coming of age fiction

Contains twenty short stories by award-winning and bestselling authors celebrating the multicultural and multiracial experiences. The stories feature characters navigating love, grief, identity, traditions, languages, and cultures.

In an interview with a young journalist, World Cup hero, El Gato, describes his youth in the Brazilian rain forest and the events, experiences, and people that helped make him a great goalkeeper and renowned soccer star.

Faced with the difficulties of growing up and choosing a religion, a twelve-year-old girl talks over her problems with her own private God.

Delilah is the lead singer of her friends' punk band, and Reggie is a D&D Dungeon Master, who spends his free time leading quests and writing essays critiquing the game under a pseudonym. When Delilah and Reggie meet on New Year's Eve and then run into each other on Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, and subsequent holidays, it seems like the universe is trying to send them a message. Even though it appears they have nothing in common, the two try to find ways to hang out and find themselves falling for one another. But Delilah wishes she were more like the seemingly self-assured Reggie, while Reggie worries that Delilah will realize his confidence is just a front to impress her. Delilah and Reggie must find a way to be honest with themselves and embrace the parts they feel they must hide from others in order to truly be there for each other.

Ten-year-old Julia and her family are spending their summer on the Shetland island of Unst, where her father has been hired to automate an old lighthouse. Julia's mother is a marine biologist and she hopes to spend the time finding and studying the elusive Greenland shark, a species that can live up to 400 years, but that has only been seen a few times. As her mother returns empty-handed each day and her grant applications rejected, Julia sees her fall into despair and begins to worry. When her mother's behavior takes a turn for the worse, Julia takes drastic action to find the shark on her own and places herself in grave danger.

As an 8th grader from a racially mixed family, Christina faces a new set of challenges, heartbreaks and triumphs.

Seventeen-year-old Christmas Miller's summer vacation in Sweet Lake, New York with her best friend Lexi takes a turn for the worse, when the pair have a disagreement and they find a friend, Lemy, face down in the lake. Christmas, who has ADHD, is determined to find out what happened to her friend, discover if it has anything to do with the lake's growing algae problem, and repair her friendship before summer's end.

"A coming of age story about a boy growing up in a village and experiencing his first love"--OCLC.

In the vein of Year of the Dog and The Higher Power of Lucky, this Middle Eastern coming-of-age story is told with warmth, spirit, and a mischievous sense of humor. Spunky eleven-year-old Wadjda lives in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia with her parents. She desperately wants a bicycle so that she can race her friend Abdullah, even though it is considered improper for girls to ride bikes. Wadjda earns money for her dream bike by selling homemade bracelets and mixtapes of banned music to her classmates. But after she's caught, she's forced to turn over a new leaf (sort of), or risk expulsion from school. Still, Wadjda keeps scheming, and with the bicycle so closely in her sights, she will stop at nothing to get what she wants. Set against the shifting social attitudes of the Middle East, The Green Bicycle explores gender roles, conformity, and the importance of family, all with wit and irresistible heart.

A raw, powerful, but ultimately uplifting debut novel perfect for fans of Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe from debut author Angelo Surmelis. Seventeen-year-old Evan Panos doesn't know where he fits in. His strict immigrant Greek mother refuses to see him as anything but a disappointment. His quiet, workaholic father is a staunch believer in avoiding any kind of conflict. And his best friend, Henry, has somehow become distractingly attractive over the summer.Tired, isolated, scared--Evan finds that his only escape is to draw in an abandoned monastery that feels as lonely as he is. And yes, he kissed one guy over the summer. But it's Henry who's now proving to be irresistible. Henry, who suddenly seems interested in being more than friends. And it's Henry who makes him believe that he deserves more than his mother's harsh words and terrifying abuse.But as things with Henry heat up, and his mother's abuse escalates, Evan has to decide how to find his voice in a world where he has survived so long by being silent.This is a powerful and revelatory coming-of-age novel based on the author's own childhood, about a boy who learns to step into his light.