Social Pressure

Augie Boretski knows how to get by. If you're a scrawny loser in the destitute city of Camden, New Jersey, you keep your head down, avoid the drug dealers and thugs, and try your best to be invisible. Augie used to be good at that, but suddenly his life is changing....

Paul is new to Gate, a school whose rich students make life miserable for anyone not like them. And Paul is definitely not like them. Then, one day something incredible happens. Charlie Good, a star student and athlete, invites Paul to join his elite inner circle. All Charlie wants is a few things in return - small things that Paul does willingly. And then, one day, Charlie wants something big - really big. Now Paul has to decide how far he'll go to be one of the gang.

On a hot summer night in a midwestern town, a high school teenage prank goes horrifically awry. Alcohol, guns, and a dare. Within minutes, as events collide, innocents becomes victims - with tragic outcomes altering lives forever, a grisly and unfortunate scenario all too familiar from current real-life headlines. But victims can also become survivors, and as we come to know each character through his/her own distinctive voice and their interactions with one another, we see how, despite pain and guilt, they can reach out to one another, find a new equilibrium, and survive.

Sixteen-year-old Bernadette Terrell is a champion debater who loves books, contests, and winning. When she's named captain of her school's Classics Bowl team to compete on TV against an elite private school for the state title, she's thrilled. It's more than a chance to earn glory for her town, and scholarship money for her family - not to mention make non-fictional friends. She's been training for this her whole life. Winning is her destiny. Or is it?

Alle verreisen in den Sommerferien ins Ausland. Nur Ina bleibt zu Hause - dabei hätte sie gerne genauso spannende Urlaubspläne wie die anderen. Und plötzlich hört sie sich vor ihrer Klasse sagen, sie würde in den Süden fahren. Damit die Lüge nicht auffliegt, bleibt Ina in den Ferien von morgens bis abends in ihrem Zimmer. Doch dann entdeckt der Neue aus der Klasse sie am Fenster und macht ihr einen vollkommen verrückten Vorschlag.

Maple Mehta-Cohen has been keeping a secret: she can’t read all that well. She has an impressive vocabulary and loves dictating stories into her recorder - especially the adventures of a daring sleuth who’s half Indian and half Jewish like Maple herself - but words on the page just don’t seem to make sense to her. Despite all Maple’s clever tricks to hide her troubles with reading, her teacher is on to her, and now Maple has to repeat fifth grade. Maple is devastated - what will her friends think? Will they forget about her?

Meg has been best friends with Beatrix forever. Everyone at school wants to be like confident, decisive Beatrix, and Meg has always felt the same. But this year, Meg wants to take a science course instead of dance class. She'd rather do what makes her happy‚ not what Beatrix wants. When a quirky girl named Hazel moves to town, Meg is partnered with her on a science project about bees. Meg learns a lot about being Queen Bee, in a hive and in middle school. As Beatrix is less than welcoming to Hazel, Meg feels her loyalty fraying.

Don't be fooled...Charm House isn't like any other charm school. Charm stands for Center for Human-Animal Reform and Manners. Every girl who boards there has an animal light inside her that is wild and needs to be tamed. New-girl Sadie just wants to stay out of trouble and blend in. When she learns she has the fiercest animal light of all, she is invited to join the group of it girls known as the Pack, led by Lindsey, the school's queen of the jungle. Soon Sadie is consumed by social drama and her secret feelings for an off-limits private-school boy.

Society embraces regulations that limit physical harm to others, as when smoking restrictions are defended as protecting bystanders from secondhand smoke. But we have been slower to endorse parallel steps that discourage harmful social environments, as when regulators fail to note that the far greater harm caused when someone becomes a smoker is to make others more likely to smoke. In Under the Influence, Robert Frank attributes this regulatory asymmetry to the laudable belief that individuals should accept responsibility for their own behavior.

