Realistic Fiction from our Book Groups

A lot of the reading I do is in preparation for our teen book discussion groups, so here are short reviews of three titles that have sparked interesting discussions lately. Don't forget to click on the book cover to look for an available library copy!


Lemonade Mouth by Mark Peter Hughes

After five bored freshmen start randomly singing and playing along with a radio commercial during detention, they decide to put their diverse musical talents together to form an avant-garde pop band. As social outcasts, they name their band after the equally outcast frozen lemonade machine at their school. Somehow their blend of ukelele, bass, trumpet, congas, and singing gains them a cult following and propels them to local stardom. But is it really possible to transcend your school's accepted social order without some kind of backlash?


The Last Chance Texaco by Brent Hartinger

At 15, Lucy Pitt has landed in a foster care group home that is the last stop before juvie. She's been in state care for eight years, so she does her best to be inconspicuous in her new home and school. However, her hot temper and sharp sense of justice get her noticed in both places. A fight on the first day of school lands her a long string of after-school trash duty with her tormentor, one of the most popular guys in school. And when she starts breaking house rules to investigate suspicious fires in her neighborhood, she puts not only herself, but the entire group home, in danger.

Evolution, Me, and Other Freaks of Nature by Robin Brande

Mina was just trying to do the right thing when she wrote the letter. But, in trying to apologize to a classmate, she got herself completely ostracized by her church and its youth group. When that same youth group mounts a campaign against the teaching of evolution in her science class, Mina finds herself the object of ridicule, scorn, and harassment as she tries to figure out exactly what she believes. The battle lines are drawn, pitting her passionate science teacher against the powerful church preacher. And Mina has to reinvent herself even as she is questioning everything she has ever believed in.