Friendship

Watching Jimmy

A novel of danger, warmth, and dark humor–about a brain-damaged young boy and the friend who knows a terrible secret. Watching Jimmy is an impossible-to-put-down novel full of danger, warmth and dark humor. With shocking candor, young Carolyn relates the truth about what really happened to her best friend, Jimmy, when his Uncle Ted chose the perfect time to teach him a lesson he’d never forget. The truth is, Jimmy didn’t fall from a swing like Uncle Ted claims–Carolyn knows, because she saw everything. According to her, “Uncle Ted just didn’t count on me, Carolyn, [being] perched in a tree where the park and the parking lot meet.” With the dreadful secret locked away, Carolyn walks an emotional tightrope. No matter what else is happening in this post-war era, she must keep an eye on poor, brain-damaged Jimmy: making sure he behaves, keeping him clean and keeping him safe–especially from Uncle Ted. But when Uncle Ted threatens his beleaguered family with even more abuse and the loss of their home, Carolyn must find the courage to match wits with him and to speak out, using the truth as her only weapon. But perhaps her biggest challenge will lie in finding a way to get Jimmy the expensive operation he needs to relieve the pressure on his brain, because: “As I told you, our Jimmy is not a mental defective like people say. Our Jimmy is in there. He’s in there. This I know.” Set in 1958, Watching Jimmy is a brilliant portrait of a time past, a family of strong women, and a resourceful young girl who exudes character, resilience, and, most of all, love.

Norman and Brenda

Some people face the world with confidence. They are popular, charismatic, incredibly successful and often beautiful. They achieve these things by sheer determination, talent and cosmetic surgery. They have big houses, big cars and big hair. They have gorgeous children who become even richer and more famous than they are, simply by breathing and being able to tie their own shoelaces. Norman and Brenda are nothing like these people.

Burn My Heart

What does it mean to be loyal? Mathew and Mugo, two boys—one white, one black—share an uneasy friendship in Kenya in the 1950s. They’re friends even though Mathew’s dad owns the land and everything on it. They’re friends despite the difference in their skin color. And they’re friends in the face of the growing Mau Mau rebellion, which threatens British settlers with violence as black Kenyans struggle to win back their land and freedom. But suspicions and accusations are escalating, and an act of betrayal could change everything.

Beverley Naidoo explores the fragile bonds of friendship in this novel about prejudice, fear and the circumstances that bring people together–and tear them apart.

The Blue Girl (Firebird)

Seventeen-year-old Imogene’s rebellious nature has caused her more harm than good—so when her family moves to Newford, she decides to reinvent herself. She won’t lose her punk/thrift-shop look, but she’ll try to avoid the gangs, work a little harder at school, and maybe even stay out of trouble for a change. But trouble shows up anyway. Imogene quickly catches the eye of Redding High’s bullies, as well as the school’s resident teenage ghost. Then she gets on the wrong side of a gang of malicious fairies. When her old imaginary childhood friend, Pelly, actually manifests, Imogene realizes that the impossible is all too real. And it’s dangerous. If she wants to survive high school—not to mention stay alive—she has to fall back on the skills she picked up in her hometown, running with a gang.

Little (Grrl) Lost

When fourteen-year-old TJ and her family are forced to move from their farm to the suburbs, she has to give up her beloved horse, Red—but she makes a surprising new friend. Elizabeth is a “Little,” a six-inch-high punked-out teen with an attitude, who has run away from home to make her way in the world. TJ and Elizabeth—the Big and the Little—soon become friends, but each quickly finds herself in a truly life-threatening situation, and they are unable to help each other. Little (Grrl) Lost is a delightful combination of realism, magic, humor, and hope, and is sure to win Charles de Lint many new teen and adult fans.

Rickie and Henri

Rickie the chimpanzee loved living with her mother in the rain forests of Central Africa, warm and safe. Until the day the hunters came, and took Rickie away to sell at a Congelese market. Luckily, she was resuced by a kind man who adopted Rickie and cared for her. Best of all, he provided an unexpected friend in his dog Henri. This true story of friendship is heart-warmingly brought to life by renowned scientist Dr. Jane Goodall.

Moon Rabbit

Little Rabbit loves living in the city. She has a wonderful home. Her favorite café. A park to play in. But sometimes she is just a little lonely. And then one night, as the moon shines brightly, Little Rabbit meets and befriends Brown Rabbit, but soon she misses her home with its cafes and bright lights.

 

Pirates!

In 1722, after arriving with her brother at the family’s Jamaican plantation where she is to be married off, sixteen-year-old Nancy Kington escapes with her slave friend, Minerva Sharpe, and together they become pirates traveling the world in search of treasure.

Name Me Nobody

Fourteen-year-old Emi-Lou Kaya feels like a nobody in her Hawaiian town. Abandoned by her mother at age three, Emi-Lou hasn’t a clue as to who her father might be, and on top of all this, she is overweight. Her only salvation is the strength of the hard-as-nails but loving grandmother who raised her, and the feisty spirit of her best friend Yvonne. It is Yvonne who renames the dynamic duo Von and Louie, and who puts Emi-Lou on a strict weight-loss regimen. But Emi-Lou starts to worry about losing her touchstone when Von begins spending a little too much time with Babes, an older girl from the softball team. Rumors abound that her soul sister is a “butchie,” and when Emi-Lou suspects it’s true, she becomes desperate to get Von back to “normal” and back to her role as best friend.