Writing Young Adult Fiction

Abandoned as an infant, 15-year-old Bonnie Hartwright doesn't know who she really is. And that just might get her killed. After her latest scrape with the law, foster girl Bonnie is abruptly carted off to a "reform sailing camp" on the Carolina coast. There, she discovers the camp is actually a training compound of a centuries-old secret society, all of whose members are descendants of a notorious pirate.

While in town, Jake Talley stumbles onto a secret that could expose the man responsible for causing the rancher's daughter so much grief. Determined to put an end to the bad luck plaguing the Fuller Ranch, he sets out to find answers. Will taking time away from his duties to investigate endanger the very woman he vows to protect?

This CliffsNotes study guide on William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar supplements the original literary work, giving you background information about the author, an introduction to the work, and commentaries, all for you to use as an educational tool that will allow you to better understand the work. This study guide was written with the assumption that you have read Julius Caesar.

Things weren't so peachy in Cathy's life before she and her boyfriend Victor broke up. Her father died unexpectedly, she's failing school, and her best friend Emma is mad at her. But when Cathy decides to investigate Victor's reasons for ending their relationship, things suddenly go from bad to very, very, very bad as her findings produce more questions than answers. Through Cathy's unique and irresistible voice listeners will enter a strange and fascinating world where things often aren't how they appear.

This CliffsNotes study guide on William Shakespeare's Hamlet supplements the original literary work, giving you background information about the author, an introduction to the work, and critical commentaries, all for you to use as an educational tool that will allow you to better understand the work.

When Harold Ross founded The New Yorker in 1925, he described it as a “comic weekly.” And although it has become much more than that, it has remained true in its irreverent heart to the founder’s description, publishing the most illustrious literary humorists of the modern era. This anthology gathers together, for the first time, the funniest work of more than seventy New Yorker contributors.

Imagine coming of age surrounded by terror and militancy. Tamar, Nour, and Rivki all live in Jerusalem, and all are on the cusp of adulthood, but in a city of tribal culture and an intractable conflict, it is almost inconceivable they will ever meet, let alone become friends. Then, one night, during yet another cycle of violence, their paths cross just as a terrorist decides to carry out an attack on the light rail train.

On planet Delphi, a secret government experiment leads to babies born with supernatural powers. As they grow older, their powers and abilities become stronger. Government leaders, fearing their secret will be discovered soon, decide to take the children away from their parents. But five rogue families flee Delphi taking their children to begin a new life on Earth in 1947.

The St. Charles Players present a unique telling of Jules Verne's classic underwater adventure, in a new multi-cast dramatization performed in exciting Radio Theatre style.

Imagine, if you will, an eleven-year-old boy with an imagination so powerful that he uses it like others would use a compass. Our hero, Jimmy Hamilton, loses his fort on three separate occasions all in the span of one summer. He must battle both his wits and unwanted squatters. He comes to discover each new unwanted tenant proves more difficult to evict than the last. His plans have a modicum of success but each come with unintended consequences.

A hidden world waits, a dark society schemes, and a ship sails to protect that which cannot be lost. Salem Swan knows none of this as he arrives in Easterly. He knows only that he misses his recently deceased mother, that his new guardian, his uncle Ulysses is unique, and that the boat which will now be his home is unlike anything he has ever seen. Fearful of this new reality, Salem starts to ask questions that uncover the truth about his distant uncle, his long-gone father, and the true nature of the ship.

In an empire ruled by the honored dead, seraphs are the ultimate weapons. Fueled by the pilot's very soul, these colossal humanoid war machines are unstoppable in battle. Only a few possess the gift to control such craft, and those men and women are prized above all others. Seth Elexen and a small group of elite pilots have tracked the renegade Veketon to the far side of the galaxy. With only one ship and a single squadron of seraphs, they alone must face the tyrant within the heart of his growing power. But Veketon is no easy mark.

Bianca Monroe knows one thing: her idea for a Sisterhood of Protectors is going to survive whatever the Central Network Council throws against it. She's determined. Ready. And totally lost. When an unexpected letter threatens High Priestess Scarlett, the responsibility to keep their leader safe falls to Bianca. A shocking predator, the fight for legitimacy, and the struggle for Bianca's own safety conspire to hold the fate of the Sisterhood from becoming a reality.

After getting kidnapped by a demigod and imprisoned in another dimension, Makayla was really hoping that her life would get back to normal. Or at least as normal as life could be when you had a goblin for a best friend. But now her sleepy midwestern town is being invaded by shadows. Her neighbors are being stolen away and replaced by changelings. And when she tries to escape, her path threatens to take her to the one place she never wanted to return to: the mysterious and dangerous Land of Annwfyn.

Girl Under Glass is the story of a rootless, rebellious young girl sinking deeper into juvenile delinquency. Given one more chance to avoid juvenile hall, a judge assigns her to community service with a cranky botanist studying plant communication. When he is beaten and left for dead, Kelsey must convince the lead detective that an entire greenhouse full of plants is witness to the crime, and she knows how to prove it.

Rogue Watcher, the next installment of the Second Moon Trilogy, picks up where Alpine Tide left off. The stakes are higher than ever as eighteen-year-old Miriam Madsen and her fellow survivors face new threats from across the Universe. To avoid their certain destruction, Watcher 3 of Earth, known locally as Spence, will stop at no length to protect Miriam, the woman he loves--even if it means going rogue.

Gary Soto writes that when he was five "what I knew best was at ground level." In this lively collection of short essays, Soto takes his listener to a ground-level perspective, recreating in vivid detail the sights, sounds, smells, and textures he knew growing up in his Fresno, California, neighborhood. The "things" of his boyhood tie it all together: his Buddha "splotched with gold", the taps of his shoes, and the "engines of sparks that lived beneath my soles", his worn tennies smelling of "summer grass, asphalt, the moist sock breathing the defeat of baseball". The child’s world is made up of small things - small, very important things.

For Chicago's Oak Park and River Forest High School's Spoken Word Club, there is one phrase that reigns supreme: Respect the Mic. It's been the club's call to arms since its inception in 1999. As its founder Peter Kahn says, "It's a call of pride and history and tradition and hope." This vivid new collection of poetry and prose - curated by award-winning and bestselling poets Hanif Abdurraqib, Franny Choi, Peter Kahn, and Dan "Sully" Sullivan - illuminates just that, uplifting the incredible legacy this community has cultivated.

The universe is a hamburger. That’s what sixteen-year-old Nicole Taylor learns when a mysterious time-bending stranger saves her from a rampaging cyborg centipede. See, the top bun? That’s our dimension. The bottom bun? That’s the monster’s dimension. And the patty? That’s a dimension where the two worlds meet—and the Reavers can attack. The Reavers are horrific cybernetic killing machines, and their plans for the top bun? Well, they’re as terrifying as you’d expect. But Nicole isn’t helpless. She has a rare gift. She can bend time around her and even stop it completely.

When a comet streaks near Earth, its reverberation tears Croy Justice out of bed. The reverberation causes an onset of earthquakes which mark utter ruin on Earth, especially on the small island where Croy Justice lives. With a gang of boys who want to scour her of dignity, Croy must outrun the gang or risk a gruesome death at their hands. Will she survive these end times? Or, will Croy be snapped up into satan’s grip?