In Part 2, Paul befriends some of the soccer players at Tangerine Middle and becomes one of the fearsome War Eagles. Paul can now abandon the IEP and find a spot on the Tangerine War Eagles’ soccer team. He will, instead, transfer to Tangerine Middle to complete the semester while repairs are made. Shortly after, a freak sinkhole opens at Windsor Lake Middle School, swallowing most of the portable units where Paul’s classes take place. Tangerine Middle is in the heart of town, rather than in one of the gated suburbs, and Joey indicates that the students there are tougher. There, Paul witnesses a group of soccer players from Tangerine Middle vandalizing one of the exhibits. The tragedy throws the community into an uproar, and the team begins practicing in the morning, with parents helping to carpool.Īfter the funeral, Paul and Joey attend the local carnival, as Joey’s parents want to keep him occupied after the terrible loss. Within a week of the start of school, lightning strikes Joey Costello’s older brother, Mike, dead on the football field. Erik’s football talent-he can kick a 50-yard field goal with ease-and his subsequent popularity, make him an alpha male in the ruthlessly competitive world of high school athletics. In the meantime, Erik has befriended Arthur Bauer, whom Paul recognizes as another “thuggish” sidekick in a long line of obedient hangers-on. Because of his visual impairment, the school’s insurance will not cover him to play in the soccer games. Alas, the IEP-an Individualized Education Plan- thwarts his intentions. Still, Paul determines to make the best of it, befriending Joey Costello and going out to play with the soccer team. This is not to mention the frequent thunderstorms and lightning strikes that accompany the omnipresent afternoon rain.

Much about the location of their new home and school is troubling: There is a continuously burning muck fire that fouls the air the once-abundant tangerine groves in the area have been razed to make way for the new sub-divisions and Paul’s middle school classrooms are in hot and cramped portable units set up outside of the main building. He will attend Lake Windsor Middle School, while his older brother Erik will presumably be the star kicker on the Lake Windsor High School football team. In Part 1, Paul and his family arrive at their new home in Lake Windsor Downs, one of the many recently developed gated communities in the citrus-growing region of Florida.

All quotations in this guide come from the 1998 Scholastic, Inc. Included in the ALA Top Ten Best Books of the Year, Tangerine teams with intrigue and action, confronting issues of class, race, and belonging in innovative and poignant ways.

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