Contaminated by Em Garner

I recently saw a documentary called "Fed Up" that talks about the amount of sugar in the diet of Americans.  Much of this comes from sugary drinks.  My family and I decided to give up drinking soda and other things with artificial sweeteners, pretty much everything except water.  If I hadn't done that already, I would consider it after reading this book.  In Contaminated, ThinPro is a diet drink that has protein in it and those that drink it become aggressive and savage after the animal protein used becomes contaminated with something like "mad cow" disease.  Velvet and her sister Opal have lost both parents to this contamination, but continue to search for their mother when the government allows the contaminated to return to their families after they have been "neutralized" with either a lobotomy or a shock collar.  I love Velvet, she is strong and capable and not whiney.  She knows what needs to be done to take care of her sister and she does it.  Opal is supposed to be 10 in the story, but she seems to act a bit younger than that because she is still throwing temper tantrums.  This is a great book, and I can see that it may be leading to a sequel, at least I hope it will.  (I will watch for that in the future)