BLURB:
In order to develop a secure defense against a hostile alien race's next attack, government agencies breed child geniuses and train them as soldiers. A brilliant young boy, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin lives with his kind but distant parents, his sadistic brother Peter, and the person he loves more than anyone else, his sister Valentine. Peter and Valentine were candidates for the soldier-training program but didn't make the cut—young Ender is the Wiggin drafted to the orbiting Battle School for rigorous military training.
Ender's skills make him a leader in school and respected in the Battle Room, where children play at mock battles in zero gravity. Yet growing up in an artificial community of young soldiers Ender suffers greatly from isolation, rivalry from his peers, pressure from the adult teachers, and an unsettling fear of the alien invaders. His psychological battles include loneliness, fear that he is becoming like the cruel brother he remembers, and fanning the flames of devotion to his beloved sister.
Is Ender the general Earth needs? But Ender is not the only result of the genetic experiments. The war with the Buggers has been raging for a hundred years, and the quest for the perfect general has been underway for almost as long. Ender's two older siblings are every bit as unusual as he is, but in very different ways. Between the three of them lie the abilities to remake a world. If, that is, the world survives.
Ender's Game is the winner of the 1985 Nebula Award for Best Novel and the 1986 Hugo Award for Best Novel.
This is an awesome book to teach. I used this as one of my summer reading books for my incoming ninth advanced students, and I had a lot of success with it because it was a book that they would actually read. The writing is awesome, and the characters are kids, really smart kids.
Here are some of the reasons I enjoy teaching this book so much:
1. Hero's Journey: The story has a great hero's journey arc, which is an archetype we emphasized in our freshman classes. Students are able to see it pretty clearly and begin to recognize it in other texts as well.
2. Character Development: Several characters in this novel have great development. Pay close attention to Ender, but also Peter, Valentine, Petra, and Bean.
3. Themes: Alienation, Coming-of-Age, Leadership, Technology, Friendship, Morality, Survival, Manipulation--I could go on.
4. Allusions: There are tons of historical and biblical allusions.
3. Science Fiction: This is also an opportunity to introduce students to the science fiction drama which, IMHO, is terribly neglected in the ELA classroom. Card has won numerous awards for his writing and this book is one of his best. Additionally, there is a series for students who want to continue in the Enderverse. Card also has a companion series. The novel Ender's Shadow is an interesting text which occurs during basically the same time frame as Ender's Game only from the point of view of one of the secondary characters, Bean.
WARNING: The author, Orson Scott Card, is a Mormon and has made some problematic statements about the LGBTQ community. However, that is not seen in the books.
You can find my Ender's Game unit here.
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