Taking a picture now because tomorrow they’ll be checked out! #classroomlibrary

One of my favorite parts of being a language arts teacher has always been the part where I get to be a professional book pusher. Book encourager. Book wheedler. It’s always my favorite thing on earth pretty much to find the perfect book for a student, the book that makes reading something to look forward to, the book that makes the student into a reader. That’s a lot of pressure, and I fail at it awfully often, but if I can build up enough trust with the student, sometimes they’ll let me try again.

I like reading, and I like thinking about the books I read in terms of which student might get a kick out of reading them. One set of books I can’t keep on my shelves is Suzanne Young’s Program series, starting with the bleakness and romance of The Program and its sequel, The Treatment, and now complete with the perfect prequel duet, The Remedy and The Epidemic, which I just finished reading.

I am not usually a series reader, except when reading books with El. I have a couple of things that irritate me about reading series, and both of these issues were diminished in The Program series. So first there’s the weird backstory at the start of each book, where the author has to remind you of what happened in the previous book, which you may have read a year ago. It always feels awkward and clunky, sticking out in the narrative like a big reminder that this is a sequel, and don’t you remember, Reader, when that thing happened like this, and this, and this? It bugs me! It draws me out of the reading experience. And I didn’t feel any of that. Part of it might be that there were two sets in the series, two sets of storylines within the larger narrative. All four of the books have terrific pacing, page-turning plots that kept me wanting to read, but especially in the two prequels, there was a smoothness and coherence to the books that made the transition from one to the next easy.

My other issue with series is that I get tired of the same characters. I’m a big fan of books that leave me wanting more — more of the characters, more of the chemistry and dialogue and heart-wrenching emotions. By splitting the series up (into what feels to my poetry-immersed self like two couplets in one poem), I got that “I want more!” feeling about both Quinlan and Sloane (and Deacon and James!)

I think the whole series could get a little dark and hopeless for some readers, especially those sensitive to suicide, and I certainly want to follow this one up with a happy book, but the emotions hit hard with solid writing and fairly steady high-stakes to keep the tension high. I think The Epidemic was a really satisfying piece of the puzzle of The Program series.

(And thanks to Suzanne, for sending my class some signed goodies and posters! There are a lot of fans at my school!)