Sidewayz Glory (3) (DriftX)

The cops cracked down on illegal races, and now the only street racing around is at the hottest casino on the strip. The casino owner is starting his own high-stakes, high-payoff drift team -- and there's little he wouldn't do to have Sin City's best drifter.

Kennin's under pressure to quit the scene and get his life back on track. But when he's offered five grand to fix his ride -- and the promise of enough cash to take care of his problems -- Kennin knows exactly what he has to do. No matter what the catch.

Children's Literature

The first paragraph of this book might as well have been written in a foreign language. "Battle drifts," "tsuiso," and racecar images are not terms that have entered my everyday vocabulary. I wondered if I would be able to get through this book, and, if I did, could I review it fairly. My concerns were baseless. By the end of the first chapter of the most recent addition to Strasser's "DriftX" series, I was hooked. Kennin Burnett, a sixteen-year-old drift racer, and his sister, Shinchou, are living on their own in a trailer in Las Vegas and barely making ends meet. Kennin and his friend, Tito, park cars at a casino that is about to open a race track. The story begins with Kennin's car crashing during a race, leaving him injured and hospitalized. Tito's sister, Angelita, is in love with Kennin. It was her car that he had raced and totaled. But Kennin's physical injuries are just a small part of the hurdles he has to jump in this fast-paced, highly engaging tale. Now I intend to go out and buy the other books in Strasser's trilogy and to recommend this one to the reluctant readers in my high school English classes. The story definitely moves you to the finish line!