TEEN FICTION Summer reading can be fun

There's a book for everyone to enjoy this summer.
By CASSANDRA SPRATLING
KNIGHT RIDDER
"Devil On My Heels" by Joyce McDonald (Delacorte Press, $15.95).
Books on top of books spill forth from publishing houses. So many that it's sometimes difficult to keep up with what's hot, what's not, what's new and what's what in the never-ending mound. So it's always a pleasure to unearth a book that is a real gem, like finding a rare stone in a pile of rocks.
Such is the case with "Devil On My Heels," by Joyce McDonald.
It's a moving story that makes the damage caused by racism and bigotry real in an intimate way. The story is told from the point of view of a 15-year-old white girl named Dove Alderman who lives with her dad in a small town called Benevolence, Fla., during the pre-Civil Rights period.
Dove's dad owns acres of orange orchards that are farmed by blacks and migrant workers from Mexico. One of those black men -- a friend of Dove's -- begins to organize the workers to demand fair treatment and wages, an act that upsets a few of the white landowners and overseers, including Dove's dad.
Much to Dove's dismay she discovers her dad is a member of the Ku Klux Klan. She is torn between her love for her dad, a boyfriend she also fears is bigoted and her affection for justice and the black woman who raised her from childhood after her mother's death, a woman who has been more like a parent to her than her father.
Vivid imagery
The author's writing is so vivid readers can smell the orange blossoms and the stench of the migrant camp. Reading it feels like sitting at Dove's kitchen table for an up-close view of the impact of hatred and racism on both white and black families.
It's not a fun, easy book for summer.
For that, consider a couple other recently released books for high schoolers:
"Be More Chill," by Ned Zizzini (Hyperion, $16.95) focuses on a high school boy named Jeremy Heere, a kid who's such a dork he keeps a sheet tabulating how many times and in how many ways he's daily humiliated. Exactly why is not clear. It seems to confirm the low opinion he has of himself, which invites ridicule.
Ahh, but Jeremy learns there's an easy way to become cool -- a computerized pill that programs him to coolness.
"Away Laughing on a Fast Camel," by Louise Rennison (HarperTempest, $15.99) is definitely the book to read for laughs. It continues the tales of teenaged Georgia Nicolson. The fast-paced, funny drama is sure to make this one an international best-seller as Rennison's previous books in this series have been.