Sara’s Comments (group member since Jan 25, 2014)

Sara’s comments from the A Year of Reading Sharon group.

Read it for the first time. What an amazing book. Days later, I'm still going back and wondering what would have happened if characters had made different choices. Loved the Cain and Able story and how it compared with the story of Adam Trask (both as a child - then as a parent). Beautiful book.

I really liked the book. While it is Sci Fi, it is also very much in the dystopian genre that is so big with students. I asked my 7th grade son to read it (as I'm thinking about using it with 7th graders next year). He didn't like the beginning, but liked the book overall. We saw a different cover on a newer version and he liked that cover better.

I read a lot of young adult lit, but hadn't read this one before. The book was amazing. I will be recommending this to my students next year. It has some pretty complex themes though. What do others think?

I would agree with you, Michelle. The love the sisters had for each other was beautiful. But to be born to be your sister's donor and have it expected of you by your parents was something else. You wonder where it would have ended.

I felt sorry for the brother and how lost he was in the family - crying out to be noticed and loved.

Did anyone have trouble reading this book as a parent? While I would do ANYTHING possible for my son, I was at times horrified at the parent's actions.

I've read the book before, but am rereading it for the first time in a LONG time. I'm not to the part you mentioned, but I love the simpler time the book evokes.

You bring up a wonderful point. I teach American Studies and we are studying the writing of the Constitution. I find it amazing the compromises the framer's had to make to write that document. I can't imagine our current leaders in Washington doing the same job.