Social Pressure

Four sports. Four friends. In Game Face, each boy gets to narrate his own story, focusing on his sport of choice. Whether it's a basketball rematch against a rival school or an unexpected turn as the soccer team's replacement goalie, Torry, Javon, Marcus, and Griffin each face their weaknesses and find their strengths. They'll confront the overwhelming pressure of sports and the ups and downs of friendships.

Bridge is an accident survivor who's wondering why she's still alive. Emily has new curves and an almost-boyfriend who wants a certain kind of picture. Tabitha sees through everybody's games - or so she tells the world. The three girls are best friends with one rule: no fighting. Can it get them through seventh grade?

Kate McAllister is desperate for a change. Something to hit refresh and erase the pain of her mother leaving town without her. So when a group of popular girls folds Kate into their clique, it feels like the answer to all her problems - even if it means ditching Haddie, her childhood bestie. But when Kate’s new friends decide that Haddie is their next target, Kate becomes a passive participant in a cruel incident that could have killed Haddie...had Kate not stepped in, at the last minute, and saved her.

Emily is a mad scientist, a cat lover, a mural painter, a golem builder, a virtuo-spastic guitarist, a wicked skater, a wily troublemaker, a poltergeist tamer, a mystery solver, a master prankster, an extreme procrastinator, a happy loner, and a unique individual. And now there are two of her.

Despite Jessica's shocking appearance and the fear she evokes in him and most of the seventh-grade class, Tom slowly develops a tentative friendship with Jessica that changes his life. Firegirl is a powerful story that will show listeners that even the smallest of gestures can have a profound impact on someone's life.

Do you feel like breaking down as soon as you get home after a long day at school? Are you always worried about what others might think about you? Do you long to find ways to overcome intrusive thoughts so you can "just be a kid?" With the hacks and tools within this guide, you'll become an even better version of yourself.

Lili St. Crow’s darkly exhilarating Strange Angels novels have won a devoted readership. In the third book of the series, Crow’s unusual heroine, Dru Anderson, has been through the ringer, what with a missing mother, her father turning all undead on her, and forces of evil that just won’t seem to let her be. On the run from a predator with a taste for her blood, Dru can count on help from Graves and Christophe—but they just might do more harm than good as they battle for her affections.

Thirteen-year-old Teddy Youngblood is in a coma fighting for his life after an unspecified football injury at training camp. His family and friends flock to his bedside to support his recovery - and to discuss the events leading up to the tragic accident. Was this an inevitable result of playing a violent sport, or was something more sinister happening on the field that day?

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....

After Massie Block gets kicked off her high horse and out of her ultra exclusive Westchester riding camp, her parents force her to do the unthinkable-find a summer job. Not one for dog-walking or brat-sitting, Massie comes up with the ah-bvious solution: She'll be a sales rep for the cosmetics brand Be Pretty. Massie fully hearts her new role as fairy gawdmother of makeup-until she discovers transforming LBRs into glam-girls takes more than a swish of her royal purple mascara wand.

Julian Twerski isn't a bully. He's just made a big mistake. So when he returns to school after a weeklong suspension, his English teacher offers him a deal: If he keeps a journal and writes about the terrible incident that got him and his friends suspended, he can get out of writing a report on Shakespeare. Julian jumps at the chance. And so begins his account of life in sixth grade - blowing up homemade fireworks, writing a love letter for his best friend (with disastrous results), and worrying whether he's still the fastest kid in school.

Society embraces regulations that limit physical harm to others, as when smoking restrictions are defended as protecting bystanders from secondhand smoke. But we have been slower to endorse parallel steps that discourage harmful social environments, as when regulators fail to note that the far greater harm caused when someone becomes a smoker is to make others more likely to smoke. In Under the Influence, Robert Frank attributes this regulatory asymmetry to the laudable belief that individuals should accept responsibility for their own behavior.

Life Strategies for Teens is the first guide to teenage life that won't tell you what to do, or who to be, but rather how to live life best. Employing the techniques from Dr. Phil McGraw's Life Strategies, his son Jay provides teens with the 10 Laws of Life that make the journey to adulthood an easier and more fulfilling trip. Whether dealing with the issues of popularity, peer pressure, ambition, or ambivalence, Life Strategies for Teens is an enlightening guide.

The move from elementary school to middle school can be difficult for boys. Many new to middle school guys find themselves struggling with grades, behavior, and relationships with family, friends, and teachers. Boys often grow frustrated and embarrassed as they strain to figure out what to do and what not to do in their new world...called middle school. Best-selling author Jonathan Catherman and his two sons (one current and one former middle schooler) offer boys ages 10 to 12 the practical help they need to make the move to middle school as painless as possible.

This multiple-viewpoint novel explores several days in the life of a middle school clique that suddenly shuns one of its members. With poignant, painful detail the author takes us into the mind of each girl involved, brilliantly illuminating the problem of girl-on-girl meanness. A must-listen for middle school girls - and the parents who love them!

Eleven-year-old Imogene (Impy) has grown up with two parents working at the Renaissance Faire, and she's eager to begin her own training as a squire. First, though, she'll need to prove her bravery. Luckily, Impy has just the quest in mind - she'll go to public school after a life of being homeschooled! But it's not easy to act like a noble knight-in-training in middle school. When her new friends encourage her to do something mean, Impy goes along with it. Before long, Impy doesn't even recognize herself. Is she the dragon in her own story or the heroic knight?

The Little Rose is a timeless, heartwarming story about embracing who you really are. Teased by the ugly weeds around her, the Little Rose nearly gives up but then learns to accept and love herself for what she really is, a beautiful rose. The Little Rose inspires children to embrace who they are despite their current environments.

Sixth grade is supposed to be perfect. Shannon’s got a sure spot in the in-crowd called The Group, and her best friend is their leader, Jen, the most popular girl in school. But the rules are always changing, and Shannon has to scramble to keep up. She never knows which TV shows are cool, what songs to listen to, and who she’s allowed to talk to. Who makes these rules, anyway? And does Shannon have to follow them?

Where women are created for the pleasure of men, beauty is the first duty of every girl. In Louise O'Neill's world of Only Every Yours, women are no longer born naturally; girls (called "eves") are raised in Schools and trained in the arts of pleasing men until they come of age. freida and isabel are best friends. Now, aged 16 and in their final year, they expect to be selected as companions - wives to powerful men. All they have to do is ensure they stay in the top 10 beautiful girls in their year.

When Stephen's dad says they're moving, Stephen knows it's pointless to argue. They're broke from paying Mom's hospital bills, and now the only option left is to live with Stephen's grandmother in Spencer, a backward small town that's like something out of The Twilight Zone. Population: 814.