"Why I Am Not Gorilla Girl" by Daniel Starr

In "Why I Am Not Gorilla Girl", Daniel Starr takes us on the African adventure that turns a bored seventh-grader into a Media Star.  Rather than surfing the net to research their Foreign Countries Report, Yasmin and her best friend Jane reprogram their holographic chaperones and fly their aircars to the New Congo Republic.  There, they witness the slaughter of innocent metagorillas and join forces with Nkube to protect the creatures, but mostly to win the love of the handsome activist.  Before you can blink, Yasmin is imprisoned, tortured, and awaiting rescue.

While suffering from the overuse of capitalization and the underuse of punctuation, the piece accurately captures the tone of teenage angst.  This is the sort of story that could draw young readers into Science Fiction by speaking to them in a language that they not only understand, but embrace.  I recommend passing this story to the young readers in your life to hook them into the genre. In the end, though Yasmin does not change much from her experiences, she can be praised for her persistence.