Difficult Teens

Dru Anderson is a very special girl - even if she doesn't always feel it. Gifted with "the touch", Dru travels about with her dad, hunting all manner of things that go bump in the night. But then her dad turns up dead - or, er, undead - and everything changes.

Carolyn Mackler's Printz Honor book - starring the unforgettably funny, body-conscious Virginia Shreves - returns in this 15th anniversary edition featuring text updates and never-before-heard material from the author. Fifteen-year-old Virginia feels like a plus-sized black sheep in her family, especially next to her perfect big brother Byron. Not to mention her best friend has moved, leaving Virginia to navigate an awkward relationship with a boy alone. In order to survive, Virginia decides to follow a "Fat Girl Code of Conduct", which works, until the unthinkable causes her family's facade to crumble.

Dillon has the terrifying power to create massive amounts of destruction with the slightest tweak of his will. Deanna is so consumed by fear, it has become like a black hole, drawing to her the very things that terrify her. Then, when the glare of a supernova 16 light-years away illuminates the night sky, they have a vision: There are six of them out there, all teenagers, and all suffering from supernatural afflictions that disfigure their bodies and souls.

Acclaimed author Meg Cabot is the creator of the #1 New York Times best seller The Princess Diaries. This latest edition to the Mediator series is a suspenseful tale of 16-year-old Suze, who acts as the middleman for ghosts and the real world. Unintentionally, Suze has fallen in love with a 19th-century ghost. Will she lose him forever if she solves his murder?

When Gwen's grandfather disappears from their home in New York City, he leaves a message saying not to worry, but that's hard when Gwen has upcoming violin auditions at Julliard! But then she meets Robert, a fellow musician, and things seem to look up. At the same time, there are other forces in motion, like the scary great uncle who keeps coming by, and the strange man Gwen sees one day when shopping.

The Mediator series has earned #1 New York Times best-selling author Meg Cabot unrivaled praise for her portrayal of a smart, courageous heroine. Suze Simon, a mediator who guides ghosts to the afterlife, is having a great time with her best friend from New York. But then four ghosts, the "RLS Angels", show up looking for revenge. The angry spirits died in a car accident and they blame Michael Meducci, a nerdy boy who has a crush on Suze.

No one captures the comical absurdity of teenage angst better than #1 New York Times best-selling author Louise Rennison. Her tales featuring the self-obsessed yet irresistibly lovable Georgia Nicholson are an international sensation and have been called Bridget Jones's Diary for teens.

He's not like other guys. Liz has seen him around school. It's hard to miss Max - the tall, blond, blue-eyed senior stands out among all the other students at Roswell High. So why is he such a loner? Max is in love with Liz. He loves the way her eyes light up when she laughs and the way her long, black hair moves when she turns her head. Most of all, he loves to imagine what it would be like to kiss her. But he knows he can't get too close. He can't risk her discovering the truth about who he is - or what he is....Because the truth could kill her.

Stupid Fast is playwright Geoff Herbach’s first book for young adults. No one’s more shocked than shy 15-year-old Felton Reinstein himself when he undergoes a tremendous growth spurt. After dusting the football jocks in a race, Felton marvels at his new athletic ability. Everything isn’t looking up, however. Felton must also come to grips with his mother’s sudden depression and his bratty younger brother. And then Felton learns a shocking secret about his past that helps put things in perspective.

Since first grade, Christopher Creed has been everyone's favorite freak and weirdo whipping boy. But when he disappears without a trace, leaving behind only a strange e-mail message that might be a suicide note, his quiet town becomes consumed with speculation and finger-pointing. And the longer he remains missing, the more clear it becomes that for most people, finding out what happened to Christopher is much less important than finding someone besides themselves to blame.

Do you have anyone in your life who can't seem to stick with a project, meet a deadline, or even clean up after themselves? All of us feel we deserve special treatment sometimes. Some people live with this entitled attitude. If you have a difficult relationship with an entitled person, or if you have discovered entitlement in yourself, understand this: It doesn't have to stay this way. There is a cure. It's called the Hard Way and it works. Dr. Townsend offers daily steps, such as risk-taking, to help you or those you love choose the Hard Way.

After being expelled from boarding school, teenaged Cyd Charisse is coping with her life circumstances as best she can. She even has a new boyfriend named Shrimp. But her mother is disturbed by Cyd's rebellious behavior and sends her away from San Francisco to live with her biological father in New York City.

Tish Bonner’s high-school English class has to keep a dumb journal for their teacher, Mrs. Dunphrey. Doesn’t Mrs. Dunphrey know that kids are too busy coping with real life to be bothered with writing? But when 16-year-old Tish’s life is turned upside down, her journal becomes her only confidante. Relying on her teacher’s promise that she won’t read any entry marked "don’t read this," Tish writes about her loneliness and fear when her mother abandons her and her little brother....

First-time novelist Natasha Friend is a writer with a talent for realistically expressing the fears and uncertainties of today’s adolescents in a good story. Perfect has received the Milkweed Prize for Children’s Literature and is a Book Sense "Winter Picks" selection. This is the moving story of a young girl who develops a dangerous eating disorder while dealing with intense grief.

When a woman's body is found in a Portland park, suspicion falls on an awkward kid who lives only a few blocks away, a teen who collects knives, loves first-person shooter video games, and obsessively doodles violent scenes in his school notebooks. Nick Walker goes from being a member of Portland's Search and Rescue team to the prime suspect in a murder, his very interest in SAR seen as proof of his fascination with violence. How is this even possible? And can Alexis and Ruby find a way to help clear Nick's name before it's too late?

Lanky lizards and rubber chickens, slinkster dogs and Lanka girls - Weetzie Bat knows them all in the glitzy never-never land of L.A. With her blonde flat-top and trendy clothes, Weetzie Bat cruises from high school to neon clubs, looking for her Secret Agent Lover Man. When she meets dark-haired Dirk and his red Pontiac, their search for love is a funky, off-beat fable. And when three wishes come true, their adventures create a modern fairy tale.

This is the complete Anderson Brothers series. Includes Finding Ford, Chasing Colt, and Loving Livie. Finding Ford: A teen pregnancy knocks life off course for Hannah. When she decides not to tell her boyfriend about the pregnancy a chain of events are set in motion that no one could have predicted. The bond between brothers will be tested as secrets come to light and a new love is found. Chasing Colt: It's been four years since Colt found out about his child. A successful career hasn't filled the emptiness that comes from past betrayals though. A chance encounter with a beautiful dreamer ...

A seven-year-old girl has been bludgeoned to death and buried in a pile of leaves. Although the police have no leads, they are pressured to close the case as soon as possible. So they call in a master interrogator to question 12-year-old Jason, the victim's friend and the last person to see her alive. Although Jason is innocent, he is shy, insecure, and wants to give answers that will satisfy everyone.

They call him the Weirdo. No one knows much about the 17-year-old bear tracker with the horribly scarred face - except that he lives in the eerie swamp where Samantha Sanders found a dead body. But one night Samantha wanders into the dark swamp and meets the Weirdo. She listens to his shocking story, looks into his gentle soul, and becomes his friend. And when she stumbles across another body, Samantha knows that the Weirdo is the only one who can help her.

Deaf teen Maya moves across the country and must attend a hearing school for the first time. As if that wasn’t hard enough, she also has to adjust to the hearing culture, which she finds frustrating - and also surprising when some classmates, including Beau Watson, take time to learn ASL. As Maya looks past graduation and focuses on her future dreams, nothing, not even an unexpected romance, will derail her pursuits.