Review: Risky Assignments...
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 23, 2013
Updated re-release of Judy Baer's series, Live! From Brentwood High, Book 1 Risky Assignment:Great intro to Brentwood High's new media program initiated and led by teacher, Ms Wright, and cameraman, Gary Richmond. Skills and techniques, equipment and technology, all become a part of the daily lives of the students chosen to participate following a call for  applicants. Their mandate? "Stay alert. The news is now your job. It's everywhere. All you have to do is find it, to see that unique angle, that human interest story which makes it important to the public and to put it out there for all to see."Ms Baer does an excellent job of characterizing, giving readers recognizable characters, both main and secondary. Good intro to personalities that have already begun the maturing journey we will be following through the series.Intense action opens the eNovella as the student news team begins interviewing the first coordinator of rural emergency care in that community. Her false labour pains turn out to be the real deal and one of the 911 ambulance EMT responders turns out to be one of her first personally trained students! The Brentwood High news team experiences their first live birth under the calm and confident control of this EMT. Surprisingly, a fellow student their own age. Impressed, they want to know more. Grady doesn't disappoint. He's a wise example with insights that challenge the team into maturing from casual observers of life to active participants.Subplots of drinking and driving, self esteem, relationships with schoolmates, family, employers, dating, all create opportunities for thoughtful, challenging dialogue.Next? Book 2Price of Silence (LIVE! From Brentwood High)*Thanks to Litfuse for providing an ecopy for reading and review without obligation.