Young Teen Short Stories

In a compellingly honest collection of stories, multiple-award-winning author Avi introduces seven boys - boys with fathers at home and boys whose fathers have left, boys who spend most of their time with their grandfathers and boys who would rather spend time with anyone but the men in their lives. By turns heartbreaking, hopeful, and funny, the stories show us boys seeking acceptance, guidance, or just someone to look up to.

Before he became an archmage to topple an empire, before he met the legendary Eradicator Xal, Saghir was born a free ratkin, living on the streets of Gateway, a perilous desert city at the edge of the Blasted Lands. Each month, the free laborers must pay their tithe in coin, or blood. Every ratkin in Saghir's tribe searches for something of value, lest their whole people be enslaved. Ruthless Corax, carnivorous scarabs, and worse infest the city. There are countless ways for a rat to die, and all it takes is one mistake. There are no second chances.

Masie, the daughter of notorious bootlegger Dutch Schultz, returns home from boarding school to find her family in crisis. Her mother is dangerously unstable, her father's empire is on the brink of ruin, and the boy she once loved has become a ruthless killer for hire. To keep her family's dangerous secrets Masie is forced into a lie that will change the course of her future - and leave her trapped in a gilded cage of her own making.

After Claudia and Ben stumble upon Dorian's secret, they are taken prisoner. Food and supplies are running low, and Dorian's ultimate goal is survival of the race - and the fittest.

It's the summer after graduation, and Bayleigh just asked Becca to be her maid of honor. Determined to give her best friend the greatest wedding ever, Becca has a lot on her plate. When she thinks she's finally got everything under control, a certain member of the groom's bridal party can't keep his eyes off her. Becca's not sure how to handle all the attention but she is sure of one thing: This will be a summer to remember.

The time has come for the Lean Rider, Western hero, to pick his new sidekick, and orphaned Benny Parks is thrilled to be chosen. He looks forward to a series of adventures and life lessons alongside the famous gunslinger, but has no idea what he's really in for.

When Jace accepts a job that has him traveling all over the country, Bayleigh wonders how their relationship can survive on random text messages and intermittent phone calls. Frustrated by his popularity on Facebook and jealous of all the parties he's attending, she finds comfort and friendship in Chase, the guy who just moved in next door.

"The Great War of 2185 is over, but my nightmare has just begun. I am being held captive in the Queen’s ship awaiting interrogation. My only possible ally is the princess, but I’m unsure if she is really my friend or a trap set by the Queen to fool me into sharing the secret of my gift. A gift I keep hidden even from myself. It swirls inside my body begging for release, but it is the one thing the Queen can never discover. Will I have the strength to keep the secret? I’ll know the answer soon."

What do you get when you mix magic with one of the most prestigious dogs in Germany? You get something special and powerful. In a time when witches were hunted down and burned, a famous alchemist devised a plan to help protect them. One particular puppy, who is predestined for someone in our time, learns all she can before heading on the journey of her life.

Prepare for another exciting adventure with this second in the Summer Days series! The Pismo Beach Bicycle Thief will keep you listening with interest, emotion, and laughter. Josh Mundy and Vern Ernesto are at it again, this time in sunny California on vacation with their families. As they meet a new female friend, who happens to be blonde and beautiful, the introductions are interrupted as a crazed man becomes a bicycle thief. Josh, who is already taken with this cute girl, gives a hearty hero's pursuit and gets into more than what he bargained for.

La Provence, c'est pour Daudet une certaine réalité morale, dont il dégage l'originalité. Cette réalité c'est, par-delà la pauvreté et la rudesse de ces existences, un goût méditerranéen de la vie. C'est aussi, par contraste avec la futilité des sentiments parisiens, un relief dû à la puissance des passions qui animent le peuple : passion de Maître Cornille acharné à nier le temps présent et à maintenir malgré tout son moulin en activité ; passion naïve et têtue de Blanquette, la petite chèvre, pour la liberté et le grand mystère de la montagne.

It's time now to join the unlikely best friends Josh Mundy and Vern Ernesto as they embark on their first ever fishing trip without adults. The joys of camping and a crackling fire make them sleepy and prepare them for a day of creek fishing high in the mountains... or does it? Can anything truly prepare them for what is about to happen? It is a once-in-a-lifetime experience that they will never be able to talk about and it goes beyond the trophy trout they are about to catch.

What does "being a guy" actually mean? Some of the most talented writers are about to show you. In this diverse and original collection of short stories, ten well-known writers, including Mo Willems, Walter Dean Myers, Ron Koertge, Rene Saldaña, Jr., David Levithan, and David Lubar, share their stories about the trials and tribulations of being a guy. Sometimes funny, sometimes sad, and always honest, each story portrays the reality of being an everyday guy who gets a few life lessons and still manages to come out on top.

When a boat drifts into a New England port with all its crew dead, only a shipboard statue knows what took place. Can a boy carved from wood reveal the secret? Can a love-struck apprentice find the girl of his dreams by following a weathervane with a figure of Saint Crispin, patron saint of shoemakers? After a lifetime of making statues of the wealthy and powerful, what will the Italian sculptor Zorelli do when he is hired not by a human, but a ghost?

Three teens are marooned on a what they presume is a mysterious tropical island. Casey and Mike have made their way through the creature-filled jungle to a glass city where they hope to find help for Jack, their abducted friend. Once in the city, they learn shocking news that will change their lives forever, and getting Jack back will be anything but easy.

There's nothing unusual about Jeremy waking up late for school, but on this particular morning something feels different. When he goes downstairs to face the music, he finds his grandmother waiting for him but no one else appears to be at home. Jeremy believes he's caught a lucky break and his mother and father won't get to know, but he soon discovers that not everything is as it seems. He finds he'll have to face up to his mistakes, though, and maybe even suffer a little payback himself.

"I lace my LeBron’s up, secure my thumb brace then I run onto the court". After working hard for over 10 years, in pursuit of my purpose, one doctor’s visit changes everything. We all have dreams of fulfilling our life’s purpose. But what if life has a different plan for you? This audiobook is a story for anyone who has come to a point in life where you are forced to give everything up and start fresh. You are now forced to find a new purpose. What do you do?

All she wanted was a normal life, but what she got was something far more sinister than she could have imagined. High School Pop Star is the first book in the young adult horror series Scratch. Sky has been living life in the fast lane as a teenage pop star for the last two years, but something doesn't feel quite right. She realizes that she needs to make some changes to the pace of her life.

Operative Jena Morane is the kind of Justice Keeper who can't resist the urge to poke her nose where it doesn't belong. Bored with her current assignment, she flies off to investigate strange readings from a neighboring star system. But something is lurking in deep space, and what she finds there will haunt her until the day she dies.

The Dreaded Summons and Other Misplaced Bills investigates seven unfortunate accounts piled together to make you laugh. The collection opens with Tina Teatree, who has a compulsion for weeding that soon digs up the root of her problem. The title story is "The Dreaded Summons", about an introvert and his friendship with a lost manatee. Other stories reveal the Breakfast Hunter, J.J. Whitweather, Shirley Short, and Fig B. Willingsbee.