Josh Swensen (otherwise known as Larry) can’t seem to get off the couch. His usual overactive imagination and save-the-world mindset have all but vanished, and his best friend Beth is seriously worried.When Beth coaxes Josh into taking a walk at Walden Pond, Josh meets Gus Muldarian, a spiritual guru who convinces him to join his study group as a way to find deeper meaning in life. Josh thinks Gus is a joke. Still, feeling desperate and seeing no way out of his rut, he agrees to try it. What begins as a harmless Thoreau-esque search for meaning soon turns into Josh’s most chaotic and profound adventure yet.
Dora and Elena are as different as two sisters can be. Dora's tall and theatrical; Elena is short and practical. It was as if, growing up, Dora had occupied a certain space and developed a certain kind of personality, Elena says, and I had taken what was left over. On a barometer, Dora was a storm on the horizon; I was the needle that always pointed to steady. But after Dora is admitted to the local hospital following a suicide attempt, Elena finds it increasingly difficult to remain the family's steady Eddie. Author's Note. Resources.
Muskoka, Canada, the Great Depression: Fifteen-year-old Ben wants to be a violinist, but his chances of leaving Cook's Landing, the family farm, grow slimmer every year. Then one day in early summer, possible salvation arrives in the form of a new neighbor, Ruth Chapman, a wealthy New Yorker. Unlike other women in Muskoka, she smokes and swears and introduces Ben to Mozart and Sibelius. Ben's mother keeps telling him that things can happen. if he makes a good impression. . . . But, as the summer starts to wane, so does Ruth Chapman?s interest in Ben and, consequently, Ben?s hopes for his future. Historical note. Note from the author.
Late one night, Dusty receives a strange and frightening call from a teenage boy who says he's in trouble . . . and has inexplicably detailed knowledge about her brother, who ran away two years ago. Dusty rushes to rescue the boy, but he literally disappears-as if he were a ghost. Despite threats from the boy's enemies and rumors that girls have been mesmerized by him before, Dusty continues to search for him.
In 1970s Argentina, political dissent can be fatal. So when Silvia's brother Eduardo is "disappeared" to a secret jail for speaking out against oppressive policies, Silvia knows she must do everything she can to save him. As she begins to date the son of a powerful politician, she imagines telling Eduardo, "I will make him care so much for me that he will ask his father for your freedom." Will Silvia's plan cost her and her brother their lives?
Ireland, AD 920. Aidan has an unusual gift: "Others heard birdsong, windsong, human speech . . . Nobody else caught numbers with their ears." Aidan hopes to gain understanding of his mysterious ability over years of quiet, solitary contemplation as a monk. But when a pretty girl named Lana arrives and hums of eleven, a number Aidan has never heard, he is enthralled. Adevastating attack by Viking raiders forces the two together , and as they strive to save their village, they also must struggle to understand their strong connection.
When Terry's classmate Jason dies in an alleged suicide from steroid-induced depression, Terry grows suspicious. Jason, artistic and withdrawn, seems an unlikely candidate for steroid use. Terry and his girlfriend Abby's amateur investigation soon attracts attention-and threats-from the high school quarterback and the principal. Scared, but sure they've uncovered criminal activity, Terry and Abby organize a spy network of classmates. What they find goes far beyond steroids-all the way to the race for governor.
After Henry Smith's brother is hit by a car, Henry needs to get away from his grieving family. He and his best friend Sanborn decide to hitchhike to Maine and take the hike that Henry and his brother had planned-a dangerous climb to the top of Mt. Katahdin. But the only driver to offer Henry and Sanborn a ride is a boy fleeing demons of his own: Chay Chouan, who was convicted of hitting Henry's brother. As they drive north, the three struggle to deal with the truth of what happened the night of the accident.
After years of neglect, Ruby's mother has abandoned her, and now Ruby has to live with her estranged sister, Cora, whom she hasn't seen in ten years. Cora and her husband offer Ruby a stable home life and a fresh start at a new school. Ruby's independent streak is strong, though, and she attempts to run away the very night she arrives. A friendly (and cute) neighbor boy named Nate covers for her when she's nearly caught, and suddenly Ruby may have a compelling reason to stay.
Whether it's at school, where she's the only black girl, or at home, with her adoptive white parents, Lahni feels out of place. As if being an outsider weren't enough, a creepy boy starts pestering Lahni, and her parents announce they're getting a divorce. Lahni's not sure she can cope, especially with one more worry piled on: participating in a singing competition. Then Lahni joins a choir to practice for the contest and finally finds a place where she belongs.
Fatherless Cody LeBeau is an American Indian boy who is starting high school with the usual trepidation. He fits into none of the cliques at the new school, but somehow keeps being noticed anyway-- and is often teased because of his tendency to stutter. Then his Uncle Pat, an accomplished martial arts sensei, moves into the town and becomes the one who shows Cody "the way" through the maze of adolescent doubt and into manhood.
