Blood and Chocolate

Blood and Chocolate 

By Annette Curtis Klause

Blood and Chocolate is about the 16 year-old Vivian Gandillon. Vivian under goes the change from girl to werewolf, like all of her ancestors. Vivian's five best friends are also 16 and have just under gone the change. In the book the five use their wolf forms to terrorize humans, which is forbidden in Vivian's pack. When one of the five Axel, kills a human he is sent to prison. While locked away the five kill another human to make it look as though the real killer is still free and Axel, is innocent. This distraction does not work and Vivian's father the Alpha, still has to punish Axel. Vivian's father ends up killing Axel because he has put the pack at risk for exposer to the humans. Exposer to the humans would mean toucher, capture, and even extinction for the werewolves. So needless to say,they really don't want the humans to know about them.
After the killing, Vivian's father and mother mysteriously parish in a house fire. This fire risks exposer for the pack so the pack is forced to relocate. 
In the new location Vivian struggles with fitting in to high school, the advances of the next potential alpha Gabriel, and the five continuing to cause mischief. 
After "the ordeal"( a fight to the death of all males to determine who will be alpha) Gabriel is declared alpha, and Vivian accidentally gets herself named his mate. 
After rejecting Gabriel Vivian falls in love with a human boy, which is a huge no no. Vivian falls so in love with Aiden (the human) that she exposes her wolf self to him. Aiden becomes terrified and rejects Vivian. Heart broken and alone Vivian starts waking up with blood on her hands and no memory of the nights before. Thinking she has been killing human Vivian decides to kill herself to ensure the safety of her pack. 
Too Be continued . . . 
I dont want to ruin the ending because its so good! Hint Vivian doesn't die and didn't murder anyone. :)
I think this book could grab the attention of both young boys and girls. It is most appropriate  for middle to high school, because there is some violence. Reading it as a class might be a little controversial, but I would defiantly make it acceptable to students in our class library. This book was also made into a movie which I have posted a link to at the bottom of the page just for fun. :) 
*On a side note; this book was also on the banded books list we received today in class. Don't let this discourage you its an action pack fantastic book! 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZIozdJiPyw

Pretties

Pretties by Scott Westerfeld is a fun teen science fiction book. In an alternate reality Tally has under gone the surgery from Ugly to Pretty. Unlike our reality this surgery not only changes Tally's physical appearance but her thoughts and memories as well. Before Tally was an ugly child running around in the forest, now she is a beautiful young lady with the world at her feet. Upon becoming a pretty Tally is moved into New Pretty Town where she parties and drinks with all the other pretties. 

It is at one of the lavish Pretty Parties that Tally's life changes. She joins a secret pretty society called the Crims with the handsome  Zane, and then finds out she is being followed. With the help of Zane, Tally finds out her stalker is Croy, an old friend from her Ugly days. This information confuses Tally,as she begins to realize she cant remember her old life. Its like her head is filled with this fuzzy cloud that distorts all her memories. Croy wont tell Tally his secret but instead makes her risk her own life and Zane's to find it at the top of dangerous tower. In the tower Tally finds a letter from herself as an Ugly. This letter urges her to not trust New Pretty Town because she and all her friends are in grave danger.  In the process of acquiring this letter Tally also grabs the attention of the New Pretty Town authorities. From that point on Tally is forced to wear a bracelet that records everything she says and gives away her location. With the guards of New Pretty Town watching her every move, Tally is forced do every thing in code. Also Tally has discovered that starvation is the key to clearing up the fog around her memories. As Tally slowly starts to remember her past, she discovers that the only way to save her friends is to brake out of pretty town. Both Zane and Tally put their lives on the line to brake out, only to be captured by the Specials. 

The Specials then takes over Tally's tale as the third installment of the Uglies Series. 

I never read the first book in this series, however this book explained everything really well so I wasn't lost. I would highly recommend this book for middle school girls and boys. It does have the young romance but there is also a lot of action that will appeal to all tastes! This book does contain "made up" vocabulary, so that is something I would discuss with my students in a lesson. I would ask questions like what do you think a purger pill is? What relations does this word have with the vocabulary we know? This book is great for a classroom setting because the language used is "teen slang". I think students will really enjoy ready a book that reads like they talk. As a class we could then talk about different forms of slang vocabulary and how it relates to age and location.  Over all its an easy read with clean classroom appropriate slang- language (slanguage?).