ISBN: 0812550706
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
Copyright Date: 1977, 1991 for introduction
Genre: Science Fiction
About the Author:
Orson Scott Card is the author of the novels Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow, and Speaker for the Dead, which are widely read by adults and younger readers, and are increasingly used in schools. His most recent series, the young adult Pathfinder series (Pathfinder, Ruins, Visitors) and the fantasy Mithermages series (Lost Gate, Gate Thief, Gatefather) are taking readers in new directions.
Card was born in Washington and grew up in California, Arizona, and Utah. He served a mission for the LDS Church in Brazil in the early 1970s. Besides his writing, he teaches occasional classes and workshops and directs plays. He frequently teaches writing and literature courses at Southern Virginia University.
Card currently lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, with his wife, Kristine Allen Card, where his primary activities are writing a review column for the local Rhinoceros Times and feeding birds, squirrels, chipmunks, possums, and raccoons on the patio.
Card, O. S. About Orson Scott Card. http://www.hatrack.com/osc/about.shtml
Curriculum Ties:
• Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.
• Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it (e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise.
• Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.
Plot Summary:
The story is set in a future where the world has united in response to an attempted invasion by aliens, called “buggers” by the characters. To combat future invasions, the government has established a powerful military force, and trains commanders from a young age. Ender, a child genius, is chosen to join this Battle School, where he learns more about military tactics by playing zero gravity combat games with different units. During this training, it becomes clear that Ender is special even among other geniuses, and he is given greater and greater challenges, such as becoming the commander of his own unit. The story not only chronicles his own physical and mental challenges, but also his emotional turmoil as he struggles with his past, his older brother’s bullying, and the increasing load that he carries in school. The book revolves around the question of whether Ender will be able to take the load, or will he break before he has the chance to save the world.
Critical Evaluation:
The main character, Ender, is a very vivid and complex one. We get to see him introduced in a number of situations and see how he responds to them. The beginning of the book is a good example, where Ender beats a kid who was bullying him, because he needs to, but feels terrible about it because he didn’t want to do it. This is the general theme for the entire story, with Ender doing what he must but not liking it at all. Unfortunately, the story spends so much time fleshing out Ender as not a bad kid, that all the other characters aren’t fully explored. Bean is a character that is also established as being very intelligent, but is not explored much beyond this. The exception to this is Valentine, who has her own subplot. The tone of the book is darker, as befits a book about teaching kids to kill each people. Ender is constantly depressed, and things look bad for him at all times. However, the tone and lack of complex supporting characters works for this story, as it is about Ender’s development, so the focus on him makes sense.
Readers Annotation:
Ender is a child genius, and is requested to join Battle School in order to fight aliens. However, what sounds like every boy’s dream becomes a nightmare as Ender undergoes training, bullying, and has to think his way out of every problem before he breaks.
Book Talking Ideas:
• Do the ends justify the means? Are the things done to Ender and that Ender does okay because they give the desired result?
• How does family help/hurt us? How does Ender feel about his family members and how does this change?
Reading Level/Interest Age: 11-15
Challenge Issues:
• Violence: The main character murders two other characters as a child, and the book revolves around teaching children to fight.
Defense Collection:
• A rather one-dimensional but mostly satisfying child-soldier yarn which substantially extends and embellishes one of Card's better short stories (Unaccompanied Sonata and Other Stories, 1980). Following a barely-defeated invasion attempt by the insect-like alien "buggers," a desperate Earth command resorts to genetic experimentation in order to produce a tactical genius capable of defeating the buggers in round two. (A counterinvasion has already been launched, but will take years to reach the buggers' home planet.) So likable but determined "Ender " Wiggins, age six, becomes Earth's last hope--when his equally talented elder siblings Peter (too vicious and vindictive) and Valentine (too gentle and sympathetic) prove unsuitable. And, in a dramatic, brutally convincing series of war games and computer-fantasies, Ender is forced to realize his military genius, to rely on nothing and no-one but himself. . . and to disregard all rules in order to win. There are some minor, distracting side issues here: wrangles among Ender's adult trainers; an irrelevant subplot involving Peter's attempt to take over Earth. And there'll be no suspense for those familiar with the short story. Still, the long passages focusing on Ender are nearly always enthralling--the details are handled with flair and assurance--and this is altogether a much more solid, mature, and persuasive effort than Card's previous full-length appearances. (Kirkus Reviews, January 1, 1984)
• Awards:
o Hugo Awards: Best Novel
o Nebula Awards: Best Novel
o YALSA 100 Best Books (1950-2000)
o YALSA Outstanding Books for the College Bound - Fiction: 1999
o YALSA Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults: Book to Movie: Ripped From the Pages (2015)
• Freedom to Read Statement
• ALA Library Bill of Rights
• Springville Public Library Collection Development Policy
o The Library Director and designated staff actively evaluate and select materials. The Springville Public Library Board, acting under the authority given to it by Title 4, Chapter 6 of the Springville Municipal Code and Title 09 of the Utah State Code, has the ultimate responsibility for the determination of the policies for selection and acquisition of materials.
o Library materials are selected based on the following (not necessarily in order of priority):
Local public demand and usage potential
Popularity
Subject coverage
Relevance
Accuracy and currency
Presentation, readability and format
Point of view (all sides)
Cost
Local connection
Social values
Collection balance
To assess the item based on the above criteria, staff utilize:
Nationally recognized and relevant pre-publication reviews
Staff expertise
Bestseller lists
Patron recommendations and requests
Reliable social media reviews
Purpose in Collection:
Orson Scott Card is a popular author in the area, not in the least because he is an LDS author, and that is very fun for many readers in Utah. The book “Ender’s Game” is also well regarded, with multiple awards, and is a book read in schools. As such, it is a good addition to the collection for both readers unfamiliar to it, and adults returning to read it again.
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