• Age: 12 to 18
• Grade: 8 to 12
• Reading age: 12 to 18

After another night of girls, music and booze, seventeen-year-old pop star Darius Zaire falls out of bed and lands on the cruddy floor of his old bedroom.

No mansion, no luxury cars, no platinum records. Now he's just ordinary Darren Zegers. Some kind of nightmare has erased everything that happened to change Darren the dweeb into Darius the multimillionaire. Now Darius has to face an ordinary day in the twelfth grade, suffering through remedial English and wondering what happened to the last three years, let alone all his fans and money. He desperately wants to return to his old life, but he is starting to worry that maybe this is reality, and it was his other life that was the dream.

This short novel is a high-interest, low-reading level book for teen readers who are building reading skills, want a quick read or say they don’t like to read!

Gabrielle Prendergast is a UK-born Canadian/Australian who lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, with her husband and daughter. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia. Gabrielle is the author of the verse novels Capricious and Audacious, which was shortlisted for a CLA Award, and The Frail Days in the Orca Limelights and the middle-grade novel Pandas on the Eastside. For More information, visit www.angelhorn.com.

Gabrielle Prendergast's profile page

"Prendergast's hi lo novel is an interesting sci-fi adventure that hold the reader's interest from start to finish...Pinch Me would be an excellent read for struggling teenage boys who would be hooked by the music industry premise. Highly recommended."

CM Magazine

"Darius' confusion in the alternate reality in which he finds himself creates many amusing and poignant scenes...The first person tense creates an urgent tone that will draw readers along, while Darius' inner dialogue demonstrates his changing values without slowing down the pace. Several thoughtful, serious themes emerge."

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