Adult Children

In Runaway, Emerson Watts continues her fight against the twisted Stark Enterprises while her brain remains trapped inside the body of super model Nikki Howard. Whisked away to Brandon Stark’s secluded love nest, Em has alienated her true love Christopher and her parents, while hoping to learn the terrifying secret Nikki—in her own new body—harbors.

On a sunny afternoon, the middle-aged writer Joe Rose and his wife look up from their picnic in the countryside to see an elderly man desperately trying to anchor his giant helium balloon. Running to help, Joe is joined by other bystanders. But from that fateful day, one of them, Jed Parry, will begin to stalk Joe. Driven by religious zeal and misdirected love, the strange young man will slowly unravel each strand of Joe's life.

In an all too familiar scenario, played out in millions of homes every day, children who grow up in addictive families abide by certain rules: don't talk, don't trust, don't feel. The rigid survival roles and youthful coping behaviors they take on, such as the responsible child, the adjuster, the placater, and the acting-out child can eventually contribute to problems of depression, loneliness, and addiction in adulthood.

The great news: The prize is $1 million! With it, 13-year-old Whisper Nelson could buy jewelry, clothes, and pay for college. She could even send her sister to college! To win, she must kick a goal past a professional soccer player. The bad news: She hates sports - all sports - with a passion! After her infamous soccer goal four years ago, to the other team's advantage, Whisper vowed to never play sports again.

At Mythos Academy, everyone knows exactly who I am: Rory Forseti, Spartan girl and the daughter of Reapers. Even though I fought alongside my cousin Gwen Frost to save the mythological world from Loki and his evil Reapers of Chaos, I'm still the most hated girl at the academy because of all the horrible things my parents did. I had hoped that this school year would be different, but the other kids just won't let me forget about my parents.

This reissue of the 1919 classic combines the immortal stories from Homer's Iliad and Odyssey into one glorious saga of heroism and magical adventure. Beloved by generations, Padraic Colum's masterful retelling of these epic adventures is remarkably fresh, consistently spellbinding, and unmatched for its richness and poetry.

When Jenna Blake starts her freshman year at Somerset University, she's not only living on her own for the first time, she's moving closer to the father she never really knew. It's an exciting time, filled with new faces and new challenges, not to mention parties and boys and … corpses? Jenna is torn about her future. She'd like to be a doctor like her mother, but she can't stand the sight of blood. Her father, a criminology professor, thinks he has the answer—and sends her to interview for a job with the Medical Examiner—an interview that takes place in the middle of an autopsy!

Fourteen-year-old Ronan Boyle is the youngest and lowliest recruit to the secret Garda, an Irish police force that handles the misdeeds of numerous magical creatures. Ronan's parents are in jail, but Ronan is convinced they were framed by the wee people. So, despite his small size, poor eyesight, and social awkwardness, he's determined to learn all he can in the Garda in order to prove his parents' innocence.

All parents hope their child will be self-reliant, optimistic, and well mannered, but this has become particularly challenging in our current culture. Clinical psychologist and Jewish educator Wendy Mogel distills the ancient teachings of the Torah, the Talmud, important Jewish thinkers, and contemporary psychological insights into nine blessings that address key parenting issues.

A kingdom of shadows. A soldier sworn to protect. A princess silenced by love. Plagued by her mother's matchmaking attempts, Princess Lily, the eldest of 12 sisters and heir to a mighty kingdom, struggles to prove herself worthy of her inheritance while avoiding the attention of unwanted admirers. Tradition forbids marriage with the man she loves, so she would rather rule alone than marry someone who only wants the crown.

Fiona doesn't remember going to sleep. But when she opens her eyes, she discovers her entire world has been altered - her house is abandoned and broken, and the entire neighborhood is barren and dead. Even stranger is the tattoo on her right wrist - a black oval with five marks on either side - that she doesn't remember getting but somehow knows she must cover at any cost. And she's right.

Seventh-grader Zoey has her hands full as she takes care of her much younger siblings after school every day while her mom works her shift at the pizza parlor. Not that her mom seems to appreciate it. At least there's Lenny, her mom's boyfriend - they all get to live in his nice, clean trailer. At school, Zoey tries to stay under the radar. Her only friend, Fuchsia, has her own issues, and since they're in an entirely different world than the rich kids, it's best if no one notices them. Zoey thinks how much easier everything would be if she were an octopus.

When Zélie seized the royal palace that fateful night, she thought her battles had come to an end. The monarchy had finally fallen. The maji had risen again. Zélie never expected to find herself locked in a cage and trapped on a foreign ship. Now warriors with iron skulls traffic her and her people across the seas, far from their homeland. Then everything changes when Zélie meets King Baldyr, her true captor, the ruler of the Skulls, and the man who has ravaged entire civilizations to find her.

Since absorbing the power of the Life Tree, everything has changed. Scarlett is queen of a realm that until a few weeks ago she didn't even know existed and has more magic than she ever thought possible. But she worries it still isn't enough to protect those she cares about or to find a way to bring Raith, who had sacrificed himself to save his mother, back. With a looming war against a new enemy no one knows much about, Scarlett and Kaelem must find as many allies as they can.

In this spirited and romantic saga, a young heir named David Balfour meets his miserly uncle Ebenezer, who has illegally taken control of the Balfour estate. Ebenezer kidnaps David and plots to have him seized and sold into slavery on a ship to the Carolinas. A couple of days into the voyage, a shipwreck throws David together with David Break, a Scotsman returning from political exile in France, and the two of them journey together.

Trystan was once the pampered daughter of a wealthy aristocrat, but since his death, she's considered a social pariah. Trapped by her stepmother's malicious web of lies, Trystan is willing to do just about anything to escape - even play a part in a devious plot to disinherit the kingdom's incompetent heir, Prince Ramsey. But what should have been a simple task proves to have sinister implications. The consequences for Trystan's actions become clear in the midst of the glittering royal masque, where two very different princes compete for the hearts of their people.

Princess Sophia has helped her twin sister Lily save the duchy of Marin. But now Sophie faces an even greater threat when she sets out to free the cursed kingdom of Palinar from its beastly prince. Alone, and with danger on every side, Sophie must navigate a magical castle and its even more mysterious master to discover the secret to breaking the curse. Except the more time she spends with Prince Dominic, the more she starts to question who exactly she's supposed to be saving.

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.

Stanley "Tookie" Williams, cofounder of the notorious Crips gang, is a death-row inmate. But in his two decades of incarceration, Williams has also become a respected author and activist whose dedication to ending gang warfare in the lives of inner-city children has earned him a 2001 Nobel Peace Prize nomination. In this award-winning book, which has drawn praise from educators, government leaders, and families alike. Williams describes the brutal reality of being an inmate.

Waking on the edge of the lake, out beyond the perimeter wall, Brie has to think fast. She's lost, alone, and surrounded by toxic mist. And soon enough, she'll have other threats to contend with too. Needing to get back to the city fast, she sets her sights on the High Tower, the beacon that calls her home. And eventually, it's right to the summit that she needs to go. But first, she's got other business to attend to, business that will take her from the core of Inner Haven to the northern reaches of the underlands.