This Is What I Did


Ann Dee Ellis - 2007
    Imagine if it had happened to your friend. And imagine if you hadn't done anything to help. That's what it's like to be Logan, an utterly frank, slightly awkward, and extremely loveable outcast enmeshed in a mysterious psychological drama. This story allows readers to piece together the sequence of events that has changed his life and changed his perspective on what it means to be a good friend and what it means to be a good person. This is What I Did: is a powerful read with clever touches, such as palindrome notes, strewn throughout the story and incorporated into the unique design of the book.

Pieces of You


Eileen Merriman - 2017
    Lonely but trying to fit in, she goes to a party, but that's when things really fall apart. I couldn't tell anyone what had happened. Especially since I was the new girl in town. Who would want to believe me? Things look up when she meets gregarious sixteen-year-old Cory Marshall. 'You're funny, Becs,' Cory said. 'You have no idea,' I said, and clearly he didn't, but I was smiling anyway. And after that, he was all I could think about. Cory helps Rebecca believe in herself and piece her life back together; but that's before he shatters it all over again . . .

Holding Up the Universe


Jennifer Niven - 2016
    Following her mom's death, she's been picking up the pieces in the privacy of her home, dealing with her heartbroken father and her own grief. Now, Libby's ready: for high school, for new friends, for love, and for every possibility life has to offer. In that moment, I know the part I want to play here at MVB High. I want to be the girl who can do anything. Everyone thinks they know Jack Masselin, too. Yes, he's got swagger, but he's also mastered the impossible art of giving people what they want, of fitting in. What no one knows is that Jack has a newly acquired secret: he can't recognize faces. Even his own brothers are strangers to him. He's the guy who can re-engineer and rebuild anything, but he can't understand what's going on with the inner workings of his brain. So he tells himself to play it cool: Be charming. Be hilarious. Don't get too close to anyone.Until he meets Libby. When the two get tangled up in a cruel high school game—which lands them in group counseling and community service—Libby and Jack are both pissed, and then surprised. Because the more time they spend together, the less alone they feel. Because sometimes when you meet someone, it changes the world, theirs and yours.

The Mill Daughter's Courage


Jessica Weir - 2020
    However, Daisy Barlow still finds joy in her twin sister, Janet, and mother, Vera, the only family she has ever known. FREE with Kindle Unlimited. Following the death of her twin sister thirteen-year-old, Daisy’s life is unbearable, but she cannot give in. She will do whatever it takes to fight for her family. Despite their devastation, they must work for the tiny sum that barely gets them by. After Janet’s death, they are back at the mill, given no time to grieve, and Vera cannot cope. Forced to do the unthinkable, Daisy must commit her mother to an asylum. Now Daisy must figure out how to survive on her own. When the landlord offers an alternative way to pay the rent, she knows she must run. Daisy struggles but sees the light in all the darkness when she finds a better job. Unfortunately, things are not always what they seem, and tragedy befalls her once again. But young Daisy isn’t a quitter. She continues to fight in the hope that her mother will recover. Will sweet Daisy survive this cruel world to find her Happily Ever After? Find out in The Mill Daughter’s Courage, a heartwarming Victorian Romance that will appeal to fans of Dilly Court and Rosie Darling. Read now for FREE with Kindle Unlimited. Also, by Jessica Weir: The Lost Nightingale The Foundling’s Despair

Sugar


Deirdre Riordan Hall - 2015
    I’ve always been too much and yet not enough. Sugar Legowski-Gracia wasn’t always fat, but fat is what she is now at age seventeen. Not as fat as her mama, who is so big she hasn’t gotten out of bed in months. Not as heavy as her brother, Skunk, who has more meanness in him than fat, which is saying something. But she’s large enough to be the object of ridicule wherever she is: at the grocery store, walking down the street, at school. Sugar’s life is dictated by taking care of Mama in their run-down home—cooking, shopping, and, well, eating. A lot of eating, which Sugar hates as much as she loves.When Sugar meets Even (not Evan—his nearly illiterate father misspelled his name on the birth certificate), she has the new experience of someone seeing her and not her body. As their unlikely friendship builds, Sugar allows herself to think about the future for the first time, a future not weighed down by her body or her mother.Soon Sugar will have to decide whether to become the girl that Even helps her see within herself or to sink into the darkness of the skin-deep role her family and her life have created for her.

Breathing Underwater


Alex Flinn - 2001
    What no one knows--not even his best friend--is the terror that Nick faces every time he is alone with his father. Then he and Caitlin fall in love, and Nick thinks his problems are over. Caitlin is the one person who he can confide in. But when things start to spiral out of control, Nick must face the fact that he's gotten more from his father than green eyes and money.

