Book picks similar to
By the Highway Home by Mary Stolz


books-by-shimer-authors
coming-of-age
meemster
teen

Samurai's Apprentice


David Walters - 2011
    All this seems far removed from Kami, a boy who quietly goes about his everyday life in his farm village until one day he trips over the unconsious body of a warrior hidden in the long grass.That discovery will lead him on an adventure across the warring kingdoms, facing assassins and enemy soldiers as he journeys to the capital to face the new Shogun. Through his travels he aspires to become a samurai, and in his many challenges he eventually comes to understand what it means to be one.

Bus Stop Baby


Fleur Hitchcock - 2016
    It's wrong, just like when Mum walked out on Amy and her sister ten years ago - so she tries to fix it, by finding the baby's mother. But as Amy searches, she uncovers another story, a secret even closer to home.A thought-provoking story exploring the complexities of family, friends and making difficult choices.

Fabbity-Fab! A Big Box of Georgia


Louise Rennison - 2002
    Laugh your knickers off with the hilarious #1 national bestselling confessions of Georgia Nicolson!Includes paperback copies of:Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal SnoggingOn the Bright Side, I'm Now the Girlfriend of a Sex GodKnocked Out By My Nunga-Nungas

Shadow People


Joyce McDonald - 2000
    Or maybe they were destined to meet, for they all share emotions that unite them—loneliness, frustration, and anger. Apart they are ordinary enough, unremarkable and not much noticed. Together, in the dark of night, they are drawn to violence like moths to a flame. Gem is a girl whose path crosses theirs when she falls in love with Gabriel. Will the whirlpool of destruction swallow her, too?

Laugh Till You Cry


Joan Lowery Nixon - 2004
    He and his mom were only supposed to spend the summer there, helping out his grandmother. But Cody’s grandmother is sick and needs them to stay. Now he’s the new kid at the local middle school and all his friends are back in California. You’d think Cody’s cousin Hayden would show him the ropes. Not only is Hayden in the same grade, he lives next door. But Hayden doesn’t want anything to do with Cody. Cody’s luck begins to change when he befriends Officer Ramsey, a policeman and aspiring stand-up comic. Officer Ramsey appreciates Cody’s jokes so much, he pays Cody for the material! But it’s no laughing matter when a crime is committed at school and Cody becomes a suspect. Cody is going to need more than jokes to solve this mystery—and clear his name.From the Hardcover edition.

Bitten By Love


Vijaya S - 2020
    ONCE BITTEN BY LOVE, YOU WILL BE FOREVER SMITTEN BY ITS SWEET PAIN.”ANU is young, simple and carefree, gearing up for her first job at Oasis Ltd. She gets paired with ABHI, a mature and an unassuming boy, in her first assignment with the Indian IT giant. Little does she know that the pairing is not a mere coincidence, but a plan by destiny. Abhi does not have any inkling that the beautiful girl he was smitten by at a traffic signal, would end up as his pair programmer for whom he would eventually be ready to give up everything in life.What will happen when Anu’s protective family gets to know about their love?Will Abhi keep up the promise he makes to Anu’s family?How will Anu cope with this drastic change in Abhi’s priorities?Come, fall and rise in love as Bitten by Love takes you through an exhilarating and heart touching journey of friendships and love, driven by destiny, hope and determination.

Small Town Punk


John Sheppard - 2001
    John Sheppard gets that Reagan-era rage and humor just right. This novel is an ode to those kids at the dead-end jobs who knew that the Morning in America was really dusk at best, but had each other, a little weed, some beer, and gas.--Sam LipsyteTrapped in dreary Sarasota, Florida in the early 1980s—during Reagan’s “Morning in America,”—going to high school with junior fascists by day, working at Pizza Hut by night, his family a dysfunctional nightmare, 17-year old Buzz Pepper feels that nothing matters in life beyond drinking, drugs and punk rock.As the country around him is becoming more conservative and corporate, and adulthood seems like the ultimate corrupt existence, Buzz can only find solace within a close-knit group of fellow disillusioned teens, which includes his devoted younger sister, Sissy. As they drive around in Buzz’s beat-up van, encountering redneck cops, mocking the local “geezers,” and wondering if there is any meaning in what seems to be a meaningless world, Small Town Punk perfectly captures how it is to be young, yet feel that you have no future.In the tradition of Hairstyles of the Dammed and Perks of Being A Wallflower, Small Town Punk is a brutally funny and poignant coming of age story that brilliantly evokes the surging joy, confusion and rage of youth.

The Spirit Window


Joyce Sweeney - 1998
    Miranda is shocked by energetic Grandma Lila, and something awakens in her as she discovers the wildlife of the marsh her grandmother so fiercely protects.Miranda captures nature's magic with her camera. She also captures Adam's heart. Part Cherokee, Adam cares for Lila's land and shares her love for wild creatures. When a sudden turn of events brings confusion and grief to Miranda's family; it raises disturbing questions about Adam. Is he all he seems to be? And what secrets account for the fury that torments Miranda's father? For the first time, Miranda the perfect daughter must take a stand. But doing so is painful as Miranda turns the camera on her own life and past.

