The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams
Why I Checked It Out: Because I am trying to read something other than dystopian fiction.
Why I Liked It: You are engulfed from the first page in deft storytelling. I read this book in two hours; it is a fast and transfixing story about 13-year-old Kyra who is one of 19 siblings in her father’s and three mothers’ family. She has only known a simple, but strict life, on her home compound with the Apostles and the Prophet Childs. All of that changes when a bookmobile driver stops alongside the road and opens Kyra’s world with his “forbidden, immoral” books. Kyra dreams of something more, but cannot imagine leaving her family until a series of events force her to make hard choices. The Chosen One is a beautifully tragic and realistically described story of a girl who loves her family, loves a boy, and loves to read in a world where these things cannot coexist.
Gateway Mondays is a weekly series in which we feature staff book reviews of this year’s Gateway Award Finalists. Learn more about this Missouri teen choice award.
