June's novel
And the winner is...
1. Name of book. Ender's Game
2. Small blurb about the book. Andrew Wiggin, aka Ender, is a six-year-old boy born into a future that has suffered two devastating invasions from an alien hive-mind species commonly called the buggers. The International Fleet, whose task it is to prepare for the next bugger invasion, monitors children through devices implanted on their necks, to determine who can be trained from a very young age to be the next generation of soldiers defending Earth. The I.F. originally had its sights set on Ender's big brother Peter. But when it became clear Peter was not exactly what they were looking for, the Wiggins were authorized to have Ender, their Third. Separated from his family before he is even seven years old, Ender is sent into space to attend Battle School. There, he and hundreds of other children and adolescents are subjected to grueling training that takes the form of war games, played both in computer simulation and in real time combat practice in an enormous zero-G chamber called the Battle Room. Ender's Game is one of the great ones, a novel of extraordinary power that is among the very best the genre has ever produced.
3. Why this book is awesome. This is dystopia pre-dystopia! It was published nearly thirty years ago, I think, and it remains a testament to the way violence and war shape not only society but individuals. It's smart and funny and poignant, and I can't count the amount of times I read it as a teen.
Go forth and seek it out!
Happy reading!