Being yourself isn’t always easy. When you’re new in school, all you want is to fit in. When eleven-year-old Warren and his family move to a new city, his twin brother, who has Down syndrome, attracts too much attention for Warren’s liking. Bennie’s different and doesn’t care about it. But while Bennie may be oblivious to those who are curious or uneasy with him, Warren notices every smirk, comment and sideways glance.
Warren is weary of flip-flopping between trying to be just like everyone else and being the protective brother of a boy with special needs. Sometimes he thinks his life would be easier if he had no brother. But what he really needs is to stop worrying about what other people think.
A funny and heartfelt story about learning how to rise above your most embarrassing moment while staying true to yourself -- with the help of old friends, new friends and some cheesy poetry.
At the start of ninth grade, Wilbur Nuñez-Knopf is hoping for a fresh start. But he just can't live down a deeply humiliating moment from two years ago that's followed him to high school. His good friend Alex has stuck by him, but Alex has started dating Fabrizio and he doesn't have much time to hang out. Luckily, Wil can still confide in his elderly neighbor, Sal. But he longs to have a special someone of his own.
When the school band does an exchange with students from Paris, a girl named Charlie captures Wilbur's heart. But his feelings aren't reciprocated. So Alex, Fabrizio and Sal join forces to build Wil's confidence in the hope that he can impress Charlie when they go to Paris. Maybe, just maybe, Wilbur will find a new defining moment in the City of Love.
From New York Times bestselling author Gordon Korman comes a hilarious middle grade novel about a group of kids forced to “unplug” at a wellness camp—where they instead find intrigue, adventure and a whole lot of chaos. Perfect for fans of Korman’s The Unteachables, the Masterminds series, and Carl Hiaasen’s eco mysteries.
As the son of the world’s most famous tech billionaire, Jett Baranov has always gotten exactly what he wanted. So, when his father’s private jet drops him in the middle of Little Rock, Arkansas, at a wellness camp called the Oasis, Jett can’t believe it. He’s forced to hand over his cell phone, eat grainy veggie patties and participate in wholesome activities with the other kids.
At the Oasis, he meets Grace, who is his polar opposite. She thrives in the wellness atmosphere and resents Jett’s terrible attitude. Then there’s Tyrell, who suffers from a dizzying list of food allergies that render him constantly itchy. And also Brooklynne, a girl who definitely seems to be hiding something. As the weeks go on, Jett starts to get used to the unplugged life and even bonds with the other kids over their discovery of a baby lizard-turned-pet, Needles. But he can’t help noticing that the adults at the Oasis are acting really strange…
Jett is determined to get to the bottom of things, but can he convince the other kids that he is no longer just a spoiled brat making trouble?
On the surface, fourteen-year-old Chris is pretty average, playing hockey and having friends. But underneath it all, Chris is depressed, full of self-blame and negative thoughts. He quits his hockey team, feeling he has let them down, but his doctor suggests that he should pick up another sport. Chris starts playing soccer, and the positive benefits of sport start to take effect: He is motivated and has fewer self-doubts. But former hockey teammate Trent is on the team, and his suspicions about Chris and his emotional state threaten Chris's acceptance and recovery. When Chris and Trent are chosen for a team to play in a summer tournament, Chris decides to keep his depression a secret. But will rumour and stigma about his condition make him relapse and turn his own team against him?
Thirteen-year-old Sullivan Brewster's wavering self-esteem is as plain as the nose on his face, which is kind of a problem given that his nose is not where it should be at all. In fact, when Sully looks in the mirror on his first day of grade 9, his nose isn't the only thing that's out of place. With his eyes now clinging to either side of his chin, his lips on his forehead, and one of his ears squatting in the middle of his face, he looks like a frightened Picasso or deranged Mr. Potato Head.
Worse, Sully falls under the scrutiny of school thug Tank, who is about to choose a victim for his ritual Naked Niner hazing. Determined to fly under Tank's radar, Sully goes out of his way to avoid his supportive but oddball friends: intelligent, flamboyant and outspoken Blossom who tattoos vivid gardens all over her face and is obsessed with The Lady of Shalott, and relaxed and self-aware Morty who dresses all in black and insists on being called Morsixx. Preoccupied as he is with self-preservation, Sully fails to see that one of his friends is in far more serious trouble than he is and must ultimately choose between his own self-esteem and his friend's life.
Senior year changes everything for two teens in this poignant, funny coming-of-age story that looks at what happens when the image everyone has of us no longer matches who we really are. Senior year of high school is full of changes. For Hayley Mills, these changes aren’t exactly welcome. All she wants is for everyone to forget about her very public breakdown and remember her as the overachiever she once was—and who she’s determined to be again. But it’s difficult to be seen as a go-getter when she’s forced into TV Production class with all the slackers like Lewis Holbrook.
Perfect for fans of Adam Silvera and Becky Albertalli, this book will rip your heart out before showing you how to heal from tragedy and celebrate life in the process.
When Liam Cooper's older brother Ethan is killed in a hit-and-run, Liam has to not only learn to face the world without one of the people he loved the most, but also face the fading relationship with his two best friends.
Feeling more alone and isolated than ever, Liam finds themself sharing time with Marcus, Ethan's best friend, and through Marcus, Liam finds the one person that seems to know exactly what they're going through, for the better, and the worse.
This book is about grief. But it's also about why we live. Why we have to keep moving on, and why we should.
After his girlfriend's accidental death by overdose, Kipp has been living on the streets, overwhelmed by his grief. He wants to honor her memory and finds help to get clean, but just when he feels like he's getting his life together, everything comes crashing down. He gets fired from his job and kicked out of his rented room on the same day. So when Reba, a friendly woman he met at the shelter, offers him a job and a place to live, he leaps at the chance. This is his lucky break. But when a girl comes to Reba's house looking for her missing brother, Kipp starts to wonder what Reba's real story is and if his lucky break might actually be a nightmare.
Has Chris Dearing finally broken his family’s run of bad luck? Find out in this hilarious, high-stakes companion to Mine! Chris Dearing is positive his family’s long streak of bad luck is finally over. Sure, he’s thought that before, but this time is different. He’s reclaimed his grandfather’s land in the Yukon — the land his granddad swore was full of gold. Now Chris just has to wait for his father to get out of jail so they can start mining their family fortune.
But things get complicated quickly. His dad’s new “business partners” seem more like crooks. Child Protective Services is getting in the way. And then Chris learns that his grandfather may not have been 100 percent truthful about where his gold actually came from. With his best friend by his side and an angry guard goose hot on his tail, can Chris hatch a plan to break the Dearing curse once and for all?
Andrew is a 15-year-old boy on the autism spectrum who believes that his twin brother was killed by his father when they were five years old. Though his father pleaded innocent, he is serving ten years in jail. His mother, who now suffers from alcoholism, supports her husband, who continues to claim that his son’s death was a fishing accident. Too scared to get in the canoe, Andrew waited patiently sitting under a tree by the edge of the lake. After witnessing from afar what he thinks is murder, he is unable to speak with the investigators. Bruised and scarred, he blames himself and now has to live with the memory of that day and all that has transpired thereafter. Though dealing with past turmoil, Andrew also deals with present issues of bullying and neglect, trying to fit in to a high school environment where he is often misunderstood.