Teen Age Boys

What’s the problem? Sixteen-year-old Filipino American Angelo Rivera will tell you flat out. Life sucks. He’s been uprooted from his San Diego home to a boring landlocked town in the middle of nowhere. Behind him, ocean waves, his girlfriend, and the biggest skateboarding competition on the California coast. Ahead, flipping burgers at his parents’ new diner and, as the only Asian in his all-white school, being trolled as “brown boy” by small-minded, thick-necked jocks. Resigned to being an outcast, Angelo isn’t alone.

Sixteen-year-old Bluebelle, also known as BB or Big Bones, lives her life unapologetically. She loves life! She loves food! When BB has a worse-than-usual asthma attack, her mom insists she go to the doctor. There, she is told that she is overweight (no surprise) and prediabetic (big surprise) and must lose weight, move more, and keep a food diary. To get out of this immediate health crisis, she agrees to make an effort. Then a tragedy occurs in the family, and things get seriously complicated. Suddenly, losing weight and moving more are the least of her worries.

Gary Paulsen introduces listeners to Charley Goddard in his latest novel, Soldier's Heart. Charley goes to war a boy, and returns a changed man, crippled by what he has seen. In this captivating tale Paulsen vividly shows listeners the turmoil of war through one boy's eyes and one boy's heart, and gives a voice to all the anonymous young men who fought in the Civil War.

Walking home after school, Johnny observes the class bullies playing football in the local cemetery. The lead bully Leo kicks a plant off a grave, demolishing it. Johnny sympathizes with the interned person and replaces the destroyed plant with a new one. The spirit of the interned soul is Agnes Starr. She manifests after witnessing Johnny's act of kindness.

Jun hates boy bands. They are disruptive in the classroom, annoying, have no talent, and are now affecting his role as class president. After a talk with his teacher, Jun must convince his best friend, Saki, to give up her obsession over Akatsuki, the particularly vexing boy band, or abdicate his class privileges. But his talk with Saki doesn’t go well. In his attempt to understand what all the fuss is about, Jun goes down the rabbit hole of Akatsuki, only to find another unusual fan of the boy band that has his classmates raving.