I guess she can't imagine what it is like for me, a kid from a trailer park, to transfer to the junior high school where all the rich kids go -- the kind of kids who come from homes where my mother works as a cleaning woman....But somehow, miraculously, I've become part of a little clique of pretty and popular girls who have everything money can buy. And sometimes they also have secrets in their lives more painful than anything I've ever known.

    The first month of school, thirteen-year-old Anna Collette finds herself…Dumped by her best friend, Dani, who suddenly wants to spend eighth grade “hanging out with different people.”Deserted by her mom, who’s in the hospital recovering from a suicide attempt.Trapped in a house with her dad, a new baby sister, and a stepmother young enough to wear her Delta Delta Delta sweatshirt with pride.Stuck at a lunch table with Shawna the Eyebrow Plucker and Sarabeth the Irish Stepper because she has no one else to sit with.But what if all isn’t lost? What if Anna’s mom didn’t exactly mean to leave her? What if Anna’s stepmother is cooler than she thought? What if the misfit lunch table isn’t such a bad fit after all?With help from some unlikely sources, including a crazy girl-band talent show act, Anna just may find herself on the road to okay.

    He doesn't have a job. His parents are annoying. His younger sister is even more annoying. His buddy Trevor just got out of a mental institution and the hottest girl he knows is Leila, his best friend, who he'll never get with. All he's got to keep him company is his own anger. An anger he seemingly has no control over and which is increasingly taking over his life.But an unexpected turn of events (well, not so unexpected- the family cat, Mozart, aka Crappy, was sure to choke on a hairball sometime) leads him to his aunt's place in Woodstock. After Crappy is safely laid to rest next to his sister Madame Chow, Max decides to stick around Woodstock for a few weeks. Sure, his Aunt Ginny might be a bit eccentric, but she does introduce Max to Zini, a young artist who turns out to be his muse. This just might be the recipe for finding love, and most definitely finding himself.Max lets us into his frustrated, highly hormonal, comical, and sometimes inspired world through a series of diary entries in this coming-of-age story about an ordinary boy becoming an extraordinary person and writer.

    But what 15-year-old Kayla hates even more than moving is Marilyn’s drinking. It once landed Kayla in foster care, and she’ll do anything to keep that from happening again, even if it means making sacrifices in her own life to keep her mother from falling apart.Now Marilyn has moved them to New Mexico and promised, yet again, to quit booze for good. Kayla knows better than to believe her, but something about this move does feel different. Kayla is putting down roots, earning money as a dog walker, and spending time with Remy, a 24-year-old musician. And after years of taking care of her mother, Kayla is starting to think of herself and who she wants to be. She knows for sure who she doesn’t want to be. But is she willing to do whatever it takes to create a different life for herself—even if it means leaving her mother behind?Sharply honest and beautifully written, this powerful novel is about loving someone else enough to stay with her through anything—and loving yourself enough to let her go.

    Him and his crew likes to wreak havoc in town, not giving a shit to anyone they step on along the way. You know that misunderstood villain in every good hero's tale?Well, this is his story.___Cunning. Ruthless. Intimidating.That is Oz Lacy.They feared him. They respected him. They worshipped him.No one dared to cross him.That was . . . until that time in their sophomore year when a gutsy redhead gave him a piece of her mind. He knew he wanted her right then. But she was the twin sister of his arch nemesis Scout Crimson.The real problem, though, started in their junior year. The year his heart got broken. The year he was royally messed with. The year his cold heart turned even colder.Now it's senior year.All he wants?Justice and revenge.Who the hell said he can't have both?Like they said, payback's a bitch.Especially when it came from the devil.___BAD BOY x DORKY GIRL trope

    Tara*Starr wears glitter and sequins, loves to be the center of attention, and has two parents who won't grow up. Elizabeth is shy and quiet, hates being the center of attention, and lives in a house where possessions are more important than feelings.Of course, Elizabeth and Tara*Starr are best friends.Then Tara*Starr moves away, and the two girls must continue their friendship through letters. At first, this is no problem. But then their lives begin to change--sometimes for the better, and sometimes for the much worse. Can they stay best friends forever. . or will the distance tear them apart?

    A private, prestigious boarding school located on a beautiful, pristine island, it's everything she's ever dreamed of. If she could only stumble upon the right guy there, everything would be perfect.Following a rocky start, Tracy settles in and comes to love the island. Everyone is fascinated by the new girl, and Tracy is quick to make friends and meet not just one, but two different guys.However, it doesn't take long for her friends to help her discover a latent ability deep within herself... an ability that is unlike anything she's ever experienced.And her ability is coveted. There are others who would take advantage of her, to make use of her powers for their own gain. Suddenly, Tracy starts to realize that underneath her perfect little getaway might lurk a threat. A danger. And as she gets deeper and deeper involved, finds herself lost in a world of love, lies, and supernatural magic.

