Are You Still There

August 1, 2015

Gr 9 Up-Gabriella, poster child for the perfect high school-age daughter and college bound student, stands barefoot on a public toilet for three hours while her suburban school is on lockdown for a bomb threat. No one knows who planted it, and everyone is a suspect. The school creates an anonymous crisis call center made up of students from all the different social stratas. Gabi becomes friends with people she might never have talked to before. As more teens begin to use the call center, she realizes that there are more miserable people in her school than she ever would have guessed. She also begins to suspect that the bomber is somehow connected to her. This well-written story focuses on the bystanders, who don't actively do anything wrong but neither do they help. Interspersed between the chapters is the "Stranger's Manifesto," pages written in verse by the person who planted the bomb. Added into the mix are Gabi's father, who is a detective; her sister, who has always hung out with the students on the fringes of high school society; and her mother, who is a nervous woman striving for control of everything. The pacing moves quickly, adding information and fleshing out characters along the way. Reluctant readers will stay with this one as they try to figure out who really planted the bomb. VERDICT An excellent choice for fans of Todd Strasser's Give a Boy a Gun (S. & S., 2000) and Walter Dean Myers's Shooter (2004) and Monster (1999, both HarperCollins).-Deanna McDaniel, Genoa Middle School, OH

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 15, 2015
Following a bomb threat at a high school, an anonymous hotline is set up to gather leads and provide students with emotional support. Two years after a much-bullied girl tragically hanged herself, Central High is rocked when an angst-ridden student litters the school with threatening notes in the form of eerily defaced playing cards. Gabi, a straight-A senior, goody-two-shoes, and model citizen, is chosen to be on the student hotline team. Here, she forms relationships with several kids outside her usual circle-one of them being Miguel, a mysterious and flirty outsider to whom she finds herself increasingly attracted. The team begins receiving creepy calls and texts, and when the bomber begins leaving notes for Gabi, she realizes that she's a target, but she has no idea why. She doesn't want to tell her detective father about the notes because she's afraid he and her zealously overprotective mother will pull her out of Central. Meanwhile Gabi is worried about her depressed and rebellious sister, Chloe, and Chloe's friend, who seems morbidly fascinated with the gun their father keeps in the house. Interspersed through Gabi's present-tense narration are sad, desperate, and sinister diary entries from the suspect, leaving readers to attempt to suss out clues as to their author. Here, everyone's a suspect. An intriguing mix of a whodunit and social commentary on the tragic and all-too-common problems of bullying and teen suicide. (Thriller. 13-17)

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