Fast Talk on a Slow Track - Softcover

Williams-Garcia, Rita

3.19

54 ratings by Goodreads

9780141302317: Fast Talk on a Slow Track

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141302313 ISBN 13: 9780141302317

Publisher: Puffin Books, 1998

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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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From the Publisher:

Fast talk and quick thinking have always guaranteed Denzel Watson a place on top-until he spends a summer at Princeton University. There Denzel learns that it takes more than his fast talk to compete with other smart, talented students. Discouraged, he wonders how to tell his proud parents that he's decided not to go to Princeton as a freshman in the fall.

For the rest of the summer Denzel works as a door-to-door salesman-a job where his fast talk works. When he meets silver-tongued fellow salesman Carmello, Denzel becomes caught up in competing with this illiterate grade-school dropout. As the summer draws to an end, Denzel is faced with an even bigger challenge: Can he face his family and overcome his fear of failure?

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.

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