Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

2010, first published 1985  

This is a little curious.  The book feels right for a teen, yet the protagonist Ender is only six and the beginning of the story and eleven by the end.  He has to deal with a hostile world and he and older siblings Valentine and Peter between them take charge of this world though do not work cooperatively.  They all seem much older than their actual physical age.    

Ender is involved in practice battles. He is getting ready to fight the buggers, an alien insect-like race that threatens life on earth.  Then he is tricked into taking part in an actual battle where he annihilates the enemy.  He is manipulated by adults throughout. 

Ender is pushed to the limit. He has no real friends and no real contact with his family though is reconciled with Valentine at the end and does have some awkward contact with Peter. He also gains some insight into the species he has fought partly because of an interesting twist at the end of the novel.     

There is a lot of fighting and violence in which Ender is very involved yet we get to know him so well that we begin to understand.  

This is 326 pages long and presented in blocked text and a small font.

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