Mr. Volponi does it again with another gritty urban teen story

Rooftop is another excellent book by Mr. Volponi. Once again he is able to capture the harsh reality of inner city life without being preachy or condescending.

Clay is arrested for smoking pot while his cousin Addison is a crack dealer. Both attend Daytop, which is a day treatment program to help teens stay away from drugs and to make better choices. Clay struggles to stay clean and tries to get his GED. Meanwhile, Addison has a harder time of leaving his past behind and goes back to his old ways.

One night, Addison chases another teen who owes him money. Up on the rooftop a terrible incident occurs and Addison is shot by a white police officer in front of Clay. Now Clay's world is changed forever. Not only does he have to deal with the death of his cousin, but he has to decide if he will tell the truth about what happend on the rooftop. Some community members will be angry by what he has to say. But does Clay fold to community pressure or does he tell the truth about what really happened that night?

Students who liked Black & White will enjoy Rooftop as well. I highly recommend this book.

Tell me Lies, tell me Sweet Little Lies

Anna, Emma and Mariah are three average high school girls. Their lives are rather mundane until one night Mariah invites Anna and Emma to her boyfriend’s house when his parents aren’t home.

It was going to be a fun party, but when Emma's parents do not see them at the movies(where the girls said they would be) her parents start making phone calls. The girls are worried their parents are going to find out that they were at a party. Frightened by the punishment they could receive the girls make up a harmless little lie. The girls never thought that their lie would balloon out of control or that innocent people could be hurt.

The story is another multiple narrative and consists of Anna, Emma and Mariah. Each girl’s perspective on the events was interesting and added a lot to the story. But I think what made this story so unique and so chilling was how believable it was.

I think most teens will enjoy this book.

An Interesting book about Gay Teens

Rainbow Boys by Alex Sanchez is an interesting, and frank book about the lives of three gay teenagers. Well, two are gay and Jason isn’t sure if he is or not.

The main characters are Jason, Kyle and Nelson. Each has their own set of problems which makes this book interesting and down to earth. For instance, Jason has a girlfriend, but isn’t sure if he is gay and struggles with the truth. Kyle hasn’t come out to his parents and is afraid to do it. To make matters worse his father is a drunk and Kyle struggles with an abusive home life. Nelson has no father, is in love with Kyle, and makes some really bad choices that could endanger his life. Thrown into the mix we have the boys dealing with students who are homophonic and the typical drama of high school.

I enjoyed this book a lot. It showed me the different issues that these characters had to deal with without being preachy. I liked how the story was broken down into three points of views. Each chapter represents a different character's perspective. By printing the characters name in bold at the beginging of each chapter the reader is instinantly connected to the character. As a person who hates multiple narratives in stories I found this very helpful. The author did a good job of staying away from the gay sterotypes. Overall, I think the book was well done.

For students who enjoyed Rainbow Boys there are two other books in the series including Rainbow High and Rainbow Road. Mr. Sanchez has also published his new book entitled The God Box.

For more information on author Alex Sanchez check out his website