Difficult Family Relationships

Harley Milano has dreamed of becoming a trapeze artist for as long as she can remember. With parents who run a famous circus in Las Vegas, she spends almost every night in the big top watching their lead aerialist perform, wishing with all her heart and soul that she would be up there herself one day. After a huge fight with her parents, who continue to insist she go to school instead, Harley leaves home, betrays her family, and joins the rival traveling circus Maison du Mystère.

After seventeen-year-old Claire Alalay’s father's death, only music has helped her channel her grief. Claire likes herself best when she plays his old piano, a welcome escape from the sadness - and her traditional Filipino mother’s prayer groups. In the hopes of earning a college scholarship, Claire auditions for Paul Avon, a prominent piano teacher, who agrees to take Claire as a pupil. Soon Claire loses herself in Paul’s world and his way of digging into a composition’s emotional core.

Girl Code: Never date a friend's ex. Willa Evans has no intention of breaking the code. So what if she's always secretly loved her next-door neighbor Zach? As her best friend's boyfriend, he was always off-limits and it needs to stay that way, even though they just broke up. Even though every time she turns around he's there, tempting her. Flor Hidalgo has a lot on her plate: her breakup with Zach, her dad's new dating life, and her struggling grades. So why can't she stop thinking about her hot, know-it-all tutor? At least she's got Willa, her constant in the chaos.

Zoe and Hank (short for Hannah) have been inseparable since they met in elementary school. The leader of the pack, Zoe is effortlessly popular while Hank hides comfortably in her shadow. But when Zoe's parents unexpectedly divorce, Zoe's perfect facade starts cracking little by little. Sinking under the weight of her broken family, Zoe develops an eating disorder. Now she must rely on Hank for help.

At 16 years old, Harper Lyon's life is spinning out of control. She threatens her parents with suicide unless she can meet her drug-dealing boyfriend, a college student who doesn't know she's pregnant. Cooper Lyons, her estranged grandfather, lives in rural Alaska with only his dog and cat for company. He has just been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's, and he doesn't plan on letting the disease run its course. Harper needs to escape her parents and decide what to do about the baby. She and her grandpa are worlds apart. Can they save each other?

Paul Adams is the shortest kid at his high school, and the school bullies relentlessly pick on him. He spends the entire day wishing school would end so he can escape to his favorite sport of rock climbing. Lily Small is athletic, attractive, and, despite her last name, is actually very tall. Another kid, who looks almost like a grown man, introduces himself with a long Polynesian name, but says everyone calls him "Big," and he seems to like the nickname! As they get to know each other, Paul, Big, and Small discover they have a lot in common as outsiders in their high school.

Dumped by her boyfriend the summer after senior year, teen love and relationship columnist Lu Charles has hit a wall with her writing. The words just won't come to her like they used to and if she doesn't find a topic for her column, she'll lose her gig at hip online magazine Misnomer, and the college scholarship that goes along with it.

In Banshee, Samantha Baxter - wife, mother, poetry professor - learns she has breast cancer and then ruins her own life. Tumbling through a catastrophic midlife crisis, she gives herself permission to partake in behaviors she's observed in her male colleagues, including having an affair with a student her daughter's age, ranting at board meetings, and telling her poetry students what she really thinks of their work. Underneath biting, witty narration lurks a childish, confused, and unrealized adult woman hell-bent on destroying her relationships and professional life.

Sam Jones and Zoe Miller have one thing in common: they both want an escape from reality. Loner Sam flies under the radar at school and walks on eggshells at home to manage her mom’s obsessive-compulsive disorder, wondering how she can ever leave to pursue her dream of studying aerospace engineering. Popular, people-pleasing Zoe puts up walls so no one can see her true self: the girl who was abandoned as an infant, whose adoptive mother has cancer, and whose disabled brother is being sent away to live in a facility.

Nur knapp ist Mara einem Bombenattentat in der U-Bahn entgangen. Ihre Mitschüler nennen sie seither "Das Mädchen, das überlebt hat" und erwarten Betroffenheit von ihr. Aber Mara hat ganz andere Sorgen. Ihre Freundin Sirîn meldet sich immer seltener und scheint plötzlich komplett unerreichbar. Je mehr Mara ihr zu helfen versucht, desto mehr Unverständnis und Ablehnung erntet sie. Was verheimlichen alle vor ihr? Erst als sich ihr Schwarm Chriso in die Suche einschaltet, kommt die erschütternde Wahrheit ans Licht.

