Lifetime Passes

Sixteen-year-old Jackie Chavez loves her local amusement park, Kingdom Adventure, maybe more than anything else in the world. The park is all she and her friends Nikki, Daniel, and Berke-although they aren''t always the greatest friends-talk about. Kingdom Adventure is where all Jackie''s best memories are, and it''s where she feels safe and happy, especially now that Jackie''s parents have been deported and forced to go back to Mexico, leaving Jackie in the United States with her Tía Gina, who she works with at the Valley Care Living seniors'' home. When Gina tells Jackie that they can''t afford a season pass for next summer, Jackie is crushed. But on her next trip to Kingdom Adventure, she discovers strictly protected company secret: If someone dies at the park, their family gets free lifetime passes. Jackie and her friends hatch a plot to bring seniors from Valley Care Living to the park using a fake volunteer program, with the hopes that one of the residents will croak during their visit. The ruse quickly gets its first volunteer-a feisty resident named Phyllis. What starts off as a macabre plan turns into a revelation for Jackie as Phyllis and the other seniors reveal their own complex histories and connections to Kingdom Adventure, as well as some tough-to-swallow truths about Jackie, her friends, and their future. This book is Cocoon meets Heathers-a twisted satire about a magical land and the people who love it, even to the point of obsession. Jackie''s summer is about to turn into a wild ride filled with gallows humor, friendship, and fun-or is it?