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Tangerine
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Tangerine (1997) (edit title/settings)

by Edward Bloor (Author) (edit contributors)

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Description edit see section history

Though "legally blind", Paul Fisher can see what others can't. He can see that his parents' constant praise of his brother, Erik, the football star, is to cover up something that is terribly wrong. But no one listens to Paul--until his family moves to Tangerine. In this small Florida town,... read more

Summary edit see section history

In Tangerine County, Florida, lightning strikes almost every afternoon during the summer. Lightning striking a field of lignite is the cause of muck fires. For the residents, it's nothing different than usual.

Twelve-year-old Paul Fisher, who plays soccer despite mysterious sight... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

In Tangerine County, Florida, lightning strikes almost every afternoon during the summer. Lightning striking a field of lignite is the cause of muck fires. For the residents, it's nothing different than usual.

Twelve-year-old Paul Fisher, who plays soccer despite mysterious sight problems believed to have been caused by viewing an eclipse for too long, has recently moved to Florida from Houston, Texas, after his father takes a job in civil engineering. Unlike his brother Erik, a high-school football star who is favored by the boys' father, Paul is unable to fit in with the new environment. Although he befriends Joey Costello, brother of Erik's fellow teammate Mike Costello, he struggles to fit in at his new school, Lake Windsor Middle. Even his interest in soccer is deflated, after the coach reveals that he is unable to play due to an insurance policy relating to his eyesight.

Mike is killed due to a lightning strike during football practice, and Erik makes fun of him in front of his younger brother, Joey, because when Mike was struck, Joey started getting hysterical, quickly trying to take off his brother's shoes, claiming to Paul that "The first thing Mike did when he came home every day was take off his shoes. He said it made him more soccer hit him to lose his mind I was just trying to help." After Lake Windsor Middle is partially destroyed because of a giant sinkhole, Paul jumps on the opportunity to move to Tangerine Middle in order to play soccer. On the first day of school, he is guided to classes by Theresa Cruz and later meets the soccer team itself--an assortment of people quite unlike any team he had played for. Victor Guzman and Tino Cruz, who is Theresa's twin brother, are both intimidating tough guys, who are regularly suspended from school, but they let Paul settle into their group.

One of the main characters introduced at that time is Luis Cruz, brother of Tino and Theresa Cruz. Luis is friendly to Paul whenever he heads over to the Cruz's citrus plantation to help work on their social science project. Luis's main ambition is to develop a new type of tangerine, the Golden Dawn, which is described as "seedless and juicy, able to grow in any climate," and is the basis for both the book title and the social science project. During this time, the Tangerine Middle School team manages to go undefeated for the entire season and later wins the title in a game against Lake Windsor Middle, Paul's former school.

But some strange things are going on in Paul's neighborhood. First, termites are taking over twenty-five houses on Paul's friend Joey's street, causing them to be tented so they can be sprayed with insecticide. Soon afterward, the tented houses are robbed. A vandalism act is soon committed in Paul's own backyard after Tangerine High School suffers a humiliating defeat at the hands of Lake Windsor High School's football team.

Things continue to spiral downwards as Luis confronts Erik at the Lake Windsor football field after Erik assaults Tino as he works with Paul during the aforementioned social science project. Erik's friend, Arthur Bauer, strikes Luis with a blackjack, and Luis dies mysteriously soon after, believed to be being struck by a frozen branch while in the nursery. Knowing that Luis had confronted Erik and had been struck, Theresa warns Paul to stay away. Later Antoine Thomas, a witness of Luis' injury and the star quarterback on the Lake Windsor football team, tells Paul to tell the truth, Paul tells his parents that he remembered the day that he injured his eyes. Yet Tino and Victor show up at the tree planting memorial to Mike Costello and strike Erik and Arthur. In the ensuing brawl, Paul jumps on the back of Lake Windsor's football coach in order to allow Tino and Victor to escape.

In the conclusion, Arthur Bauer is arrested for the robberies in the tented houses, even though Erik also helped him by guarding outside the houses, and for murdering Luis Cruz by hitting him over the head with a blackjack, bursting an aneurysm. Erik's sadism is fully delineated by the discovery that Paul's eye injury was not caused by an eclipse, but by Erik helping a friend, Vincent Castor, spray paint in Paul's eyes. Paul is expelled from all public schools in Tangerine for a year as a result of his assault on the coach, but he is enrolled in what he calls a "nerd private Catholic school," St. Anthony's, leading to a new chapter of his life. Additionally, it is revealed that Antoine Thomas, the Lake Windsor star football player, is found out by the county officials that he lived in Tangerine with his mom and sister, Shandra Thomas who is on Paul's soccer team. School people are "shocked" because Antoine is not a resident of Lake Windsor Downs and is therefore not allowed to attend Lake Windsor High. He had in fact been faking residency in order to obtain a better chance at earning a college scholarship in athletics, and this revelation causes all of Lake Windsor High's football victories for the year to be invalidated. The final lines of the book show Paul smelling the "scent of a golden dawn", the fruit that Luis had spent his life developing.

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Quotes edit see section history

  • “The house looked like it could have been a two story tomb to a zombie at one time.”
    Paul
  • “" I hit the Bar at full speed and never looked back”
    Paul

Setting & Locations edit see section history

Tangerine County, Florida.
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First Sentence edit see section history

The house looked strange.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Edward Bloor (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books
Country: USA
Publication Date: 1997
ISBN: 015201246X
Page Count: 304

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Reading Level: Young Adults

Some family issues such as violence between siblings, murder, and vandalism.

Books That Cite This Book edit see section history

   
  • Connecting Young Adults And Libraries: A How-to-Do-It Manual For Librarians (How-to-Do-It Manuals for Libraries, No. 133) (How-to-Do-It Manuals for Libraries, No. 133.)

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