| "UNDERCOVER"
Author: Beth Kephart
Interest Level: Middle Grades (4-8)
ATOS Reading Level: 5.5
AR Points: 6.0
Publisher Recommended Age: 12+
Publisher: HarperCollins/Teen Fiction
Book Type: Hardcover
Pages: 288
Book Description:
Like a modern-day Cyrano de Bergerac, Elisa ghostwrites love notes for the boys in her school. But when Elisa falls for Theo Moses, things change fast. Theo asks for verses to court the lovely Lila—a girl known for her beauty, her popularity, and a cutting ability to remind Elisa that she has none of these.
At home, Elisa's father, the one person she feels understands her, has left on an extended business trip. As the days grow shorter, Elisa worries that the increasingly urgent letters she sends her father won't bring him home.
Like the undercover agent she feels she has become, Elisa retreats to a pond in the woods, where her talent for ice-skating gives her the confidence to come out from under cover and take center stage. But when Lila becomes jealous of Theo's friendship with Elisa, her revenge nearly destroys Elisa's ice-skating dreams and her plan to reunite her family.
Book Reviews:
School Library Journal (Starred Review): "A beautifully written, engrossing tale...this is a book that no serious-minded teen will want to miss...it has well-crafted and highly teachable text."
Publishers Weekly: "Neatly balancing action and contemplation, Kephart offers...ideas about literature and...well-known poems along with a plot that will speak to many teens." 12 and up.
ALA Booklist (Starred Review): "Readers will...have no trouble recognizing the teen's quiet courage as she leaves her comfortable isolation, claims her own talents, and embraces teh people who matter most."
Book Awards:
- USA: National Book Award nominee
About the Author:
Beth Kephart is the author of Undercover. She was nominated for the National Book Award for her book A Slant of Sun. Her writing has been anthologized many times and has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post Book World, the Chicago Tribune, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Baltimore Sun. In 2000 she received a National Endowment for the Arts grant. She lives in Pennsylvania with her family. |
