Award-winning adult author Benjamin Markovits delivers a poignant coming-of-age middle grade story that will give comfort to anyone feeling like a small fish in a Texas-size sea. Perfect for fans of Kevin Henkes, Rebecca Stead, and Kate DiCamillo.Twelve-year-old Ben is a shy, quiet kid. His life isn't perfect, but he feels at home in his New York City apartment. Then his dad takes a job in London, and everything changes.His parents separate, and Ben's mom moves them back to her hometown of Austin, Texas. Ben's simple life is suddenly complicated. He misses his apartment, his best friend, Jake, and his dad. Then he meets Mabley, who becomes a bright spot to Ben's day. But when his mom starts working at his new school and making friends with his teacher, Ben finds himself at the center of all the problems the adults around him can't resolve—and even some of his own. That includes joining the school's basketball team, where Mabley's best... Views: 191
A remodel at the LGBT bookstore that is also Owen's home might lead to a romance between the shy and bookish Owen and Derek, an older, burly construction worker with a secret soft heart. But Owen's runaway nephew throws a wrench in their plans. Views: 191
El Glasse's mother controls her life. What she does, who she dates, even what she's allowed to say. El only has two ways of holding onto her freedom. One is her popular anonymous blog, hidden from Mama Glasse. The other is what she so often blogs about: her feelings for Riley, the girl who works at the ice cream parlor. Riley is fierce, free, and rides a killer motorcycle, and El cannot help but love her. But Mama Glasse can never find out about her sexuality — unless El is willing to rebel.When El runs away, Riley feels responsible. She knows what it's like to be alone, and she can't deny her deep desire to learn El's story. In a move she might end up regretting, she makes a devil's bargain with Mama Glasse to hunt El down.Riley isn't trying to bring her home though, because she knows an evil spell when she sees one — a spell of fear and shame El is finally starting to break. This huntress might lose her own heart, but it's a risk she's willing to take. Views: 191
A funny, fast-paced, and heartfelt story from the Newbery Honor-winning author of the Al Capone series.Fifth grade is not for amateurs, according to Liam. Luckily, he knows that being more than one-third nerd is not cool. Liam lives in the Bay area near San Francisco with his mom and two younger sisters. Dakota is fascinated by science and has a big personality but struggles to make friends; Izzy, a child with Down syndrome, makes friends easily and notices things that go past everyone else. Dad lives across town, but he's over a lot. And then there's Cupcake, their lovable German shepherd, who guards their basement apartment. Recently, Cupcake has a problem—she's peeing in the house. The kids need to make enough money to take her to the vet before their landlord upstairs finds out. And Mom and Dad have said if Cupcake doesn't stop, they will find her a new home. But the kids will never let Cupcake go. Can they save her? Views: 191
Dragon eggs are supposed to hatch. Touching the strange stone leaves Nicai in a coma, and when she wakes, matters are far worse than ever before in Burning Havens. Dragons are still dying, and worse, no hatchlings are being born. The prophecy led Nicai to the stone, so perhaps the stone holds the answers. Then again, the prophecy does speak of darkness, and the last time she touched it, Nicai became unconscious for weeks. What choice, though, does she have? Views: 191
They are everything to me.I love Jaxson, Ezra, Maverick, and Ryder the same and in vastly different ways all at once. It's a love that threatens to consume me. To take over every waking second of my final year......if only hidden enemies, ancient secret societies, and unsolved murders weren't also competing for my attention.This will be my hardest term yet.Not just for the horror of the present, but for the uncertainty of my future. How can I have a life with my knights when someone is determined that I don't survive my senior year at all?But I will find them. I will expose them.And by the end... only one will be left standing. Views: 191
When Annika Torrey is diagnosed with cancer, she has no one in her life she can turn to. Divorced and estranged from her fundamentalist family, she sells her life insurance policy for cash, hoping to live out her final days in peace. But then Annika is given a rare second chance. Meanwhile, struggling real-estate agent Matt Campbell is drowning in debt. Desperate to save his career and marriage, he lets an old friend invest his money, but the big payout he's promised never materializes. Suspecting fraud, his search for answers leads him to the mysterious Annika, and soon both characters are trapped in a web of deception and desire, their hopes for redemption threatened by the contract that binds them. Views: 191
