World Reads is a blog that features children’s books set overseas. Sometimes an adult world book sneaks in but for the most part World Reads aims to help kids, their parents, teachers, and librarians find books set outside of the United States.
From the publisher:
Part Homeless Bird and part Matched, this is a dark look at the near future told through the alternating perspectives of two teens who dare to challenge the system.
In the year 2054, after decades of gender selection, India now has a ratio of five boys for every girl, making women an incredibly valuable commodity. Tired of marrying off their daughters to the highest bidder and determined to finally make marriage fair, the women who form the country of Koyanagar have instituted a series of tests so that every boy has the chance to win a wife.
Sudasa, though, doesn’t want to be a wife, and Five, a boy forced to compete in the test to become her husband, has other plans as well. As the tests advance, Sudasa and Five thwart each other at every turn until they slowly realize that they just might want the same thing.
This beautiful, unique novel is told from alternating points of view–Sudasa’s in verse and Five’s in prose–allowing readers to experience both characters’ pain and their brave struggle for hope.
