Works by
Brent Hartinger
(Playwright, Writer)

Fiction

• Dreamquest (2007)
  Eleven-year-old Julie Fray is living a nightmare. Her parents are fighting so much she can't even escape when she goes to sleep. Every night she has horrible dreams--and all she wants is for them to stop.
  
  Then one night she wakes up inside her dream, in the studio where her dreams are produced! There is even a star who looks just like Julie who plays her in her dreams. With some help from a production assistant named Roman, Julie learns that if she can somehow find the people responsible for producing her dreams, she might be able to make them less scary. But it won't be easy: the tiny tear in the "fabric"of her consciousness that let her fall into the dream studio in the first place is closing fast...and she could be trapped inside her own head forever!
  
  Even worse, it turns out that when Julie fell into her dreams, Vivian, the actress who plays Julie in her dreams, escaped into the waking world--and the fake Julie will stop at nothing to take over Julie's life.  Ages 9-12.

• Split Screen (2007)
  It's a horror-movie extravaganza in this companion to Brent Hartinger's Geography Club! Two books in one recount the stories of best friends Min and Russel who sign up to be extras on the set of a zombie film – then learn that there's nothing scarier than high school romance!
  
  Read one story, flip the book over, and read the other! In Attack of the Soul-Sucking Brain Zombies, Russel must choose between his long-distance boyfriend and a close-to-home ex who wants to get back together. In Bride of the Soul-Sucking Brain Zombies, Min struggles to accept her cheerleader girlfriend's decision to stay in the closet.
  
  Russel and Min's separate stories affect each other in surprising ways – but you'll have to read both books to find out how!

• Grand & Humble (2006)
  Harlan's a popular kid and Manny's a geek.
  
  But something strange is happening to both of them. Harlan is slowly losing his grip because he's plagued by panic attacks he can't control. And Manny has started having nerve–racking nightmares that leave him exhausted and terrified.
  
  In this complex and original novel, popular author Brent Hartinger takes us on an intense psychological journey as Harlan and Manny struggle with a fear they can't name. It's a journey that eventually leads downtown, where a secret lies at the intersection of Grand and Humble.  Young adult.

• The Order of the Poison Oak (2005)
  Geography Club's Russel Middlebrook is back, and he and his friends are off to work as counselors at a summer camp. Brent Hartinger's third novel is the story of Indian legends, skinny-dipping in moonlit coves, and passionate summer romance. It's also the story of Russel's latest club, the Order of the Poison Oak, a secret society dedicated to helping its members see life's hidden beauty and accept its sometimes painful sting.  Young adult.

• The Last Chance Texaco (2004)
  The guy looked at me with a stare that would have frozen antifreeze.
  
  "You the new groupie, huh?"
  "Yeah," I said. "So?"
  "So no one wants you here. Why don't you go back where you came from?"
  I can't go back, I wanted to say. That was the thing about living in a group home. There was nowhere for me to go but forward.
  
  Brent Hartinger's second novel, a portrait of a subculture of teenagers that many people would like to forget, is as powerful and provocative as his first book, Geography Club.  Young adult.

• Geography Club (2003) -- Finalist 2003 Lambda Literary Award for Children/Young Adult)


Russel Middlebrook is convinced he's the only gay kid at Goodkind High School.

Then his online gay chat buddy turns out to be none other than Kevin, the popular but closeted star of the school's baseball team. Soon Russel meets other gay students, too. There's his best friend Min, who reveals that she is bisexual, and her soccer–playing girlfriend Terese. Then there's Terese's politically active friend, Ike.

But how can kids this diverse get together without drawing attention to themselves?

"We just choose a club that's so boring, nobody in their right mind would ever in a million years join it. We could call it Geography Club!"

Brent Hartinger's debut novel is a fast–paced, funny, and trenchant portrait of contemporary teenagers who may not learn any actual geography in their latest club, but who learn plenty about the treacherous social terrain of high school and the even more dangerous landscape of the human heart.  Ages 13+.

Plays

• Table for Three: A Play in One Act (1990)