Difficult Adult Children

High school freshman Jessica Walsh is a Virago - a woman warrior who must protect her hometown from danger. And in Nightshade, California, trouble is always lurking. At the town’s Battle of the Bands, Jess’ boyfriend, Dominic, and his band, Side Effects May Vary, are up against Hamlin, a band so popular,their fans follow them everywhere. Soon,the competing musicians are doing risky, illegal, and even fatal things - and claiming that they heard strange music that compelled them to do it. Can Jess and her friends track down the tuneful tyrant before it’s too late?

Ruby Oliver is 15 and has a shrink. She knows it’s unusual, but give her a break—she’s had a rough 10 days.

Angel has just lost her father, and her mother's grief means she might as well be gone, too. She's got a sister and a grandmother to look out for, and a burgeoning consciousness of the unfairness in the world - in her family, her community, and her country. Set against the backdrop of the second Philippine People Power Revolution in 2001, the contemporary struggles of surviving Filipina "Comfort Women" of WWII, and a cold winter’s season in the city of Chicago is the story of a daughter coming of age, coming to forgiveness, and learning to move past the chaos of grief to survive.

Kids have been picking on 14-year-old Harold ever since he can remember. They stare at him and call him "maggot" or "ghost boy" because he's an albino. Even his mother seems angry and withdrawn when he's around.One day the circus comes to town, and Harold runs away to join it. When Fossil Man and Princess Minikin accept him into their family, he feels that he has at long last come home.

Francis Joseph Cassavant is eighteen. He has just returned home from the Second World War, and he has no face. He does have a gun and a mission: to murder his childhood hero. Francis lost most of his face when he fell on a grenade in France. He received the Silver Star for bravery, but was it really an act of heroism? Now, having survived, he is looking for a man he once admired and respected, a man adored by many people, a man who also received a Silver Star for bravery. A man who destroyed Francis's life.

At a young age, Lil J. Skin started stealing pain pills from his mom whenever he started to feel stressed - but now he's graduated to the big leagues. After Lil J. partners with a pusher named Rico on a sweet deal, events take a shocking turn when the buyer - an undercover police officer - is shot and Lil J. winds up wounded and hiding in a crack house.

Award-winning educator and author Alan Lawrence Sitomer’s engaging young adult novels have been named among the ALA’s Best Books of the Year. This first tale in his planned Nerd Girls series follows 13-year-old self-proclaimed “dorkasaurus” Maureen and her fellow social outcasts Alice and Barbara. When Maureen discovers that the Pretty, Popular, Perfect girls are planning a mean trick on Alice, she decides it’s finally time to take a stand. Signing up to compete against the ThreePees in a talent show, Maureen plans her revenge.

The Cyborg Wars are over and Earth has peacefully prospered for more than one hundred years. Yet sometimes history must repeat itself until humanity learns from its mistakes. In the year 2170, despite technological and political advances, cyborgs and clones are treated no better than slaves, and an underground abolitionist movement is fighting for freedom. Thirteen-year-old Leanna's entire life is thrown into chaos when The World Federation of Nations discovers her mom is part of the radical Liberty Bell Movement.

After three months in the suicide prevention wing of St. George's, Audrey Bales is finally coming home. Enrolled at a new school, she plans to reinvent herself with a new look, new friends, and a second chance to be just like everyone else. But the kids who drove her over the edge aren't through with her yet. And one of her new friends has an agenda all his own.

When Gwen's grandfather disappears from their home in New York City, he leaves a message saying not to worry, but that's hard when Gwen has upcoming violin auditions at Julliard! But then she meets Robert, a fellow musician, and things seem to look up. At the same time, there are other forces in motion, like the scary great uncle who keeps coming by, and the strange man Gwen sees one day when shopping.

This three-novel boxed audiobook set follows the adventures of Rose, a girl who died, only to be reborn Into a land of magic, privilege, and prejudice, where wizards and dragons reign. There, she is asked to lead a magical war against a being so powerful, that he once obliterated an entire race. Entering the Aurum Oratory, a school of magic and wizardry, Rose is prepared for a dangerous, magical quest. Its aim - to destroy one of the greatest evils of all time.

Andre Anderson is a Black teenager with a dream. Although he loves to play basketball and laugh with his friends, he also loves to write and wants to make his mark on the world. One summer when he is assigned to do a magazine article about race, he creates a passionate and explosive piece. Soon, he is the target of racists who brutally attack him, putting him in the hospital. With his hand and dream broken, he must figure out how to put his life back together in spite of the anger and injustice he now sees around him.

Elise carries a notebook full of tallies. Each page marks a day spent at her new public school. Each stroke of her pencil marks a word spoken - a word that can't be taken back. Five tally marks isn't so bad. Two is pretty good. But zero? Zero is perfect. Zero means no wrong answers called out in class, no secrets accidentally spilled, and no conversations to agonize over at night when sleep is far away. But now months have passed, and Elise isn't sure she could speak even if she wanted to

Briony thought she knew all about Wicked and its dangerous woods. What she didn't expect was that there were more than creatures who go bump in the night, more than creatures the Preservation Society have to watch out for. Aunt Sophie, Pietre, and all the residents of Wicked Woods have been waiting for this moment...a moment that would change Briony forever.

These are no longer the happy days for kids in America. School shootings, drugs and alcohol, and premature promiscuous sex are only symptoms of a toxic culture run rampant. Let's face the fact that the Disney song "It's a Small World After All" no longer hold true. It is a big world and a dangerous world for kids growing up today. Raising Teens in a Toxic World is a guidebook to help parents navigate their way through the passage we call adolescence. Its goal is not to tell parents what to think. Its goal is to get them to think...to parent consciously...and confidently.

Sacrifice your own life - or watch your people, and those you love die a horrible, painful, death? A choice Rose must make. What would you choose? Against all odds, Rose has survived El-on-ah's attacks twice. Now, though Rose's powers are growing, she is still not safe. If Rose is to cast the Incantatio spell, then someone must travel to Aurum where Lord Ka and his army are now in full control. She has little choice but to send Ash. The fate of their world rests upon his success or failure.

Let’s face it: Talking about race can be difficult. It’s a slippery subject, rife with as many perspectives as there are people in the world. But laughter gets us talking. It has the power to break down barriers and draw us closer together. In Open Mic, acclaimed author and speaker Mitali Perkins invites us to listen in as 10 authors for young adults - some familiar, some new - step up to the mic and share their stories about what it’s like growing up between cultures.

When Hinton Helsinger leaves the Youth Correctional Center, he's set on reforming his impulsive ways. But things at home have changed: his dad has been killed, his mom's remarried his uncle, and his uncle is the new kingpin of the family gang that controls the town's drug trade. Threatened by Hinton's return, Hinton's uncle hatches a sinister plot using Hinton's girlfriend, Olivia, as a pawn. As Hinton struggles between the impulse to avenge his dad's death and the desire to seek a way out of that corrupt life, he embarks on a downward spiral of revenge and madness....

For 16-year-old Ben Bancroft - a kid with cerebral palsy, no parents, and an overprotective grandmother - the closest thing to happiness is hunkering alone in the back of the Rialto Theatre and watching Bride of Frankenstein for the umpteenth time. The last person he wants to run into is drugged-up Colleen Minou, resplendent in ripped tights, neon miniskirt, and an impressive array of tattoos.

For a young adolescent, David Curry has a lot to contend with. He loves and fears Reuben, his troubled father. His older brother, Ty, is turning into someone David doesn't know anymore, or trust. And his mom is struggling to hold everything together.