Showing results for "Life Skills" in Literature & Fiction

Angie always thought high school romances were just silly infatuations that come and go. She certainly never thought she would fall in love over one short summer. But then she sees Jack Duluth’s crew cut peek out over a booth in McKnight’s drugstore, and their connection is beyond any childish crush. Suddenly, Angie and Jack are filling their summer with stolen moments and romantic nights. But as fall grows closer, they must figure out if their love is forever or just a summer they’ll never forget.

It's 1950 and Mickey Tussler - the now-famous pitching prodigy with autism and a golden arm - is back for another baseball season in this third installment of Frank Nappi's critically acclaimed Legend of Mickey Tussler series. Talk of Mickey's legendary exploits on the field has grown since his improbable debut two years prior, as have the fortunes of Murph and the rest of the lovable ragtag Brew Crew. Now Mickey, Murph, and Lester find themselves heading to Bean Town to play for the Boston Braves.

Margaret and her best friend Elizabeth both have brothers fighting the war against Hitler and, like everyone else they know, they are filled with feelings of patriotism. But the girls are also involved in their own personal war at home. Gordy Smith, the worst bully in the sixth grade, teases and torments them, and Margaret is scared to death of him. But when Gordy and his pals Toad and Doug grow bolder than ever, Margaret and Elizabeth come up with a daring plan to get even. That’s when the girls discover a shocking secret about Gordy.

Jackie does not like surprises. Chaos is the enemy! The best way to get her successful, busy parents to notice her is to be perfect. The perfect look, the perfect grades—the perfect daughter. And then Jackie's family dies in a freak car accident and she has to move cross-country to live with the Walters—her new guardians. Now Jackie must trade in her Type A personality and New York City apartment for a Colorado ranch and all the wild Walter boys who come with it. How can she fit in and move on when she needs to keep her parents' memory alive by living up to the promise of perfect?

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.

An intensely powerful account of a teen, bullied for herport-wine stain, who must summon her personal strength to survive abduction andhorrific abuse at the hands of a deranged killer

Sixteen-year-old Sarah Meadows longs for "normal."Born with a port-wine stain covering half her face, she has beenplagued by stares, giggles, bullying, and disgust all her life. But when she's abducted onthe way home from school, Sarah is forced to uncover the courage she never knewshe had, become a hero rather than a victim, and learn to look beyond her faceto find the beauty and strength she has inside. It's that - or succumb to akiller.

Seventeen-year-old RJ always gets what she wants. So when her soul is accidentally collected by a distracted Grim Reaper, somebody in the afterlife better figure out a way to send her back from the dead, or heads will roll. But in her quest for mortality, she becomes a pawn in a power struggle between an overzealous archangel and Death Himself. The tribunal presents her with two options.

Talking to other people isn't Kate Bailey's favorite activity. She'd much rather be out on the lake, soaking up the solitude and sunshine. So when her best friend, Alana, convinces Kate to join their high school's podcast, Kate is not expecting to be chosen as the host. Now she'll have to answer calls and give advice on the air? Impossible. Then the podcast gets a call from an anonymous guy, asking for advice about his unnamed crush. Kate is pretty sure that the caller is gorgeous Diego Martinez, and even surer that the girl in question is Alana.

From the award-winning author of Artichoke Hearts. During the summer of her GCSEs, Kite's world falls apart. Her best friend, Dawn, commits suicide after a long struggle with feeling under pressure to achieve. Kite's dad takes her to the Lake District, to give her time and space to grieve. In London, Kite is a confident girl, at home in the noisy, bustling city, but in the countryside she feels vulnerable and disorientated.

Sophie works for the local florist, so she's part of every big event in her small hometown, delivering flowers and making sure things run smoothly (which they almost never do). This year, Sophie has tons of events to get through - including a wedding, a funeral, a Valentine's Day party, a Fourth of July cookout, Thanksgiving, and a New Year's Eve bash. And at each event, she runs into Andrew, the distractingly cute - and annoyingly pompous - guy working for the local caterer.

Johanna is steadfast, patient, reliable; the go-to girl, the one everyone can count on. But always being there for others can’t give Johanna everything she needs - it can’t give her Reeve Hartt. Reeve is fierce, beautiful, wounded, elusive; a flame that draws Johanna’s fluttering moth. Johanna is determined to get her, against all advice, and to help her, against all reason. But love isn’t always reasonable, right? In the precarious place where attraction and need collide, a teenager experiences the dark side of a first love, and struggles to find her way into a new light.

Lynn Chambers is popular, wealthy, and going (almost) steady with a handsome college boy. But when she decides not to be a debutante, for the first time Lynn finds herself on the outside. Lois Duncan's 1958 young adult classic tells the story of what happens when the debutante tradition comes to one small town.

If Hamlet thought he had issues, he should have talked to Cooper Warner. His mother's normally sunny demeanor has turned into something homicidal. And whats worse, she has help in her hunt for Cooper: A ravenous monster living at the bottom of the old well in the woods behind their house. She's determined to deliver her 14-year-old son straight into the creatures eager clutches.

The design competition at Fashion International High School heats up as each design house struggles to produce its first - and hopefully award-winning - line. Tensions are cropping up in the House of Pashmina, and it's not clear whether Pashmina and her best friends will weather the runway. They'd better scramble if they want to win a real shot at a fashion career and an all-expenses-paid trip to Florence!

The more you love, the more you stand to lose….Tessa’s head over heels for Lucien, the son of a French diplomat. Sexy, artistic, and daring, he brings out a completely new side of her. With him, Tessa feels beautiful and exotic. So when Tessa’s strict father forbids her to see Lucien, she’s determined to keep their relationship a secret.

When an insecure teen starts impersonating someone else, her life spirals dangerously out of control in a realistic, relatable novel about finding yourself - and discovering your true friends.

Bo Dickinson is a girl with a wild reputation, a deadbeat dad, and a mama who's not exactly sober most of the time. Everyone in town knows the Dickinsons are a bad lot, but Bo doesn't care what anyone thinks. Agnes Atwood has never gone on a date, never even stayed out past 10, and never broken any of her parents' overbearing rules. Rules that are meant to protect their legally blind daughter - protect her from what, Agnes isn't quite sure.

The stories Hannah Gale’s father told her of breaking wild horses in Nevada one glorious summer when he was her age have captured her imagination. After her dad is called to fight in Iraq, she regularly stops to watch the horses at the nearby stable to feel closer to him, and finally gathers the nerve to ask the owner for a job. There she helps bring a rescued mare back from the brink, takes her first riding lesson, and witnesses the birth of the filly who steals her heart.

Do you ever get hungry? Too hungry to eat? Holly's older sister, Giselle, is self-destructing. Haunted by her love-deprived relationship with her late father, this once strong role model and medical student, is gripped by anorexia. Holly, a track star, struggles to keep her own life in balance while coping with the mental and physical deterioration of her beloved sister. Together, they can feel themselves slipping and are holding on for dear life.

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.