Social Skills For Adults

Maleeka Madison is a dark skinned African-American girl. She feels uncomfortable and wishes she had lighter skin. When her teacher, Miss Saunders, who suffers from a rare skin condition, shows that there is more to people than the color of their skin, Maleeka learns to appreciate and accept who she truly is.

In Gustav Gloom and the Nightmare Vault, Fernie and Gustav find themselves battling another shadowy foe - The Shadow Eater. He is after one thing, The Nightmare Vault, which his master, the evil Lord Obsidian, will use to unleash the most terrifying and threatening shadows into the world. As Fernie and Gustav race to stop the Shadow Eater, Fernie learns about Gustav's mysterious past and just what happened to his missing parents.

Inspired by Hobbs’ own journey through the Rio Grande’s canyons near the border with Mexico, Take Me to the River is a thrilling tale. Fourteen-year-old Dylan and his cousin are paddling the Rio Grande when they see six Black Hawk helicopters fly into Mexico. The army won’t say what’s happening, but they do tell the boys a hurricane is approaching. Undeterred, the boys continue their journey, unaware of what lies ahead.

Marcelo Sandoval hears music no one else can hear - part of the autism-like impairment no doctor has been able to identify - and he's always attended a special school where his differences have been protected. But the summer after his junior year, his father demands that Marcelo work in his law firm's mailroom in order to experience "the real world."

In Gustav Gloom and the Four Terrors, things are not always what they seem in the Gloom Mansion. Gustav decides that he needs to rescue his father from the Dark Country, but he can't do that without Fernie's help. After Gustav convinces Fernie's safety-conscious father to enter the Gloom Mansion with Fernie and Pearlie, there is a prison break from the Hall of Shadow Criminals and it's up to Fernie to save her family and Gustav before it's too late.

Dawn has met Travis, an older boy, and she knows he's the perfect boy for her. But the baby-sitters think that smooth-talking Travis is no good and plan to tell Dawn just that.

Eleven-year-old Isabella’s parents are divorced, so she has to switch lives every week: One week she’s Isabella with her dad, his girlfriend Anastasia, and her son, Darren, living in a fancy house where they are one of the only black families in the neighborhood. The next week she’s Izzy with her mom and her boyfriend, John-Mark, in a small, not-so-fancy house that she loves. Because of this, Isabella has always felt pulled between two worlds. And now that her parents are divorced, it seems their fights are even worse, and they’re always about her.

Ghost. Patina. Sunny. Lu. Four kids from wildly different backgrounds, with personalities that are explosive when they clash. But they are also four kids chosen for an elite middle school track team - a team that could qualify them for the Junior Olympics. They all have a lot of lose, but they all have a lot to prove, not only to each other but to themselves. Sunny is the main character in this novel, the third of four books in Jason Reynolds' electrifying middle-grade series.

Leigh Botts has been author Boyd Henshaw's number one fan ever since he was in second grade. Now in sixth grade, Leigh lives with his mother and is the new kid at school. He's lonely, troubled by the absence of his father, a cross-country trucker, and angry because a mysterious thief steals from his lunchbag. Then Leigh's teacher assigns a letter-writing project. Naturally Leigh chooses to write to Mr. Henshaw, whose surprising answer changes Leigh's life.

Faolan's made it back to his clan as a gnaw wolf, the lowest ranking pack member. And the hardships are just beginning. Framed for murder of a wolf pup, he must find the culprit and prove his worthiness in the clan.

Cash, who loves basketball but has a newly broken wrist, is in danger of failing seventh grade for the second time. Fitch spends every afternoon playing Major Havoc at the arcade on Main and wrestles with an explosive temper that he doesn’t understand. And Bird, his 12-year-old twin, dreams of being NASA’s first female shuttle commander, but feels like she’s disappearing.

Shortly before her 17th birthday, Emma discovers she has a long-lost twin named Sutton Mercer. She contacts Sutton, who agrees to a rendezvous but never shows up. Curious at first, Emma slips into Sutton's ultra-glamorous life, assuming her identity. When it becomes clear that Sutton is not coming back, that someone made sure she never could, Emma plunges in to investigate who could have wanted her sister gone (a fairly long list, she discovers).

The Hardy Boys are visiting Paris! Joe is excited to check out all the street art he's heard about. And Frank can't wait to go to all the museums he's researched. On their very first day in the city, the brothers are woken up early in the morning by fireworks. But these are no ordinary fireworks. They are a part of elaborate cover for the heist of a priceless artifact.

Welcome to Miss Qiunzella Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet’s Camp for Hardcore Lady Types. The five scouts of Roanoke cabin - Jo, April, Molly, Mal, and Ripley - love their summers at camp. They get to hang out with their best friends, earn Lumberjane scout badges, annoy their no-nonsense counselor Jen...and go on supernatural adventures. That last one? A pretty normal occurrence at Miss Qiunzella’s, where the woods contain endless mysteries.

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.

Amy learned a lot in her babysitting course - but not what to do if two thugs show up, intent on kidnapping. When Amy agreed to babysit little Kendra Edgerton, she had no idea she was stepping into a kidnapping plot. Armed with misinformation and a weapon, the two men force the girls out of the house and take them to a remote cabin in the woods. There they make videos of the girls and mail them to Kendra’s wealthy parents in an effort to get ransom money.

She's a tomboy. He's the boy next door. With three older brothers, Charlotte Reynolds, aka Charlie, has always been more comfortable calling the shots on a basketball court than flirting with the opposite sex. So when her police officer dad demands she get a summer job to pay for the latest in a long line of speeding tickets, she's more than a little surprised to find herself working at a chichi boutique and going out with a boy who has never seen her tear it up in a pickup game.

Amelia and Riley have transferred to Ashbury for their senior year. In love since they were 14, they dance their nights away and sleepwalk their way through school. Their fellow students long to be drawn into their cool, self-contained world. But when Riley fears he’s losing Amelia to the past and asks his peers for help, things take an ominous turn.

Twelve-year-old Shayla is allergic to trouble. All she wants to do is to follow the rules. (Oh, and she’d also like to make it through seventh grade with her best friendships intact, learn to run track, and have a cute boy see past her giant forehead.) But in junior high, it’s like all the rules have changed. Now she’s suddenly questioning who her best friends are and some people at school are saying she’s not black enough. Wait, what?

Lockdown is the powerful tale of 14-year-old Reese Anderson, who has spent 22 months in a tiny cell at a “progress center”. Living in fear and isolation, Reese begins looking within himself to find a way out of the prison system.