Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Matched- Ally Condie

Matched
Matched
Condie, Ally
ISBN-13 9780525423645  
ISBN-10 0525423648
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile, 2010


Genre: Science Fiction
Reading Level: HL680 Lexile
Interest Age: 12-18

Reader's Annotation:
Kassia lives in a society where everything is controlled by the Officials. What happens when they make a mistake?

Plot Summary:
Cassia has lived in a society where every decision is already made for her based on probability. The Officials decide who she will marry on her 17th birthday, what she will eat and what day she will die. When 17, there is a Matching ceremony where young people are matched with a person they fit with based on probabilities. Cassia gets matched with her best friend Xander, but then something happens and she sees another face on the screen. Ky Markam. Ky is not even allowed in the pool of candidates because of his family. Someone in the family was a criminal so he is not allowed to have children. Cassia thinks this must be a mistake, but there is a piece of her who is very curious.

As the story moves forward, Cassia must decide who she wants to be and what she wants to do. If she marries Xander, she is doing what the officials want and will live a peaceful life. If she tries to be with Ky, they will need to run away from the officials and try to make it on their own. Will love or comfort win?

Critical Evaluation:
This book combines many elements of previous books about controlled societies. There are the latest technologies and yet the society controls everything. This book takes place after the information age we are in now. This is interesting because it assumes this will happen in the future. After the information boom, people got together and picked 100 of everything and got rid of the rest. There are 100 paintings and 100 songs. The people are not taught to write anymore. This is an interesting way to look at the fall of today;s society because people are creators of information in today's society. Condie created a world of control. It is a scary notion, but not new. 1984, The Giver, and Handmaid's Tale all have done the same. What makes this book worth reading is the way people handle the control in the society. The characters give in to the whims of the Officials.

About the Author:
Ally Condie was a high school English teacher for years before writing her book Matched. She obtained her teaching degree from Brigham Young University and she still keeps her certificate valid in case she wants to go back to teaching at some point. She lives in Salt Lake City, Utah with her husband and children.

Matched is Condie's first book and it is the first in a trilogy. Her second book, Crossed, was released in 2011 and the final book  Reached will be released in November of 2012. Matched is an international best seller and was part of YALSA's Teen's Top Ten in 2011. It was also the #1 pick on the Winter Kid
s Indie Next List. When Crossed came out, Kirkis stated that the series was an "addictive, layered, dystopic trilogy." Condie has been able to grasp what readers want to know. 


http://allycondie.com/bio
http://www.matched-book.com/bio.html

Curriculum Ties:
Future societies and control.

Book Talking:
What would you choose?

Challenging Issues:

If this book were to be challenged, I would go through the selection process with the challenger as well as explain the rationale for the book. There are many good qualities in this book that could be reason to have it in a collection.


Why Read this Book:
This book is intriguing from the first page to the last. There are so many different pieces to this book and Condie did not leave out any aspect of control. Dystopia is an interesting topic that has been written about for years. This one takes the concept to a new level. 

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