Card, O. S. (1985). Ender's
game. New York , NY
Reading Level: 780L
Interest Level: Grades 9 – 12
After rejecting both his siblings, the powers that be select
Ender Wiggins to attend prestigious battle school. Ender's brother, evil Peter, is jealous; sweet sister Valentine concerned. We can assume his parents are simultaneously disappointed and relieved - there's a lot of social disapproval for having a Third. In Card's future world, zero population growth requires a maximum of two offspring. It was only because TPTB were desperate that they allowed Ender's parents a third child. After Ender arrives at battle school however, it's quickly made clear that evil as apparent as Peter's exists in some of the school's students, so why exclude Peter or Valentine? This is never addressed... apparently, only Ender's parents were required to deliver perfect offspring. Over the course of the
novel, Ender is groomed to become the ultimate military asset, and, like a good soldier, he is not afraid to cut down those who threaten him. Ender is almost
too perfect as a protagonist – his only flaws seem to be that he is too good, and this makes various one-dimensional jerks jealous. Multiple antagonists crowd this work, including the
possibly-benevolent Sergeant Graff, the maybe-redeemable Peter, the reprehensible Bonzo
(and other bullies), and the mysterious Buggers. As a reader, waiting for
Ender’s fall from grace created the most suspense – but it never happens. He
accidentally-on-purpose seriously injures three schoolmates (one fatally) and
inadvertently commits genocide, but he never loses even one battle, so, success! The book
won both the Nebula Award and the Hugo Award, but might be problematic in the
classroom due to the total glorification of violence and the use of several racial
epithets, including that really bad word which we do not say ever. There are also a lot of jovial school boy nudity, including some dancing genitals... which is sort of notable because of the whole Orson Scott Card homophobe thing.