Lucy always loved summers on Halcyon Lake - sunning on the lake raft, relaxing on the boat, and spending every possible minute with her best friend, Trixie, and Trixie’s brother, Ben, Lucy’s lifelong crush. Until last summer, when one tragic event turned their idyllic world upside down. Now nothing is the same. This summer, Trixie is gone, and Ben is distant, numbing his pain with parties and a string of interchangeable girlfriends.

April is battling anxiety, is obsessed with Sylvia Plath, and has a crush on Tom. Tom's dad died 18 months ago. His mum has turned into a ghost and his little sister has become his big responsibility. His life is held together by secrets and Britpop, and oh yeah - Tom is in love with April. Jamie is angry, and she wants everyone to know it. There's more to her story, but Jamie won't tell. Yuki, Tom's weird neighbour, thinks he has life sorted and imparts his pearls of wisdom by channelling Jim Morrison, leather trousers and all.

Stella lives with depression, and her goals for junior year are pretty much limited to surviving her classes, staying out of her parents’ constant fights, and staving off unwanted feelings enough to hang out with her friends Lin and Katie. Until Kevin. A quiet, wry senior who understands Stella and the lows she’s going through like no one else. With him, she feels less lonely, listened to - and hopeful for the first time since ever.... But to keep that feeling, Stella lets her grades go, and her friendships slide.

Morgan was born with a hole in her middle: a perfectly smooth, sealed, fist-sized chunk of nothing near her belly button. At 16, she's tired of keeping her physical abnormality a secret. One night, after a lifetime of hiding behind lumpy sweaters and a smart mouth, she decides to bare all. At first, she feels liberated. But the fallout is more than she bargained for. A few photos snowball into a media frenzy, and suddenly she is desperate to get back to her own strange version of normal.

Macy's school officially classifies her as "disturbed", but Macy isn't interested in how others define her. She's got more pressing problems: Her mom can't move off the couch, her dad's in prison, her brother's been kidnapped by Child Protective Services, and now her best friend isn't speaking to her.

Jessie Jefferson is back in the next instalment from best-selling author Paige Toon. Perfect for fans of Geek Girl, Jessica Cole and Girl Online. Life as the undercover daughter of a rock god isn't going to be easy. How will Jessie adjust to her old boring life again after spending her summer living it up with her dad in LA? With tough decisions ahead (and not just choosing between two hot boys), can she cope juggling her two very different lives? Summer may be over, but Jessie's story is just beginning....

Bobby Seed has questions. What's another word for 'thesaurus'? How can I tell Bel I want her as my girl friend, not my girlfriend? How much pain is Mum in today? Has she taken her pills? And sometimes, secretly, Why us? Bobby's little brother, Danny, has questions, too. Will Bobby let him have Rice Krispies for dinner? And can he stay up late on the computer? And why won't Mum's stupid illness just go away? But it's Mum's question for Bobby that could turn everything on its head. It's the Big One. The Unthinkable One. If Bobby agrees, he won't just be soothing her pain. He'll be helping to end it. Would he? Could he?

Sixteen-year-old Virginia Shreves' life is finally back on course: She's accepted who she is inside and out and is rebuilding her relationship with brother Byron, whose date-rape charge shattered everything. But just as she adjusts to her new normal, her world turns upside down again. Sparks with boyfriend Froggy fade, her best friend bombshells bad news, and then the police arrest Byron.

In the sandy Mojave Desert, Madison is a small town on the road between nothing and nowhere. But Eldon wouldn't want to live anywhere else because in Madison, everyone gets one wish - and that wish always comes true. Some people wish for money; some people wish for love. But Eldon has seen how wishes have broken the people around him. And with the lives of his family and friends in chaos, he's left with more questions than answers. Can he make their lives better?

Daria Esfandyar is Iranian-American and proud of her heritage, unlike some of the “Nose Jobs” in the clique led by her former best friend, Heidi Javadi. Daria and her friends call themselves the Authentics, because they pride themselves on always keeping it real. But in the course of researching a school project, Daria learns something shocking about her past, which launches her on a journey of self-discovery. It seems everyone is keeping secrets. And it’s getting harder to know who she even is any longer.