Divergent by Veronica Roth

Divergent is coming out as a movie in March and is pegged to be the "next Hunger Games" type series.  With that, and the fact that so many people have raved about this book, I figured it was about time that I got around to reading it.

This book took me at most 3 days to read.  And that is only because my husband and I got Battlefield 4 last night and spent time setting that up (I read this book during the set up) and then playing.

Divergent is a dystopic story set in a future Chicago.  In it's world there are 5 factions, each follows a specific ideal.  Beatrice is raised in Abnegnation where she is taught to be selfless above all else.  The year she and her brother, Caleb, turn 16 they are allowed to choose which faction they want to continue their life with.  Divergent's world is based on the idea of "faction before blood" so choosing a faction other than Abnegnation means separating themselves from their family forever.

When preparing to make her choice, Beatrice finds out information about herself that could potentially be dangerous to her and her family.  Beatrice thinks the only thing she has to worry about is choosing a faction and surviving initiation, but there are much darker happenings going on.

Beatrice (aka Tris as she renames herself) drove me a little nuts with her selfishness, but I loved the world that Roth had built.  I did fell that the end kind of was like a quote from Anchorman "well that escalated quickly", but other than that I really enjoyed the book.  I can't wait to see what happens in the next one.

Numbed by David Lubar

Numbed by David Lubar is a book for late elementary/early middle school.  The two main characters visit the math museum with their class and manage to insult a math loving robot who "numbs" them, meaning that Benedict and Logan are no longer able to do math.  Too bad the boys are about to take a big math test at school, the results of which will determine if the class gets an awesome reward.

Benedict and Logan must return to the museum, and finish a bunch of math tests to regain their math ability or else they are going to let their whole class down.

This book is aimed at a different age group than the books I normally read.  I did enjoy the characters, and the information about math, but the book seemed really short to me.  I do think that it would be good in a school or public library for kids in 4 - 6 grade, and would recommend it to readers my library.