Social Skills For Teens

Choices do matter and forgiveness is possible. Jack Fountain knows that what's happened to his family sounds like the most horrible soap opera anyone could ever write. But it happened to Jack; his parents; his sisters, Smithy and Madison - and to his baby brother, Tris. What made it worse was that the media wanted to know every detail. Now it's almost Tris' third birthday, and every thing's starting again.

When his family packs up and moves from the city to a small town deep in the Wisconsin countryside, 15-year-old Wil Neuton makes an exhilarating discovery. He finds a small island on a nearby lake, a place where he can be alone and learn to know nature—and himself. On his island, he can write, paint, and watch the loons and fish in the lake. Wil can’t stay away from the outside world forever, though. Sooner or later, he must return and face the bully determined to fight him and his bickering parents, who worry when Wil decides to stay on the island indefinitely.

Joe Quinn has been telling everyone about the poltergeist in his house, but no one believes him - no one, that is, except Davie. Davie’s felt the inexplicable presence in the Quinns’ house and has seen random objects fly through the air. And there’s something else...a memory of Davie’s beloved sister and a feeling deep down that it might just be possible for ghosts to exist. Full of thoughts of hauntings and grief and God, Davie hovers on a precipice of uncertainty and possibility.

Never seen before private diary entries they don’t want you to know about. Peek into the mind of the making of a maverick, a window to the soul of an angry, young girl, who will come of age in a city on the verge of total annihilation.

Amina has never been comfortable in the spotlight. She is happy just hanging out with her best friend, Soojin. Except now that she's in middle school everything feels different. Soojin is suddenly hanging out with Emily, one of the "cool" girls in the class, and even talking about changing her name to something more "American." Does Amina need to start changing too? Or hiding who she is to fit in? While Amina grapples with these questions, she is devastated when her local mosque is vandalized.

In the post-apocalyptic, neo-medieval city of Ark, speech is constrained to 500 sanctioned words. If somewhere were to speak outside that approved lexicon, they'd face banishment. The only exceptions to this rule are the Wordsmith and his apprentice, Letta. Together, they are the keepers and archivists of all language. But when Letta's master dies, she is suddenly promoted to Wordsmith and finds the situation more complicated than she knew.

It doesn't matter how many mistakes you have made in the past, you can gain the sets of skills to be successful in creating lasting mutually beneficial friendships in the present - with powerful contacts. You can use social skills to create satisfying romantic relationships with a beautiful individual of the opposite gender. It is healthy to be part of a supportive peer network or to be part of a group of people that share similar life goals as you do. After all, the human being is a social animal. You have a lot to offer to the world, as does the world to you!

In Tempest Rising, Tempest chose to return to the sea, following in her mother's footsteps and forging a relationship with the selkie Kona. Now many months have gone by, and she yearns to see her family again. Life under the ocean is full of rigorous training to eventually take over the throne, which leads to Tempest's powers growing and manifesting in new ways. When Tiamat, Tempest's power-hungry nemesis, attacks Tempest's brother Moku on land, she returns to his side, which also brings her back to her old flame, Mark.

It happens every year. A list is posted, and one girl from each grade is chosen as the prettiest, and another is chosen as the ugliest. Nobody knows who makes the list. It almost doesn't matter. The damage is done the minute it goes up.This is the story of eight girls, freshman to senior, "pretty" and "ugly." And it's also the story of how we see ourselves, and how other people see us, and the tangled connection of the two.

In an old-fashioned "trapped-in-a-haunted-house" story, twins Riley and Scarlett receive an interesting assignment from their teacher, Mrs. Stermon. Everyone in class needs to do a documentary video about an adventure, something exciting that they experienced. Mrs. Stermon gives them a suggestion, along with their friends Carter, Lee, Danitia, and Mia. She shows them a brochure about a scary old house on the edge of town, called Shudder Mansion. "If you six kids and your parents can stay there overnight, you'll all get A's," says the teacher. "I'll even give you extra credit."

Henry Huggins can't wait until he turns 11 years old, so he can have a paper route like his friend Scooter McCarthy. Henry wants to prove to the route manager that he is responsible enough to handle the job right now. First he thinks of giving away free kittens with newspaper subscriptions, and then his advertising scheme helps his class win the newspaper drive. But he still doesn't have a paper route. Will Ramona Quimby, making a real pest of herself, help Henry get the job he wants so much?

Edgar Award-winning author Donald J. Sobol’s Encyclopedia Brown mysteries star a humble 10-year-old genius. Here Encyclopedia employs all of his detective skills to investigate 10 more brain-twisting cases with his friend Sally. Thieves and crooks of all ages better beware if they roll into Idaville thinking the town is easy pickings. Encyclopedia hasn’t met a case yet that he couldn’t crack—or a criminal he couldn’t help put behind bars.

Magic. Sailing. A murderer among heroes. Gravedigger Volke Savan wants nothing more than to be like his hero, the legendary magical swashbuckler, Gregory Ruma. First he needs to become an arcanist, someone capable of wielding magic, which requires bonding with a mythical creature. And he’ll take anything...So when he stumbles across a knightmare, a creature made of shadow and terror, he has no reservations. But the knightmare knows a terrible secret: Ruma is a murderer out to spread corrupted magic throughout their island nation.

A little too smart, a little too fat, Bobby Goodspeed has always been a go-along-to-get-along kind of guy. But when his friend Addie decides to tackle the student council elections, Bobby finds himself changing in ways he never could have imagined in this tender, touching, utterly hilarious novel of life as a middle school misfit.

The problems your children face between the ages of 9 and 15 will leave marks on their personalities for the rest of their lives. Lucky for you, this book is designed to be a straightforward resource for helping your child manage the complexities they're facing right now —and for you, a way to support them through this significant phase of their lives.

Every once in a while a great race horse is born that will become famous throughout the land. This book is about such a horse. Perhaps even rarer comes a truly wonderful story about a horse and the human being closest to it. Two beings, horse and human, are bound in an unspoken love and respect which draws the finest from both of them. This book by award-winning author Kathleen Peyton, tells their story.

When the Elementals are recruited by Petra to execute a super-secret global project that is supposed to change humanity for the better, it seems as though the girls will be rocketed to fortune and glory. But when they accidentally unleash a dark and terrible force, things deteriorate rapidly into death and destruction...This lethal entity seems immune to their magic and it is too late to turn back.

Storm beasts and their guardians create perfect weather every day, and Mina longs for a storm beast of her own. But when the gentle girl bonds with a lightning beast - a creature of fire and chaos - everyone’s certain it’s a mistake. Everyone but Mina and the beast himself, Pixit. Quickly enrolled in lightning school, Mina struggles to master a guardian’s skills, and she discovers that her country's weather comes at a devastating cost - a cost powerful people wish to hide. Mina’s never been the type to speak out, but someone has to tell the truth.

Sophie works for the local florist, so she's part of every big event in her small hometown, delivering flowers and making sure things run smoothly (which they almost never do). This year, Sophie has tons of events to get through - including a wedding, a funeral, a Valentine's Day party, a Fourth of July cookout, Thanksgiving, and a New Year's Eve bash. And at each event, she runs into Andrew, the distractingly cute - and annoyingly pompous - guy working for the local caterer.

This story of two Norwegian-American farm boys who discover the remarkable magic of storytelling is vintage Gary Paulsen - earthy, gritty, and ultimately poignant. Be aware that Paulsen vividly describes the reality of farm life, including slaughtering pigs and shoveling manure, as the story unfolds.