by Kristy Applebaum, 262 pages, Grades 6 and up

In the future, eldest children are favored and raised with privilege and honor, but when they reach age 14 they are sent to the “Camp”. Maggie, a “Middler”, is jealous of her older brother because he gets a lot more attention and praise than she does; she is also jealous of the eldests in her classes because they always seem to be the ones called out for being smart and doing great work. Maggie wants to be acknowledged for her hard work too--in fact, she is so obsessed with the injustice of being second best all the time, it doesn’t occur to her that the eldest kids who get sent to “Camp” never return. Students in this future world are also told to fear the dangerous “Wanderers” who move about outside the boundaries of the town. One day Maggie meets a girl who pops through some bushes near the boundary. She is kind and funny and they like a lot of the same things. Maggie knows this girl must be a “Wanderer” but can’t help herself from interacting; are they maybe becoming friends? Could “Wanderers” possibly not be as bad as the government thinks? Is anything the way it seems? Maggie is waking up and beginning to question the realities of her world, but she is just a “Middler,” what could she possibly do to change anything after all?

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If you like dystopias, you might also enjoy: Matched, by Ally Condie, Dustborn, by Erin Bowman, or The List, by Patricia Forde.

Tags: dystopias, family problems, coming of age, adventure