Here’s the author’s website (which includes a link about half way down on the right if you’d like to read the first 100 pages of the book) The book video trailer is posted by the publisher and there are several fan-made videos and an author interview online as well.
Summary: (from Goodreads.com) In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue–Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is–she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.
During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are–and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes exasperating boy fits into the life she’s chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she’s kept hidden from everyone because she’s been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her.
Personal Reaction: My 12yo nephew and I had great discussions trying to decide which faction we would want to join and why! These conversations took place after I had finished the book, but it could also have been fun to compare choices made at the same time as the day of choosing in the book and then if you would change your mind when the book is over.
Any Cautions: explicit violence in the Dauntless faction (similar to The Hunger Games by Collins)
Curriculum or discussion topics: utopia/dystopia scenarios; character traits – esp. courage/bravery versus recklessness
Connections to other books: Highly reminiscent of The Giver by Lowry and Matched by Condie, dystopias where a certain day of the year brings such change and things are never what they seem. Have a book on display that would appeal to someone in each faction along with the realia below: (BASIC EXAMPLES) Dauntless – Striking, Grappling, and Ground Fighting, Erudite – How Things Work Encyclopedia, Abnegation – Conflict Resolution Smarts: How to Communicate, Negotiate, Compromise, and More, Candor – The First Honest Book about Lies, Amity – Meditation
Items to display with book: (something to represent each faction) Dauntless – rubber knife, Abnegation – grey robe or mirror with grey cloth over it, Erudite – brain model, Candor – lie detector or test, Amity – pastoral scene (gardening, painting, etc.)
Movies of the Mind 