Friendship Fiction

Attempting to escape his abusive father and generations of cyclical poverty, young Jonah Hargrove joins the mysterious River - a teenage girl carrying thousands of dollars in stolen meth - and embarks on a Southern Gothic odyssey through the East Texas river bottoms. They are pursued by local drug kingpin, John Curtis, and his murderous enforcer, Dakota Cade, with whom River was romantically involved. But Cade and Curtis have their own enemies, as their relationship with the cartel controlling their meth supply begins to sour.

Three very different women. Only one thing in common. But when their family patriarch dies and they must share his estate, the truths they discover will test them - and everything they think they know about each other.

Jimmy, David, and Henry are psyched. It's summer, school's out, and they are on their way to California, where they will be able to do some major skating. But on the plane, the unthinkable happens: They are hijacked by terrorists. As frightened as they may be, they take action and they succeed. Sort of. They may have beaten the terrorists, but now their plane has crashed in the middle of nowhere and all of a sudden, their summer vacation is about finding food, shelter, and a rescue. Can three normal 12-year-old boys find a way to get by without fast food and skate parks?

Listen and relive exciting tales from Highlights, now on audio! Learn about all the animals who head to the pool on a hot summer’s day and kids selling at market in Egypt, along with other stories about friends.

Pour rendre plus doux les derniers moments du petit malade, Mamie Rose propose un jeu à Oscar : vivre chaque jour comme s'il représentait dix ans. Interprété par l'auteur, accompagné par quelques extraits tintinnabulants du Casse-Noisette et le bal des souris de Tchaïkovski, ce conte a la fraîcheur insolente de l'enfance et raconte la relation particulière tissée entre une vieille dame et un jeune garçon, la puissance de la méditation et l'incroyable force de vie d'Oscar.

Eleven-year-old Charlie Reese has been making the same secret wish every day since fourth grade. But when she is sent to the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina to live with family she barely knows, it seems unlikely that her wish will ever come true. That is until she meets Wishbone, a skinny stray dog who captures her heart, and Howard, a neighbor boy who proves surprising in lots of ways. Suddenly Charlie is in serious danger of discovering that what she thought she wanted may not be what she needs at all.

Mina is a talented figure skater, but she's looking forward to trying a new challenge—pairs skating! Mina has second thoughts, though, when she starts practicing with Luke, a shy boy who she doesn’t know well. Can the pair overcome their trust issues and become a successful pairs skating team?

Kristy's mom is getting married, and everyone is coming to town to help, bringing their kids with them. Fourteen kids! Kristy is sure she and Stacey, Claudia, Mary Anne, and Dawn can handle it - they're professional baby-sitters after all, and Kristy's mom has offered them a lot of money to take on such a big job.

But will a week of changing diapers, stopping fights, solving mix-ups, and keeping 14 children entertained prove to be too much for the BSC? Can they keep things under control for Kristy's big day?

Meet Maxwell Kane, narrator of Freak the Mighty. He's a timid soul stuck in the body of a teenage giant with size 14 shoes. Haunted by a dark secret in his past, he hides out in his basement room, avoiding the world. But when a new kid moves in next door, Max's life changes forever. The two outcasts form the "normal" world team up to become "Freak the Mighty".

Olivia Jones, hard-working and accomplished, has, against the odds, blazed an enviable career path in the finance world. But behind the veneer of her success, she is mourning several devastating losses and betrayals. Untethered from her life in New York City, Olivia moves to a summer home in The Hamptons. Here, Olivia finds a close-knit community of African American elites who escape New York City for the beautiful beaches of the Hamptons. Since the 1930s, very few have known about this Historically Black Beachfront Community, and the residents like it that way.

After Maeve finds a pack of tarot cards while cleaning out a closet during her in-school suspension, she quickly becomes the most sought-after diviner at St. Bernadette’s Catholic school. But when Maeve’s ex-best friend, Lily, draws an unsettling card called The Housekeeper that Maeve has never seen before, the session devolves into a heated argument that ends with Maeve wishing aloud that Lily would disappear. When Lily isn’t at school the next Monday, Maeve learns her ex-friend has vanished without a trace.

In the fading days of summer 2011, self-taught astrophysicist Petra has calculated that the atmosphere will collapse in a few weeks’ time—on September 21, at approximately 9:20 p.m.—ending the world as we know it. But the distraught Petra will not have to carry the burden of this terrible news alone for long. Fate intervenes, bringing her into the orbit of a pair of unlikely companions: Johan, a man whose intellectual prowess is remarkably overshadowed by his culinary skills, and Agnes, a seventy-five-year-old widow who has made a fortune posing as a young influencer on social media.

When Katy’s mother dies, she is left reeling. Carol wasn’t just Katy’s mom, but her best friend and first phone call. She had all the answers and now, when Katy needs her the most, she is gone. To make matters worse, their planned mother-daughter trip of a lifetime looms: to Positano, the magical town where Carol spent the summer right before she met Katy’s father. Katy has been waiting years for Carol to take her, and now she is faced with embarking on the adventure alone.

By all accounts, Lucy’s handled her divorce well. She’s finally in the cozy, plant-filled house of her dreams. And although she doesn’t fit in with the other divorcées—all busy looking for their next ex—she’s excited to get down to earth and savor the small joys of life. When Lucy meets Elle, a hip younger woman who shares her same passions, their connection is instant. Taking a chance on kismet, Lucy forges a friendship that fills her days with meaning. She and Elle are inseparable, from sunup to sundown, enjoying the immediate ease and familiarity of each other’s company.

Theodore Finch is fascinated by death, and he constantly thinks of ways he might die. But each time, something good, no matter how small, stops him. Violet Markey lives for the future, counting the days until graduation, when she can escape her Indiana town and her aching grief in the wake of her sister's recent death. When Finch and Violet meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school, it's unclear who saves whom.

Julia just changed schools. Luckily, her best friend, Ava, goes to her new school. Ava’s been on the cheerleading squad for two years, and she promised to help Julia make the team. But if Julia is a better cheerleader than Ava, will they still be able to be best friends?

National Book Award-winning author Pete Hautman crafts a powerful tale of one tormented boy’s troubled life in Invisible. Seventeen-year-old Doug Hanson is obsessed—with his best friend Andy, with pretty Melissa Haverman, and with his model railroad town. Doug also has terrible secrets from his past, and he isn’t taking the medication his psychiatrist prescribed....

Tory Brennan, niece of acclaimed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan (of the Bones novels and hit TV show), is the leader of a ragtag band of teenage "sci-philes" who live on a secluded island off the coast of South Carolina. When the group rescues a dog caged for medical testing on a nearby island, they are exposed to an experimental strain of canine parvovirus that changes their lives forever.

The Mysterious Benedict Society is up against a new mission, significantly closer to home. After reuniting for a celebratory scavenger hunt, Reynie, Kate, Sticky, and Constance are forced to go on an unexpected search—a search to find Mr. Benedict. It seems that while he was preparing the kids' adventure, he stepped right into a trap orchestrated by his evil twin Mr. Curtain. With only one week to find a captured Mr. Benedict, the gifted foursome faces their greatest challenge of all.

Red is an oak tree who is many rings old. Red is the neighborhood "wishtree" - people write their wishes on pieces of cloth and tie them to Red's branches. Along with her crow friend, Bongo, and other animals who seek refuge in Red's hollows, this "wishtree" watches over the neighborhood. You might say Red has seen it all. Until a new family moves in. Not everyone is welcoming, and Red's experiences as a wishtree are more important than ever.