People Kill People

People Kill People
by Ellen Hopkins (Author)

Booktalk: A gun is sold in the classifieds after killing a spouse, bought by a teenager for needed protection. But which one was it? Each has the incentive to pick up a gun, to fire it. Was it Rand or Cami, married teenagers with a young son? Was it Silas or Ashlyn, members of a white supremacist youth organization? Daniel, who fears retaliation because of his race, who possessively clings to Grace, the love of his life? Or Noelle, who lost everything after a devastating accident, and has sunk quietly into depression?

One tense week brings all six people into close contact in a town wrought with political and personal tensions. Someone will fire. And someone will die. But who?

Snippet:
YOU

Yes, you.
Come here.
Please? I need
to ask you something.

Have you ever felt the desire
to hurt someone?
I mean pummel them,
wound them, watch
them bleed?

Did you?
Would you?
Could you?

If I were the gambling type,
I’d put my money on “yes.”

A 2018 Cybils Poetry nominee

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Copyright © 2018 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.

My Red Velvet Cape

My Red Velvet Cape
by Dana Sullivan (Author / Illustrator)

Booktalk: Mateo is so excited. It’s his birthday and he can’t wait! Not only will there be a party later with friends but his grandmother is bringing him a very special gift: a red velvet cape. It’s a cape for superheroes! Mateo imagines all the wonderful things that will happen when he wears the cape, from not needing to hold his big sister’s hand on the way to the bus to being more popular at school. But is the gift really what he thinks it is? Or did Mateo misunderstand what his grandmother said?

Snippet:

Copyright © 2018 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.