This novel for ages nine and up is the story of a resilient young girl who struggles as the daughter of an alcoholic father and an absentee mother. Left alone to fend for herself for days at a time, she is observed by a kind and compassionate saleswoman at the mall she retreats to every day after school to avoid going “home.” The saleswoman gains her trust and takes action into her own hands by reporting the girl’s situation to social services. She is placed in foster care, where she dreams of being reunited with her dad, despite the deprivations in her life with him. The relationship between the girl and her foster mother is painful, and the girl’s spirit disintegrates. Eventually, the saleswoman “adopts” the girl into her caring family, whose love and support enable her, finally, to believe in herself.
Americas
Materials from the Americas
Scaredy Squirrel Has a Birthday Party
Lovable worrywart Scaredy Squirrel would rather celebrate his birthday alone quietly in the safety of his nut tree and avoid any pesky party animals. But despite his detailed plans, things get out of control when the party animals arrive.
Glasswings
Lost in the city, a butterfly with see-through wings makes friends with a ladybug, an ant, and a pigeon, and together they help flowers bloom and grow.
The Summer Prince
In a Brazil of the distant future, June Costa falls in love with Enki, a fellow artist and rebel against the strict limits of the legendary pyramid city of Palmares Três’ matriarchal government, knowing that, like all Summer Kings before him, Enki is destined to die.
How My Summer Went Up In Flames
Placed under a temporary retstraining order for torching her former boyfriend’s car, seventeen-year-old Rosie embarks on a cross-country car trip from New Jersey to Arizona while waiting for her court appearance.
Curse Of The Chupacabra
Professor Rosa Medina, a folklorist researching the ChupaCabra, goes to Mexico to track down recent sightings of the creature which kills its victims, particularly goats, by sucking their brains out.
The Book Of Broken Hearts
“Jude has learned a lot from her older sisters, but the most important thing is this: The Vargas brothers are notorious heartbreakers. But as Jude begins to fall for Emilio Vargas, she begins to wonder if her sisters were wrong”–
When We Wuz Famous
Francisco Ortiz, a handsome straight-A student and gifted basketball player from the barrio, wins a full scholarship to an elite boarding school. His future seems promising. But soon after Francisco moves into the dorm, his new classmates assume the worst of him: they pepper him with questions about drugs and gangs. It’s all so confusing, made even more complicated when Francisco realizes that back home in the hood, he no longer fits in, though his friends still rely on him to solve their problems. In a desperate attempt to help one of his homies, Francisco makes a terrible decision and becomes everything he fought so hard to rise against. Novel adaptation of the author’s feature film, “Up with me.”
Precocia: The Sixth Circle of Heck
Following sentencing in the court of Judge Judas, eleven-year-old Milton and his older sister Marlo find themselves in Precocia, the circle of Heck for kids that grow up too fast.
Fat Angie
Angie is broken–by her can’t-be-bothered mother, by her high-school tormentors, and by being the only one who thinks her varsity-athlete-turned-war-hero sister is still alive. Hiding under a mountain of junk food hasn’t kept the pain (or the shouts of “crazy mad cow!”) away. Having failed to kill herself–in front of a gym full of kids–she’s back at high school just trying to make it through each day. That is, until the arrival of KC Romance, the kind of girl who doesn’t exist in Dryfalls, Ohio. A girl who is one hundred and ninety-nine percent wow! A girl who never sees her as Fat Angie, and who knows too well that the package doesn’t always match what’s inside. With an offbeat sensibility, mean girls to rival a horror classic, and characters both outrageous and touching, this darkly comic anti-romantic romance will appeal to anyone who likes entertaining and meaningful fiction.