Dashner, James.
THE MAZE RUNNER
New York : Delacorte, 2009
IL YA
ISBN 0385737947

(5 booktalks)

Thomas arrives in the Glade in an elevator. He knows his name but all his other memories have been erased. He finds himself with a group of boys like himself. None have any memories of the outside world or the life they led before the Glade. The boys have created their own society. Some are farmers, some are butchers and others are maze runners. The Glade is surrounded by a giant maze and the boys are trying to solve the puzzle and find a way out. Things run like clockwork in the Glade. Each morning the doors to the maze open and the runners battle beasts and try to figure out an escape route. One day everything changes when a girl arrives in the elevator. Thomas feels a connection to her, but he can't say why. She is holding a note that tells the boys the end is near. This is an exciting science fiction novel that depicts a brutal dystopian society with resourceful kids trying to survive. It’s a real page turner and the first of a planned trilogy. (Patty McClune)  (Pennsylvania Young Reader's Choice Award nominee, 2011)

Booktalk #2

My name is Thomas. That's all I can remember. I ask them: Where am I? They tell me: Nowhere good.

When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his first name. His memory is blank. But he's not alone. When the lifts doors open, Thomas finds himself surrounded by kids who welcome him to the Glade--a large, open expanse surrounded by stone walls.
Just like Thomas, the Gladers don't know why or how they got to the Glade. All they know is that every morning the stone doors to the maze that surrounds them have opened. Every night they've closed tight. And every 30 days a new boy has been delivered in the lift.
Thomas was expected. But the next day, a girl is sent up--the first girl to ever arrive in the Glade. And more surprising yet is the message she delivers.

Thomas might be more important than he could ever guess. If only he could unlock the strange secrets buried within his mind.

(Booktalk by Kirsten Edwards, King County Library system)  (Washington Evergreen YA Book Award)

Booktalk #3

Thomas wakes up in a box with no memory and no idea what's going on.  But the box is moving and he is raised up into a compound and a large group of boys about his age are watching him.  Turns out they are all in the same situation - no memories, no knowledge of themselves beyond their names - and they are trapped in a giant maze.  If they stay in the compound, they're safe from the monsters that roam the maze.  The fastest of them spend their days running as far as possible in an attempt to map the maze and find the way out.  Thomas is just learning about this world when the box drops off the biggest surprise of all - a girl.  (Book Talk Author: Jenna Obee, The Colorado Blue Spruce Award nominee 2012)

Booktalk #4

Thomas arrives to the Glade in a solid metal Box; as the doors open to release him to the crowd of teenaged boys, he states his name.  That is all he remembers.
The Glade, and the Gladers who live there, are surrounded by a Maze--every day eight Runners enter the Maze, looking for a solution.  Every night the Runners escape back to the Glade just before the doors are shut, keeping the monstrous, lethal Grievers who live in the Maze from attacking the Gladers.  So it has gone for two years, until one day, the Box arrives unexpectedly.  And this time, it delivers a girl, who comes bearing a mysterious message.

Things start to change after she arrives, and it becomes clear to Thomas that the Gladers are running out of time to solve the Maze.  His memories itch at his mind, reminding him that what he knew before included the key to solving the puzzle.  He knows the only way out is to unlock those memories, but how?  And how many Gladers will have to die before Thomas figures it out?  (Book Talk Author: Kristin Grabarek Roper, The Colorado Blue Spruce Award nominee 2012)

Booktalk #5

The first book in a new dystopian trilogy introduces Thomas, who is an amnesiac thrust into the center of an enormous maze name the Glade where other teenage boys are struggling to survive.  The boys arrive at the Glade through an empty freight elevator and have no memory of who they are or how they got there. Outside the Glade technological monsters called Grievers are lurking. Each day the boys send out Runners who are looking for a way out through the maze that surrounds their oasis of safety. Each night they must lock themselves into the Glade so that the marauding Grievers can’t kill them. As Thomas, who becomes a maze runner, struggles to adjust to this foreign world, the group’s leader tells him, "Old life's over, new life's begun. Learn the rules quick.” Then the elevator delivers a comatose girl who triggers something in Thomas’s memory. Attached to her is a message which says no more food or supplies will be delivered and she will be the last teen sent. The boys realize that it’s now or never. The Maze must be solved before supplies run out and the Grievers attack. When readers finish this exciting dystopian thriller, they can dive right into the sequel, The Scorch Trials.  (Book Talk Author: Sharon Nehls, The Colorado Blue Spruce Award nominee 2012)