Gr 7-10 Ms. Hart, a tenth-grade English teacher and recent transplant from New York City to Los Angeles, assigns her class of nine students a writing assignment, to be completed in two weeks: "If you could get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for anything that you're good at, for anything good that you've done or plan to do, what would it be for?" Then in brief, alternating chapters, each character's story unfolds. Marlon is a basketball star who has something to prove to his older brother. Shante is falling for a white boy and facing pressure from family and friends. Gus is small in stature and shy until he gets to know MJ, whose extra weight has been hiding her bright mind. Dorian, the class clown, doesn't want the life his Pops modeled for him. The themes will seem familiar to most teens, but the voices are somewhat uneven with some passages naive or clichéd and others filled with invective and searing emotion. The book ends with the students' essays and leaves an impression of hopefulness that is perhaps unrealistic. Short chapters and the high school setting may make this an attractive choice for reluctant readers, but the characters and story lines are unlikely to be remembered for long.-"Karen Elliott, Grafton High School, WI" Copyright 2010 Media Source Inc.
The students in a tenth-grade creative writing class reveal their lives beyond their Los Angeles classroom. Issues they deal with include immigration, racism, sexual assault, illness and injury, poverty, and insecurity. The short chapters, told in alternating narration, are effective in providing a slice-of-life peek at each teen's reality and their interactions with classmates and others.
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