Running Scared. (series: Cap Central, book 2)

McGill, Leslie.  Running Scared. (series: Cap Central, book 2)  Saddleback  2014    141p  $9.95 ISBN 978-1-62250-706-1  ms/hs Realistic fiction, Hi-lo    VG     

Cap Central High School is a typical inner-city high school.  In the second in the series about Cap Central students, Rainie decides not eating will make her lose weight quickly and make her less desirable to her mother’s boyfriend.  No overt sexual content appears, just the sense of uneasiness and inappropriate comments made by the man to Rainie.  She is a talented student whose grades begin to suffer as she finds any excuse to stay away from home, from working long hours at the yogurt shop to going running to burn off any calories she may have consumed from her meager meals.  Her friends are aware that she is changing, as her appearance deteriorates, she dresses in multiple layers to hide her thinness, and her grades plummet because she has no place nor time to study.  

The hi/lo appeal for those struggling with reading is that the topic is timely and believable.  Once a reader completes this book, he or she can continue reading others in the series that focus on other students, male and female, at Cap High.  Characters overlap from one book to the next, leading the reader to become familiar with many different characters and the difficulties they face while trying to get an education in a sometimes violent environment.     The problems faced by the students are believable and of interest to teenagers.      

Summary: Rainie has been losing weight, hoping to derail the interest being paid to her by her mother’s boyfriend.  Friends take the lead in making her confront her problems at home as well as with her weight. Hi/lo fiction about inner-city high-school life. Gr. 8-12. 

High-school life-Fiction, Anorexia-Fiction                  --Lois McNicol