    Erin's father has gone bankrupt and so her family have moved to the local council estate. Erin is finding it hard to adjust to her new life - sharing a room with her sister, living away from her friends, and having no phone! Liam, on the other hand, loves life on the estate. Everyone wants to be his friend and his dad is a well-respected local business man. Liam really likes Erin - but she can't stand him. Still, he lives in hope that one day they will get together.

    Clair tries to ignore the ugly junk, choosing instead to dream of a future beyond her rural New Hampshire town. But when a black dog named Wally is chained up to a pole in the yard next door, Clair can’t look the other way. Because Wally isn’t just another piece of trash.Clair takes it upon herself to save Wally, and the immediate connection she has with the lovable dog catches her off-guard. Even more surprising is her developing relationship with eighteen-year-old Danny Stewart, a boy trying to escape the violent storm cloud that hangs over his family.Over the course of one fateful spring in rural New Hampshire, two teenagers will ask: Doesn’t everyone—and every dog—deserve a chance at happiness?

    At least, that’s what it feels like during her first week of junior year at her new ultra-intimidating prep school in Los Angeles. Just when she’s thinking about hightailing it back to Chicago, she gets an email from a person calling themselves Somebody/Nobody (SN for short), offering to help her navigate the wilds of Wood Valley High School. Is it an elaborate hoax? Or can she rely on SN for some much-needed help?It’s been barely two years since her mother’s death, and because her father eloped with a woman he met online, Jessie has been forced to move across the country to live with her stepmonster and her pretentious teenage son.In a leap of faith—or an act of complete desperation—Jessie begins to rely on SN, and SN quickly becomes her lifeline and closest ally. Jessie can’t help wanting to meet SN in person. But are some mysteries better left unsolved?

    With her anger about to reach the boiling point, Susan lands in an alternative education class, a sort of group therapy for the nearly expelled.School is bad enough, but facing off with five peers, including her cruelest tormentor, is worse. Now Susan is being forced to do something she's always avoided - talk about herself and listen to what other people have to say about her. She has two choices: find her voice, or be prepared to take the insults in silence. It won't be easy, but alt ed may be just the last resort Susan needs.Carefully nuanced connections between characters plus insight into the adolescent ability to use low self-esteem as a cruel weapon catapults Atkins' novel of troubled teens well above the familiarity of its trappings. Each of Atkins' characters emerges fully formed from these pages. -Publishers Weekly, starred review

    So she convinces her best friend, Harvey, to help her with a crazy bucket list that's as much about revenge as it is about hope.But just when Alice's scores are settled, she goes into remission, and now she must face the consequences of all she's said and done.

    For years, no remedy--not orthodontia, not the escalating threats of his father, Mike, a washed-out linebacker turned sporting goods entrepreneur, not the noxious cayenne pepper-based Suk-No-Mor--can cure Justin's thumbsucking habit.Then a course of hypnosis seemingly does the trick, but true to the conservation of neurotic energy, the problem doesn't so much disappear as relocate. Sex, substance abuse, speech team, fly-fishing, honest work, even Mormonism--Justin throws himself into each pursuit with a hyperactive energy that even his daily Ritalin dose does little to blunt.Each time, however, he discovers that there is no escaping the unruly imperatives of his self and the confines of his deeply eccentric family. The only "cure" for the adolescent condition is time and distance.Always funny, sometimes hilariously so, occasionally poignant, and even disturbing, deeply wise on the vexed subject of fathers and sons, Walter Kirn's Thumbsucker is an utterly fresh and all-American take on the painful process of growing up.

    Here she is, about to be a teenager and she doesn't know how. It's worse for her than for anyone else, she believes, because she has no role model. Her mother has been dead for years. Help and advice can only come from her father, manager of a music store, and her nineteen-year-old brother, who is a slob. What do they know about being a teen age girl? What she needs, Alice decides, is a gorgeous woman who does everything right, as a roadmap, so to speak. If only she finds herself, when school begins, in the classroom of the beautiful sixth-grade teacher, Miss Cole, her troubles will be over. Unfortunately, she draws the homely, pear-shaped Mrs. Plotkin. One of Mrs. Plotkin's first assignments is for each member of the class to keep a journal of their thoughts and feelings. Alice calls hers "The Agony of Alice," and in it she records all the embarrassing things that happen to her. Through the school year, Alice has lots to record. She also comes to know the lovely Miss Cole, as well as Mrs. Plotkin. And she meets an aunt and a female cousin whom she has not really known before. Out of all this, to her amazement, comes a role model—one that she would never have accepted before she made a few very important discoveries on her own, things no roadmap could have shown her. Alice moves on, ready to be a wise teenager.

    There are parties in abandoned houses. Canoe races down Main Street. The goal is to make the most of every minute they still have together.And for Keeley, that means taking one last shot at the boy she’s loved forever.There’s a weird sort of bravery that comes from knowing there’s nothing left to lose. You might do things you normally wouldn’t. Or say things you shouldn’t. The reward almost always outweighs the risk.Almost.It’s the end of Aberdeen, but the beginning of Keeley’s first love story. It just might not turn out the way she thought. Because it’s not always clear what’s worth fighting for and what you should let become a memory.