Difficult Adult Children

From the best-selling author of What the Birds See comes a brilliantly told suspense novel. As life slips away, Gabriel looks back over his brief 20 years that have been clouded by frustration and humiliation. A small town and distant parents ensure that he is never allowed to forget the horrific mistake he made as a child. He has only two friends, his dog Surrender, and the unruly wild boy Finnigan, with whom he made a boyhood pact.

Through the long years of the Great Depression, Harper Flute watches with a child's clear eyes her family's struggle to survive in a hot and impoverished landscape. As life on the surface grows harsher, her brother Tin escapes ever deeper into a subterranean world of darkness and troubling secrets, until his memory becomes a myth barely whispered around the countryside.

Clara Gardner has recently learned that she's part angel. Having angel blood run through her veins not only makes her smarter, stronger, and faster than humans (a word, she realises, that no longer applies to her), but it means she has a purpose, something she was put on this earth to do. Figuring out what that is, though, isn't easy. Her visions of a raging forest fire and an alluring stranger lead her to a new school in a new town.

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Dear Evan Hansen by Val Emmich with Justin Paul, Steven Levenson and Benji Pasek, read by Ben Levi Ross, Mike Faist and Mallory Bechtel. When a letter that was never meant to be seen by anyone draws high school senior Evan Hansen into a family's grief over the loss of their son, he is given the chance of a lifetime: to belong. He just has to stick to a lie he never meant to tell, that the notoriously troubled Connor Murphy was his secret best friend.

Izzie is cool, bright and sassy. And when she meets gorgeous Mark, she's on a real high. He's divine. And he likes her! But why doesn't he call when he says he will? Desperate to make sense of things, Izzie spends her time checking her horoscope. And stays at home, just in case he calls. When Izzie loses her perspective and her sense of fun, best friends Lucy and Nesta try to give her a reality check. But there are some things you'd rather not hear.

In the underground city of Caverna the world's most skilled craftsmen toil in the darkness to create delicacies beyond compare - wines that can remove memories, cheeses that can make you hallucinate and perfumes that convince you to trust the wearer, even as they slit your throat. The people of Caverna are more ordinary, but for one thing: their faces are as blank as untouched snow. Expressions must be learned, and only the famous Facesmiths can teach a person to show joy, despair or fear - at a price.

'You'll be sorry when I'm dead.' That's what Harry said to his sister, before the incident with the lorry. And now he is just that - dead. And he wishes more than anything that he hadn't said it. He wishes he could say sorry. And say goodbye to everyone he left behind - his mum, his dad, his best friend Pete, even Jelly Donkins, the class bully. Now he's on the Other Side, waiting to move on to the Great Blue Yonder. But he doesn't know how to get there - until he meets Arthur.

Ten-year-old Jamie Matthews has just moved to the Lake District with his Dad and his teenage sister, Jasmine for a 'Fresh New Start'. Five years ago his sister's twin, Rose, was blown up by a terrorist bomb. His parents are wrecked by their grief, Jasmine turns to piercing, pink hair and stops eating. The family falls apart. But Jamie hasn't cried in all that time. To him Rose is just a distant memory.

After the death of her parents, Mary Lennox is sent to live in the remote Yorkshire countryside with her rarely seen uncle. With no one to play with, she resents the landscape and the gloomy house. But then she discovers a key which unlocks the hidden door to a secret garden. Academy Award winner Glenda Jackson captures the magic of the story that has been adored by adults and children alike for generations.

After the car crash that leaves her best friend dead, Jenna is permanently scarred. She struggles to rebuild her life, but every stare in the street makes her want to retreat further from the world. Until she meets Ryan. Ryan's a traveller. When he and his mother arrive in the village, he can't imagine why this place shouldn't be as unwelcoming as the rest. Until he meets Jenna. But as Jenna and Ryan grow closer, repercussions from the crash continue to reverberate through the community. And then a body is found.

