I had mad love for Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies trilogy back when I first read it. Imagine a dystopia where until age 16, you are “ugly.” Then you get a whole bunch of surgery to become beautiful, and then live in paradise until you die. All parties, no war. Everything is beautiful, and Tally Youngblood can’t wait until her birthday–until she meets Shay, who tells her about the world outside, and asks Tally to escape with her.

Tally is a great character–I think she’s more awesome than Katniss, mainly because the story proves that she is truly special–but on this reread I saw all the flaws. I wasn’t swept up in the suspense, so noticed the relatively weak character development and some of the plot holes. I’m still a fan, but the trilogy won’t be taking up space in my permanent library.

This week I finished reading Detectives in Togas to my 7.5-year-old. I was immensely proud of her for figuring out the mystery well in advance of both the characters and me! It was a fun little mystery with some good period detail.