Difficult Family

British author Sally Nicholls presents her powerful and heart-stirring debut about Sam, an 11-year-old boy diagnosed with leukemia. Sam bravely faces the possibility that he will die, and doesn't want anybody's pity as he seeks answers to some very difficult questions about life and death. Young adults and their parents will find this poignant representation of terminal illness both profound and uplifting.

Two sisters, both beautiful in different ways: Fifteen-year-old Ted has got "The Look". That's what the scout for the modeling agency tells her, and she can't believe her luck. But just as Ted's jet-setting off on her new career, Ava is diagnosed with cancer. Can Ted be a supermodel and a super-sister? Or will she have to choose between family and fame? With their worlds turned upside down, the girls have to look past appearances, look deep inside, to figure out what really matters.

On Sunday night, April lies in bed, trying to sleep. She is excited. On Friday she and her mother will take a train to her grandmother’s house. Almost a week is such a long time for a little girl to wait. But as April takes a bus ride, goes to the market, visits her father at work, and eats lunch at a diner, the days slip by. Everywhere she goes, there are people who are different sizes and shapes, and have different needs. At last it’s Friday; April and her mom are on their way. At her grandmother’s, April will see lots of flowers, each one as different as the people she has seen during the week.

Carly Chambers leads an unusual life. She moves frequently and has to run mysterious packages to her father’s clients. Now living in Oceanside, New Jersey, Carly finds excitement by sneaking out at night to the town’s bustling boardwalk. More and more Carly finds herself hoping to spend time with Nick, one of the few kids who doesn’t outright ignore her. But then her life is thrown into further disarray when she realizes she’s being followed, and Carly suspects that the menacing stranger shadowing her has something to do with her father’s business....

Meet 11-year-old Dara Palmer. She loves dancing and dreams of being a world-famous actress, which means she has to get the main part in the school play. When she doesn't get any part at all, Dara begins to wonder whether it's because of her looks rather than her acting skills. But Dara has big ideas and is determined not to let prejudice stop her from being in the spotlight.

With Cayne's fate in the hands of his enemies and Julia spirited away to the covert Stained compound, the two are separated by impenetrable walls and a gulf of unanswered questions. Soon Julia learns the truth about the Stained and the plans they have for her, the compound is attacked, and a new group is running from an unwanted destiny, searching the globe in pursuit of the knowledge that just might save them all.

All Eddie wants is to find a way out of the dangerous life he's living, where his friends are lost in a world of drugs and violence. Even his aunt wants to give him a gun so he can avenge the death of her son. But no matter how hard he works, Eddie can't seem to pull himself away from the sweltering sadness of the city. It's as if giant onions had been buried beneath him, Eddie thinks, releasing shimmering vapors off the black asphalt all around.

Baby is a teenager in trouble, and her last chance is a foster home with a husband and wife whose idea of fun is dogsledding. Still, it beats going to the juvenile detention center. Baby comes to love the dogs and takes naturally to sledding, but when her old boyfriend, Bobby, shows up, she can't stop herself from running off with him. Life with Bobby goes bad, and Baby has to make some hard decisions.

It all starts when Marisa picks up the wrong cell phone. When she returns it to Rene, she feels curiously drawn to him. But Marisa and Rene aren’t exactly a match made in heaven. For one thing, Marisa is a chola; she’s a lot of girl, and she’s not ashamed of it. Skinny Rene gangles like a sackful of elbows and wears a calculator on his belt. In other words, he’s a geek. So why can’t Marisa stay away from him?

What begins with a sense that Michael's deceased grandfather might be inhabiting his body soon escalates to "slipping" into to the river of the dead. When Michael slips, he relives moments of his grandfather's life and tries to help him find peace. But each time he ventures into the river it's harder to come out again. Michael will have to depend on an unlikely group of friends to keep him from slipping... permanently. A penetrating twist on the classic ghost story, full of humor and insight about family relationships.

