Yellow Flag by Robert Lipsyte. HarperCollins, 2007

Age 14 and older

Teens who dream of NASCAR racing will feel as if they’re in the driver’s seat with Robert Lipsyte’s newest sports novel, brimming with the details and language of the race. Seventeen year old Kyle was born into a family of racers. Starting with his grandfather and continuing through his older brother Kris, the Hildebrands have been a vital dynasty in regional stock car racing. But after a crash injury ended Kyle’s father’s driving career, the family has struggled to maintain the support needed to keep them in contention. Potential sponsorship by a corporate backer could represent a turning point in the Hildebrand’s future as a force in the big leagues of racing. Although he enjoyed competing in the youth circuit, Kyle has turned away from racing and now finds pleasure and satisfaction in the music he makes on his trumpet. When a risky stunt puts Kris out of commission for the short term, Kyle bends to family pressure to step in and take up the driving slack. To his surprise, he rediscovers the joy he used to feel behind the wheel and realizes that he brings his own set of skills to the race. Conflicting expectations and demands from his family and his music teacher mingle with his own mixed emotions, and present a question that Kyle struggles to answer: what will he choose, racing or music? Glimpses of the celebrity culture of stock car racing, and the potential of two very different romantic relationships add layers of interest to Kyle’s compelling story. ©2007 Cooperative Children’s Book Center

Good Enough by Paula Yoo. HarperCollins, 2008

Age 13 and older

Patti Yoon is a first-generation Korean American high school senior who has worked hard all her life to make her parents happy. Their happiness is directly tied to Patti’s academic success. It’s not enough that she’s destined to be her class valedictorian and is an accomplished violinist, she must also get at least 2300 on her SATs and be accepted by Harvard, Princeton, and Yale (HYP for short). The wheels start to come off of Patti’s success cart when she first lays eyes on Cute Trumpet Guy (a/k/a Ben Wheeler) during tryouts for All-State Orchestra. Patti’s been concertmaster for the past three years, and she’s a shoe-in again this year, but Cute Trumpet Guy distracts her so much during her tryout that she flubs a few notes and ends up as Assistant Concertmaster. Throughout the school year, Ben becomes a major distraction, and Patti struggles with wanting to please her parents and wanting to be master of her own fate. For one thing, she thinks she might actually want to go to Julliard to study music rather than HYP. With Ben’s help and encouragement, she secretly applies. There have been a number of good young adult novels over the past several years about first-generation Asian American teens facing this sort of conflict. What lifts this one above the rest is Yoo’s tongue-in-cheek humor about parents’ expectations. Chapters frequently begin with lists that have titles such as “How to Make Your Korean Parents happy, Part 4” and Yoo manages to share the humor in Patti’s situation without belittling Patti’s parents’ strong aspirations for their daughter’s future. ©2008 Cooperative Children’s Book Center

Janis Joplin: Rise Up Singing by Ann Angel.  Amulet, 2010

Age 14 and older

Janis Joplin’s transformation from member of the high school Slide Rule Club to rock star fame is documented with insight into her personal choices and her public persona. From the opening chapter which shows a young Janis attempting and failing to fit the traditional expectations of her hometown of Port Arthur, Texas, readers are given a sense of the woman whose interests (African American singers, the Blues), and style (brash, outspoken, unrepentant) set her outside mainstream society, but who always sought attention and approval. Despite occasional enrollment at college and university, Janis couldn’t ignore the pull of her talent and inevitably drifted back to the music scene and the self-destructive behavior to which it was so closely linked. Janis’s risk-taking lifestyle is put within the context of the 1960s, acknowledging the open attitude toward sex and drug use prevalent among her peers and fans in the music world. Janis’s family was also important to her, and she maintained a regular correspondence with her parents and sister despite making choices they didn’t condone. Information about Janis’s bands and her evolving public image is covered both in the narrative and visually through numerous photographs, album and magazine covers, and promotional posters. Detailed source notes, a timeline, and a bibliography are included. ©2010 Cooperative Children’s Book Center