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Fast Talk on a Slow Track

by Rita Williams-Garcia

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Ambition, setbacks, and self-assessment

$11.53 USD
$19.22 USD $11.53 USD
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Soft New English

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Awards & Recognition

  • Critical praise

    Praise from Booklist

    Booklist praises the book for addressing issues often ignored in YA fiction.

AlbakiReads Editorial

Ambition, setbacks, and self-assessment

Denzel Watson’s system for talking his way to the top has helped him become valedictorian, but a summer program at Princeton challenges his confidence in his academic future. He keeps that setback from his proud family and spends the summer selling candy, competing with Mello, a school dropout with a police record. The setup brings questions of class, race, friendship, and competition into a coming-of-age story about achievement and the gap between expectations and self-understanding. Denzel’s circumstances make failure more than a temporary disappointment: they prompt him to consider how he sees himself and what choices lie ahead.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Teens and young adults interested in coming-of-age fiction.
  • Readers seeking stories about academic pressure, ambition, and setbacks.
  • Readers interested in fiction addressing class, race, friendship, and competition.

Themes

Adolescence and coming of ageAcademic ambition and failureClass and raceFriendship and competitionIdentity and self-assessment

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

From National Book Award finalist Rita Williams-Garcia!

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
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