Books I Am Reading Or Have Read: "Divergent"

Divergent.  I remember when I was in college talking about students being convergent and divergent thinkers.  I immediately thought about my middle son.   When he was in kindergarten,  his class had done something different for Show and Tell one week.  Instead of bringing an item to school, they were to think of an item that started with the letter of the week and act it out for all of the other children to guess what they were thinking of.  The letter was "D" and, of course, most of the students acted out being a dog and other usual things that began with the letter "D".  Then, it was David's turn.  The teacher said he got on his hands and knees, placed his head and hands out in front of him and made a buzzing noise while running his hands along the floor.  Well, try as they might, no one (including the teacher) could determine what he was acting out.  When they finally gave up, he told them that he was a Dustbuster!  Yep, that said something about him and me.  I was apparently constantly cleaning up messes with the Dustbuster and he was...a "divergent" thinker.

Most people these days encourage children to be divergent thinkers.  To think outside the box, embrace their uniqueness.  And, that, is exactly the opposite of what happens in the new "Divergent Series" by Veronica Roth.  In this futuristic novel, the human race is divided into four different factions.  In each faction the members are all alike.  They dress alike and they think alike.  It is easy for the government to control its members and have a more orderly society when they know how to behave.  Whenever an individual turn sixteen years old, they are required to take a test that determines if they are best suited to stay in the faction they have grown up in or move into another faction.  There are usually not any problems where that is concerned...until someone is found to be "divergent".

I won't tell you any more about this book but I can tell you that it was hard for me to put it down.  And the best thing is that this is only book 1 of a 3 book series.  "Divergent" is followed by "Insurgent" and "Allegiant" (Oh, how I LOVE a new book series!).  But hurry and get started on "Divergent" because when I was at the theater the other day I saw a preview for the movie that will be coming out in March.  And you know my self-imposed rule about that; I MUST read the book first!