“Finally, he had nothing to hide. He was just another kid in the class – a boy called Twister.”Kevin Walker, the new kid at Tubman High School, is determined to remain a loner so that other students won’t ask him too many questions. He’s scared of how his classmates will react if they find out his family secrets. He doesn’t want to be judge or treated differently. To ease the burden he carries, he likes to run. It helps him to blow off steam. Once others notice how awesome a runner he is, he’s asked to join the track team. He immediately has a huge impact on the team, helping them to finally win track meets. Because Kevin is as fast as a tornado when he runs around the track, he earns the nickname “Twister.” However, being a successful member of the team draws a lot of unwanted attention Kevin’s way. Will he decide to open up to his new friends and reveal his secrets, or will he keep them bottled up inside?
As part of Saddleback Educational Publishing’s Urban Underground series, this book is designed specifically for reluctant teen readers. Coming in at just under 200 pages, it focuses on issues many teens deal with such as bullies, self-esteem, drugs, and dropouts, just to name a few. Although I believe the author hits you over the head one too many times with the message, I still enjoyed this book. It is a good, clean read that I would enthusiastically recommend to any teen or tween who wants to read realistic, urban fiction.
