problem families

The love-hate relationship between high school musician Will and his older brother Jason is fueled by the abuse Will suffers at Jason's hands, but a devastating accident changes everything for the boys and their family.

Facing a disintegrating home life and trouble at school, teenager Ian McDermott runs away with his younger brother to Washington State in search of safety, justice, and their long-absent father.

Fifteen-year-old Sarah spends her time blogging on the Internet so she doesn't have to face some of the realities in her life.

Coping with her mother's cancer makes seventeen-year-old Kia feel out of place everywhere until she is drawn into the goth-vampire club scene, where she finds acceptance and one gorgeous, popular guy who might offer escape.

The alternating narratives of art tutor Samuel Godwin and governess Charlotte Agnew, who work for the wealthy Farrow family in 1898 England, reveal the secrets that almost everyone in the household is hiding.

A high school boy comes to terms with his drug addiction, life with an alcoholic father, and a younger brother who looks up to him.

After dealing with an alcoholic mother and her abusive boyfriend, a school bully, and life on the wrong side of the tracks in Cleveland, Ohio, high school sophomore Martha Kowalski expects to be happy when she moves in with a rich family across town, but finds that the "rich life" has problems of its own.

Kajitsu and her two step-brothers Taro and Natsu attempt to have a normal home life in spite of their absentee parents, but things get more complicated when they get an unexpected bundle of joy.

Kajitsu is benefitting from a home life with no grown-ups. She's got a best friend and has taken an interest in boys. Natsu isn't faring as well; the school is pressuring him to get into Japan's top university and he can't seem to get over whatever happened in the past few years that took away his smile.

Ree Dolly, a sixteen-year-old living in poverty in the Ozarks, sets out alone to find her father after he puts the family home up for bond on drug charges and disappears with the court date swiftly approaching.