Difficult Adult Children

New York Times best-selling author Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez’s young adult debut is filled with sharp, witty dialogue and colorful characters. Pasquala Rumalda Quintana de Archuleta (“Paski,” please!) is happy with her quiet life in Taos, New Mexico. But when her comic book artist father Rudolfo gets a huge break in the film industry, the two of them quickly transplant to glamorous Los Angeles. There, Paski runs afoul of upper crust Jessica Nguyen and her beautiful friends. How will Paski get by in a place filled with nothing but haters?

Lex, a teenage Grim Reaper, has the power to damn souls - and it’s getting out of control. Her boyfriend, Driggs, is dead - sort of. She’s a fugitive, on the run from the maniacal new mayor of Croak and the townspeople who want to see her pay the price for her misdeeds. Uncle Mort rounds up the Junior Grims to flee Croak once again, but this time they’re joined by Grotton, the most powerful Grim of all time. Their new mission is clear: Fix his mistakes, or the Afterlife will cease to exist, along with all the souls in it.

When Rose’s mom dies, she leaves behind a brown paper bag labeled Rose’s Survival Kit. Inside the bag, Rose finds an iPod, with a to-be-determined playlist; a picture of peonies, for growing; a crystal heart, for loving; a paper star, for making a wish; and a paper kite, for letting go. As Rose ponders the meaning of each item, she finds herself returning again and again to an unexpected source of comfort. Will is her family’s gardener, the school hockey star, and the only person who really understands what she’s going through. Can loss lead to love?

Sixteen-year-old Wen assists her father in his medical clinic, housed in a slaughterhouse staffed by the Noor, men hired as cheap factory labor. Wen often hears the whisper of a ghost in the slaughterhouse, a ghost who grants wishes to those who need them most. And after one of the Noor humiliates Wen, the ghost grants an impulsive wish of hers - brutally.

This is a tale of missing persons. Madeleine and her mother have run away from their former life and settled in a rainy corner of Cambridge (in our world). Elliot, on the other hand, is in search of his father, who disappeared on the night his uncle was found dead. As Madeleine and Elliot move closer to unraveling their mysteries, they begin to exchange messages across worlds - through an accidental gap that hasn't appeared in centuries. But even greater mysteries are unfolding on both sides of the gap...

Fifteen-year-old Blake has a girlfriend and a friend whos a girl. One of them loves him; the other one needs him. When he snapped a picture of a street person for his photography homework, Blake never dreamed that the woman in the photo was his friend Marissas long-lost meth addicted mom. Blakes participation in the ensuing drama opens up a world of trouble, both for him and for Marissa.

Kurt is a talented but emotionally damaged football player. Danny is a rising star on the gymnastics team, an outsider in a high school where the football team rules. But the two form an unlikely friendship, and when one member of the gym team is viciously assaulted by the quarterback and his cronies, Kurt rises to his defense and challenges the entrenched stereotypes of high-school sports. This is that rare book that authentically captures the voices, fierce loyalties, and harsh justice of teenage boys.

When it happened Miguel was sent to Juvi. The judge only gave him a year in a group home - said he had to write in a journal so some counselor could try to figure out how he thinks. The judge had no idea that he'd actually done Miguel a favor. Ever since it happened Miguel’s mom can't even look him in the eye. Any home besides his would be a better place to live. But Miguel didn’t bet on meeting Rondell or Mong or on any of what happened after they broke out. He only thought about Mexico and getting across the border to where he could start over....

Sixteen-year-old Annabelle Jacobs never asked to be famous, but as the daughter of Janie Jacobs, one of the biggest TV stars in the world, she is. Growing up is hard enough. Having to do it in public because your mother is a famous actress? Even harder. When your mom crashes and burns after her DUI mug shot is splashed across the internet? Definitely not fun. Then your mom falls for a guy so much younger than she that it would be more appropriate for you to be dating him? That’s just a train wreck waiting to happen.

