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The Last Chance
Texaco
by Brent Hartinger (For readers 12 and up) Synopsis
Fifteen years old and parentless, Lucy Pitt has spent the last eight years being shifted from one foster home to another. Now she’s ended up at Kindle Home, a place for foster kids who aren‘t wanted anywhere else. Among the residents, Kindle Home is known as the Last Chance Texaco, because it’s the last stop before being shipped off to the high-security juvenile detention center on nearby Rabbit Island--better known as Eat-Their-Young Island to anyone who knows what it‘s really like. But Lucy finds that Kindle Home is different from past group homes, and she soon decides she wants to stay. Problem is, someone is starting a series of car-fires in the neighborhood in an effort to get the house shut down. Could it be Joy, a spiteful Kindle Home resident? Or maybe it's Alicia, the bony blond supermodel-wannabe from the local high school who thinks Lucy has stolen her boyfriend. Lucy suspects it might even be Emil, the Kindle Home therapist, who clearly has a low opinion of the kids he counsels. Whoever it is, Lucy must expose the criminal, or she'll lose not just her new home, but her one last chance for happiness. In the tradition of S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders and Louis Sachar's Holes, Hartinger writes about a subculture of teenagers many people would like to forget, in a novel as fast-paced and provocative as his first book, Geography Club. Now in paperback!
Soon to be available in French, Spanish, and as a Book-on-Tape! Awards and Honors Reviews "Hartinger draws on his own previous experience as a group-home counselor to write a fast-paced, riveting story filled with multi-dimensional characters who command our admiration as they struggle against their personal demons...This book should have wide appeal to parents and adolescents alike. Grade: A" -- Rocky Mountain News "Positive and compelling...The combination of an unusual and realistically observed setting and a well-structured find-the-arsonist-who-wants-to-close-the-home whodunit offers enough meat for adult readers, who should have no qualms about recommending the book to young teens." -- Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine "The Last Chance Texaco has everything a reader could want...Never have I read a book that screamed so loudly to be made into a movie...Don't pass this one up!" --MyShelf.com "A fast-moving, heartfelt story...beautifully conceived and executed, very well written [with] characters who seem very real...brutally honest [but] full of hope...You won’t be taking a chance with The Last Chance Texaco. It will reward you on every page." -- (Oregon) Statesman Journal "Hartinger clearly knows the culture [of group home life]...The talk is lively, and the whodunnit will keep readers hooked to the end." -- Booklist "Hartinger was a counselor in a group home...and he knows the turf--the power struggles and scarred psyches that give this suspenseful novel its narrative power." -- Seattle Post-Intelligencer "Absorbing...important...Hartinger proves that he is no flash-in-the-pan as a writer of young adult fiction." -- Lambda Book Report "Readers will root for Lucy and come away with a greater understanding of the complexities of group homes and their inhabitants. Hartinger excels at giving readers an insider's view of the subculture." -- School Library Journal "The writing is crisp and fast-moving. The characters are completely believable. Hartinger is a full-time writer whose compassion and empathy for teenagers is apparent. The book is fun reading for anyone, and may be quite inspirational for a teen struggling with similar problems as Lucy." -- Children's Literature "Hartinger has a wonderful ear for the diction and eye for the furniture, of all sorts...Lucy, cagey and smart, becomes a character we care about." -- Chicago Tribune "The Last Chance Texaco is simply an amazing book." -- Bookloons.com "Thrilling and throught-provoking. I could not put it down! (Highest Rating)" -- RebeccasReads.com "After dealing with kids in the system for 17 years and living with foster kids 13 years, I look very closely at books about them and usually find them wanting, but The Last Chance Texaco is right on. Hartinger captured the voices of the kids perfectly and portrays [the situation] extremely well." -- Genrefluent "The Last Chance Texaco is a fast-paced, dramatic story, populated with authentic characters...His dialogue is pitch-perfect and his narrative is utterly believable." -- The Bremerton Sun |
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