Showing results for "English Skills" in Coming of Age

Marley is one of the only gay kids in his North Carolina town -- and he feels like he might as well be one of the only gay kids in the universe. Or at least that's true until Christopher shows up in the halls of his high school. Christopher's great to talk to, great to look at, great to be with-and he seems to feel the same way about Marley. It's almost too good to be true.

It’s 1949 and 18-year-old pitching phenom Mickey Tussler is back with the rejuvenated minor league Brewers in the sequel to The Legend of Mickey Tussler (the basis for the television movie A Mile in His Shoes). Despite Mickey’s proclamation that he will never play baseball again after last season’s violent conclusion, his manager - and now surrogate father - Arthur Murphy cajoles the emotionally fragile, socially awkward boy with autism into giving it another shot.

Seventeen-year-old Bianca Piper is cynical and loyal, and she doesn’t think she’s the prettiest of her friends by a long shot. She’s also way too smart to fall for the charms of man-slut and slimy school hottie Wesley Rush. In fact, Bianca hates him. And when he nicknames her “the Duff,” she throws her Coke in his face. But things aren’t so great at home right now, and Bianca is desperate for a distraction. She ends up kissing Wesley. Worse, she likes it.

John Conlan is nicknamed “The Bathroom Bomber” after setting off firecrackers in the boys’ bathroom 23 times without getting caught. John and his best friend, Lorraine, can never please their parents, and school is a chore. To pass the time, they play pranks on unsuspecting people, and it's during one of these pranks that they meet the “Pigman”. In spite of themselves, John and Lorraine soon get caught up in Mr. Pignati’s zest for life. In fact, they become so involved that they begin to destroy the only corner of the world that has ever mattered to them. Can they stop before it’s too late?

Hattie Big Sky, Sabrina, and Downtown Abbey collide in this gorgeously written story of one unforgettable girl's coming-of-age... for all ages to treasure. It's the 1920s--cars and planes are new. Lily Gabriel is scruffy and confident and takes no nonsense from anyone. Antony is rich, spoiled, and arrogant, and Lily is completely and utterly--no nonsense!--in love with him. So join Lily as she falls... Falls in love... Falls out of the sky... Falls through time...And effortlessly, inescapably, falls into her future.

Ballads are the kinds of songs that Kara McNaughton likes best. Not the cliche ones where a diva hits her dramatic high note or a rock band tones it down a couple of notches for the ladies, but the true ballads: the punk rocker or the country crooner reminding their listeners of the numerous ways to screw things up.

Carson Mastick is entering his senior year of high school and desperate to make his mark, on the reservation and off. A rock band - and winning the local Battle of the Bands, with its first prize of a trip to New York City - is his best shot. But things keep getting in the way. Small matters like the lack of an actual band, or the fact that his brother just got shot confronting the racist owner of a local restaurant.

Growing up in a world of wealth and pastel-tinted entitlement, 15-year-old Carly has always relied on the constancy - and authenticity - f her sister, Anna. But when 14-year-old Anna turns plastic-perfect-pretty over the course of a single summer, everything starts to change. And there are boys involved, complicating things as boys always do.

ONE SUMMER in the French countryside, among sun-kissed fields of lavender . . . ANOTHER SUMMER in upstate New York, along familiar roads that lead to surprises . . . When Summer Everett makes a split-second decision, her summer divides into two parallel worlds. In one, she travels to France, where she's dreamed of going: a land of chocolate croissants, handsome boys, and art museums. In the other, she remains home, in her ordinary suburb, where she expects her ordinary life to continue - but nothing is as it seems.

When life's a drag, you've gotta drag it up. JT feels like his life's hit a dead end. It looks like he'll always be stuck in Florida. His parents are anti-supportive. And his boyfriend, Seth, seems to be moving toward a bright future a long way from home. Scholarship money is nonexistent. After-school work will only get JT so far. There's only one shot for him--to become the next Miss Drag Teen in New York City. The problem with that? Well, the only other time JT tried drag (at a school talent show), he was booed off the stage. And it's not exactly an easy drive from Florida to New York.

Award-winning writer Patrick Ness’s bold and irreverent novel powerfully asks what if you weren't the Chosen One? The one who's supposed to fight the zombies, or the soul-eating ghosts, or whatever this new thing is, with the blue lights and the death? What if you were like Mikey? Who just wants to graduate and go to prom and maybe finally work up the courage to ask Henna out before someone goes and blows up the high school. Again.

Some rivers should not be swum in. Some rivers hold secrets that can never be told. Te Arepa is an adventurous Maori boy, bound to the history, customs and rituals of his people. When he comes upon a giant eel while fishing, he is convinced the creature is a taniwha, or water demon, and follows it. Yet what Te Arepa finds in the river is far different, far more sinister. And it will change his life forever.

There is the secret of Birdy's dead grandmother's cat - how the boys tortured it and Birdy Flynn had to drown her in the river to stop her suffering. There's the secret of Mrs Cope, the popular teacher who touched Birdy in the cupboard. There's the secret of the gypsy girl at school, whom Birdy likes, but she can't tell anyone. Because Birdy's other secret is that while she plays and fights as good as the boys, she is a girl, and she doesn't always feel like a girl is supposed to.

Nyle’s life with her grandmother on their Vermont sheep farm advances rhythmically through the seasons until the night of the accident at the Cookshire nuclear power plant. Without warning, Nyle’s modest world fills with protective masks, evacuations, contaminated food, disruptions, and mistrust. Things become even more complicated when Ezra Trent and his mother, refugees from the heart of the accident, take temporary shelter in the back bedroom of Nyle’s house.