Fast Talk on a Slow Track - by Rita Williams-Garcia (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Denzel Watson is a fast talker with a system, and it's made him valedictorian. But when he goes to a summer program at Princeton, he takes a fall. How can he tell his proud family that he won't be able to cut it in the Ivy League? Instead, he spends the rest of the summer selling candy, up against "Top Man" Mello, a drop-out with a police record. For the first time, Denzel is forced to take a hard look at himself -- and how much further he could fall.

"Williams-Garcia confronts some crucial issues that are generally ignored in YA fiction: issues of class and race, friendship and competition, identity and failure." --Booklist

"Teens everywhere will be able to identify and commiserate with Denzel." School Library Journal, starred review

About the Author

Rita Williams-Garcia (born 1957) is an American writer of young adult novels. She won the 2011 Newbery Honor Award, the Coretta Scott King Award, and the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction for her book, One Crazy Summer. She has also won the PEN/Norma Klein Award, and her book, P.S. Be Eleven, won the Coretta Scott King Award in 2014. Garcia lives with her husband, a Desert Storm veteran, and two daughters in Jamaica, New York. She works full-time for a marketing services company and attended the Queens College M.A. program.