Team Future: Student Open-Choice

Sponsor(s): Ryder Brammer (Gr. 11), Julia Knight (Gr. 11), Mr. Moylan (Inclusive Education)

Format(s): Any

Select your own Team Future? title! It can be science fiction, dystopian....

If you need a title suggestion, ask your librarians or visit morvenlibrary.org.

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes: Series Book 0 by Suzanne Collins (2020)

Sponsor(s): Isabelle Ai (Gr. 11), Easton Bruce (Gr. 11), Mr. Waters (Educational Risk Manager)

Format(s): print, Sora e-book, Sora audiobook

Ambition will fuel him. Competition will drive him. But power has its price.

Before he was the tyrannical President Snow, eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow was just a student desperate to save his family’s fading legacy. The 10th annual Hunger Games are about to begin, and he’s been assigned a "humiliating" task: mentoring the girl from District 12, the absolute bottom of the barrel.

Enter Lucy Gray Baird. She’s a performer who captivates the Capitol, and suddenly, Coriolanus sees a path to glory. But as the games turn into a literal bloodbath, the line between playing the mentor and falling for his tribute starts to blur.

In a world where you’re either the predator or the prey, he has to decide if he’s willing to become a monster to reach the top. This is the origin story of a villain, and it proves that the most dangerous games aren’t always played in the arena.

The Hunger Games: Series Book 1 by Suzanne Collins (2008)

Sponsor(s): Bentley Buxton (Gr. 11), Armaan Virani (Gr. 11), Teo Yassin (Gr. 11), Ms. Howe (English)

Format(s): print, Sora e-book, Sora audiobook

In the dystopian ruins of Panem, the Capitol stays in power through a sick tradition: forcing two teens from every district to fight to the death on a live reality show. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen isn't looking for fame; she’s just trying to save her sister. When she volunteers to take Prim’s place, everyone assumes it’s a death sentence.

But Katniss is a survivor. With her bow in hand and a "take-no-prisoners" attitude, she quickly becomes the girl to watch. As the arena shrinks and the body count rises, she’s forced to make impossible choices. To win, does she have to lose her humanity? And what happens when the only way to stay alive is to pretend to be in love with someone who might have to kill her?

This is the ultimate survival story where the biggest threat isn't just the other tributes—it’s the game itself.

The Martian by Andy Weir (2011) FULL

Sponsor(s): So Kinoshita (Gr. 10), Jacky Luan (Gr. 10), Mr. Jones (Principal, Senior School)

Format(s): print and Sora e-book

Mark Watney just made history as one of the first people on Mars. The downside? He’s about to be the first person to die there.

After a brutal dust storm forces his crew to evacuate, Mark is left stranded, totally alone, and presumed dead. He has no way to call for backup, and his food is running out fast. But Mark isn't just going to lie down and let the "Red Planet" win.

Armed with nothing but high-level engineering skills and a legendary sense of humor, he’s determined to "science the sh*t" out of his survival. From growing potatoes in Martian soil to fixing broken tech with literal duct tape, it’s a high-stakes, one-man mission to beat impossible odds. It’s the ultimate survival story for anyone who’s ever had to wing it under pressure.

Project Hail Mary by  Andy Weir (2021) FULL

Sponsor(s): Nika Haghi (Gr. 10), Finn Jones (Gr. 10), Ms. Kovesi (Math)

Format(s): print and Sora e-book

Ryland Grace just woke up in the ultimate nightmare: he’s millions of miles from Earth, his crewmates are dead, and he has zero memory of how he got there. He doesn't even know his own name.

As his memories slowly glitch back into place, he realizes he’s the sole survivor of a last-ditch mission to save humanity from total extinction. No pressure, right? With the clock ticking and the nearest human light-years away, Ryland has to use his genius to solve an impossible interstellar mystery.

But as he puzzles out the science of survival, he realizes he might not be as alone as he thought. If you loved the high-stakes vibes of The Martian, get ready—this is a wild, "save-the-world" space odyssey where the fate of the planet depends on one guy who can’t even remember his favoUrite cereal.

From The Globe & Mail, April 14, 2026 "5 Books to Fill the Post-Artemis 2 Void" (access through morvenlibrary.org)

All Systems Red: The Murderbot Diaries Book 1 by Martha Wells (2020)

Sponsor(s): Ms. Lau (Head of Entrepreneurship)

Format(s): print, Sora e-book, Sora audiobook

“As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure.”

Meet Murderbot: a self-aware security android that just hacked its own brain to override its "murder" programming. In a future where greedy corporations run the galaxy, most bots are mindless tools, but this one has a secret. It doesn’t want to go on a rampage; it mostly just wants to be left alone to binge-watch space soap operas and avoid awkward human eye contact.

But when a nearby mission goes dark and things get dangerous for its team of scientists, Murderbot has to step up. It’s a fast-paced, snarky adventure about a machine trying to find its soul while dealing with the most annoying species in the universe: humans.