Divergent

Main Characters: Tris, Four (Tobias), Caleb, Peter, Al, Christina, Will, Uriah, Eric, Jeanine

Setting: Future version of Chicago

Summary: There are five factions that represent something different that each faction believes is best. The dauntless are brave, erudite are smart, amity are peaceful, abnegation are selfless, and candor are honest.  Beatrice grew up in abnegation, but when it was time to decide what faction she belongs to she chose dauntless and wanted to be called Tris.  Before choosing a faction, each young person takes a test to see what faction they should be in.  Tris received an abnormal result called divergent.  Being divergent means she doesn't fit in just one faction, but that she fits in several of the factions.  Being divergent is considered a threat to others so she must keep it a secret from everybody.  After joining dauntless, she soon falls for Four, one of its leaders who are teaching Tris and the rest of the new people joining how to exceed in dauntless.  Tris learns that erudite wants to overthrow the abnegation government and they're going to do that by using dauntless to kill abnegation after mind controlling them after they receive an injection.  She does everything in her power to stop the evil Jeanine and erudite's plan, but her parents who live in abnegation die in the process trying to help her.  While she saves most of abnegation, the fight is far from over.  The theme of this book is that it's okay to be different and you can be many things.  Not one single trait is better than another and it's good to have many great qualities.  It's important to not let anyone tell you that you can't do something and you should always be yourself.

I would use this book with older students and have them work on relating the text to real life.  I would use this to help students analyze text and be able to analyze both sides of an argument and evaluate different possible outcomes.  Below is one of the prompts I would use with my students.

Questions to consider:

• Is this a genre that you enjoy personally?
• How would you explain the difference between science fiction, fantasy, and fantasy adventure?
• What's "too much" is science fiction or fantasy adventure books? Do you have guidelines for what books you would use in your classroom as required reading?

Reference:

Roth, Veronica. Divergent. HarperCollins Publishers. New York, NY. 2011. Print.