When she answers a babysitting ad, LaVaughn meets Jolly, a seventeen-year-old single mother with two kids by different fathers. As she helps Jolly make lemonade out of the lemons her life has given her, LaVaughn learns some lessons outside the classroom.

    Seriously. The upper classmen used to call me Squirrel Nut, because I was little and jumpy. Then, during sophomore year, I got tall and huge and so fast the gym teachers in their tight shorts fell all over themselves. During summer, three things happened all at once. First, the pee-smelling jocks in my grade got me to work out for football, even though I had no intention of playing. Second, on my paper route the most beautiful girl I have ever seen moved in and played piano at 6 a.m. Third, my mom, who never drinks, had some wine, slept in her car, stopped weeding the garden, then took my TV and put it in her room and decided she wouldn’t get out of bed. Listen, I have not had much success in my life. But suddenly I’m riding around in a jock’s pick-up truck? Suddenly I’m invited to go on walks with beautiful girls? So, it’s understandable that when my little brother stopped playing piano and began to dress like a pirate I didn’t pay much attention. That I didn’t want to deal with my mom coming apart.

    Bobby Taylor's just jilted her. Her ninth-grade teachers are demerit-crazy. And she has to share her bedroom with messy younger sister who wants to be a stand-up comic, while her older sister seems to get everything she wants. Between her parents, her two sisters, and school, Lauren feels she's got no rights at all.But then Lauren takes a course - "Law for Children and Young People" - and meets Zack, an eighth grader who's "nice and attractive and bright and funny."Suddenly Lauren realizes that there are solutions to her problems. She can protest unfair policies at school. She can stand up to the kids who call her a cradle robber for going out with Zack. And she can sue her parents for malpractice...can't she?

    From the award-winning author of "Night Hoops" and "Painting the Black" comes this suspenseful, psychologically astute novel with themes of terrorism and patriotism, fear and courage.

    On the night of the prom, they do what so many couples in love do. Soon, July finds out that she is pregnant with Bo Jo's baby and suddenly the life they once knew is over. Now Mr. and Mrs. Bo Jo Jones must come to grips with the very adult decision that they must make. It's a situation that holds more possibilities and challenges than they ever bargained for. It could bring them closer-or drive them apart. And as the baby grows and changes, so will they.

    Without warning, Nyle's modest world fills with protective masks, evacuations, contaminated food, disruptions, and mistrust.Nyle adjusts to the changes. As long as the fallout continues blowing to the East, Nyle, Gran, and the farm can go on. But into this uncertain haven stumble Ezra Trent and his mother, "refugees" from the heart of the accident, who take temporary shelter in the back bedroom of Nyle's house.The back bedroom is the dying room: It took her mother when Nyle was six; it stole away her grandfather just two years ago. Now Ezra is back there and Nyle doesn't want to open her heart to him. Too many times she's let people in, only to have them desert her.Karen Hesse's voice and vision are grounded in truth; she takes on a nearly unharnessable subject, contains it, and makes it resonate with honesty. Part love story, part coming of age, this is a tour de force by a gifted writer.

    Haunted by her love-deprived relationship with her late father, this once strong role model and medical student is gripped by anorexia. Holly, a track star, struggles to keep her own life in balance while coping with the mental and physical deterioration of her beloved sister. Together, they can feel themselves slipping and are holding on for dear life.  This honest look at the special bond between sisters is told from the perspective of both girls, as they alternate narrating each chapter.  Gritty and often wryly funny, Skinny explores family relationships, love, pain, and the hunger for acceptance that drives all of us.

    . . three lives change. Rhiannon is devastated after the breakup with her boyfriend and wants him back. Nicole's ex is still in the picture, but she can't help having a new crush. James and Rhiannon are just friends, though he may try to take it to the next level. Will their desire to take a mean girl down a notch bring these three friends what they want . . . and more? Set during one life-altering week and told in three realistic perspectives, this engaging, witty novel by the author of When It Happens shows the ups and downs of love, friendship, and karma.

    . . DRAMA! Spawned from Hollywood's A-list glitterati, nearly every student at the exclusive Orion Academy is a singer, dancer, model, or actor -- with the ego to match. So how do you fit so many budding stars into one school musical? Multi-cast, of course. It's a Wizard of Oz like no other: four Dorothys, two Scarecrows, two Glindas, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Every "star" gets a moment in the spotlight. Meanwhile, Bryan Stark, narrator extraordinaire, needs to shed some light on a more scandalous plot. Dorothys are mysteriously dropping out of the show, one after the other. If Bryan doesn't figure out why, there may be no one left to click her heels by opening night. . . .

    His father, away from home during the blast, may be dead. Philip's mother, usually competent and crisp, is desperately injured and needs immediate medical help. His brother Matt, whose charm and intelligence have always overshadowed Philip's own awkwardness, is sick and weak. And Matt's girl friend Cara, whom Philip secretly adores, is terrified.If any of them are to live through the next few hours, Philip has to take charge. He must find them food, and water, and first aid in a contaminated, burning city. And Philip has to face what no human being ever faced before-life, after the bomb.

    An award-winning dramatic thriller finds a young girl confronting her fears and making heroic efforts at the terrifying scene of a crashed 747.

    Maybe he had just been too busy stealing and running and hiding from the cops to look up. Or maybe being stuck with a stupid bunch of losers and social workers was beginning to get to him. Whatever it was, the sky was huge, and filled with stars. And the stars were what Joseph liked best.

    Lil J's on the run. And he's starting to get dope sick. He'd do anything to change the last twenty-four hours, and when he stumbles into an abandoned building, it actually might be possible...Elements of magical realism intensify this harrowing story about drug use, violence, perceptions of reality, and second chances."Drugs, drive-by shootings, gang warfare, wasted lives Myers has written about all these subjects with nuanced understanding and a hard-won, qualified sense of hope." The New York Times

    . . until she met her college roommates, Niki and Hildy. Niki is always in motion, brash, often vulgar, with a philosophy of "win at any cost." And Hildy's aura of serene wisdom cloaks a most unusual way of looking at things. They became inseparable -- until something happened that changed their lives forever.

    Will life tear them apart? Devorah is a consummate good girl who has never challenged the ways of her strict Hasidic upbringing.Jaxon is a fun-loving, book-smart nerd who has never been comfortable around girls (unless you count his four younger sisters).  They've spent their entire lives in Brooklyn, on opposite sides of the same street. Their paths never crossed . . . until one day, they did. When a hurricane strikes the Northeast, the pair becomes stranded in an elevator together, where fate leaves them no choice but to make an otherwise risky connection.  Though their relation is strictly forbidden, Devorah and Jax arrange secret meetings and risk everything to be together. But how far can they go? Just how much are they willing to give up?