Urban Youth

Gang-fighters! Drug addicts. Teenage runaways and prostitutes! The toughest and most hopeless kids that New York's ghettos had to offer. Then a young preacher from the Pennsylvania hills arrived on their turf and began preaching a message of renewal, miracles, and God's love. This is one of the century's great true stories. Over 14 million copies in print!

At 15, Victor Rios found himself a human target - flat on his ass amid a hail of shotgun fire, desperate for money and a place on the street. Faced with the choice of escalating a drug turf war or eking out a living elsewhere, he turned to a teacher, who mentored him and helped him find a job at an auto shop. That job would alter the course of his whole life - putting him on the road to college and eventually a PhD.

Led by incredible faith, Wilkerson left his country pulpit in 1958 for the streets of New York City, where a murder trial of seven teenaged boys churned society's antipathy toward them. Even Wilkerson was bewildered by his sense of compassion, but in spite of doubt, he followed the Spirit's prompting to help the boys. This is the amazing story of his journey, and of the mighty power of God to accomplish the impossible.

The NBA has returned to prominence on the backs of phenoms like LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, and Kevin Garnett. The media promotes them, the shoe companies pay them, and America applauds. But how exactly do such players reach the pros? What do they give up to get there? And what happens to those who fall short?

Welcome to the bustling streets, the towering skylines, and the pulsating energy of the city—a place where dreams are made, and life moves at the speed of light. But nestled within this electric maze lies a secret: pockets of tranquility, health, and longevity that defy urban expectations. These are Urban Blue Zones, and they're redefining what it means to live well in the city and suburbs.

In Those Who Wander, Vivian Ho delves deep into a rising subculture that’s changing the very fabric of her city and all of urban America. Moving beyond the disheartening statistics, she gives voices to these young people - victims of abuse, failed foster care, mental illness, and drug addiction. She also doesn’t ignore the threat they pose to themselves and to others as a dangerous dark side emerges. With alarming urgency, she asks what can be done to save the next generation of America’s vagabond youth.

Told with equal parts raw honesty and unbridled compassion, All Day recounts a year in Liza Jessie Peterson's classroom at Island Academy, the high school for inmates detained at New York City's Rikers Island. A poet and an actress who had done occasional workshops at the correctional facility, Peterson was ill prepared for a full-time stint teaching in the GED program for the incarcerated youths.

Skye Mackenzie, the protector of gay boys and virtual superhero, is faced with a new danger that seems unreal. For the first time, Skye tangles with a foe who is more than his match and is saved only by the quick thinking of Devon, his former nemesis. Marshall, Verona's resident expert on the supernatural, summons help, and Skye cannot believe his eyes when the promised aid comes in the form of two young boys. Skye's concept of reality is about to change forever.

Due to a side effect of a medication taken in an experimental drug trial to cure Vitiligo, a pigment disorder, four people with dramatically different backgrounds are thrown together. Two never live the lives they worked so hard to create. The other two return to their youth and begin new lives - backed by lifetimes of experience and unexpectedly altered values. Will the greed of others tear them apart, or will a lifetime of loneliness bring them together?