There are two young protagonists an adolescent girl who narrates her portions in accessible free verse and the adolescent boy who seems destined to come first in the Tests that males must undergo, a mild form of the games so often featured in young adult dystopias. In this case, the tale is set in the Indian subcontinent, in the breakaway matriarchal enclave of Koyanagar (see Feminism Women in SF) where the historical gender imbalance between in India between male and female births has been countered through a matriarchal government where young females are valued very much more highly than young males, who outnumber them five to one. Email me if you’d like some for your library or classroom.(? - ) Canadian editor and author whose first novel, the Young Adult Near Future 5 to 1 ( 2015), sidesteps some of the pitfalls normally encountered in tales of this description set in Dystopian environments. SWAG – I have 5 TO 1 bookmarks, postcards, and magnets. Pinterest Board – See some of the images I used as inspiration for this book Interviews – Check the Interviews page for favorite quotes, character dossiers, and information about the setting for 5 TO 1. Although many are referred to in the book, this list itself is not part of it.

The Laws of Koyanagar – This is a list of the country’s laws.

Sample Chapter – Read the first chapter of 5 TO 1 or listen to Holly Bodger read it on SoundCloudĮducators’ Guide with Common Core Correlationsĥ TO 1 Glossary – A list of some of the terms used in the book. Released May 12, 2015 from Knopf.įree Novella – Read Surina’s perspective on the first day of her sister’s TestsĬoloring page – Printable black and white cover page from 5 TO 1 This beautiful, unique novel is told from alternating points of view-Sudasa’s in verse and Five’s in prose-allowing readers to feel both characters’ pain and grasps at hope. As the tests advance, each thwarts the other until they slowly realize that they might want the same thing. Five’s family wants him to escape by failing the tests.

Sudasa’s family wants nothing more than for their daughter to do the right thing and pick a husband who will keep her comfortable-and caged. Sudasa Singh doesn’t want to be a wife and Contestant Five, a boy competing to be her husband, has other plans as well. But after fighting so hard for freedom against the old ways of gender selection, these women have become just as deluded as their male predecessors. Tired of wedding their daughters to the highest bidder and determined to finally make marriage fair, the women of Koyanagar have instituted a series of tests so that every boy has the chance to win a wife. In the year 2054, after decades of gender selection, Koyanagar–a country severed from India–now has a ratio of five boys for every girl, and women are an incredibly valuable commodity.

5 to 1 by Holly Bodger