Price, Charlie. Desert Angel.

Price, Charlie.   Desert Angel.  Farrar Strauss see Macmillan Children's Pub Group,  2011.  236p.  $16.99   ISBN 978-0-374-31775-1     jr/sr E-BN  Realistic Fiction 

 Angel knows that she cannot stop running, because if she does, Scotty will catch up to her and try to  kill her. She believes she is at the end of her rope, when she gets help from the most unlikely place and unexpected group of people.  Angel lived with her mom, who was one of those women who believed she was no one unless she was with a man. Unfortunately the men she was attracted to were always men who abused her. Scotty was the worst of them. The fights were terrible and Angel sometimes had to go and sleep outside under the stars to get some rest. Now things have gotten out of control and Angel’s mom is dead. She found the grave. That frightens her because she knows Scotty will not let her live to tell anyone about it. That is when she runs for her life, with Scotty just one step behind her.
     Just when Angel feels like giving up and thinks about ending it herself, she encounters a group of people who are willing to risk their lives for her. This is new to Angel, who has no one; and even when she had her mom, Angel never came first in her mother’s life.
     This exciting, sit-on-the-edge-of your-seat novel will keep you reading until the very end. You can feel the pain this young teenager goes through and the loneliness she feels at losing her mother in the violent way she did.  The villain is so evil that the anxiety you feel waiting to see what happens just blows your mind.  This is an excellent novel about domestic abuse, rape, illegal immigrants and teens.                 

Subjects: Survival - Violence - Domestic Abuse - Mexican Americans -- Fiction

Magna Diaz

 

Kneece, Mark. The monsters are due on Maple Street: Rod Serling’s the Twilight Zone

Kneece, Mark. The monsters are due on Maple Street: Rod Serling’s the Twilight Zone
(Rich Ellis - Illustrator)
Walker & Co 2009 9.99 9780802797131 ms/hs

Rod Sterling's Twilight Zone (Walker) A mysterious flash in the sky causes a power outage on a small country street. All the residents come out and congregate to talk about what to do, but darkness has a way of bringing out the fear in people. One night a strange flash in the sky made everyone go to their windows wondering what it was. Then the lights went out and all was dark. The neighbors ran out of their houses frightened and wanting information about the events. All wondered but few moved to check the surrounding areas. Their fear had immobilized them. Joking became serious talk about monsters and aliens. Neighbors that were strange began to seem like from another planet, eccentricities became part of being an alien. Noises in the dark became magnified and fear brought out the meanness and suspicious minds of humans. Guns appeared, bats, and sticks.... then violence!

Everyone in this quiet neighborhood, one cool and dark evening stepped into the twilight zone. MD