The Pause


John Larkin - 2015
    But there’s something in Declan’s past that just won’t go away, that pokes and scratches at his thoughts when he’s at his most vulnerable. Declan feels as if nothing will take away that pain that he has buried deep inside for so long. So he makes the only decision he thinks he has left: the decision to end it all. Or does he? As the train approaches and Declan teeters at the edge of the platform, two versions of his life are revealed. In one, Declan watches as his body is destroyed and the lives of those who loved him unravel. In the other, Declan pauses before he jumps. And this makes all the difference.One moment. One pause. One whole new life. From author of The Shadow Girl, winner of the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards 2012 Prize for Writing for Young Adults, comes a breathtaking new novel that will make you reconsider the road you’re travelling and the tracks you’re leaving behind.

Tempt Me, Bully


C.C. Piper - 2019
    It’s just depression. Michael is my shining knight in armor. He’s supposed to save me from the wicked witch. But he’s an asshole with a firm belief in tough love. And I’m both the witch and the heroine. Where will this story take me?

The Far End of Happy


Kathryn Craft - 2015
    Based on the author's harrowing personal story, The Far End of Happy is a powerful novel about the way one man's spiral towards life's violent conclusion tests the resolve, love, and hope of the women he will leave behind.

Born Blue


Han Nolan - 2000
    Rescued from the brink of death, this child of a heroin addict has seen it all: revolving foster homes, physical abuse, an unwanted pregnancy. Now, as her tumultuous childhood is coming to an end, she is determined to make a life for herself by doing the only thing that makes her feel whole . . . singing.Han Nolan pulls no punches in this hard-hitting story of a girl at the bottom who dreams of nothing but the top.

Paper Wings


Marly Swick - 1996
    They simply accept them as fact and enjoy the moments when she emerges from them, buoyant and energetic. With Kennedy's election, presidency and assassination as background, Suzanne tells the story of the dissolution, and ultimate redemption, of her family. Sure to appeal to readers of Barbara Kingsolver, Alice Hoffman and Mona Simpson, Paper Wings is a subtle and moving novel about a mother and daughter who struggle, hope, and learn from each other how to emerge from shadows of tragedy.

Harmonic Feedback


Tara Kelly - 2010
    She has, as she's often reminded, issues. Drea's mom and a rotating band of psychiatrists have settled on "a touch of Asperger's."Having just moved to the latest in a string of new towns, Drea meets two other outsiders. And Naomi and Justin seem to actually like Drea. The three of them form a band after an impromptu, Portishead-comparison-worthy jam after school. Justin swiftly challenges not only Drea's preference for Poe over Black Lab but also her perceived inability to connect with another person. Justin, against all odds, may even like like Drea. It's obvious that Drea can't hide behind her sound equipment anymore. But just when she's found not one but two true friends, can she stand to lose one of them?

Cut


Patricia McCormick - 2000
    Never too deep, never enough to die. But enough to feel the pain. Enough to feel the scream inside.Now she's at Sea Pines, a "residential treatment facility" filled with girls struggling with problems of their own. Callie doesn't want to have anything to do with them. She doesn't want to have anything to do with anyone. She won't even speak.But Callie can only stay silent for so long...

The Killing Jar


Nicola Monaghan - 2006
     Very early on, Kerrie-Ann begins to dream of the world beyond the rough council estate where she lives. Her father is nowhere to be found, her mother is a junkie, and she is left to care for her little brother. Clever, brave, and frighteningly independent, Kerrie-Ann has an unbreakable will to survive. She befriends her eccentric, elderly neighbor, who teaches her about butterflies, the Amazon, and life outside of her tough neighborhood. But even as Kerrie-Ann dreams of a better life she becomes further entangled in the cycles of violence and drugs that rule the estate. Brilliant, brutal, and tender, The Killing Jar introduces a brave new voice in fiction. Nicola Monaghan's devastating prose tells an unforgettable story of violence, love, and hope.

Alex As Well


Alyssa Brugman - 2013
    Massive change. More radical than you could imagine. Her mother is not happy, in fact she’s imploding. Her dad walked out.Alex has turned vegetarian, ditched one school, enrolled in another, thrown out her clothes. And created a new identity. An identity that changes her world.And Alex—the other Alex—has a lot to say about it. Alex As Well is a confronting and heartfelt story of adolescent experience—of questioning identity, discovering sexuality, navigating friendships and finding a place to belong. Alex is a strong, vulnerable, confident, shy and determined character, one you will never forget.With the same tenderness and insight as YA stars such as John Green and David Levithan, Alyssa Brugman has crafted a knockout story about identity, sexuality and family that speaks effortlessly to a universal teen experience.