Difficult Family

Sharkita “Kita” Hayes is always waiting. Waiting for her mama to mess up. Waiting for social services to be called again. Waiting for her and her siblings to be separated. Waiting for her worst fear to come true. But Mama promises things are different now. She’s got a good job, she’s stopped drinking, stopped going out every night—it’s almost enough to make Kita believe her this time. But even as Kita’s life is going good, she can’t shake the feeling that everything could go up in flames at any moment.

Around the time that Freya loses her voice while recording her debut album, Harun is making plans to run away from home to find the boy that he loves, and Nathaniel is arriving in New York City after a family tragedy leaves him isolated on the outskirts of Washington state. After the three of them collide in Central Park, they slowly reveal the parts of their past that they haven't been able to confront, and together, they find their way back to who they're supposed to be.

2065: Adri has been handpicked to live on Mars. But weeks before launch, she discovers the journal of a girl who lived in her house more than a hundred years ago and is immediately drawn into the mystery surrounding her fate. 1934: Amid the fear and uncertainty of the Dust Bowl, Catherine’s family’s situation is growing dire. She must find the courage to sacrifice everything she loves in order to save the one person she loves most.

Der 15-jährige Daniel ist vor allem eins: wütend. Sein Vater ist weg, seine Mutter schleppt einen Liebhaber nach dem anderen an. Doc, ihr neuester Freund, ist der Mann, der Daniels Hund eingeschläfert hat. Trotzdem gewinnt Daniel ihn lieb. Bis zu einem tödlichen Unfall nach einer Party, durch den Daniel ein schrecklicher Verdacht kommt. Kann er seinen Erinnerungen an diese Nacht glauben? Oder spiegeln sie nur wider, was er gerne glauben würde?

Trapped by the limitations of her middle school adjective and the realities of her mother's alcohol addiction, Sophie's perspective on what being pretty really means changes drastically in the second adjective-busting novel by the author of Husky, Justin Sayre. Set three months after Husky's conclusion and narrated by Sophie, Davis' best friend, Sayre details the private and public life of someone saddled with the adjective of pretty.

Junie Kim just wants to fit in. So she keeps her head down and tries not to draw attention to herself. But when racist graffiti appears at her middle school, Junie must decide between staying silent or speaking out. Then Junie’s history teacher assigns a project and Junie decides to interview her grandparents, learning about their unbelievable experiences as kids during the Korean War. Junie comes to admire her grandma’s fierce determination to overcome impossible odds, and her grandpa’s unwavering compassion during wartime.

Marley doesn't just want to be labeled The Gay Kid, but he doesn't have much else going on. He doesn't have any hobbies. Or interests. He's the only kid he knows without a passion...until Christopher comes to town. He's smart, cute, gay, and...the son of the country's most famous, most bigoted television evangelist. Marley and Christopher immediately spark - and become inseparable. For a month, it's heaven. Then Christopher's parents send him to a Pray Away the Gay program, which leads to even worse things.

Keir Sarafian may not know much, but he knows himself. And the one thing he knows about himself is that he is a good guy. A guy who's a devoted son and brother, a loyal friend, and a reliable teammate. And, maybe most important of all, Keir is a guy who understands that when a girl says no, she means it. But that is not what Gigi Boudakian, childhood friend and Keir's lifelong love, says at all. What Gigi says seems impossible to Keir - something inexcusable - the worst thing he can imagine, the very opposite of everything he wants to be.

Ever since her mother left, Maia's struggled with depression - which once got so bad, she had to go to an institution for a while. She doesn't want to go back. When Maia sets off on a road trip in search of her mom, Billy unexpectedly comes along. They drive up the East Coast, stopping along the way for lobster rolls and lighthouses. Maia learns that Billy has dark secrets of his own - and wants to outrun his past, too. But what will the future hold if they reach their destination?

Astrid Jones desperately wants to confide in someone, but her mother's pushiness and her father's lack of interest tell her they're the last people she can trust. Instead, Astrid spends hours lying on the backyard picnic table watching airplanes fly overhead. She doesn't know the passengers inside, but they're the only people who won't judge her when she asks them her most personal questions...like what it means that she's falling in love with a girl.

