Ender's Game

Ender's Game is about a classic sci-fi novel by Orson Scott Card about a 6 year old boy named Ender Wiggins. The books takes place in the future (about a hundred years). The IF(International Fleet), an organization created to protect the world against the alien buggers, is recruiting young kids to be trained in battle school. The best will go to command school, and the best there will be seen as choices to lead the army. They do this by installing monitors in children's necks at young ages to see if they are good enough.

Ender is a 6 year old boy who's siblings were both by the IF but were not good enough. They didn't pick his 10 year old brother, Peter, because Peter looks to destroy everything and is too violent. They didn't pick Ender's sister, Valentine, because she is too kind and considerate to lead an army. Ender's family was allowed to have a third child(a very rare thing) because they wanted to see if he would be a mix of his siblings. Peter, however, is envious of Ender and constantly bullies him.

Later he is chosen to go to battle school. Colonel Graff, of the International Fleet, immediately starts making things tough for Ender in every possible way. This is because he believes that Ender will eventually be able to lead the international fleet in war. Ender is isolated, and at times, the rules are changed specifically to impede his success. Ender however gets around all these obstacles and finds success.

This is a very interesting book, and some of the futuristic technology adds to the excitement. There is also a lot of zero gravity action, since most of the book takes place in space.

I rate this 8 out of 10

The Cay

The Cay is a book about an American boy living in Willemstad, Curaçao named Philip, who's mother believes that it is unsafe to stay there because of the many German submarines in the area during World War II. Philip's mother convinces him to come back to Virginia with her, but on the way, their ship gets torpedoed. Philip gets a nasty blow on the head fro debris, and wakes up on a raft with Timothy, an old, large black man who worked on the ship, and a Cat.

While on the raft, Philip becomes blind from looking directly at the sun. In a few days, they reach a small cay in the middle of the Caribbean Sea, and they must survive there for many months. Timothy also tries to teach Philip the necessary skills to live by himself on the island, in case Timothy dies. Philip eventually knows the island as though he could see it because of Timothy's training.

Also, Philip's mom brought him up to dislike blacks and other non-white sailors who came to Willemstad. Throughout the book, his opinion changes. This is a great read that anyone can enjoy.

I rate this book  7+ out of 10