Jumping the Nail by Eve Bunting Date of Publication: 1991 ISBN: 0152241388 Number of Pages: 160

REQUIRED READING ABILITY: Low
GENRES: Realism
THEMES: Bullying, Romance, Isolation, Family, Coming of Age, Life versus Death, Responsibility

SUMMARY:
Teenagers in a California coastal community challenge each other to “jump the Nail”. No one has jumped the Nail, a 90 ft cliff overlooking the ocean, since a terrible accident occurred ten years before.

Scooter brags to everyone that he is going to jump. Group pressure and manipulative relationships drive the game out of control. Scooter convinces his insecure girlfriend, Elisa, to join him. Eliza's friend Dru is very concerned because the jump and her subsequent breakup with Scooter causes Eliza's chronic depression to resurface. The desire for others to jump “the Nail” and to prove themselves accelerates.

Dru and her boyfriend, Mike, try to convince others to stop this dangerous activity before it leads to another disaster. At the same time, both Dru's parents and Mike are trying to influence her decisions on what college to attend.

Mike and Dru eventually tell their parents about the dangerous game their friends are playing and they go to the police.

WHO WOULD LOVE THIS BOOK? A kid who...

• is very concerned about fitting in with a group
• is in the throngs of adolescence insecurity
• is very much aware of peer pressure
• is in a controlling relationship
• likes to take risks
• needs a “wake-up call”
  
  

WHAT ELSE?
This book is an ALA Recommended Book for Reluctant Young Readers, and Eve Bunting is a highly respected writer of all kinds of fiction, from picture books to Young Adult.

If students have recently experienced a death of a peer, this would likely be too upsetting for them, but it provokes some fabulous discussions about making wise choices and dealing with consequences.

RELATED LINK:
Author Biography
Interview with author
Discussion Questions.