Have you re-visited Matched-Book.com lately? It’s been re-done a bit and now features all three covers for the MATCHED Trilogy. Not only is it pretty, we also found the discussion guide for MATCHED and CROSSED that can be used in classrooms and book clubs, or even if you just want to read it a bit more in depth with a guide!

Check out the MATCHED & CROSSED discussion guide here in PDF form.

Death and survival is cleverly entwined with love and longing, this book pulled all my heartstrings at once, with the sadness linked to war but also the devastating backgrounds we find many of these characters have had to go through. Once again, Ally Condie has created a masterpiece and this book will definitely be added to my top ten.

For the rest of Georgina Phillipson’s review, head over to Spinebreakers for more

CROSSED has been chosen to be included in the Winter 2011-2012 Kid’s Indie Next List as a book for teenage readers!

Ally Condie has updated her website with her CROSSED playlist.

Let us know what your favorite song is for a chance to win a MATCHED prize pack, including a MATCHED paperback, buttons and a poster!
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Contest details:

Contest is open to anyone ages 13 and up. Contest closes Sunday, November 27 at 8:00 PM PST and winner will be chosen using random.org. Winner will be announced Sunday, November at 10:00PM PST. If we don’t hear back from the winner within 48 hours a new winner will be randomly chosen and notified.

My Fives Lists (Because It’s Way Too Hard to Come up with Hundreds)

“Did you make a list of all the Hundreds?” people ask after they’ve read MATCHED. They sometimes seem surprised when I tell them, “No.” I haven’t made those lists because they wouldn’t be my lists—I would choose very different things than the Society would. I can’t imagine anything more tedious than trying to come up with the lists that a dystopian government would make. But, it’s been very fun coming up with a few lists of my own—books and songs and paintings that I would just have to keep. (Although now that I look at it, I do have one painting on my own list that the Society chose for theirs as well. So maybe I should go ahead and put together the Hundreds! )

These are my current favorites—I do change from time to time—but for the most part, these pieces of art are ones that I’ve loved for years. I’ve listed them in no particular order—I love each of the five on each list equally.

Top Five Books
1. Saint Maybe by Anne Tyler
2. Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
3. The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
4. Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin
5. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

Top Five Songs
1. Empty by Ray La Montagne
2. The Ghost of Tom Joad by Bruce Springsteen
3. Captain of a Shipwreck by Neil Diamond
4. Downbound Train by Bruce Springsteen
5. Dustland Fairytale by The Killers

Top Five Paintings
1. Chasm of the Colorado by Thomas Moran
2. Office in a Small City by Edward Hopper
3. Widows and Orphans, by Kathe Kollwitz
4. Water at the Temple of Sinawava by Jim Jones
5. A painting of my children done by my mother, Arlene Braithwaite

With the exception of the painting my mother did of my kids, you can find information about all of these artists and their work online. Sometimes, I can’t believe how lucky we are to have so many beautiful things in the world. Can you?

A former English teacher (who still keeps her license current, just in case!), she lives with her husband and three sons outside of Salt Lake City, Utah. She loves reading, writing, running, and listening to her husband play guitar.

You can learn more about the MATCHED trilogy at the official MATCHED website.

On today’s blog tour Ally Condie talks about the artwork in CROSSED at Novel Novice!