Teens' Top Ten Nominations - Truancy: Origins by Isamu Fukui

This week's book is Truancy: Origins by Isamu Fukui!

From Booklist

This prequel to Truancy (last week's book feature) features 15-year-old twins Zen and Umasi, adopted sons of the notorious mayor of Education City, a dystopian metropolis where children are the product of cruel schooling. While Umasi is a model student and obedient son, when Zen discovers his father is responsible for the oppressive educational policy, he runs away to the abandoned districts to recruit homeless kids for his rebellion against city agents. Umasi quickly follows Zen, hoping to stop him from destroying the city, but the rebellion escalates into a war between the brothers. Both Umasi and Zen have inexplicable martial-arts training and talk like college professors, rather than teenagers. Despite its title, this book does little to explore how Education City came to exist or even why the brothers turn against each other. Instead, Fukui, who is a teen himself, focuses primarily on deftly depicted violence and explosive action sequences that will resonate most with reluctant male readers. Grades 8-11. --Kimberly Garnick


Check back next week for information about the next book on the 2009 Teens' Top Ten Nominations list!