As captain of the track team and a decent student who's never been in trouble, Michael Kerrigan is "almost too good to be true." He wants to go on to college and be an inspiration for his aging factory town, but his bright future is threatened when the police find marijuana in his locker. When an ex-boxer tells him all it took was "one good punch" to take him out of competition, Michael wonders if his[ital his] dreams are about to be knocked out for good.
Eighteen-year-old Jenny Austen considers herself very lucky. She has a loving family, a home in beautiful southern England, and time to write her novels. But Jenny, with her "head full of questions no one seemed able to answer," also feels peculiar, especially compared to her "calm and practical" older sister, Cassandra. Jenny is exasperated with ballroom arrangements and begins to think she'll never be lucky enough to make a true love match. As she grows older and becomes simply "Jane," will a captivating young man named Tom Lefroy change her views on life and love?
The last thing Jared wants is a family of refugees living in his house, but his do-gooder mother has made up her mind to host a family from Africa. When the family arrives, they are not what anyone expects: the father has had his hands amputated, and the daughter is so traumatized by her experiences that she can't speak. Jared senses something else suspicious-these people do not seem to know each other very well. He has no idea that both their family and his are in terrible danger.
"I love beginnings. If I were in charge of calendars, every day would be January 1." After a wild, heartbreaking semester at Mica High in Arizona, Stargirl needs to start over in her new home, far away. Hoping to get over her feelings for her "once (and future?) boyfriend" Leo, she begins writing him "the world's longest letter," explaining her feelings and keeping track of her daily life. But even her writing and all her new friends can't get Stargirl's heart to recuperate. Then she meets Perry Delloplane. . . .
In mythologies from around the world, the Trickster figure plays many roles at once: joker, thief, prophet, and troublemaker. These twenty-six original stories by contemporary authors show some tricksters who help the innocent and others who make sure the guilty get their comeuppance; tricksters who disrupt peoples' everyday lives and those who open doors to entirely new experiences. Features stories by Christopher Barzak, Kelly Link, and Holly Black. Includes an author's note after each story and suggestions for further reading.
Denn has been on a hot streak: playing poker with Vegas's highest rollers and winning every time. But that all changes when he gets involved with a redheaded card dealer named Cattie. Soon, his bankroll's down to almost nothing, he's playing in games with little old ladies, and a powerful rival has shown up. Denn is left with doubts about just whose side Cattie is on. He'll bet everything on one final game to learn the truth.
D.J. Schwenk, the first female linebacker ever to play for Red Bend High School's football team, is at the top of her game. The season is off to a great start, and Brian Nelson finally seems to be paying her the right kind of attention. But after a suspension and an injury sideline D.J. for the season, many of the things she values most start slipping away.Soon, D.J. discovers that she's got much bigger problems to tackle than the ones on the football field.
When the actors who play the characters at Disney World go on strike, the park hires a group of high school students to fill in. Itsounds like the best summer job ever, but Ella soon discovers that her Prince Charming is a dud and that she's much more interested in Luke, who spends his days dressed up as Dale the Chipmunk. Luke can't stop thinking about Ella either and wonders why she often seems so sad. The problem? Luke already has the perfect girlfriend
The Romantic poets transgressed traditional boundaries in life and art, rousing suspicion in conservative nineteenth-century Britain. Revolutionaries, addicts, and philanderers, these remarkable writers forged one of the most important movements in Western literature. From the friendship between Wordsworth and Coleridge to the short, brilliant life of John Keats to the exploits of Byron and the Shelleys, this group biography follows both the poets' individual stories and the story of their relationships. Includes selected poems, list of sources, suggestions for further reading and viewing, and index.
Martin's new job delivering soda for Pure Spring has some perks: He gets a free soda every day, and he gets to flirt with pretty Gerty McDowell each time he makes a delivery to her grandfather's store. But there's also a problem with the job-Randy, who drives the delivery truck. Randy constantly makes Martin uncomfortable, railing against Jews and Communists and showing him dirty pictures. Most objectionable of all, Randy has been cheating customers (including Gerty's grandfather) and forcing Martin to help.
Best friends Bee, Carmen, Lena, and Tibby have never been in danger of growing apart-until now. While Bee is in Turkey and Carmen is making a new best friend, Lena and Tibby are wrapped up in their respective love lives. Then the Pants go missing. Is it the end of the Sisterhood forever?
"If you find something out about boys and you can benefit female-kind by explaining it, you will do so in this book. Even if it is embarrassing." Ruby Oliver and her friends Kim, Nora, and Cricket started the Boy Book last year-before Ruby kissed Kim's boyfriend and became a social leper. Now Ruby is left to navigate the world of kisses and crushes without her girlfriends to guide her along the way.
Izzy thinks her swollen lymph glands just mean she gets to miss algebra for a day. Then she goes to the doctor and finds out she has cancer. Before she knows it she's hooked to an IV in the hospital, surrounded by nurses using words like "chemotherapy" and "PICC line." Mom is crying, her best friend's parents won't let her visit, and classmates she barely knows are writing her cards saying they miss her. Yuck. Even if the biopsy hadn't made her nauseated, Izzy would want to puke.
