Shelley Hrdlitschka

It's 'bead season' at Slippery Rock High. This year the bead-snatching grad game called Gotcha has been banned as an official school activity because the teachers have decided to put an end to what they consider a dangerous tradition. The game goes underground, and more grads than ever are participating. The game quickly spins out of control, and Katie finds herself losing friends and falling victim to her classmates' obsession with Gotcha. She...

Unable to attend school while she battles cancer, fifteen-year-old Kaleigh Wyse tries to complete her classes online by correspondence. Developing a science project on astrology, Kaleigh enlists other online learners as study participants. What starts as a collaborative and supportive project based on the scientific method, slowly becomes unwieldy and then flawed when it is apparent that all the project participants are hiding vital clues about their...

Raised in a polygamous community, Jon starts to question the rules of his faith. After he is caught kissing a girl, he is forced to flee his town and the only life he knows. He finds a community of other Lost Boys, or "polygs," but is utterly unprepared for life outside his community of Unity. He spirals into a life of numbing booze, drugs and homelessness. When he hits rock bottom, someone from his past enters his new life and helps him find his...

Allegra thinks being at a performing-arts high school will change her life and make her a better dancer. But high school is still high school, complete with cliques, competition, and cruelty. Allegra's refuge comes in the form of a class she doesn't want to take - music theory, taught by a very young, very attractive male teacher. Soon all Allegra can think about is music composition-and Mr. Rochelli. But has she misunderstood his attention, or is...