Books published by publisher Zest Books

Do you love a good scandal? This book includes 50 juicy pop culture, political, and entertainment-related scandals complete with photos, event synopses, and a look at why it went down in history and how it continues to influence us today. Other features include famous quotes and a section on where the players are now. Teens will get the dish on:Milli Vanilli’s lip-syncingthe Clinton-Lewinsky affairthe Biggie and Tupac murdersthe Kent State shootingthe OJ Simpson Murder trialPatty Hearst’s kidnappingAnd more!

Women make up more than half of the drivers on the road, but most girls still don't know the difference between a lug nut and a dipstick. This engaging, comprehensive, and entertaining guide teaches girls to get intimate with their four-wheeled friends. Includes: Buying and insuring a car Fixing minor problems Learning what's under the hood Choosing a mechanic Surviving emergency situations Styling your ride PLUS: Fun sidebars and statistics about women behind the wheel!

Every four years, coverage of the presidential election turns more into a horse-race story about who's leading the polls and who said what when. Younger readers, who might be old enough to remember only one or two other elections, aren't provided with much information about how the election process actually works, why it matters, or how they can become involved. With civics education becoming less common in schools, it's important for teens to know what's going on. Using a fun, casual voice and interesting sidebars and anecdotes that tell stories rather than just list facts, this book will provide teachers with a supplemental resource and readers with an engaging way to better understand their government.

Long known for its natural beauty, remoteness, and abundance of wildlife, the Mekong river basin runs through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. It is home to more than seventy million people and has for centuries been one of the world’s richest agricultural zones. Today however it is undergoing profound changes. China’s development policies aim to interconnect the region through high-speed transportation networks and to transform its people into modern urbanized consumers. By 2025 a series of dams will have harnessed the river’s energy, bringing an end to its natural cycles and cutting off food supplies for over half of the basin’s population. Yet there has been little reporting on this monumental change. In The Last Days of the Mekong, Brian Eyler takes us on a revealing tour of the Mekong and those who depend on its resources. He travels from the river’s headwaters in China to its delta in Southern Vietnam. Along the way he meets the region’s diverse peoples, from villagers to community leaders to politicians and policymakers. Through conversations with them, he reveals how China’s expansionist policies are drastically—and often literally—reshaping environments. He also highlights the work being done by locals and international groups to save the Mekong and its fragile ecosystem. Eyler makes the case that there are environmentally-sound solutions, but argues these can only come about from serious cooperation and an increased pressure from the international community.

Dear Teen Me includes advice from over 70 YA authors (including Lauren Oliver, Ellen Hopkins, and Nancy Holder, to name a few) to their teenage selves. The letters cover a wide range of topics, including physical abuse, body issues, bullying, friendship, love, and enough insecurities to fill an auditorium. So pick a page, and find out which of your favorite authors had a really bad first kiss! Who found true love at 18? Who wishes he'd had more fun in high school instead of studying so hard? Some authors write diary entries, some write letters, and a few graphic novelists turn their stories into visual art. And whether you hang out with the theater kids, the band geeks, the bad boys, the loners, the class presidents, the delinquents, the jocks, or the nerds, you'll find friends―and a lot of familiar faces―in these pages.

Being in high school is about a lot more than going to high school. It's about discovering new places, new hobbies, and new people—and opening your eyes to the world. This book is about the stuff they don't teach you in high school, like how to host a film festival, plan your first road trip, make a podcast, or write a manifesto. Want to make a time capsule? Spend a day in silence? Learn how to make beats like a DJ? Or shut down your house party before the police do? Whatever your creative, social, or academic inclinations, you'll find 97 ways on these pages to amuse, educate, and interest yourself, and your friends. Because your life doesn't stop at 3pm each day—it just gets started.

Nearly every day there's another news story or pop cultural anecdote related to feminism and women's rights. #YesAllWomen, conversations around consent, equal pay, access to contraception, and a host of other issues are foremost topics of conversation in American (and worldwide) media right now. Today's teens are encountering these issues from a different perspective than any generation has had before, but what's often missing from the current discussion is an understanding of how we've gotten to this place. Fight Like a Girl will familiarize readers with the history of feminist activism, in an effort to celebrate those who paved the way and draw attention to those who are working hard to further the cause of women's rights. Profiles of both famous and lesser-known feminists will be featured alongside descriptions of how their actions affected the overall feminist cause, and unique portraits (artist's renderings) of the feminists themselves. This artistic addition will take the book beyond simply an informational text, and make it a treasure of a book.

March of the Suffragettes tells the forgotten, real-life story of "General" Rosalie Gardiner Jones, who in the waning days of 1912 mustered and marched an all-women army nearly 200 miles to help win support for votes for women. General Jones, along with her good friends and accomplices "Colonel" Ida Craft, "Surgeon General" Lavinia Dock, and "War Correspondent" Jessie Hardy Stubbs, led marchers across New York state for their pilgrims' cause, encountering not just wind, fog, sleet, snow, mud, and ice along their unpaved way, but also hecklers, escaped convicts, scandal-plagued industrialists on the lam, and jealous boyfriends and overprotective mothers hoping to convince the suffragettes to abandon their dangerous project. By night Rosalie's army met and mingled with the rich and famous, attending glamorous balls in beautiful dresses to deliver fiery speeches; by day they fought blisters and bone-chilling cold, debated bitter anti-suffragists, and dodged wayward bullets and pyrotechnics meant to intimidate them. They composed and sang their own marching songs for sisterhood and solidarity on their route, even as differences among them threatened to tear them apart. March of the Suffragettes chronicles the journey of four friends across dangerous terrain in support of a timeless cause, and it offers a hopeful reminder that social change is achieved one difficult, dauntless, daring step at a time.

Tackling an under-addressed but common difficulty for teens in split families, Split in Two is a valuable resource guide to help teens feel less crazed and confused, and more self-confident. Complete with:Personal advice from teens who have lived/are living in two house-holdsTips on goal-setting and planning skillsComic-book-style illustrations that give the book an edgy, modern, graphic novel-style fee

Middle school friendships can be a source of great joy one day, then pain and anxiety the next. Friends and Frenemies examines the complexities of friendship and helps readers start building communication tools that will last a lifetime. The book tackles big questions such as: "How can I make friends?" and "What if I feel like I need to end a friendship?" Friends and Frenemies includes not just advice, but also comments from real kids, advice from older teens who have been there and done that, quizzes, polls, and other interactive elements that encourage readers to engage with the book, adding their own thoughts and experiences.

Every two years, media coverage of American elections turns into a horse-race story about who's leading the polls and who said what when. Give young adult readers clear explanations about how our election process actually works, why it matters, and how they can become involved. Using real-world examples and anecdotes, this book provides readers with thorough, nonpartisan explanations about primaries, the electoral college, checks and balances, polls, fundraising, and more. Updated with statistics and details from the 2018 elections, the revised second edition will prepare the next generation of voters for what is sure to be a fascinating 2020 election cycle.

We live in an era of misinformation, much of it spread by authority figures, including politicians, religious leaders, broadcasters, and, of course, apps and websites. In this second edition, author John Grant uses ripped-from-the-headlines examples to clearly explain how to identify bad evidence and poor arguments. He also points out the rhetorical tricks people use when attempting to pull the wool over our eyes, and offers advice about how to take these unscrupulous pundits down. Updated to include a chapter on fake news, Debunk It serves as a guide to critical thinking for young readers looking to find some clarity in a confusing world.