Social Pressure

When I coach speaking under pressure, my specialty is to help the speaker make a real and significant change during one private session of less than two hours. I learned this from the culmination of my life's journey, as told in these true memoirs of my real-life experiences being an actor, a spy, and a licensed private eye. There are no unrealistic techniques or made-up theories in this book. Every solution given to you has been actually done by me or witnessed in others. Everything is proven, and everything works - tried and true.

When Vee is picked to be a player in NERVE, an anonymous game of dares broadcast live online, she discovers that the game knows her. They tempt her with prizes taken from her ThisIsMe page and team her up with the perfect boy: sizzling-hot Ian. At first it's exhilarating - Vee and Ian's fans cheer them on to riskier dares with higher stakes. But the game takes a twisted turn when they're directed to a secret location with five other players for the grand-prize round.

With his shaved head and begging bowl the new kid is an automatic target for the bully boys of Edward Rucher High, an easy mark for their casual cruelty.

Pinkalicious loves the color pink, but all the girls at school like black. They tease her, saying that pink stinks and pink is for babies. But Pinkalicious doesn't think so - that is, until her friends stop playing with her. Now Pinkalicious has a case of the blues. But could she ever turn her back on her favorite color?

When high school senior Jonas moves to Seattle, he is glad to meet Levi, a nice, soft-spoken guy and fellow basketball player. Suspense builds like a slow drumbeat as listeners start to smell a rat in Ryan Hartwell, a charismatic basketball coach and sexual predator. When Levi reluctantly tells Jonas that Hartwell abused him, Jonas has to decide whether he should risk his future career to report the coach.

It's Halloween: Candy-snatching time. For the past few years, twelve-year-old Jonas and his friends have competed to see how much candy they can snatch from unsuspecting trick-or-treaters. No one’s supposed to get hurt. So Jonas is taken by surprise when one of his smaller targets fights back against his candy-snatching attempt. He’s even more surprised when he starts to receive anonymous notes from someone who seems to know what happened that night.

Four sports. Four friends. In Game Face, each boy gets to narrate his own story, focusing on his sport of choice. Whether it's a basketball rematch against a rival school or an unexpected turn as the soccer team's replacement goalie, Torry, Javon, Marcus, and Griffin each face their weaknesses and find their strengths. They'll confront the overwhelming pressure of sports and the ups and downs of friendships.

Beyond soccer leagues, music camps, and drama lessons, today's youth are in an education arms race that begins in elementary school. In Hyper Education, Pawan Dhingra uncovers the growing world of high-achievement education and the after-school learning centers, spelling bees, and math competitions that it has spawned.

The fearless Tina Rosenberg has spent her career tackling some of the world's hardest problems. The Haunted Land, her searing work on how Eastern Europe faced the crimes of Communism, garnered both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. In Join the Club, she identifies a brewing social revolution that is changing the way people live, based on harnessing the positive force of peer pressure.

Lately everybody's messing with Jamal. His teachers, the kids at school, even his dad. And now that Jamal's brother Randy's in the slam, Crazy Mack has a crazy idea. He wants Jamal to take control of the Scorpions and run crack. All the gang jive - Jamal has no use for it. Unless, like some say, it's the only way to cop the bread for Randy's appeal.

Midnight on Fireworks Island is Shawshank Redemption, Do The Right Thing and It's a Wonderful Life for middle grade kids. Midnight on Fireworks Island is a hilarious yet deep and compelling tale. It starts simple and funny but when you finish the last chapter your life has changed. This book is Shawshank Redemption in that it is a story of an unbreakable friendship that develops in a dangerous prison/correctional academy. The boys are sent to Rockweiler Correctional Academy, a facility for boys under 18 and too young for the traditional prison system.

In journal entries alternating between two timelines―before and after a tragic accident―Jennie Englund’s heartfelt coming-of-age story follows the year that changes one girl’s life forever. Through everything, Taylor has her notebook, a diary of the year that one fatal accident tears her life apart. In entries alternating between the first and second semester of her eighth-grade year, she navigates joy and grief, gain and loss, hope and depression.

Marigold Johnson can’t wait to attend a special program at her family’s business, Flexx Unlimited, for teens who love fashion. But Mari quickly realizes that she’s out of place compared to the three other trainees—and one girl, Kara, seems to hate her on sight. As tension builds and the stakes at the program get higher, Mari uncovers exactly why Kara’s been so spiteful. She also discovers some hard truths about herself and her family.

The Superhero Syndrome. There’s a lot to be said about this subject. Males of all ages love to be praised for our work and our efforts… for our contributions and sacrifices. We want to be honored, respected, admired, loved, and needed. Put respect on our name! Every male fantasizes about being a Superhero at some point in our lives. But sometimes along the way that dream can get lost. It can get buried under a mountain of disappointment, apparent failures, and discouragement. We can get overwhelmed, withdraw, and become outright disinterested and resentful.

Sadie thought joining the Pack would be the wildest thing to happen to her this year, but the school year is becoming even harder. On top of classes, Sadie has to navigate her growing feelings for her crush, taming her powers during cheer practice and troublemaking hyenas trying to take her crown. Then there is the massive secret she is keeping from her BFF Lindsey—that could destroy their friendship and The Pack as they know it. Will the shocking truth come out to bite them?

Eleven-year-old Kylie’s friends seem so much more mature than she is. And with middle school just a summer away, she’s worried her friends might leave her behind, especially because she keeps embarrassing them. So Kylie applies her scientific brain to solve the problem and comes up with the Everybody Experiment.

Sophie Valentine would rather be at home, doing school virtually. Instead, she’s waiting in a crowded middle school building for her best friend, Eve, who’s finally back after an extended absence, which only Sophie knows the truth about. But when Eve returns, things aren’t the same. First, Eve stops walking to school with her in the morning. Then, she’s ditching Sophie to hang out with the Crash Crew, a group of popular kids notorious for their social media dares. Eve seems to fit right in, but Sophie is devastated: Did she just lose her best friend?

Transitioning from childhood to adulthood is indeed a difficult and confusing time. The changes and demands of life can be overwhelming—not to mention the societal expectations that pressure young women to conform to strict ideals of beauty, success, and popularity.

Pippa Park picks up right where she left off . . . trying to balance basketball, school, friends, working at the struggling family laundromat, and fitting in. Eliot, her math tutor—and the cutest boy at school—is finally paying attention to her. And Marvel—her childhood friend—is making her required volunteering much more interesting. But things with the Royals, her new friends and teammates who rule the school, still feel a bit rocky. Especially because Caroline, a head Royal, would like nothing more than to see Pippa fail.

Lillie Mae Liles thinks middle school will be a breeze, until movie-star lookalike Casey Culver moves to Triple Gap and steals Lillie’s best friend. Even Lillie’s brother has a crush on Casey bigger than the Mississippi River. Disgusted with all the attention Casey receives, Lillie teams up with the school bully to make Casey’s life miserable. But when Casey agrees to play baseball on the farm, Lillie discovers she and Casey have a lot in common, and Lillie finds herself with two best friends.