A score of 97 will get you a full ride scholarship to the college of your choice where you can pursue your dream job. You still have the possibility for a job in child care or health services with a score of 70. However, if you have only managed to score a 40 by the time you’ve graduated high school, you have basically no options.
Members in the poor town of Somerton must live by these standards in a world where every move you make is monitored by cameras and then translated into a tangible score by the software company Score Corp. Imani learns the hard way that while it’s easy for your score to drop drastically from a 96, it is near impossible to quickly rise back up.
When her best friend makes a “score negative” choice, Imani must choose whether to support her friend, or go for the score. This quick moving but thoughtful novel raises questions of fairness, surveillance technology, and the price of success. Scored is recommended for fans of dystopian science fiction such as M.T. Anderson’s Feed or George Orwell’s 1984.
226 pages Ages 14 and up
Recommended by Carrie Shaurette, New York City Librarian USA
*******
In the near dystopian future, your future life will depend on the citizen score that you obtain in school. Imani LeMonde has been in the 90’s all of her school years. She is now a senior and is so close to being able to attend the college of her choice. Her best friend Cady’s score drops dramatically and she becomes a liability for Imani.
When they were younger they had made a pact that no matter what their scores, they would always remain friends. But when their scores become so far apart Imani has to decide if it is worth continuing their friendship? As Imani is trying to come to terms with Cady and their friendship she is in a school class with Diego McLune, an unscored. Their history teacher wants them all to enter into a contest for a college scholarship. Only the topic is: the “unscored” students will write essays defending ScoreCorp’s methods, and the scored students will do the opposite.
Then Diego wants them to work together on their assignment. That alone could send Imani’s score plummeting downward. The whole idea of ScoreCorp is that by assigning scores it creates equality for all. It doesn’t matter if you are poor or rich, and it will equalize the social groups. But instead Imani sees it pushing them apart. As Imani tries to come to an understanding of what is really going on around her she can see that maybe everything isn’t as equal and fair as she has always been taught.
At times it seems to be a little much on narration about equality and testing to see who fits where but it also makes you think about current day things like No Child Left Behind and the financial situations that most schools are in today.
ISBN: 9780375867910 227 pages Mature readers (ages 14 & up)
Recommended by: Joleen Waltman, Librarian, Idaho USA
