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					Downsiders by Neal Shusterman
		Talon lives in New York City, but he is not your average Air-Jordan-wearing, Dawson's Creek-watching, under-eighteen club kid. Instead of navigating the hormonal halls of high school, he prowls a far more dangerous place--the sewers and subways of New York. "The Downside" is what Talon and his people call their city beneath the city, and they never mix with "Topsiders." Yet, almost against his will, Talon finds himself drawn into a friendship with one Topsider named Lindsay whom he encounters when searching for medicine for his little sister. At first, the two are able to reconcile their vast differences and eventually fall in love. Unfortunately, Lindsay's dad is a city engineer who is working on an underground aqueduct. When one of his dump trucks falls through a thin spot between the Downside and Top, Lindsay and Talon find their fragile relationship fraying as they try to keep their two worlds from colliding.
			About the Author: Award-winning author Neal Shusterman was born and raised in the heart of Brooklyn, New York, where he began writing at an early age as a creative alternative to stickball. He began his professional writing career shortly after graduation from college, when his humor column was picked up by Syndicated Writer's Group; a national feature syndicate, making Neal, at 22, the youngest syndicated columnist in the nation. In the twelve years since, Neal has made his mark as a successful novelist, screenwriter, and television writer. As a full-time writer, he claims to be his own hardest task-master, always at work creating new stories to tell. His books have received many award-winning from the International Reading Association, and the American Library Association, as well as garnering a myriad of state and local awards across the country. In the wake of his book, Kid Heroes, Neal served as a celebrity judge for Hasbro's Real American Hero Search. Neal's talents range from film directing ( two short films he directed won him the coveted CINE Golden Eagle Awards) to writing music and stage plays. He has even tried his hand at creating Games, having developed two successful "How to Host a Mystery" game for teens, as well as five "How to Host a Murder" games. As a screen and TV writer, Neal has written several hour-long prime-time specials for the "Goosebumps" TV series, including "The Werewolf of Fever Swamp," and wrote for the "Animorphs" TV series. Currently Neal is also adapting his newest novel Downsiders as a TV movie for The Disney Channel. Wherever Neal goes, he quickly earns a reputation as a storyteller. Much of his fiction is traceable back to stories he tells to large audiences of children and teenagers -- such as his novel The Eyes of Kid Midas. As a speaker, Neal is in constant demand at schools and conferences. Degrees in both psychology and drama give Neal a unique approach to writing. Neal's novels always deal with topics that appeal to adults as well as teens, weaving true-to-life characters into sensitive and rivetting issues, and binding it all together with a unique and entertaining sense of humor. Neal Shusterman lives in Southern California with his children Brendan, Jarrod, Joelle, and Erin, who are a constant source of inspiration!