Next year two popular young adult novels will be released in theaters. Now is a good time to read the books before you see the films. Why? Because only in the book do you get a full sense of the story. Movies are mostly only able to provoke an emotional response in the viewer. In a book you can get inside the mind of the main character(s) and see what motivates them. It’s sort of like the difference between merely passing by someone on the street whom you’ve never met (a movie), or sitting down across from someone and getting to know them personally (a book).

The first book I want to highlight is Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. The book hit the #1 spot on the New York Times Bestseller List and remained there for 52 consecutive weeks. The movie version is directed by none other than Tim Burton.

From Amazon.com, a brief synopsis of the peculiar tale:

A mysterious island.

An abandoned orphanage.

A strange collection of very curious photographs.

It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow—impossible though it seems—they may still be alive. 

A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows.

The second book title that will be released in theaters in 2016 is also a New York Times Bestseller, The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey. This is not your ordinary alien invasion novel. Don’t think of H.G. Wells’ classic novel War of the Worlds. Yancey’s aliens are aloof, carrying on a war against mankind by attacking without making their identity known, and making it hard to fight against an enemy you can’t even see.

Amazon.com’s synopsis of Yancey’s new twist on alien invaders from outer space:

After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, only the unlucky survive. After the 4th wave, only one rule applies: trust no one.

Now, it’s the dawn of the 5th wave, and on a lonely stretch of highway, Cassie runs from Them. The beings who only look human, who roam the countryside killing anyone they see. Who have scattered Earth’s last survivors. To stay alone is to stay alive, Cassie believes, until she meets Evan Walker. Beguiling and mysterious, Evan Walker may be Cassie’s only hope for rescuing her brother–or even saving herself. But Cassie must choose: between trust and despair, between defiance and surrender, between life and death. To give up or to get up.

Be sure to stop by Toole County Library and read these two books before you see the movies next year!