Book cover of Dough Boys

Book description

In the companion to her acclaimed So Done, Paula Chase follows best friends Simp and Rollie as their friendship is threatened by the pressures of basketball, upcoming auditions, middle school, and their growing involvement in the local drug ring.

Dough Boys is a memorably vivid story about the complex friendship…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Dough Boys as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I love Dough Boys because it’s an engrossing, authentic story about basketball, music, friendship, and the hard decisions thirteen-year-old kids sometimes have to make. It follows Rollie and Simp, best friends who play on an elite basketball team in their low-income neighborhood...but playing on the team means getting involved as lookouts for a local drug ring, and the boys have very different feelings about the pressures and responsibilities they face. Basketball scenes provide an entryway into important topics, and through the two well-developed protagonists, Chase explores what happens when a sport feels like your only chance at the future you…

From Laurie's list on for athletes and non-athletes alike.

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Book cover of The Afterlife of the Party

The Afterlife of the Party by Darcy Marks,

An interdimensional mixer with angels and other beings brings unexpected trouble for Malachi and his friends in this smart and uniquely funny second book about the squad of teens from hell.

When an angel comes to his home to deliver a message, Malachi immediately knows what’s going on. The seraph…

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