game Makers have switched things up again.  Not only did they release Muttations of wolves with past competitors, but also changed the rules again so that only one may win.  When they both decide to commit suicide over killing each other, they are both declared winners.  Peeta is taken for treatment and his wounds are healed, along with Katniss's.  Finally they are allowed to see each other, but not before Haymitch gives some important information to Katniss:  The Capitol is furious with her.  She managed to change the rules and show up the Capitol.  Now, to keep her and her family safe, she must play the part of a girl desperately in love.  As she heads home, she feels confused about the person she has become, the situation with the Capitol and her feelings that leave her torn between Peeta and Gale.

I only have a few things to say about the book:
1) It's FREAKING AMAZING!!!!!!!
2) Listen to the audio book of the story..it really captures you.
3) You simply cannot leave the story alone!  You have to keep going to find out what will happen next.
4) Katniss is an amazing and honest character that you like instantly.
5) It is very thought provoking concept about control, power and poverty.
6) It's a future concept that is rarely seen, often we see the degredation of society due to all the technological advances.  Rarely do we see a society set very far into the future that is more like our present.  Only not under an authoritarian government. 
7) The story leaves you simply on a cliff hanger so now I HAVE to read the second book and I am very excited for the third one to come out.
8) The details and writing are wonderful, vivid and very explanatory.
9) Go read it!  Right now!