The Chaos

Zusatztext "[Scotch] proves to be a compelling anchor for a tale in which! for a while at least! it seems that literally anything can happen. Hopkinson’s joy of invention is palpable! and despite its darker edges! it’s that joy in the possibilities of the imagination that I hope comes through to younger readers. Come to think of it! we could all use a dose of it."-- Locus Informationen zum Autor Nalo Hopkinson is the award-winning author of numerous novels and short stories for adults. Nalo grew up in Jamaica, Trinidad, and Guyana before moving to Canada when she was sixteen. Visit her at NaloHopkinson.com. Klappentext Sixteen-year-old Scotch may have to acknowledge her own limitations and come to terms with her mixed Jamaican! white! and black heritage if she is to stop the chaos that has claimed her brother and made much of the world crazy. Chaos CHAPTER ONE “Okay, people,” Mrs. Kuwabara called out cheerfully. I’d been back in school barely two weeks since summer break, but I’d already learned that our new English teacher was cheerful about everything. “The bell’s going to go in about fifteen minutes. Finish up the questionnaire you have in front of you now, because I have one more for you.” Beside me, Ben sighed and rolled his eyes. “Oh, God,” he muttered. “I don’t want to know myself this well.” “Yeah,” I said. “Don’t people go blind that way?” Ben chuckled. Mrs. Kuwabara had decided that it would be a good idea to spend the first weeks of eleventh grade doing this boring old self-knowledge questionnaire, a little bit every English class. She’d told us that no one was ever going to read them unless we gave them permission, not even her, so we should write whatever we wanted. I ask you, what was the use of doing all that work in school if you couldn’t even get a grade for it? Mrs. Kuwabara handed Jimmy Tidwell a stack of sheets of lavender-colored paper. He blushed. He was all elbows and angles and zits, and he fell over his own feet as often as he walked on them, and he blushed at everything. He was mad good at trig, though. And a decent private tutor, once he got absorbed in the work and stopped blushing and stammering. His face crimson, he stood up and started handing the sheets out to the class. He was cute, in a skinny white boy kinda way. He always tried really hard to talk to my face, not to the front of my sweater. That earned him extra points in my book. I reread the part of the last questionnaire I’d just spent thirty-five minutes filling in. Mrs. Kuwabara had copied the questionnaire onto sunshine yellow paper. Mrs. Kuwabara was big on colors. At the top of the sheet, printed in swirly black letters surrounded by scrollwork, were the words: FIVE THINGS THAT MAKE YOU HAPPY The rest of the sheet had five boxes, made up of more swirly scrollwork, for filling in the answers. I’d written: 1. Wine Gum jelly candies, but only the black ones. I think they’re supposed to be licorice flavored, so I should hate them because I hate licorice, but black Wine Gums don’t taste like licorice at all. Wine Gums don’t even have any wine in them, either. I know, because when I was little, my parents checked the list of ingredients before they’d let me eat any. Maybe those black ones aren’t licorice at all. Maybe they’re meant to be black currant, or something. The other colors taste like ass. Can I say that? Oh, right; Mrs. Kuwabara won’t be reading this, so I can say whatever I like. Problem is, you can’t buy a roll of Wine Gums of just one flavor. So I get Glory to buy them and give me the black ones. At least, that’s what I used to do back when Glory and I were still friends. Ben doesn’t eat candy. He’s watching his figure. Really, it’s weird how much I love black Wine G...

Product details

• Authors: Nalo Hopkinson
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster USA
• Languages: English
• Age Recommendation: ages 14 to 17
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 17.04.2012, delayed
• EAN: 9781416954880
• ISBN: 978-1-4169-5488-0
• No. of pages: 320
• Subject: Children's and young people's books