Tangerine

Edward Bloor’s award-winning novel Tangerine grabs readers by the collar on the first page and never lets go. Tangerine, Florida—once known for its citrus groves—is now an uninhabitable quagmire of muck fires and school-swallowing sinkholes. Still, twelve-year-old Paul sees the move as a way to start anew, maybe even make a name for himself in middle school soccer—despite his father’s obsession with his high-school-age brother Erik’s future in football. Paul is visually impaired (without his Coke bottle glasses), but it’s everyone else who seems to be blind to Erik’s dangerous nature. Written as a series of Paul’s journal entries, Tangerine is a gut-wrenching coming-of-age novel about truth, memory, culture, courage, social consciousness, classism, the environment . . . and soccer. Paul is a character well worth cheering for. Underdogs of the world, unite!

Awards: ABA’s Pick of the Lists, ALA Best Book for Young Adults, Bulletin Blue Ribbon Book, Horn Book Fanfare Selection, IRA Young Adults’ Choice, New York Public Library 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing