Del’s put in 17 years in L.A., bouncing among foster homes. Smart, sharp-tongued, a master mimic, she’s fed up with her world and with being Del. Faking her own death, she leaves both herself and the city behind—until her escape lands her in an all-day traffic jam.

Fast-forward eight years. It’s opening night for the one-woman play she’s written and is starring in—a show called Breakout, about a Los Angeles traffic jam. Wildly funny, she skewers workaholics, road ragers, pickup artists, and car culture in general. But readers will see what her audience can’t—that the show is a portrait of herself, of her hunger for her mother and her terror of rejection, her free-floating identity and yearning for connection.

Flashing between Del’s present and future, Breakout gives us a backstage pass into a young playwright’s psyche, letting us watch her life being transformed into art, heartache into comedy, solitude into community, and anger gradually giving way to acceptance. It’s no wonder that the School Library Journal lauded “Fleischman’s artful structure, distinctive voices, and carefully chosen details” and called Breakout “a splendid choice for teens on the verge of breakout of their own.”

Breakout is the perfect gift to give the teenager in your life.