Module 8 - Uglies

Westerfeld, S. (2005). Uglies. New York: Scholastic.


Summary
Set in the future where the world is different than today, children are brought up as Uglies until the age of 16 when they undergo an operation that makes them a Pretty.  This operation changes each individual into a beautiful being with bright eyes, full lips and the perfect skin.  Tally Youngblood anxiously awaits her 16th birthday in order to join her best friend, Perris, in the city of Prettyville.  During her wait Tally meets Shay, another ugly who will turn 16 the same day as Tally.  Tally and Shay build a great friendship learning to hover board and playing tricks on other Uglies. Days before their 16th birthday Shay tells Tally of her plan to leave the city and not have the operation.  Shay escapes to the join the Smokies, a rebellion group that lives beyond the ruins of the Rusties (who the reader concludes is the people of today).  Shay leaves Tally with a poem of clues telling Tally how to reach Shay if she changes her mind and wants to leave before her operation.  On her 16th birthday Tally eagerly awaits her surgery but is taken to the Specials and told she will not receive the surgery until she leads the Specials to the Smokies - a group they have been attempting to find for years.  After days of turmoil, Tally decides to help the Specials so she can become a Pretty and join Perris.  Tally is prepared for  many days of traveling and sets off to follow the poem Shay left her.  Tally finds the Smokies and joins them, but is it a rebellion group that keeps people there against their will, as the Specials said or do the Smokies have reason to believe everyone is beautiful without surgery?  Tally begins to see that life away from the city is hard work, but not what the Specials made it out to be. Tally decides to remain with the Smokies and destroy the communication device the Specials provided her but her plan back fires and causes the Smokie's village to be ambushed by the Specials.  


My Impressions

The book started off slow, setting the stage for the futuristic way of life in Uglyville and Prettyville.  Establishing characters and setting was important or the rest of the book would never make sense.  However, the process of establishing took awhile and almost caused me to not continue reading.  Once the author has provided a firm setting the book picks up and the reader can put themselves in Tally's shoes and the world she lives in.  I enjoyed the book tremendously and look forward to reading the other two in the series.  These types of books makes you wonder if this is where the world could end up - so albeit fantasy, one could see materialism taking shape in the manner Westerfeld has written.

Review
Tally Youngblood lives in a futuristic society that acculturates its citizens to believe that they are ugly until age 16 when they'll undergo an operation that will change them into pleasure-seeking "pretties." Anticipating this happy transformation, Tally meets Shay, another female ugly, who shares her enjoyment of hoverboarding and risky pranks. But Shay also disdains the false values and programmed conformity of the society and urges Tally to defect with her to the Smoke, a distant settlement of simple-living conscientious objectors. Tally declines, yet when Shay is found missing by the authorities, Tally is coerced by the cruel Dr. Cable to find her and her compatriots-or remain forever "ugly." Tally's adventuresome spirit helps her locate Shay and the Smoke. It also attracts the eye of David, the aptly named youthful rebel leader to whose attentions Tally warms. However, she knows she is living a lie, for she is a spy who wears an eye-activated locator pendant that threatens to blow the rebels' cover. Ethical concerns will provide a good source of discussion as honesty, justice, and free will are all oppressed in this well-conceived dystopia. Characterization, which flirts so openly with the importance of teen self-concept, is strong, and although lengthy, the novel is highly readable with a convincing plot that incorporates futuristic technologies and a disturbing commentary on our current public policies. Fortunately, the cliff-hanger ending promises a sequel.


Hunter, S.W. (2005). [Review of the book Uglies, by Scott Westerfeld]. School Library Journal, 51,3, 221.


Suggested Library Use
Because dystopian societies are a popular theme  amongst young adult books, this book could be used in a display for dystopian societies - including Hunger Games, City of Ember, The Giver, to name a few.  However, I would create this display to be more than "just a display."  I would create commercials for each book, or have students who have read them create the commercials, to have on a continual loop playing with the display of books.