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Cover of Breakout by Paul Fleischman

Book · Young Adult

Breakout

by Paul Fleischman

144 pages · 2005

Honors

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About the book

Del's lived in Los Angeles for seventeen years, bouncing among foster homes. Smart, sharp-tongued, and a master mimic, she's fed up with her world and with being Del. So she's changing her name and leaving both herself and L.A. behind -- until her escape lands her in an all-day traffic jam. Fast-forward eight years. It's opening night for the one-woman show Del has written and is starring in -- a show called Breakout about a Los Angeles traffic jam. As the novel flashes between Del's present and future, we get a backstage pass into this young playwright's psyche, watching her life being transformed into art, heartache into comedy, solitude into connection. And, finally, anger giving way to acceptance.

For parents

No age or grade range recorded.

Grade ranges are editorial guidance. Every reader is different.

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