Runaway Teens

Lazarus "Laz" Weathers has always been shy, and his issue with stuttering when he speaks hasn't helped. Stuck in a Seattle trailer park, Laz finds baseball helps him escape from the world of poverty and drugs. When he gets an opportunity to pitch for the rich kids across town, he has a chance to get drafted by the major leagues. But playing for the other team means leaving behind his family, including Antonio, Laz's younger brother, who more and more, seems to be drawn to the dark world of the Jet City's drug ring.

Ever since her mother left, Maia's struggled with depression - which once got so bad, she had to go to an institution for a while. She doesn't want to go back. When Maia sets off on a road trip in search of her mom, Billy unexpectedly comes along. They drive up the East Coast, stopping along the way for lobster rolls and lighthouses. Maia learns that Billy has dark secrets of his own - and wants to outrun his past, too. But what will the future hold if they reach their destination?

John and Lorraine happen to be passing by the Pigman’s abandoned house when they receive the shock of their lives: someone or something is watching them from the upstairs window. Convinced this is a sign from beyond the grave, John and Lorraine decide they have been given a chance to make up for what happened to the Pigman. Can they make things right once and for all?

Life in a small Appalachian town is not easy. Cash lost his mother to an opioid addiction and his Papaw is dying slowly from emphysema. Dodging drug dealers and watching out for his best friend, Delaney, is second nature. He's been spending his summer mowing lawns while she works at Dairy Queen. But when Delaney manages to secure both of them full rides to an elite prep school in Connecticut, Cash will have to grapple with his need to protect and love Delaney, and his love for the grandparents who saved him and the town he has to leave behind.

Inspired by Hobbs’ own journey through the Rio Grande’s canyons near the border with Mexico, Take Me to the River is a thrilling tale. Fourteen-year-old Dylan and his cousin are paddling the Rio Grande when they see six Black Hawk helicopters fly into Mexico. The army won’t say what’s happening, but they do tell the boys a hurricane is approaching. Undeterred, the boys continue their journey, unaware of what lies ahead.

Seventeen-year-old “Hank” has found himself at Penn Station in New York City with no memory of anything - who he is, where he came from, why he’s running away. His only possession is a worn copy of Walden, by Henry David Thoreau.

And so he becomes Henry David - or “Hank” and takes first to the streets, and then to the only destination he can think of - Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. Cal Armistead’s remarkable debut novel is about a teen in search of himself.

Introverted Bicycle has lived most of her life at the Mostly Silent Monastery in Washington, D.C. When her guardian, Sister Wanda, announces that Bicycle is going to attend a camp where she will learn to make friends, Bicycle says no way and sets off on her bike for San Francisco to meet her idol, a famous cyclist, certain he will be her first true friend. Who knew that a ghost would haunt her handlebars and that she would have to contend with bike-hating dogs, a bike-loving horse, bike-crushing pigs, and a mysterious lady dressed in black.

Always be ready for the worst day of your life. This is the mantra that Becca Aldaine has grown up with. Her family is part of a community of doomsday preppers, a neighborhood that prioritizes survivalist training over class trips or senior prom. They're even arranging Becca's marriage with Roy Kang, the only eligible boy in their community. Roy is a nice guy, but he's so enthusiastic about prepping that Becca doesn't have the heart to tell him she's planning to leave as soon as she can earn a full ride to a college far, far away.

Now nearly a full-fledged member of the Agency, the all-female detective unit operating out of Miss Scrimshaw’s Academy for Girls, Mary Quinn is back for another action-packed adventure. Disguised as a poor apprentice builder and a boy, she must brave the grimy underbelly of Victorian London - as well as childhood memories of fear, hunger, and constant want - to unmask the identity of a murderer.

This is the sequel to Freckles - the moving story of a young girl whose kindness and wholesome philosophy brightens the lives of everyone she meets.

Lucky, age 10, can't wait another day. The meanness gland in her heart and the crevices full of questions in her brain make running away from Hard Pan, California (population 43), the rock-bottom only choice she has.

Samantha can't wait for the holiday break from school. But there's no time to relax: Brynna's baby is due any day; the local authorities are gathering more mustangs from the range; and her best friend Jen's ranch is in upheaval—its owner, Linc Slocum, has just been arrested, and no one is sure what will happen to Jen and her family. But then, disaster strikes: A terrible blizzard traps the Phantom Stallion's band. Sam has to help them, but she's terrified they'll be captured. Can she save her beloved mustangs and keep them free—for good?

When 15-year-old Romeo's mother leaves one day and doesn't return, he finds himself homeless and trying to survive on the streets. Mute and terrified, his silence makes him vulnerable, and one night, he is beaten by a gang of other kids, only to be rescued by a boy who pledges to take care of him. Julian is barely two years older than Romeo. After running away from an increasingly violent home life, he makes some difficult choices and ends up selling himself on the street to survive. Taking care of Romeo changes him, gives him a purpose in life.

Laurel would do anything to turn back time - to tell her mother and grandmother not to stay home near the beach with a hurricane coming, to say no when her boyfriend, T-Boom, the co-captain of the basketball team, offers her that first hit of moon -the drug that makes her feel bigger than all she’s lost, to have been there for her little brother and her best friend, Kaylee, when they needed her, instead of chasing the moon - But she can't. All she can do is move forward now. And only she can decide whether to face the pain and joy that is a part of living, or follow the moon to numbness and probably death.

Blink, man, what were you thinking? Sneaking into the hotel for a hot breakfast  -  hot scraps of someone else’s breakfast, really. Couldn’t you just feel  that it was a wrong place/wrong time scenario? Even before you heard the banging and saw those dudes in suits jet it out of room 1616? Now you’re not only witness to a crime; you’re linked to it, thanks to the smartphone you were stupid enough to jack from the room. And then there’s Caution. As in “Caution: Contents Under Pressure.” She’s also on the run, from a skeezy drug-dealer boyfriend and from a nightmare in her past that won’t let her go.

Magic is all about love. That is why witchcraft is so awful. Witches and warlocks are the absence of love and joy. They are all black magic and darkness. Which is why Rose has to stop the Shadow Walker coven from recruiting more to their ranks.

Charlie Grant’s older sister is getting married this weekend at their family home, and Charlie can’t wait - for the first time in years, all four of her older siblings will be under one roof. Charlie is desperate for one last perfect weekend before the house is sold and everything changes. The house will be filled with jokes and games and laughs again. Making decisions about things like what college to attend and reuniting with longstanding crush Jesse Foster - all that can wait. She wants to focus on making the weekend perfect.

Emerson Lowe and popular ice-hockey player Jake McCallister have been best friends since third grade, but as their friendship starts to morph into something more, a terrible event occurs that heralds the end of innocence for both of them. Within a week, Jake's living on the other side of the country and Emerson is left alone to pick up the pieces of her life in a small town determined to paint her as a liar.

Best-selling author Robert Cormier's suspenseful and masterfully told novel takes bold steps into some of the most difficult topical territory ever conceived for young adult fiction.

Four teens across the country have only one thing in common: A girl named Leila. She crashes into their lives in her absurdly red car at the moment they need someone the most. There's Hudson, a small-town mechanic who is willing to throw away his dreams for true love. And Bree, a runaway who seizes every Tuesday - and a few stolen goods along the way. Elliot believes in happy endings…until his own life goes off-script. And Sonia worries that when she lost her boyfriend, she also lost the ability to love.