Nishell

April 1, 2012
Grades 6-10 Nishell, 16, has had a longtime crush on Jackson, and even though she knows he is a flirt, she is determined to go out on a hot date with him. What will she wear? What if he finds out her secret: that she and her mom and brother have spent time in the homeless shelter, where Mom now works? Set in a mixed inner-city neighborhood and told almost entirely in dialogue, this slim title in the Juicy Central series is packed with action and a huge cast of characters. But even if teens get confused about who has a crush on whom, the fast talk (no obscenity) and the standoffs in the contemporary scene will hold reluctant and struggling readers to the moving climax, when Nishell gets awarded for her art, and she finally reveals her secret in a school assembly.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)