Keturah gets lost in the woods one dark night and is discovered by young, handsome Lord Death. He is ready to take her life, but after she charms him with a love story he gives her a reprieve: She'll become his bride unless she can find her one true love within twenty-four hours. With the help of her friends, an old witch, and a magic eyeball, Keturah searches her village for the one thing that can save her-a love greater than death.
"A jackal in human form" . . . "a monster" . . . "a bloodthirsty creature who strikes down innocent men." In the years Anubis has spent wandering the desert alone, rumors of her violent deeds have spread through Persia. Her reputation finally catches up with her in Herat, where an angry mob chases her through the streets. She narrowly escapes death by jumping the walls of the city's artist colony-and there finds an unlikely ally in its most famous resident, miniature painter Kamal al-Din Bihzad. Time line. Bibliography.
"He'd been dumped. By a girl named Katherine. For the nineteenth time." Colin Singleton doesn't know why he keeps getting his heart broken by Katherines, but he and his best friend, Hassan, are on a road trip to find out. Somewhere near the grave of Archduke Ferdinand in Gutshot, Tennessee, their journey is sidetracked-by a Lindsey.
Mina is a straight-A student and president of her school's honor society . . . or so she tells her strict mother, who wants her to go to Harvard. Mina doesn't know what she wants, but she plans to finance a great escape by stealing money from her parents' laundromat. Then she meets Ysrael, an ambitious guitarist who urges Mina to tell her mother the truth-and to find out what she wants for herself.
It starts off as a way to pass the time. Alan and his friends are hanging out in the culvert under the road when they start to read into the conversations they hear above their heads. Isn't "How'sit goin'?" really code for "What's the status report?" And maybe "I love you" actually means that another victim has been chosen. Clues seem to be everywhere. Then the governor is assassinated, and Alan starts to think that his spy ring is not just a game.
Ruben and his best friend, Jeddy, know that the corpse they find on the beach has something to do with the rum-runners operating off the shores of their town. But when the boys race home to tell the police, the chief is away and the deputy sergeant blows them off. By the time they finally get someone to investigate, the body has vanished without a trace. Inspired by real accounts of liquor smuggling in Rhode Island during the Prohibition era. Author's note.
Juan Manzano was born a slave, but even his owner noticed his astounding talent for language. She treated him like her pet, bringing him to parties to perform for her friends. "I bark / on command / I learn to whine and howl / in verse / I'm known as the smart one who never / forgets. . . ." Lyric poems from different points of view tell of a Cuban boy whose gifts made him special, but did not set him free. Historical note. Excerpts from Manzano's poetry. Black-and-white artwork.
Joss is furious that her alien telepathy partner keeps invading her head while she's out on dates. Zelda knows her family is lucky to be pioneers on a new planet-but secretly hates the green sky, the blue hills, and the strange noisy birds outside her window. On Halloween night, Brenna watches, shocked, as her friend takes off her disguise for the first time. This science fiction and fantasy collection includes original stories by Tamora Pierce, Charles de Lint, Francesca Lia Block, and Diana Wynne Jones.
In this fast-paced, tongue-in-cheek combination of seven plays in one, audience members use remote controls to switch back and forth between different performances: an English mystery, Shakespeare's Richard III, a performance-art monologue, a comedy set in New York, and Russian, avant-garde, and Southern plays. When the "zaps" become more frequent, the various genres-and their characters-collide. Foreword. Production notes.
Now home from Camp Green Lake, a juvenile detention center, Theodore "Armpit" Johnson sets five "small steps" for himself. "1. Graduate from high school. 2. Get a job. 3. Save his money. 4. Avoid situations that might turn violent. And 5. Lose the name Armpit." But when his friend, X-Ray, comes up with a get-rich-quick scheme, Armpit ends up in hot water-and in an unlikely and dangerous romance with a teen pop star.
Zoe isn't afraid to live life; Anna isn't afraid to take notes. They are a team, a pair, two sides of the same coin, but now that Zoe has broken her arm, Anna is headed to camp without her for the first time. How will she get through the summer-with bossy cabin leader Jennifer, arrogant swim coach Karim, and the rebellious new girl, Isabel-alone?
Eric "Fly" Williams is going to the prom with a white girl. Jon wants to invite his boyfriend to his little brother's Bar Mitzvah-and is surprised when his brother takes a stand forhim. Teenage superhero Bill Blaze confesses his one weakness to a girl and almost pays the ultimate price. Ten male authors such as Walter Dean Myers, David Levithan, and Mo Willems tell stories about what it's like to be a guy.
Brothers Elijah and Danny, once close, have grown apart. Danny is a young star at a New York advertising agency and has direction and focus. Elijah, about to finish high school, would rather enjoy life and is in no hurry to find out what comes next. What will they do when their parents trick them into taking a vacation together?
A bad breakup sends fifteen-year-old Ruby Oliver into a tailspin. Her best friends ignore her and even scrawl gossip about her on the bathroom walls. To stave off panic, Ruby composes a long list of every boyfriend she's ever had. Okay, only one of them has actually been her boyfriend, and the list is her shrink's idea, anyway. Yet in between sandbox friends and grade-school crushes, there might lurk some answers to Ruby's problems.