Everything is changing around her, and suddenly she is required to make all sorts of decisions. Everyone else knows who and what they want to be except her. zzy has become friends with the glamorous Nesta and Lucy isn't certain she likes this new threesome. Nesta and Izzy look 16, but Lucy, at 14, can easily pass for a 12-year-old. But then the day Lucy sees the most wonderful boy crossing the street, things start to change – in all areas of her life.

Alison Ashley is sheer perfection in every department. She has everything: intelligence, good looks, a wealthy family and perfect manners and Erica hates her for it! Erica plans to topple Alison at the school play performed annually by the sixth grade. However, everything does not go quite as planned....

A boy named Seth drowns, desperate and alone in his final moments, losing his life as the pounding sea claims him. But then he wakes. He is naked, thirsty, starving. But alive. How is that possible? He remembers dying, his bones breaking, his skull dashed upon the rocks. So how is he here? And where is this place? It looks like the suburban English town where he lived as a child, before an unthinkable tragedy happened and his family moved to America.

Prentisstown isn't like other towns. Everyone can hear everyone else's thoughts in an overwhelming, never-ending stream of Noise. Just a month away from the birthday that will make him a man, Todd and his dog, Manchee - whose thoughts Todd can hear, too, whether he wants to or not - stumble upon an area of complete silence. They find that in a town where privacy is impossible, something terrible has been hidden - a secret so awful that Todd and Manchee must run for their lives. But how do you escape when your pursuers can hear your every thought?

On remote Rollrock Island, the sea-witch Misskaella discovers she can draw a girl from the heart of a seal. So, for a price, any man might buy himself a bride; an irresistibly enchanting sea-wife. But what cost will be borne by the people of Rollrock? The men, the women, the children? Once Misskaella sets her heart on doing such a thing?Margo Lanagan weaves an extraordinary tale of desire and revenge, of loyalty, heartache and human weakness, and of the unforeseen consequences of all-consuming love.

Every year on St Stephen’s Day, Wren Silke is chased through the forest in a warped version of a childhood game. Her pursuers are judges - a group of powerful and frightening boys who know nothing of her true identity. If they knew she was an augur - their sworn enemy - the game would be up. This year, the tension between judges and augurs is at breaking point. Wren’s survival, and that of her family, depends on her becoming a spy in the midst of these boys she fears most and using her talent, her magic, to steal from them the only thing that can restore her family’s former power for good. But Wren’s talent comes with a price.

London is everything to Cynthia, so when her parents move her to a place where there is only one bus an hour and the faint smell of horse manure continuously permeates the air, it's a culture shock, to say the least. As is transitioning to a private school. At her new school, Cynthia immediately finds herself caught between two brothers—head boy Thomas, who is white, and his adopted Black brother, Isaac. There is something about Isaac she cannot quite get enough of...but her father wants her to partner up with someone like Thomas.

Sephy is a Cross, a member of the dark-skinned ruling class. Callum is a Nought, a 'colourless' member of the underclass who were once slaves to the Crosses. The two have been friends since early childhood. But that's as far as it can go. Until the first steps are taken towards more social equality and a limited number of Noughts are allowed into Crosses schools.

Tienes cinco años, dos hermanas y deseas con todas tus fuerzas un hermanito para jugar a cosas de chicos. Un día tus padres te anuncian que tendrás a ese hermano y que será especial. Estás loco de alegría: especial para ti significa «superhéroe». Tras su nacimiento, poco a poco entiendes que sí, que es distinto a los demás, pero que lo de los superpoderes no acaba de ser verdad. Al final descubres las palabras «síndrome de Down», y tu entusiasmo se transforma en rechazo, incluso en vergüenza.

Child genius Becky Bexley helps to organise a lot of fun at the university she studies at, including a humorous game in front of an audience for charity. She also turns out to have a talent for stand-up comedy, surprising perhaps, since she's only about eleven. Alcohol comes up for discussion one day as students talk about embarrassing things they did while drunk and the harmful effects of alcohol on the body, while Becky mostly listens in.