For Kalvin Barnes, the only thing that comes close to the rush of playing the knockout game is watching videos of the knockout game. Kalvin's crew always takes videos of their KOs, but Kalvin wants more - something better. He thinks if someone could really see the game for what it was, could appreciate it, could capture the essence of it - that would be a video for all time. The world would have to notice. That's where Erica comes in.

Popular author Sarah Dooley offers this tale in which a 12-year-old girl loses everything. Ember’s family’s trailer has been burned to the ground. Now, with the school year about to start, Ember’s family has no money and no place to live. Ember knows she needs to make a fresh start - but with all that’s happened, is this even possible?

An Na has earned critical raves for her young adult fiction. She has won the Michael L. Printz Award and was a finalist for the National Book Award. In The Fold, she examines the complications surrounding teenage plastic surgery. Joyce is thrilled when her aunt becomes suddenly wealthy. But when her aunt decides Joyce needs a makeover, Joyce must decide if she is ready to go under the knife to become the popular swan she's always wanted to be.

Camille couldn't be having a better summer - she kills it as Ophelia in her community theater's production of Hamlet, catches the eye of the cutest boy in the play, and nabs a spot in a prestigious theater program. But on the very night she learns she got into the program, she also finds out she's pregnant. She definitely can't tell her parents. And her best friend Bea doesn't agree with the decision Camille has made. Camille is forced to try to solve her problem alone - and the system is very much working against her.

It's senior year, and Paige Hancock is finally living her best life. She has a fun summer job, great friends, and a super charming boyfriend who totally gets her. But senior year also means big decisions. Weighing "the rest of her life," Paige feels her anxiety begin to pervade every decision she makes. Everything is exactly how she always wanted it to be-how can she leave it all behind next year? In her head, she knows there is so much more to experience after high school. But in her heart, is it so terrible to want everything to stay the same forever?

When Sam's best friend gets her first boyfriend, she's not ready to spend the summer listening to the two of them call each other "pookie." Sick of being a third wheel, Sam applies to be a counselor-in-training at Whispering Pines camp in the New York Catskills. But what she doesn't realize is that it's not going to be all Kumbaya sing-alongs and gooey s'mores. If Ashley, the alpha queen of Whispering Pines, doesn't ruin Sam's summer, then her raging crush on the surfer-blond and flirtatious Hunter just might.

From the Stonewall Honor–winning author of Like a Love Story comes a revelatory novel about the enclosed world of privilege and silence at an elite boarding school and the unlikely group of friends who dare to challenge the status quo through their writing. Perfect for fans of E. Lockhart, Kathleen Glasgow, and Jandy Nelson, with crossover appeal for listeners of Donna Tartt’s The Secret History and Curtis Sittenfeld’s Prep.

Sixteen-year-old Sayers Wayte has everything. Popularity, good looks, perfect grades—there's nothing Sayers' family money can't buy. Until he's kidnapped by a man who tells him the privileged life he's been living is based on a lie. Trapped in a windowless room, without knowing why he's been taken or how long the man plans to keep him shut away, Sayers faces a terrifying new reality. To survive, he must forget the world he once knew, and play the part his abductor has created for him.

Using the newest research on human attachment and brain development, Terri Apter, an internationally acclaimed psychologist and writer, unlocks the mysteries of this complicated bond. She showcases the five different types of difficult mother - the angry mother, the controlling mother, the narcissistic mother, the envious mother, and the emotionally neglectful mother - and explains the patterns of behavior seen in each type.

Carlos Fuentes doesn't want any part of the life his older brother, Alex, has laid out for him in Boulder, Colorado. He wants to keep living on the edge, and carve his own path - just like Alex did. Unfortunately, his ties to a Mexican gang aren't easy to break, and he soon finds himself being set up by a drug lord. When Alex arranges for Carlos to live with his former professor and his family to keep him from being sent to jail, Carlos feels completely out of place.