Difficult Parents

A Delsie le encanta saber cuál será el estado del tiempo; últimamente, sin embargo, parece que las tormentas están en su propia vida. Siempre ha vivido con su bondadosa abuela, pero ahora mira su realidad de manera diferente y quisiera poder tener una "familia normal". Delsie también percibe otros cambios en el aire: el más doloroso es la sensación de haber perdido a una amiga.

Written by a popular middle-grade author, this heartfelt and important treatment of anxiety and depression centers on a 10-year-old boy who begins to handle his grief after his mother disappears by creating a fantasy narrative of where she’s gone, with the help of a kindly neighbor who survived separation from her father during World War II.

Ever since his mother was killed in the line of duty in Iraq, Derrick has been absolutely certain that the apocalypse is coming. And he's prepared: he's got plenty of canned goods, he's fully outfitted with HAZMAT suits, and he's building himself a sturdy fallout shelter. When his neighbor Misty insists on helping with the shelter, Derrick doesn't think it's such a good idea. Misty's just had a kidney transplant, and her reaction to her brush with death is the opposite of Derrick's. When Derrick's promised apocalypse day begins, Derrick and Misty have to figure out a way to survive.

Life in Oakroy, Pennsylvania is about as far and away from Pittsburgh and Philadelphia as a cactus is the ocean. But when you're the single daughter to Malcolm O'Malley, a large man who's about as stuck in the 1980s as a hand is stuck in a peanut butter jar, things aren't always easy. Rachel's 15 going on 16, and with her mother passed away at age six, she's going to have to deal with her father's conservative politics, his new dates, his Catholic faith, and his very vocal politics. Is Rachel going to make it out of high school without tearing her hair out? Find out and see!

For Georgia, this summer is shaping up to be a big disappointment. Mama is busy studying for her biology degree. Daddy is working nights, and often the man who comes home isn’t Daddy. He’s a man who looks like Daddy, but walks a little wobbly. Who sounds like Daddy, but sings a little too loud. Georgia calls him the Shadow Man.

While on a whale-watching excursion with her dad, Willa is alone on one side of the boat when she sees a humpback whale. Her awe and wonderment about this massive and beautiful creature turns to shock when the whale communicates with her, introducing herself as Meg. As their friendship develops, Willa comes to view Meg as a trusted confidant - who offers her advice about difficult issues in Willa’s life.

When Sofia lost her mother eight months ago, her friends were 100% there for her. But now it's a new year, and they're ready for Sofia to move on. The problem is that Sofia can't bounce back - she can't recharge like a cellphone. She decides to write Dear Kate, an advice columnist for Fifteen Magazine, and is surprised to receive a fast reply. Soon, the two are exchanging emails, and Sofia opens up and spills all, including a few worries that are totally embarrassing.

If Ruby Wright could have her way, her dad would never have met and married her stepmother Willow, her best friend George would be more than a friend, and her mom would still be alive. Ruby knows wishes can't come true; some things just can't be undone. Then she discovers a tree in the middle of an Ohio cornfield with a wormhole to nine alternative realities. Suddenly, Ruby can access completely different realities, each containing variations of her "life" if things had gone differently at key moments.

Natalie Armstrong has everything: She's smart and beautiful, has the perfect boyfriend, early acceptance to college, and a loving family. But the summer she turns 17, she finally decides to ask some unanswered questions: Who are her biological parents, and why did they give her up when she was born? These questions take her on a journey from the deep woods of Maine to the streets of New York City, from the pages of old phone books and a tattered yearbook photo to the realization that she might actually meet her biological mother face-to-face.

Life hasn't been great for Jeff Hicks. After years at his beloved St. Catherine's, he's forced to spend eighth grade in the public middle school, which he hates. He's no longer speaking to his former best friend, Tom Bender, because of "that burned girl" Jessica Feeney. But worst of all, his family is changing, and it's not for the better. When his mom comes home announcing that she's lost her job, Jeff begins to worry about things far beyond his years.

There are times we all feel we need more than one heart to get through. When Briana’s father dies, she imagines she has a new heart growing inside her. It speaks to her in her Dad’s voice. Some of its commands are mysterious. "Find her!" it says. "Be your own!" How can Briana “be her own” when her grieving mother needs her to take care of her demanding little brother all the time? When all her grandpa can do is tell stories instead of being the “rock" she needs?

Elise carries a notebook full of tallies. Each page marks a day spent at her new public school. Each stroke of her pencil marks a word spoken - a word that can't be taken back. Five tally marks isn't so bad. Two is pretty good. But zero? Zero is perfect. Zero means no wrong answers called out in class, no secrets accidentally spilled, and no conversations to agonize over at night when sleep is far away. But now months have passed, and Elise isn't sure she could speak even if she wanted to

On the night that Aunty dies, the raggedy witches come for Mup’s family. Pale, cold, and relentless, the witches will do anything for the tyrannical queen who has outlawed most magic and enforces her laws with terror and cruelty - and who happens to be Mup’s grandmother. When witches carry off her dad, Mup and her mam leave the mundane world to rescue him. But everything is odd in the strange, glittering Witches Borough, even Mam. Even Mup herself. In a world of rhyming crows, talking cats, and golden forests, it’s all Mup can do to keep her wits about her.

On the night that Aunty dies, the Raggedy Witches come for Mup's mam. Pale, cold, relentless, they will do anything to coax Mam back to Witches Borough. When they kidnap Mup's dad, Mup and her mam must leave the mundane world to rescue him. But Mam is strange on this side of the border - striding, powerful, and distant. Even if they can save Dad, Mup is not sure anything will ever be the same again....

The Valorim are about to fall to a dark lord when they send a necklace containing their planet across the cosmos, hurtling past a trillion stars...all the way into the lunchbox of Tommy Pepper, sixth grader, of Plymouth, Massachusetts. Mourning his late mother, Tommy doesn't notice much about the chain he found, but soon he is drawing the twin suns and humming the music of a hanorah. As Tommy absorbs the art and language of the Valorim, their enemies target him.

Twelve-year-old Anna has come to stay with her grandmother, Mim, hoping to forget her worries about her parents' troubled marriage. She'll be busy with the town's annual Flower Festival, a celebration with floats and bands that requires weeks of preparations.But before long, Anna finds herself involved in a very big problem. When she observes a girl her own age who seems to be being held against her will, Anna can't forget the girl's frightened eyes and she is determined to investigate.

When 10-year-old Liam's family moves to be near his grandmother, who is suffering from dementia, he's left to navigate his new neighborhood, school, and grandmother's illness all by himself. His mom regularly loses herself in a bottle of wine, and his sister sneaks out to who knows where shortly after "wine o'clock" - as they've come to call it - strikes. Life it isn't easy.

Everyday, Ryan Turner must face the reality that everyone knows what he did. It’s in they way they speak to him. It’s in the way they look at him. Ryan’s only solace comes from the local waterfall, where the violent crashing of the water clears his mind of everything. But then one day, a girl named Nicki Thornton throws herself into his solitary world. Nicki is direct about his past and determined to crash through the wall of glass that Ryan has put between himself and others. She seeks answers to questions that she knows only Ryan can understand.

When 12-year-old Linc Crenshaw decides he wants to go to public school, his professor mom isn't so happy with the idea. He's convinced it will be the ticket to a new social life. Instead, it's a disaster when his mom shows up at their field trip to the local cemetery to lecture them on gravestones, and Linc sees her through his fellow-students' eyes.

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.