The Unwanteds #1: The Unwanteds
by Lisa McCann
I’m normally not one to read a tween book, but the premise of The Unwanteds was too great to resist. In a fantasy realm, children are sorted into three groups: Wanted, Necessary, and Unwanted. If you’re Wanted, you can stay in the city, Quill, also if you’re Necessary – but then you’ll need to do menial labor. If you’re Unwanted, you get bused out of town, driven to a boiling lava pit, and eliminated. Your family is encouraged to forget you ever existed, and everyone carries on logically, methodically, and without any creativity, for the best of society.
Two twin boys, Alex and Aaron, are split into Wanted and Unwanted. While Aaron looks forward to a life of order and a career as a high-ranking official, Alex gets banished and supposedly killed. But if he really did get killed, there wouldn’t be a seven-book series, would there? Instead of a boiling lava pit, there’s a magical world outside the city limits where creativity and pursuit of the arts are encouraged. Little boys and girls are taught to draw, play instruments, act, design, enjoy nature, and learn magic. As the tagline promises, the series really is Harry Potter meets The Hunger Games. I couldn’t count how many times I laughed at the little spells the children learned, like painting a door on a piece of paper and being able to walk into a different room, or turning paperclips into a deadly weapon with just a few special words. Keep in mind that this book is for children, but the adults like me will still get a big kick out of it. I’ve already picked up the next two books!
Two twin boys, Alex and Aaron, are split into Wanted and Unwanted. While Aaron looks forward to a life of order and a career as a high-ranking official, Alex gets banished and supposedly killed. But if he really did get killed, there wouldn’t be a seven-book series, would there? Instead of a boiling lava pit, there’s a magical world outside the city limits where creativity and pursuit of the arts are encouraged. Little boys and girls are taught to draw, play instruments, act, design, enjoy nature, and learn magic. As the tagline promises, the series really is Harry Potter meets The Hunger Games. I couldn’t count how many times I laughed at the little spells the children learned, like painting a door on a piece of paper and being able to walk into a different room, or turning paperclips into a deadly weapon with just a few special words. Keep in mind that this book is for children, but the adults like me will still get a big kick out of it. I’ve already picked up the next two books!