Difficult Parents

Hazel Bly used to live in the perfect house with the perfect family in sunny California. But when a kayaking trip goes horribly wrong, Mum is suddenly gone forever and Hazel is left with crippling anxiety and a jagged scar on her face. After Mum's death, Hazel, her other mother, Mama, and her little sister, Peach, needed a fresh start. So for the last two years, the Bly girls have lived all over the country, never settling anywhere for more than a few months.

I was 13 when my dad caught me with Tommy Webber in the back of Tommy’s Buick, parked next to the old Chart House down in Montara at 11 o’clock on a Tuesday night. Tommy was 17 and the supposed friend of my brother, Darren. I didn’t love him. I’m not sure I even liked him. In a moment, Deanna Lambert’s teenage life is changed forever. Struggling to overcome the lasting repercussions and the stifling role of “school slut”, Deanna longs to escape a life defined by her past.

Without Mom, there are no more bedtime stories, no more answers carried on the wind, and no more magic gardens. Evie doesn't believe in magic now. After all, if magic were real, her mom would still be alive.

Wealthy young women are being murdered on Manhattan's exclusive Upper West Side, and the police aren't looking for answers in the right places. Enter Tandy Angel. The first case she cracked was the mystery of her parents' deaths. Now, while she's working to exonerate her brother of his glamorous girlfriend's homicide, she's driven to get involved in the West Side murder spree.

Sephy is a Cross, a member of the dark-skinned ruling class. Callum is a Nought, a 'colourless' member of the underclass who were once slaves to the Crosses. The two have been friends since early childhood. But that's as far as it can go. Until the first steps are taken towards more social equality and a limited number of Noughts are allowed into Crosses schools.

In contemporary India, 12-year-old Asha will journey across the dangerous Himalayas to find her missing father and save her family's home. Guided by a mythical bird and a green-eyed tiger who she believes to be the spirits of her ancestors, this is an incredibly unique debut about loss, family, buried treasure, and hope.

In a touching, funny, and fearless conclusion to her sequence of novels about the beloved Three Rancheros, number one New York Times best-selling author Kate DiCamillo tells the story of a character who will break your heart and put it back together again.

Twelve-year-old Dani is running away from home - or what’s left of home anyway. Her older brother, who had muscular dystrophy, died a few months ago. Then her father left and her parents got divorced. Now home is just Dani and her sad, silent mother, and Dani’s got to get away. She plans to do something amazing, and go where her parents will never find her: She’s going to hike the whole Appalachian Trail, from Georgia to Maine. The trail is a legend in her family, the place where her parents met, fell in love, and got married 14 years before.

Twelve-year-old Golden Maroni is determined to channel his hero, soccer superstar Lionel Messi, and become captain of his soccer team and master of his eighth-grade universe...especially since his home universe is spiraling out of orbit. Off the field, Golden’s dad, once a pro soccer player himself, is now battling ALS, a disease that attacks his muscles, leaving him less and less physically able to control his body every day. And while Mom says there’s no cure, Golden is convinced that his dad can beat this, just like any opponent. They just have to try.

When 11-year-old Jack Martel crawls out of his pup tent on the first morning of his camping trip with his mom in Acadia National Park, he notices right away that something isn’t right. Where is his mom’s tent, and their rental car? And where is his mom? Any other kid might panic, might even go to the police. But Jack isn’t like other kids. And his mom isn’t like other moms. Jack knows that it’s up to him to find his mom before someone figures out what’s happened and separates them forever.

Elsie Dinsmore is an endearing 8-year-old girl with several bewildering problems. She has never known her mother, who died when Elsie was a baby, and she longs for a close, loving relationship with her father. He, however, has sent her off to be raised at Roselands, his brother's Southern plantation, where her teacher, Miss Day, harshly criticizes her and her cousins tease her relentlessly.

Nothing is going right this summer for Drew. And after losing his dad unexpectedly three years ago, Drew knows a lot about things not going right. First, it's the new girl Audrey taking over everything at the library, Drew's sacred space. Then it's his best friend, Filipe, pulling away from him. But most upsetting has to be the mysterious man who is suddenly staying with Drew's family. An old friend of Mom's? Drew isn't buying that. With an unlikely ally in Audrey, he's determined to get to the bottom of who this man really is.

When Jingwen moves to a new country, he feels like he's landed on Mars. School's torture, making friends is impossible without speaking English, and he's often stuck looking after his little brother, Yanghao. To distract himself, Jingwen daydreams about making all the cakes on the menu of Pie in the Sky, the bakery his father had planned to open before he suddenly passed away. The problem is his mother's major rule: The brothers aren't to use the oven when she's at work. As Jingwen and Yanghao bake elaborate cakes, they'll have to cook up elaborate excuses to keep the baking a secret.

Joan Steinau Lester's newest book looks that the emotional and social experience of Nina, a teen girl living in LA who feels caught between two worlds - the "white" world of her mother and the "black" world of her father. This nowhere land of race becomes harder to navigate when the support system her parents offered is shattered by their divorce.

The beautiful struggle of a girl desperate for the one relationship that has caused her the most pain. Cassie O'Malley has spent the past two and a half years in a mental institution - dumped there by her mother, against her will. Now, at 18, Cassie emancipates herself, determined to start over. She attends college, forms new friendships, and even attempts to start fresh with her mother. But before long, their unhealthy relationship threatens to pull Cassie under once again.

Pete's dad is being pursued by a secret organisation. Both their lives are in danger, and when the helicopters hover nearby, they must hide. Pete knows he leads an unusual life, but he's never dared ask questions before. Now he needs some answers. His dad's behaviour is starting to confuse him. But when Pete starts to piece the scraps of information together, what will he discover? Who, exactly, are they running from? And why is his father really behaving so strangely?

“I’ve got my entire life planned out for the next 10 years - including my PhD and Pulitzer Prize,” claims 16-year-old overachiever Vassar Spore, the daughter of overachiever parents, who named her after an elite women’s college. Vassar expects her sophomore summer to include both AP and AAP (Advanced Advanced Placement) classes. Surprise! Enter a world-traveling relative who sends her plans into a tailspin when she blackmails Vassar’s parents into forcing their only child to backpack with her through Southeast Asia.

Ever since her mother left, Maia's struggled with depression - which once got so bad, she had to go to an institution for a while. She doesn't want to go back. When Maia sets off on a road trip in search of her mom, Billy unexpectedly comes along. They drive up the East Coast, stopping along the way for lobster rolls and lighthouses. Maia learns that Billy has dark secrets of his own - and wants to outrun his past, too. But what will the future hold if they reach their destination?

From two-time Newbery Honor and New York Times–bestselling author Kevin Henkes, this timeless novel about loss, loneliness, and friendship tells the story of the spring break that changes seventh-grader Amelia Albright’s life forever.

Marcy's life is a mess. Her parents don't understand her, she feels like a fat blimp with no friends, and her favorite teacher just got fired. Ms. Finney wasn't like the other teachers, and she was helping Marcy feel good about being herself. Now that she's gone, Marcy doesn't know what to do. She's always thought things would be better if she could just lose weight, but the loss of Ms. Finney sparks something inside her.