Allie lost everything the night her boyfriend, Trip, died in a horrible car accident - including her memory of the event. As their small town mourns his death, Allie is afraid to remember because doing so means delving into what she’s kept hidden for so long: the horrible reality of their abusive relationship.

A two-time winner of the Coretta Scott King Award, Sharon Draper has penned numerous modern classics of youth literature. The third installment of her acclaimed Jericho trilogy, Just Another Hero returns to familiar territory for a new spin on her indelible characters. Arielle Gresham is faced with numerous problems at home, and a rash of petty crimes has beset her school. After alienating just about everyone who could help her, Arielle makes a fateful decision to help solve these crimes.

Allie Kim's deathly allergy to sunlight, XP, still confines her to the night. Now that she's lost her best friend Juliet to an apparent suicide, the night has never felt darker - even with Rob at her side. Allie knows why Juliet killed herself: To escape the clutches of Garrett Tabor, whom the trio saw committing an unspeakable crime. Garrett is untouchable; the Tabors founded the world-famous XP clinic that keeps Allie and Rob alive and their small Minnesota town on the map.

Well-mannered Samuel and his mischievous younger brother, Joshua, are free black boys living in an orphanage during the end of the Civil War. Samuel takes the blame for Joshua's latest prank, and the consequence is worse than he could ever imagine. He's taken from the orphanage to the South, given a new name - Friday - and sold into slavery. What follows is a heartbreaking but hopeful account of Samuel's journey from freedom to captivity and back again.

A baby no one knows about. A dangerous hidden identity. Hookups that are off-limits. A parent whose problems your friends won't understand. Everyone keeps secrets - from themselves, from their families, from their friends - and secrets have a habit of shaping lives around them.

Ruby dreams of escaping the Congregation. Escape from slaver Darwin West and his cruel Overseers. Escape from struggling to gather the life-prolonging Water that keeps the Congregants alive--and Darwin rich. Escape from her certain, dreary existence, living as if it's still the early 1800s, when the Congregation was first enslaved. But if Ruby leaves, the Congregation will die without the secret ingredient to the Water: her blood.

Henry Smith's father told him that if you build your house far enough away from Trouble, then Trouble will never find you. But Trouble comes careening down the road one night in the form of a pickup truck that strikes Henry's older brother, Franklin. In the truck is Chay Chouan, a young Cambodian from Franklin's preparatory school. The tragedy sparks racial tensions in the school.

Penelope (Lo) Marin has always loved to collect beautiful things. But in the year since her brother Oren's death, Lo's hoarding has blossomed into a full-blown, potentially dangerous obsession. She discovers a beautiful, antique butterfly pendant during a routine scour at a weekend flea market and recognizes it as having been stolen from the home of a recently murdered girl. And as usual, when Lo begins to obsess over something, she can't get it out of her mind.

Jonathan Friesen delivers a nuanced, critically acclaimed debut with this affecting tale of fathers and sons. High schooler Sam’s struggle with Tourette’s syndrome is made more difficult by Old Bill, his abusive stepfather who kicks Sam out of the home following graduation. When Sam meets a friend of his dead father, however, he begins a journey toward understanding that might also help him accept who he is.

When Georgie Kendrick wakes up after a heart transplant she feels...different. The organ beating in her chest isn't in tune with the rest of her body. Like it still belongs to someone else. Someone with terrible memories...memories that are slowly replacing her own. Georgie discovers her heart belonged to a teenage girl who lived a rough life on the streets. Everyone thinks she committed suicide, but only Georgie knows the truth. And now Georgie has to catch a killer--before she loses herself completely.

Brie's life ends at sixteen: Her boyfriend tells her he doesn't love her, and the news breaks her heart - literally. But now that she's in heaven, Brie is about to discover that love is way more complicated than she ever imagined. Back in Half Moon Bay, her family has begun to unravel. Her best friend knows a secret about Jacob, the boy she loved and lost - and the truth behind his shattering betrayal. And then there's Patrick, Brie's mysterious new guide and resident Lost Soul...