Summer Challenge Reading #6: Body Modification- Some Suggestions for teens

Some books that teen readers may find of interest, particularly for challenge #6 in our Summer Reading Challenge - body modification.

Scott Westerfeld's Trilogy of books dealing with body image, the idealisation of perfection and environmental issues are ready made for those interested in the way society is fixated on how people look rather than the substance of who they are. 12+

Neal Shusterman's Unwind is a gripping tale of survival which also deals with body modification, in this case transplantation. The story is set in a world where teenagers can be unwound ie all their body parts harvested and stored for use by those more deserving. Neal Shusterman challenges readers' ideas about life - not just where it begins and where it ends, but what it truly means to be alive. 12+

Kazu Ishiguro's book was shortlisted for the 2005 Booker Prize, the 2006 Arthur C Clark Award and was Time magazine's 2005 best novel of the year. Set in a dystopian Britain in which human beings are cloned to provide donor organs for transplant. This book is about love, friendship and memory.

Dean Kootz's Watchers also deals with body modification, in this case that of a dog to give it near human intelligence by government research. The same lab also created a hybrid monster known as "The Outsider", which is loose and hunting the dog... and capable of following it by a psychological link that binds them even over hundreds of miles. Dean Kootz's books are classed as horror and strictly for those 14+ but are immensely readable and compelling.