dysfunctional families

"When six students are chosen to participate in a weekly talk with no adults allowed, they discover that when they're together, it's safe to share the hopes and fears they have to hide from the rest of the world"--Provided by publisher.

While staying with his grandparents in Castle-on-the-Hudson, Charlie stumbles upon a mystery but must learn American Sign Language to keep up with Frog, a deaf girl who wants to help solve it.

After her father goes to jail, Cady Bennett, twelve, is taken from foster care to spend a summer with her estranged Aunt Michelle, trying to save her failing pie shop.

Incarcerated teen Quan Banks writes letters to Justyce McCallister, with whom he bonded years before over family issues, about his experiences in the American juvenile justice system.

"Ellie Charles is the smartest, prettiest, best-dressed, and most popular kid at Lincoln Heights Middle School. She's also the meanest. She knows it, and she uses her reputation to keep herself at the top of the food chain. But one night, just before her school's winter dance, she encounters a ghost who might change everything. This ghost--of a girl dressed all in black--leads Ellie through her past, present, and future. Can what Ellie sees change her ways--or even save her life?"--Publisher.

In alternate chapters, Amanda faces family pressure to marry Carter, knowing he cheats, and Paulina pretends to date Carter to alleviate family and church pressure about being a lesbian.

Eighteen-year-old Libby Stowe navigates the fallout of a drunken hookup with a coworker, a myriad of family issues, and a powerful man in her town sexually harassing her at work.

"On her sixteenth birthday, Elle Zoellner leaves the foster care system to live with the father she never knew in Tokyo, Japan"--Provided by publisher.

Anna Chiu has her hands full. When she's not looking after her brother and sister or helping out at her father's restaurant, she's taking care of her mother, whose debilitating mental illness keeps her in bed most days. Her father's new delivery boy, Rory, is a welcome distraction and even though she knows that things aren't right at home, she's starting to feel like she could be a normal teen. But when her mother finally gets out of bed, things go from bad to worse.

"Thirteen-year-old Genesis tries again and again to lighten her black skin, thinking it is the root of her family's troubles, before discovering reasons to love herself as is"--Provided by publisher.