Fate Totally Worse Than Death (ePub)

Welcome to Cliffside High, the school of your nightmares. It's run by the Huns, a ruthless clique of rich students-and, as poor Charity Chase discovers, messing with them can be murder. There's Tiffany, avid reader of every beauty magazine available; Brooke, desperate for a date; Danielle, Al Capone in Miss America's body, with her sights set firmly on a millionaire's son Drew.

Unfortunately, like every other boy at Cliffside, Drew only has eyes for Helga, the ravishing new student from Norway ... wherever that may be. As far as Danielle is concerned, Helga could be from another world. In fact, if she doesn't lay off Drew-she just might be. Getting rid of her ought to be as easy as taking candy off a helpless old lady. Only something weird is happening to Danielle and her friends, something much nastier than the horror stories she loves to read, something that can only be described as a fate totally worse than death.

Paul Fleischman grew up in Santa Monica, California, in a house with a printing press, a grand piano, a shortwave radio, and his father-children's author Sid Fleischman. Playing recorder in early music consorts led to his books of verbal duets: I Am Phoenix, Joyful Noise (winner of the 1989 Newbery Medal), and Big Talk. His novels built from monologues include Bull Run, a sixteen-character account of the Civil War's first battle, and Seedfolks, the chronicle of the first year of a Cleveland community garden. His interest in theater inspired his young adult novels Mind's Eye, Seek, and Breakout, all of which revolve around the spoken word. His historical fiction includes Saturnalia and The Borning Room. He's written nonfiction and picture books as well, including Time Train, Weslandia, and Sidewalk Circus. Alongside the Newbery Medal, he's won a Newbery Honor Book, the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction, the PEN West Literary Award, the California Young Reader Medal, and most recently was a finalist for the 2003 National Book Award.