Bad (Jean Ferris) PB-Good

inspired By The Author”s Work In A Girls” Rehabilitation Center.

Ray Called It Skating When We Did The Crazy Things . . . Hot-wiring A Fancy Car For A Joyride After Midnight. Boosting Stuff From Stores . . .

Sixteen-year-old Dallas Loves The Rush, The Excitement Of Skating. But Then She And Her Friends Decide To Rob A Convenience Store And It”s Dallas Who Gets Caught While The Others Get Away. Since It Is Her First Offense, She Thinks Her Father Will Help Her Out – But When The Judge Says She Can Go Home On Probation Her Father Says No, He Can”t Control Her. So The Judge Gives Dallas Six Months In The Girls” Rehabilitation Center. Once There, Dallas Meets An Assortment Of Bad Girls, Many Of Whom Don”t Expect To Change, And Those Who Do Often Don”t Make It. How Dallas Comes To Terms With Herself – Both The Bad And The Good – Makes For A Heartfelt And Insightful Novel About Troubled Teenagers And The Odds They Face In Trying To Turn Their Lives Around.

publishers Weekly

ferris (invincible Summer) Follows Six Months In The Life Of A 16-year-old Confined To A Criminal Rehabilitation Center For Teenage Girls In This Novel Based On Interviews With Young Women In Real-life Rehab. Dallas Craves The Excitement Of Skating — Hot-wiring Cars, Shoplifting, Snatching Purses — To Fill The Emptiness Left By The Death Of Her Irresponsible Mother And The Coldness Of Her Rule-bound Father. But When She”s Caught In The Midst Of A Convenience Store Holdup, Gun In Hand, And Her Father Tells The Judge That He Can No Longer Control Her, Dallas Ends Up In Girls” Rehabilitation Center, A Stop Between Juvie And A More Punitive Work Camp. Through Dallas”s Eyes, Readers Meet The Other Wards At Grc, As Well As The People Who Work To Help (and Sometimes Hinder) Them — Wan, Wispy Toozdae, Turning Tricks To Support Her Siblings; Dahlia, Wedded To The White Supremacist Credo; Tough-talking Shatasia, Determined To Change For The Sake Of Her Baby; Plus Mary Alice (malice), A Probation Officer Who Revels In Insulting And Ridiculing The Girls, And Counselor Nolan, Who Runs Their Anger Management Sessions. Ferris Often Opts For Insight Over Authenticity In Dallas”s First-person Narration (at Home, At School–when I Managed To Get There — Everything Seemed To Be In Slow Motion And Muted Colors. I Felt Hollow And Barely Visible). As A Result, The Narrator Comes Off As More Of An Observer Than A Fully Realized Character. But The Author”s Willingness To Explore The Issues These Girls Face, As Well As Her Refusal To Settle For Easy Answers And Sugarcoated Endings, Makes For A Thoughtful Novel. Ages 12-up.