Lifetime Passes

In this darkly comedic YA graphic novel, a group of teens starts a program to bring senior citizens to a local theme park to take advantage of the unofficial park policy: If someone dies on the property, the rest of their party is given 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 Berkealthough they arent always the greatest friendstalk about. Kingdom Adventure is where all Jackies best memories are, and its where she feels safe and happy. This carries even more weight now that Jackies parents have been deported and forced to go back to Mexico, leaving Jackie in the United States with her Ta Gina, who she works with at the Valley Care Living seniors home. When Gina tells Jackie that they cant 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 volunteera 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. With artist Claudia Aguirre, Terry Blas has crafted a graphic novel that is dark and deeply moving. This book is Cocoon meets Heathersa twisted satire about a magical land and the people who love it, even to the point of obsession. Jackies summer is about to turn into a wild ride filled with gallows humor, friendship, and funor is it?