THE SHADOW CLUB by Neal Shusterman
    Category:  Contemporary
    Age Recommendation:  Grades 6+
    Release Date:  2/18/02
    Publisher:  Puffin
    Reviewed by:  Jennifer Wardrip, aka "The Genius"
    Rating: 5 Stars


    Meet the second-bests: a group of kids who, although they have one thing they're best at, still get beat daily by the
    "unbeatables." Although these kids are good kids, well-behaved, smart, athletic, interesting, their lives are being
    ruined by those who always seem to be one step ahead, stealing the limelight and rubbing it in until you just wish
    they'd never been born.

    Thus is the basis for THE SHADOW CLUB, a secret group of seven kids who decided to get back at those who
    make their lives miserable by playing harmless pranks on them--pranks that will embarrass them before their
    admirers, and give the second-besters their just due.

    Except revenge, as revenge always seems to do, comes back to bite you in the butt. Pranks start getting out of
    control, even though they're not being committed by the Shadow Club members. Someone's out to sabotage their
    club, and one of the "unbeatables" could wind up getting seriously hurt--even killed. As the Club seeks to get the
    biggest loser in school, Tyson McGaw, to confess to the pranks, the Shadow Club comes to realize that they might
    not be the all-around good kids that they thought they were.

    What started out as fun is turning into something darker, and no one seems to know how to make it stop.

    THE SHADOW CLUB is a great read by Neal Shusterman. Dealing with human nature, the fact that kids can
    traumatize each other more than anyone else can, and the fact that we all have anger inside of us is forefront in the
    story. A great read!
The Shadow Club
by Neal Shusterman