The Maze Runner: by James Dashner | Summary & Analysis (The Maze Runner Series, Book 1)


Book*Sense - 2014
    Award-winning author James Dashner’s The Maze Runner shows the influences of the author’s broad reading. It relates the story of the amnesiac Thomas as he is forced into the near-bucolic setting of the Glade, learns to navigate it and the labyrinthine Maze surrounding it and leads the people of the Glade from their bounded world into a broader outside world. It also presents a perspective on adolescence well worth discussing which this Analysis covers every detail that you would otherwise miss. The Maze Runner has features that recommend it for both adolescent readers and those who teach them which this Summary & Analysis helps to decipher increasing your understanding of the book more than ever. The former will find the dialogue and action engaging without neglect of character development. The latter will find a text that manages to play with the tropes of Golding’s Lord of the Flies (which Dashner reports as a direct influence on the book), offering a way to introduce that text and a venue for discussion of it. They present opportunities for readers to engage with underlying assumptions and attitudes, offering the chance for readers to understand themselves, the culture in which they live and the culture in which the writer writes which this Analysis covers. Each is a chance to better understand the world, and The Maze Runner does well to make such chances available. The book is well worth reading, both for its intended audience of young adults (inside and outside the classroom) and for a more general reading public. This Analysis of The Maze Runner fills the gap, making you understand more while enhancing your reading experience.

The Likes of Me


Randall Platt - 2000
    In 1918, having run away from the Washington State lumber camp she calls home, a 14-year-old half-Chinese albino named Cordy makes her way to Seattle and finds work in a carnival.

Monica Bloom


Nick Earls - 2006
    She's just flown in from Dublin ready for the start of school, but not at all ready, as it turns out, for what the year holds.A scandal at Matt's father's work plays itself out in the media. Matt feels his family changing, his life changing, the certainties of his world slipping away. Meanwhile, Monica Bloom finds trouble of her own, and Matt finds that he can't stop thinking about her. A funny and beautiful story about the power of first love and memory, expectations and change. About Nick Earls' novels: ". . . poignant and perceptive" Cleo ". . . warm, funny and deeply moving" Courier Mail ". . . written with verve and intelligence" The Bulletin

False Gods


L.R. Trovillion - 2014
    Or is there? Cory Iverson has her sights set on riding in the prestigious Washington International Horse Show—a tall order for even the most experienced competitors. Problem is, she doesn’t even own a horse. But there’s an even bigger problem: she’s a quitter. Not a casual quitter, but a hard-core, serial, when-the-going-gets-tough quitter. This all starts to change, however, when the opportunity arises to rescue the perfect horse from slaughter and work with an experienced trainer who has the means to get her there. If she stays the course. But Cory discovers the road to qualifying for Washington is littered with roadblocks when she finds herself surrounded by problems outside her control: prescription painkillers appear in her mother’s purse; her ballerina sister wastes away before her eyes; her boyfriend is keeping secrets from her; and her normally opinionated trainer becomes strangely evasive. Worst of all, the horse show world proves to be full of dangers, including an unscrupulous trainer headed for the same show who will stop at nothing to win, including killing. Unless Cory quits.

Premonitions: Book 2: War


Diana E. Anderson - 2018
    Please search Amazon ASIN: B07G28TKXC for Book 1 of this series. Thank you. Denise Armstrong and her family and friends were prepared to survive the economic collapse of the United States. Their preparations got them through a brutal winter and an attack by renegade thugs. Will their preparations help them survive the inevitable war that has come to the United States?

Broken Little Rich Girls


Dominique Thomas - 2018
     Rich as in affluent, well to do, prosperous… So, although they’d been beaten down by life the one thing they didn’t worry about was money. Four friends find themselves at a crossroad in life. For years they’ve hidden behind their smiles while suffering behind closed doors. For Jerzey, her biggest issue is her taste in men. After surviving a near-death experience, she vows to stay away from the hustlers until Snowden steps into her art studio. He’s like no man she’s met before but because of past pain, she’s afraid to freely give herself to him. Miko is known to be the life of the party. You can count on her to make you smile and give you a good laugh. However, it’s the things Miko isn’t joking about that torment her every day. At a young age, she was subjected to volatile things. Acts of hatred that shape her into a woman afraid of love. A woman that’s determined to lay every man down in her path but when she can no longer run from her pain she’s forced to face her truths. In doing so she is liable to hurt the two people who mean most to her in the world. Rumer is driven. With determination, she pushed herself to become one of the lead real estate agents at her father’s company. She seems to have it all but the thing she lacks most is self-love. When she looks in the mirror she doesn’t see the beautiful woman that people say she is. She finds herself with a nasty addiction and to make matters worse she’s fallen for her step-brother. With her life spiraling in a direction she never saw coming Rumer is given the choice to get help or stay stagnant in the dark world she’s created for herself. Nelly is torn between heaven and hell. Her life with her handsome fiance is everything that she ever wanted it to be. Jannero love and adores Nelly. All he wants in return is for her to love him back. Nelly does but because of her horrid childhood, she struggles to express it to him verbally. When faced with impending charges that could forever alter her life Nelly is changed into someone Jannero doesn’t know. A woman that is so angry it makes him question if marrying her is the right thing to do. This is a two-part series filled with real women that are dealing with real pain. Read at your own risk.

Joshua


Robert Fishell - 2019
    He's failing in school, his teachers pick on him, his classmates laugh at him, a relentless bully terrorizes him, his best friend has moved away, and he's hopelessly in love with the prettiest girl in his school. At home, his harsh and distant father has all but disinherited him, he worries his mother to tears, and he squabbles senselessly with his pretty, talented sister Anica, who seems to be everything he is not. Then adolescence comes along and really complicates things. A torrent of long-denied feelings for a sister who once adored him compel Joshua to repair the damage he's done to their relationship. His longtime babysitter helps him to understand things his mother doesn't know how to tell him and his father doesn't want him to know. Then, in a murky funeral home far away from home, he meets a distant cousin who changes his life in ways he could never have imagined. As Joshua starts to turn his life around, his father's tortured past catches up with him, and life at home begins to unravel. Joshua is faced with a decision that could imperil his very life. He will risk everything to protect his sister, and in the process, he learns the power of love and the meaning of courage.