At Douglass High School, the Warriors of Distinction throw the best parties, go out with the hottest girls, and breeze through their classes without even trying. When he's chosen as a pledge, Jericho vows to do whatever it takes to become a full member. But as his initiation becomes more and more harrowing, he faces some uncomfortable choices. Exactly when do the fun and games of initiation cross into the life and death realm of hazing?

Sixteen-year-old Makayla Summerlin enjoyed one thing in her crazy, messed-up existence: hanging with her friends at school. But her life is uprooted when she suddenly finds herself forced to live with a grandfather she barely remembers. One act of defiance will change her life forever. Having trouble adjusting to her new home, she sets sail in her grandfather's old sailboat. On a journey that will challenge everything she has ever believed about herself, Makayla must overcome her fears if she, and a surprising stowaway, are to survive.

Popular girl Bliss Merino is ready to have the perfect prom. But when she catches her boyfriend making out with her best friend in the back of the limo, she has only one thought: revenge.... Bad girl Jolene Nelson is the last person anyone expected to see at prom. Yet here she is, dressed in pink ruffles and feeling like a fool for believing that he would actually show up.... Meg Rose Zuckerman is ready to stop being a wallflower and start experiencing life firsthand. But when her date stands her up, she finds herself on the outside yet again....

The Superhero Syndrome. There’s a lot to be said about this subject. Males of all ages love to be praised for our work and our efforts… for our contributions and sacrifices. We want to be honored, respected, admired, loved, and needed. Put respect on our name! Every male fantasizes about being a Superhero at some point in our lives. But sometimes along the way that dream can get lost. It can get buried under a mountain of disappointment, apparent failures, and discouragement. We can get overwhelmed, withdraw, and become outright disinterested and resentful.

Thirteen-year-old Aaron was chosen to save their world, but it might come at the cost of losing his own... Breaking into an old lady's basement was supposed to reward Aaron with new friends. Instead he finds an enchanted amulet that transports him to another world - one at war with magic. Before he knows it, he is accused of witchcraft and invited to a bonfire - where he's the main attraction. If that's not bad enough, a goblin army shows up and toasts the town... literally.

Real-life peer pressure is not just about dares and bullies and can be much harder to spot. Peer pressure can cause people to avoid making friends outside their own clique, follow trends without thinking, try to achieve an impossible look, not take school seriously, and let anger turn into violence. Handling Peer Pressure examines the many different kinds of peer pressure, where it comes from, and how to beat it - and tells the stories of some remarkable people who did. The book is published by Chelsea House Publishers, a leading publisher of educational material.

Proven, teen-tested, and verified must-have social skill strategies to ramp up confidence, overcome anxiety, fear, stress, make real long-lasting friendships, create healthy boundaries, and much more!

Incarcerated teens, aged 13-18, who have faced the harsh realities of adult prisons for committing serious crimes, have penned heartfelt letters of advice to steer students away from the criminal justice system. Unleash the power of transformation with "If These Chains Could Talk," a groundbreaking and interactive book that is nothing short of explosive.

Luke was not eager to accompany his best friend, Hayden, and the cocky new kid, Russell, up to the cliff that night. The plan was to watch Russell jump off the cliff into the lake - his initiation for the Briar Academy fencing team. But instead, after an angry confrontation with Hayden, Russell falls to his death. Now Hayden is in jail and the pressure is on Luke to report what he saw. But what did he see?

Emily is a mad scientist, a cat lover, a mural painter, a golem builder, a virtuo-spastic guitarist, a wicked skater, a wily troublemaker, a poltergeist tamer, a mystery solver, a master prankster, an extreme procrastinator, a happy loner, and a unique individual. And now there are two of her.

Ever decided to do something that seemed like a good idea and, in the second before there's no turning back, think, "I musta been totally mental when I came up with this"? And then, "Oh, well, here goes". That's how angel-in-training Grace Lightbourne felt right before she asked the Big Kahuna if she could go straight to Earth on a mission as a guardian angel. The problem? She never was a great student, and now she won't even finish her last three years of school.