Reply #7: I agree with your take on THG.

[LWolf]

The third WAS dark. While I think I would have liked a different outcome, I think it was more realistic the way it was written.

Our after-school book club last year devoured the first, insisted on the second, and gnashed their teeth because the 3rd wasn't available yet. I gave them a copy, to be delivered in late August, as an end-of-year gift. We all read it in a few days and emailed our discussion.

A book is pretty powerful when adolescents want to read over the summer AND talk about it with, not just their peers, but their teacher.

My principal this year is a former high school lit teacher. He came in to chat about what's hot in middle school, and I pointed him to THG. He hasn't read it yet. His wife took it away from him, finished it, and got the other two from the public library.

I don't use your series with my class, since it's considered too "mature" for middle schoolers and I'd get parent complaints for recommending a book with sexual content. Of course, many parents wouldn't care, but many isn't all. My students do get to choose their own reading material for homework reading, and I have mentioned them once or twice to 8th grade in passing. Two of the 8th graders read them and loved them because they heard me say they might like them next year when they were in high school. ;)