November Nelson lost her boyfriend Josh when a high school hazing incident went horribly wrong. She thinks life can't get worse - then she learns she is carrying Josh's child. She seeks comfort from Josh's cousin and best friend Jericho, who himself is trying to hide the pain of his friend's death by diving into his sports and music. Listeners will get to hear November's story as well as Jericho's as they come to terms with Josh's death.

Lucy lives on the 24th floor. Owen lives in the basement. It's fitting, then, that they meet in the middle - stuck between two floors of a New York City apartment building, on an elevator rendered useless by a citywide blackout. After they're rescued, Lucy and Owen spend the night wandering the darkened streets and marveling at the rare appearance of stars above Manhattan. But once the power is back, so is reality. Lucy soon moves abroad with her parents, while Owen heads out west with his father.

It’s the last few days of an amazing trip to Pakistan, and Amina finds it hard to leave the sights, the shops, and most of all, her family. As she heads back to Greendale to start seventh grade, the experience has changed her, and she’s eager to share it with her friends. At home, though, Amina discovers her friends don’t seem interested in hearing about her trip. With everyone growing in different directions, Amina wonders where she belongs - especially after her school presentation on Malala goes sideways, leaving her feeling like nobody understands both her worlds.

Katsuyamas never quit - but 17-year-old CJ doesn’t even know where to start. She’s never lived up to her mom’s type A ambition, and she’s perfectly happy just helping her aunt Hannah at their family’s flower shop. She doesn’t buy into Hannah’s romantic ideas about flowers and their hidden meanings, but when it comes to arranging the perfect bouquet, CJ discovers a knack she never knew she had. A skill of which she might even be proud. Then her mom decides to sell the shop - to the family who swindled CJ’s grandparents during WWII.

It's the first real summer since the devastating accident that killed Cedar's father and younger brother, Ben. But now Cedar and what's left of her family are returning to the town of Iron Creek for the summer. They're just settling in to their new house when a boy named Leo, dressed in costume, rides by on his bike. Intrigued, Cedar follows him to the renowned Summerlost theatre festival. Soon she not only has a new friend in Leo and a job working concessions at the festival, but she finds herself surrounded by mystery.

I know what you think. You think I’m fixable, don’t you? You want to fix the bad guy. You don’t know the half of it. Tod Munn is a bully. He’s tough, but times are even tougher. The wimps have stopped coughing up their lunch money. The administration is cracking down. Then to make things worse, Tod and his friends get busted doing something bad. Something really bad. Lucky Tod must spend his daily detention in a hot, empty room with Mrs. Woodrow, a no-nonsense guidance counselor. He doesn’t know why he’s there, but she does.

In this powerful middle-grade novel from the acclaimed author of Things You Can't Say, a young girl navigates the social growing pains of middle school and struggles to find her place while her older brother fights to overcome opioid addiction. When Emma starts sixth grade, things finally begin to change. She may still be in the shadow of her older brother, Austin, the popular high school quarterback, but she's made artsy new friends who get her way more than her bookish best friend, Becca. But things are changing for Austin, too.

As your self-absorbed parent grows older and becomes more dependent on you, hurtful relationships may resurface and become further strained. In the tradition of Children of the Self-Absorbed, author Nina Brown offers the first book for adult children of aging narcissistic or self-absorbed parents. You will learn practical, powerful strategies for navigating the intense negative feelings that your parents can incite as well as tips to protect your children from the criticism, blame, or hostility that may exist between you and their grandparent.

Take two sisters making it on their own: brainy 12-year-old GiGi (short for Galileo Galilei, a name she never says out loud) and junior-high-dropout-turned-hairstylist DiDi (short for Delta Dawn). Add a million dollars in prize money from a national cooking contest and a move from the trailer parks of South Carolina to the Gold Coast of New York. Mix in a fancy new school, new friends and enemies, a first crush, and a generous sprinkling of family secrets.

Francesca is at the beginning of her second term in Year 11 at an all boy's school that has just started accepting girls. She still misses her old friends, and, to make things worse, her mother has had a breakdown and can barely move from her bed.