The Dropanchor Chronicle: A SAT Vocabulary Novel »

For Allen, Joannie and Ricky it becomes the senior year that wasn't. Allen is a journalist, and all he asks from that final year is a minor scandal now and then for the school paper. Joannie has her project, cataloging the bugs and beasts of Mercurial Canyon, and some progress there would be enough for her. And for Ricky a good year would be just to keep going nowhere with his wild crush on a TV travel hostess named Sallie.

But things don't turn out like that. The three of them and their friends are overtaken by events. Their senior year becomes a dangerous struggle against the empire building of editor and business tycoon Peerless Bamalford. He's big and verbally abusive, emotionally impoverished and just plain mean. He holds every advantage--a wealthy patron, a political chokehold, a twisted creativity. And in his arrogance he begins to meddle with deep forces of nature that were better left alone. Ignoring the man is not an option, and step by hesitating step Allen and gang advance toward a dark confrontation.

The Dropanchor Chronicle is a vocabulary novel, with 1491 tough words woven into its story line. The Dropanchor word list is a mature one, based on extensive study of real SAT exams released by the College Board. Moderately difficult words that you have probably mastered by now (such as erode, benefactor, disastrous, incorporate and superstition) are kept off the list to leave room for more challenging items. The definitions in Dropanchor are carefully written and distinctly easy to use: they are always right there, appearing on the same page as the word being defined, or sometimes on the page before.