Sam(antha) is a 17-year-old girl with divorced parents. Her mother, although professionally successful, is severely OCD. Her dad has flown off to live and work in his native England, leaving Sam alone to cope with her. (He says later in… Read More ›
Controversial YA Topics
Earth to Charlie
Charlie is a sweet kid finishing up his freshman year in high school. His mother left long ago, telling him the aliens were coming to get her but that they would return later for him. His dad has turned into… Read More ›
Since We Last Spoke
Aggi Frank and Max Granger grow up in seemingly idyllic fashion, with a countryside to explore, a beaver dam to watch being constructed each spring, and a nearby lakeshore where they enjoy bonfires and marshmallow roasts. Next-door neighbors, their families have shared… Read More ›
every moment after
It’s graduation day for the seniors of East Ridge High School in New Jersey, eleven years after a shooting in a first-grade class killed eighteen of their classmates. It’s a big media event, of course, but it’s also a pivotal… Read More ›
Four Dead Queens
This 423-page fantasy novel is set in a land called Quadara, a land once ruled by a single king but now devolved into four separate quadrants, each represented by its own queen. The quadrants follow the Henry Ford philosophy of… Read More ›
On the Come Up
This story opens with sixteen-year-old Brianna (Bri) Jackson dealing with a lot of worries. Her dad, once a rising rap star on the underground scene, is twelve-years-dead from a gang-related shooting, having left the family his famous name, a prized… Read More ›
The Art of Losing
Freshman year for Harley Langston changes dramatically when Mike Baker, newly-transferred lacrosse and basketball star, sits down at her cafeteria table and starts up an intense conversation when he sees her reading Gail Simone’s BIRDS OF PREY. As they find… Read More ›
Between Before and After
Molly is a young teenager in 1950’s California who unexpectedly discovers that her mother is hiding some secrets about her life. An aspiring writer, she then places an ad in the New York Times seeking clues (her mother grew up… Read More ›
The Past and Other Things That Should Stay Buried
Seventeen-year-old Dino DeLuca is helping out his parents by doing cosmetology work at the family funeral home, a job at which he excels. One of the bodies he must work on is that of July Cooper, his longtime but estranged… Read More ›
The Music of What Happens
Seventeen-year-old Max Morrison and Jordan Edwards know each other from their AP Language & Composition class at Mesa-Guadalupe High School in Mesa, Arizona, but they are not friends until the summer before senior year when Max stumbles upon Jordan and… Read More ›
Before You Buy YA 