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Nancy Keane's | Booktalks -- Quick and Simple | |
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Elkeles,
Simone.
PERFECT CHEMISTRY New York : Walker, 2009 IL YA ISBN 0802798233 |
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Brittany Ellis is the golden girl of her Chicago area high school. At least that’s the perception. The reality is that Brittany struggles every day to maintain her perfect image. Her home life is in shambles with a Dad who’s rarely around, a demanding Mom and a mentally challenged older sister, who Brittany loves, but who needs a lot of special attention. To top things off, after a summer apart, Brittany’s relationship with her longtime boyfriend just doesn’t feel right anymore. Brittany has the added pressure of keeping up her grades to get into a good college near home so she can stay close and continue to care for her sister. She needs a good grade in Chemistry, but when she’s partnered with gang member, Alex Fuentes, that seems unlikely. Alex and Brittany go to the same school but they live worlds apart. Brittany lives in an affluent section of town and has nice clothes and a room of her own. Alex lives in a poor, gang-infested area with his single mom and younger brothers. Alex felt forced to join a gang to protect his family, but he’s smart and he wants better things for himself. Now Alex and Brittany are forced to work together on their senior Chem project and they learn more than Chemistry. They find out that what they thought they knew about the other wasn’t necessarily true. Slowly a relationship begins to develop. But Brittany still has an image to maintain. Will she risk it all for a boy like Alex? (Patty McClune) (Pennsylvania Young Reader's Choice Award nominee, 2011) |
| SUBJECTS:
Social classes -- Fiction.
Dating (Social customs) -- Fiction. Gangs -- Fiction. Family problems -- Fiction. High schools -- Fiction. Schools -- Fiction. |
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