books about pressure

Squashed
by Joan Bauer
I love this one! Fortunately, other folks feel the same because it won the 1992 Delacorte Prize. Sassy, strong-willed Ellie Morgan grows prize-winning pumpkins (we're talking 500 pounders here.) Never a dull moment in this book!

Shark Bait
by Graham Salisbury
Mokes is torn. His parents tell him he must be home when the Navy ships come to port off the coast of the sleepy Hawaiian fishing village his family calls home. Danger fills the air when the sailors crowd the town's streets, looking for booze and fun. Mokes should know. His father is the chief of police, in charge of keeping order on such disorderly nights. What will Mokes do then, when his friend Booley asks him to sneak out into the streets, into the middle of the danger, to help Booley settle a score? Should Mokes obey family orders? Or, should he honor his friend? This heart-racing novel takes us right into the middle of danger and deep into this thoughtful boy's mind. Thankfully, Salisbury avoids moralizing here. Readers will be surprised at the conclusions Mokes comes to on his own about what is right and wrong.

The Bell Jar
by Sylvia Plath
Why put this classic here, under "Pressure"? It's a good question. I read this novel (many people believe it is a semi-autobiographical account of Plath's own early years as a creative person in New York City) just recently, at 34, and I'm grateful I waited until now to read it. Esther is a brilliant writer at college, enough so that she wins an internship at a major magazine in NYC. In the big city, Esther comes to realize that perhaps some of her strengths as a writer and editor are more naive and undeveloped than she thought they were. She descends into a hell of self-doubt, and insanity begins to build.... I'm happy I waited until now to read Plath's amazing novel because I think I might have been offended by Esther's rather quick spiral away from the security of who she thought she was into the center of hell inside her own mind. However, after three of my own years in NYC, I have to say that Esther was modest in describing the pressures she was under.