Best friends Gabe and Oliver tackle family problems, bullying, and the challenge of dealing with the new kid in their sixth grade class, Reuben, who refuses to talk--and no one knows why.

Traveling from California to Chicago after her mother dies of a drug overdose and her grandmother of lung cancer, thirteen-year-old Rydr meets other passengers on the train and attempts to accept her own situation.

A sixteen-year-old boy wrestling with depression and anxiety tries to cope by writing poems, reciting Walt Whitman, hugging trees, and figuring out why his sister has been kicked out of the house.

"Fourteen-year-old Robbie never knows from one day to the next if there is going to be enough to eat or if his father will even come home"--

Written in the form of interviews, reports, and journal entries, the story of three troubled teenagers ends in a tragic school shooting.

As a fourteen-year-old who just moved to a new town, with no friends, an abusive father, and a louse for an older brother, Doug Swieteck has all the stats stacked against him until he finds an ally in Lil Spicer--a fiery young lady. Together, they find a safe haven in the local library, inspiration in learning about the plates of John James Audubon's birds, and a hilarious adventure on a Broadway stage.

Three teens, connected by their parents' bad choices, tell in their own voices of their lives and loves as Shane finds his first boyfriend, Mikayla discovers that love can be pushed too far, and Harley loses herself in her quest for new experiences.

Writing poetry helps fifth-grader Harper Lee Morgan cope with her father's absence, being evicted, and having to skip school to care for her brother while their mother works, and things look even brighter after she befriends a mute girl and a kindly disabled woman.

Told from separate viewpoints, best friends Willa and Flor are tempted by love that would violate the Girl Code when Willa's long-term crush, Zach, breaks up with Flor, who is fighting her own crush on her math tutor.

The sudden departure of her inseparable friend Julie for California and her own father's unexpected illness challenge many of fourteen-year-old Toni's basic assumptions about friendship and her own happy and secure life.