Fastback Beach (Orca Soundings) [Paperback]

Shirlee Smith Matheson (Author)

Book Description

Series: Orca Soundings | Publication Date: September 1, 2003

Miles Derkach is in trouble. Along with two friends, he stole a car and went joyriding. When the dust clears, he is all alone and his friends have left, leaving him to take the blame and the punishment while maintaining his silence. Placed on probation and sentenced to community service, Miles begins working for a man who after suffering a stroke and not being able to drive, has kept his beloved hot rod under wraps in the garage. Seeing a chance to learn more about cars and pursue his dream of becoming a mechanic, Miles helps to restore the car. When the hot rod is stolen and Miles is the prime suspect, he realizes that he must confront his friends and stand up for himself.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Fastback Beach does a superb job of illustrating the struggles teenagers go through when there is a conflict between what they believe is right and what their friends are doing. This is the story of an adolescent becoming an adult, making decisions, and dealing with the consequences of his actions. Highly Recommended." (CM Magazine 20040101)

"Knowledgeable car buffs will enjoy Matheson's auto-laced language...Recommended." (Canadian Book Review Annual )

"A likeable hero, appealing to more than just the mechanically inclined who will be steered toward this book." (KLIATT )

"This is a good pick for boys who are reluctant readers. From the starting lap through to the finish line, it will rev up their enthusiasm." (Resource Links )

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

At the turnoff to Fastback Beach, Spider stomps the brakes and the car fishtails. He straightens it but we've passed the turnoff, so he cuts a U-turn in the middle of the highway, laying rubber that smokes around us. Then we're on the gravel trail leading down to the beach.

Below us, white in the moonlight, stretch miles of sand. This is a perfect place for drag racing. Spider steps on it and the car jumps ahead. I put my hand down for balance and brace as we hit a dune and become airborne.

(20040101)

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Orca Book Publishers (September 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1551432676
• ISBN-13: 978-1551432670
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.3 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,044,317 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fastback beach, March 13, 2006

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Fastback Beach (Orca Soundings) (Paperback)

My book,"Fastback beach" was about three boys named Larry, Spider,and Miles. These three boys are about to commit a crime.Therefore, the crime would be to burglarize a black, shinny, and sleek convertable mustang. In order for there plan to be successful they had to comsume a slim jim. As a result, their plan turned out to be successful. The consequeces in this crime was that when they took off with the convertable mustang, they all went on a cruise to the beach in Florida. While their adventure, Spider began to do donuts on the moist beach sand. While doing the donuts on the sand they stopped the mustang in order for them to exchange seats. Miles yelled out "Stop" and they did. As soon as they stopped a light shinned in Miles' face as a deep voice said, "Kid's hurt. Call an ambulance." Miles heared someone talking on the radio. Miles Jon Derkach was charged with theft over five-thousand dollars. Pleaded guilty. After this they were all sentenced to serve one-thousand hours in communitty service. During this time, they had the tome to relize what the had done

4.0 out of 5 stars A decent short novel, June 6, 2011

By 

MrMc - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fastback Beach (Orca Soundings) (Hardcover)

I am a teacher and I read Fastback Beach with a group of seventh grade students in our language arts class. The book was easy to read, fairly engaging, and quite short. We read it together using about four hours of class time.

The best parts of the book were the characters (both good and bad) and all of the nice cars featured in the story. We made a plot summary by printing out pictures of all the cars and hot-rods.

The plot is very conventional, my students predicted the ending of the story after the first couple of chapters. Basically a good kid with bad friends gets mixed up in some car theft. His community service sentence pairs him up with an old hot-rodder, and he eventually redeems himself.

I recommend the book for people with an interest in automobiles, and for students who are reluctant to read longer novels.

4.0 out of 5 stars Fastback Beach is amazin!, February 7, 2011

By 

Mohammad - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fastback Beach (Orca Soundings) (Hardcover)

Fastback Beach is an ok book. its fun to read, and really interesting. if you wanna read a book that is super short and really interesting this might be a good choice. its specially good for lazy people who dont like to read too many nonsense pages about something that's boring.