Social Issues

Everything Alice has ever known is about to change --- from where she sleeps at night to how close her closest friends will be. So Alice is meeting that seasick feeling head-on by setting sail as staff on a Chesapeake Bay cruise ship. And like any last great adventure before starting college, Alice knows she’ll need sunblock, an open mind, and…oh yeah, all her best girlfriends.

Finley lives in broken-down Bellmont, a town ruled by the Irish mob and racially charged rivalries; playing basketball is his only relief. Russ has just moved to the neighborhood, and his life has turned upside down by tragedy. He won't pick up a basketball, but answers only to the name Boy21. As senior  year brings these two boys together, a unique friendship may turn out to be the answer they both need.

In a time of post-Revolutionary fervor in Richmond, Virginia, an imposing 24-year-old slave named Gabriel, known for his courage and intellect, plotted a rebellion involving thousands of African-American freedom seekers armed with refashioned pitchforks and other implements of Gabriel's blacksmith trade. The revolt would be thwarted, but Gabriel retained his dignity to the end.

Connor knows that Izzy will never fall in love with him the way he’s fallen for her. Somehow, though, he’s been let into her crazy, exhilarating world and become her closest confidante. But the frenetic energy that makes her shine is starting to push her into a much darker place.

Irreverent, foulmouthed 17-year-old Cricket is the oldest ward in a Catholic boys’ home in Maine --- and his life sucks. With prospects for the future that range from professional fighter to professional drug dealer, he seems doomed to a life of “criminal rapscallinity.” But then Wynona Bidaban steps into his world, and Cricket slowly realizes that maybe, just maybe, life doesn’t totally suck.

A broken-down camper hidden deep in a forest is the only home 15-year-old Carey can remember. All she and her younger sister, Jenessa, have is each other, as their mentally ill mother comes and goes with greater frequency. Until that one fateful day their mother disappears for good. Now, Carey must face the truth of why her mother abducted her 10 years ago, while haunted by a past that won’t let her go…

In these pages, Backderf tries to make sense of Jeffery Dahmer, the future serial killer with whom he shared classrooms, hallways, libraries and car rides. What emerges is a surprisingly sympathetic portrait of a young man struggling helplessly against the urges, some ghastly, bubbling up from the deep recesses of his psyche.

The only thing that Will and Zoe can count on is each other. Although Zoe's dad stole all her 15 years and taught her to be scared, and Will was abandoned, they are willing to do anything for each other, learning exactly how to along the way.

On the night of October 6, 1998, a gay 21-year-old college student named Matthew Shepard was lured from a Wyoming bar by two young men, savagely beaten, tied to a remote fence and left to die. Lesléa Newman creates fictitious monologues from various points of view, including the fence Matthew was tied to, the stars that watched over him, the deer that kept him company and Matthew himself.

After the events of 9/11, Enniston, Maine has become a "secondary migration" location for Somali refugees, who are seeking a better life after their country was destroyed by war. Four refuges join his soccer team and Saeed. But when Saeed's eligibility is questioned and Tom screws up in a big way, Tom's left to grapple with a culture he doesn't understand and take responsibility for his actions.

It’s 1950 in  French Quarter of New Orleans and, 17-year-old Josie Moraine is known among locals as the daughter of a brothel prostitute, Josie wants more out of life than the Big Easy has to offer. She devises a plan get out, but a mysterious death in the Quarter leaves Josie tangled in an investigation that will challenge her allegiance to her mother, her conscience, and Willie Woodley, the brusque madam on Conti Street.

It’s a nightmare come true: Diamond Landers has been kidnapped. She was at the mall with a friend, alone for only a few brief minutes --- and now she’s being held captive, forced to endure horrors beyond what she ever could have dreamed, while her family and friends experience their own torments and wait desperately for any bit of news. All it takes is one bad decision.

At the beginning of his junior year at a boys' boarding school, 16-year-old Alex is devastated when he fails to save a drowning friend. When questioned, he and his friend Glenn, who was also at the river, begin weaving a web of lies. Plagued by guilt, Alex takes refuge in the library, telling his tale in a journal he hides.

Thirteen-year-old Butterball is teased mercilessly about his weight,  hates the Long Island suburb his mom moved them to and now he's stuck talking to a therapist named Liz, who tries to uncover what happened that day on the playground. While Butterball evades her questions, he takes readers on a journey through the moments that made him into the playground bully he is today.

In this funny and heartfelt coming of age memoir, debut author Aaron Hartzler recalls his teenage journey to find the person he is without losing the family who loves him. It's a story about losing your faith, finding your place and learning your very own truth --- which is always stranger than fiction.

At 7:45 a.m. on the day before Thanksgiving break, a bomb goes off at Edison High. Nine people die instantly. Fifteen are critically injured. Those who survive, struggle to cope with the loss and destruction. All must find new meaning for their lives as a result of something they may never understand.

Alice, Summer and Tiernan used to be best friends --- as well as the self-proclaimed biggest fans of the band Level3. But when the band broke up, so did their friendship. Now, four years later, when Level3 announces a one-time reunion show in Texas, Alice invites her two former friends along for the trip. Both girls agree to go, each with her own ulterior motive.

Alexander thinks that being with Patti is better than any high, and he can’t live without her. But, if they are going to be together, their love will come at a steep price. Because some promises are meant to be broken, and not all debts can be paid in cash….

When Taylor Edward’s dad gets devastating news, her parents decide that the family will spend one last summer all together at their old lake house in the Pocono Mountains. Taylor discovers that the people she thought she had left behind haven’t actually gone anywhere.

Seventeen-year-old Tony dreams escaping his trailor park lifestyle, but can barely hold his own to defend his mother from her abusive relationships. When Rob coerces him into joining his Mixed Martial Arts class, he is surprised to find that he has a talent for it. But with a meth-dealing biker gang that is hungry for recruits and a vicious cycle of poverty and violence that precedes him, Tony is going to need a lot more than blood and guts to find a way out.