Difficult Adult Children

Sometimes Fitz would look at himself in the mirror, an expression of pathetic eagerness on his face. He was a dog in the pound, wanting to be adopted. He'd smile. What father wouldn't want this boy? Fifteen-year-old Fitzgerald - Fitz, to his friends - has just learned that his father, whom he's never met, who supports him but is not a part of his life, is living nearby. Fitz begins to follow him, watch him, study him, and on an otherwise ordinary May morning, he executes a plan to force his father, at gunpoint, to be with him. Over the course of one spring day, Fitz and his father become real to one another.

Prolific writer James Lincoln Collier collaborates with his brother, Christopher, a distinguished historian, and the Revolutionary War comes alive in this contemporary classic for young adults. Here is a war with no clear-cut loyalties - dividing families, friends, and towns. Young Tim Meeker watches his 16-year-old brother, Sam, go off to fight with the Patriots while his father remains a reluctant British Loyalist in the Tory town of Redding Ridge, Connecticut.

Thirteen lives. One garden. Set in Cleveland, Newbery-Award-winning author Paul Fleischman's poignant book is a large lesson in connectedness and community for all. When a derelict vacant lot is gradually transformed into a community garden in inner city Cleveland, the people of this community find their differences are less apparent and their isolation dissolved. Performed by thirteen multicuturally and age-authentic voices, this audiobook is designed for listeners of all ages.

When superstar athlete Jim Thorpe and football legend Pop Warner met in 1904 at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania, they forged one of the winningest teams in American football history. Called "the team that invented football", they took on the best opponents of their day, defeating much more privileged schools such as Harvard and Army in a series of breathtakingly close calls, genius plays, and bone-crushing hard work.

For 16-year-old Ben Bancroft - a kid with cerebral palsy, no parents, and an overprotective grandmother - the closest thing to happiness is hunkering alone in the back of the Rialto Theatre and watching Bride of Frankenstein for the umpteenth time. The last person he wants to run into is drugged-up Colleen Minou, resplendent in ripped tights, neon miniskirt, and an impressive array of tattoos.

Something very strange starts happening in Nightshade the summer that the eldest Giordano sister, Rose, gets a job working at Dr. Franken's research laboratory. People are starting to see double. Doppelgngers of Nightshade residents are popping up all over town. Daisy, Rose, and Poppy think it's a coincidence, until the rumors start that their father, who disappeared several years ago, has been spotted in town.

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?

Jacinda was supposed to bond with Cassian, the "prince" of their pride. But she resisted her fate long before she fell in love with Will—a human and, worse, a hunter. When she ran away with Will, it ended in disaster, with Cassian's sister, Miram, captured. Weighed down by guilt, Jacinda knows she must rescue her to set things right. Yet to do so she will have to venture deep into the heart of enemy territory.

Giselle Boyer and her identical twin, Isabelle, are as close as sisters can be, even as their family seems to be unraveling. Then the Boyers are caught in a car crash that will shatter everyone's world forever. Giselle wakes up in the hospital, injured and unable to speak or move. Trapped in the prison of her own body, Giselle must revisit her past in order to understand how the people closest to her - her friends; her parents; and above all Isabelle, her twin - have shaped and defined her. Will she allow her love for her family and friends to lead her to recovery?

Christmas is coming and everyone around 16-year-old Liz Kitchell is busy with preparations. The big houses in her neighborhood are shimmering inside and out with luxurious decorations. And her parents are trying to impress all their friends with extravagant parties and expensive gifts. But Liz feels empty inside. In her English class, her group has to write a composition: How do you get what you want for Christmas?

Fifteen-year-old Wonder Blake and her family are trying to recover from the death of Wonder's older sister Lucky, who was about to sign a major record deal when she died. When Lucky's talent manager runs into Wonder at the Dairy Queen where she works, her life takes a dramatic turn. Suddenly, despite her own ambivalence, she is the one signing the record deal. Transformed into a teen idol and thrust into the spotlight, Wonder learns what it takes to be a star, and also what it costs.

Captured by slave traders when only 15, At-mun never forgot his roots as a prince. Nor did he ever lose his princely dignity and the courage to hold his head high. Sold at auction in America and haunted by the memory of his young sister left behind in Africa, At-mun, now Amos, began his long march to freedom. He dreamed of being free and of buying the freedom of his closest friends.

Fifteen-year-old Alyx Atlas was raised as a boy, yet she knows something others don't. She's a girl. And after her dad dies, it becomes painfully obvious that she must prove it now - to herself and to the world. Born with ambiguous genitalia, Alyx has always felt a little different. But it's after she sustains a terrible beating behind a 7-Eleven that she and her mother pack up their belongings and move from California to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to start a new life - and Alyx begins over again, this time as a girl.

Before that morning, these were the words most often used to describe straight-A student and star soccer player Devon Davenport: responsible, hardworking, mature. But all that changes when the police find Devon home sick from school as they investigate the case of an abandoned baby.

At a young age, Lil J. Skin started stealing pain pills from his mom whenever he started to feel stressed - but now he's graduated to the big leagues. After Lil J. partners with a pusher named Rico on a sweet deal, events take a shocking turn when the buyer - an undercover police officer - is shot and Lil J. winds up wounded and hiding in a crack house.

For those left living, it's kill or be killed. When Shy pulled himself from the wreckage of the Paradise Cruise luxury liner, he met Addie. Addie was rich and blond, and with no one else to trust, she told Shy a secret she never should have revealed. It's a secret that people would kill for - have killed for - and she has the piece that could turn everything on its ear. The problem? Shy has no idea where Addie is. Back home in California seems logical, but there are more ways to die back home than Shy could ever have guessed.

In her most dangerous mystery to date, Sammy runs into a strange girl trying to escape from a scary looking guy at the mall. When the girl asks Sammy to watch her shopping bag and then flees, Sammy is alarmed to discover that inside the bag is a baby! In her seventh adventure, the intrepid detective puts her life on the line as she confronts the seamy gang life of her hometown in her search for the baby's mother and the evil man who is threatening them all in this edge-of-your-seat mystery.

Christy Miller series, audiobook four, Surprising Endings: Cheerleading tryouts are coming up, and Christy is giving it all she’s got. The competition is tough, and some of the girls are just rude, but Christy thinks she has a good chance to make the squad. Meanwhile, prom is just around the corner. Christy hopes her parents will make an exception to their “no dating until 16” rule. She’d love to go with Todd to his prom. Will things go as she planned? As the surprises keep coming, will Christy end up springing a surprise of her own?

All Dylan wants is mojo. What is mojo? It's power. The ability to command respect. It's everything Dylan doesn't have. He gets no respect at school, and when he finds the dead body of a classmate, even the police push him around. All the thanks he gets for trying to help the investigation with his crime-drama skills is a new nickname at school: Body Bag. So when Dylan hears about a missing rich girl from the other side of town, he jumps at the chance to dive into this mystery. Surely if he cracks a case involving a girl this beautiful and this rich, he'll get the mojo he's looking for.

Thirteen-year-old Butterball doesn't have much going for him. He's teased about his weight. He hates the Long Island suburb his mom moved them to so she could go to nursing school and start her life over. He wishes he still lived with his dad in New York City - where there's always something happening, even if his dad doesn't have much time for him. Still, that's not why he beat up Maurice on the playground....