The True Colors of Caitlynne Jackson


Book Description

Caity and her sister Kara get along well, considering their home life. By sticking together and keeping out of their mother's way, they eat, go to school, and protect each other from their mother's terrifying and seemingly random verbal and physical attacks. Some friends help and make a difference. But when their mother storms off with a suitcase and doesn't return, the girls realize they can't cope on their own for long. Yet, as Caity comes to realize, there is a lot they can do to take control of their future.




My Angelica


Book Description

Fifteen-year-old Sage is enthusiastic about submitting her historical romance novel to the school creative writing contest, but her would-be boyfriend George thinks that it is awful and tries to stop her.




Carolina Autumn


Book Description

Fourteen-year-old Carolina has been through a terrible loss. As she struggles to speak openly to her new boyfriend and to relate to her distant, sad mother, the reader slowly realizes the nature of their shared tragedy. Through letters to her sister and by using her father's camera, Carolina tries to see the past clearly and find a path to an uncharted future. Though she feels she cannot bear any more pain, her strong character sees her through the wrenching changes in her life. Carolina's clear vision and sense of humor help her to find her way and connect to her boyfriend, her mother, and a life with new purpose and hope.




Pretty Like Us


Book Description

A shy, small-town girl learns the true meaning of loyalty, love, and beauty through her friendship with a classmate who is suffering from a rare, life-threatening illness.




A Mother to Embarrass Me


Book Description

Now that Laura is 12 years old, she realizes that everything about her mother is totally embarrassing. Like the way she yodels at the top of her lungs while she works (okay, she calls it singing). And plays really old music so loud the neighbors can hear (can’t she listen to normal music?). And walks around in clay-covered pajamas (yes, she is a sculptor, but still . . . ). But things are about to get much, much worse. Laura has noticed that her mother is getting a little bit, well, fat. Then one night over dinner (at a restaurant, since she almost burned down the house trying to cook), her mother announces that she’s going to have a baby. Now all the neighbors, including the gorgeous boy Laura has a crush on, will know her parents have been doing it. Maybe even in the house! There must be some way Laura can change her mother before her own life is completely, utterly ruined!




Miles from Ordinary


Book Description

"Imagine Anna Quindlen or Sue Miller turning her attention to writing a young adult novel, and you have an idea what [Williams] has done for early teen readers..." --Audrey Couloumbis, author of the Newbery Honor Book Getting Close to Baby Thirteen-year-old Lacey wakes to a beautiful summer morning excited to begin her new job at the library, just as her mother is supposed to start work at the grocery store. Lacey hopes that her mother's ghosts have finally been laid to rest; after all, she seems so much better these days, and they really do need the money. But as the hours tick by and memories come flooding back, a day full of hope spins terrifyingly out of control.... "No one can get inside the head and heart of a 13-year-old girl better than Carol Lynch Williams, and I mean no one," said James S. Jacobs, Professor of Children's Literature at Brigham Young University, of her breakout novel, The Chosen One. Now this award-winning YA author brings us an equally gripping story of a girl who loves her mother, but must face the truth of what life with that mother means for both of them.




If I Forget, You Remember


Book Description

Sixth grade is over and Elyse Donaldson is ready for a perfect summer. She's going to read her favorite books and write her first novel. She's even determined to get along with her older sister, Jordyn. But her plans quickly unravel. Granny's Alzheimer's is getting worse. So she moves in with Elyse, Jordyn, and their mom, and the girls watch over her while their mother is at work. Sometimes she's fine, but sometimes she slides into the past and doesn't even recognize Elyse. It's frightening to realize that her beloved grandmother is slowly slipping away. Then Elyse gets involved in a neighborhood newspaper, and her mom starts dating for the first time since her father died. Elyse doesn't think she can stand any more changes, any more loss, but she's a lot stronger than she knows. This is the summer she'll learn to stand up for herself and to help the grandmother who has always helped her.




The Chosen One


Book Description

Thirteen-year-old Kyra has grown up in an isolated community without questioning the fact that her father has three wives and she has twenty brothers and sisters. That is, without questioning them much - if you don't count her secret visits to the Mobile Library on Wheels to read forbidden books, or her meetings with Joshua, the boy she hopes to choose for herself instead of having a man chosen for her. But when the Prophet decrees that she must marry her sixty-year-old uncle - who already has six wives - Kyra must make a desperate choice in the face of violence and her own fears of losing her family forever.




24 Games You Can Play on a Checker Board


Book Description

Directions for twenty-four games that can be played on a checkerboard.




The Haven


Book Description

For the teens at The Haven, the outside world, just beyond the towering stone wall that surrounds the premises, is a dangerous unknown. It has always been this way, ever since the hospital was established in the year 2020. But The Haven is more than just a hospital; it is their home. It is all they know. Everything is strictly monitored: education, exercise, food, and rest. The rules must be followed to keep the children healthy, to help control the Disease that has cast them as Terminals, the Disease that claims limbs and lungs—and memories. But Shiloh is different; she remembers everything. Gideon is different, too. He dreams of a cure, of rebellion against the status quo. What if everything they've been told is a lie? What if The Haven is not the safe place it claims to be? And what will happen if Shiloh starts asking dangerous questions? Powerful and emotional, The Haven takes us inside a treacherous world in which nothing is as it seems. "Imagine Anna Quindlen or Sue Miller turning her attention to writing a young adult novel, and you have an idea of what Carol Lynch Williams has done for early teen readers." (Audrey Couloumbis, author of the Newbery Honor Book Getting Near to Baby)