"I wrote my first novel at age forty," Tom Paisley once explained. "My tardy entry into booklists was attributed to my background. How could a Brooklyn-born Puerto Rican ex-shoeshine boy-turned entertainer ever aspire to become an author"" With more than twenty novels for young adults to his credit under the pseudonym T. Ernesto Bethancourt, an author is precisely what Tom Paisley has become. Always popular with readers, Paisley has earned critical approval for his ability to capture the language, fashions, and fads current with his audience. He consistently assembles casts of characters from diverse backgrounds in an attempt to break down the stereotypes all too frequently encountered in young adult novels. Despite the seriousness of his intentions, Paisley refuses to moralize through his writing, because, he once asserted, "preaching implies condescension and condescension is the kiss of death for any adolescent--talk down to a kid and you've lost...