The teenage son of an Appalachian single mother who dies when he is eleven uses his good looks, wit, and instincts to survive foster care, child labor, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, this is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father's good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival....

After the sinking of a cargo ship, a solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild blue Pacific. The only survivors from the wreck are a sixteen-year-old boy named Pi, a hyena, a wounded zebra, an orangutan, and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger.

Told through a central character, Alex, the disturbing novel creates an alarming futuristic vision of violence, high technology, and authoritarianism. A modern classic of youthful violence and social redemption set in a dismal dystopia whereby a juvenile deliquent undergoes state-sponsored psychological rehabilitation for his aberrant behavior.

The rigid moral codes held by mid-twentieth-century preacher Samuel Lake are called into question when his twelve-year-old daughter and his neighbors hide a young boy from his abusive father, a man who lashes out at the community when he learns about thedeception.

When Cathy Flaherty’s teenage son, Mark, is arrested for selling drugs, her neighbors once again show that Cedar Circle is more than a suburban cul-de-sac. It is a tightly knit circle of friends whose faith, love, and encouragement help each other make it through the changing seasons of life. More is at stake for Cathy than her son. With Mark in juvenile detention, the single mother of three finds herself struggling over whether to marry

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"Jake volunteers at a nursing home because he likes helping people. He likes skating and singing, playing Bingo and Name That Tune, and reading mysteries and comics aloud to his teachers. He also likes avoiding people his own age . . . and the cruelty of mirrors . . . and food. Jake has read about kids like him in books -- the weird one, the outsider -- and would do anything not to be that kid, including shrink himself down to nothing. But the less...

Nick Twisp, a dark and precocious fourteen-year-old, struggles with the problems of contemporary teens, including high school, divorced parents, paranoia, his virginity, homelessness, and the attentions of a young lady.

August is an average twelve-year-old. He likes dogs and fishing and doesn't mind early-morning chores on his family's Michigan dairy farm. But following his parents' messy divorce, his mother decides that she and August need to start over in a new town. There, he tries to be an average teen -- playing football and doing homework -- but when his role in a shocking act of violence throws him off course once more, he flees to a ranch in rural Montana,...

Skif, a teenaged orphan, leads a comfortable life with his fellow thieves until the day that he himself is stolen.

To the warrior-monks known as the Redeemers, who rule over massive armies of child slaves, "the last four things" represent the culmination of a faithful life. Death. Judgement. Heaven. Hell. The last four things represent eternal bliss-or endless destruction, permanent chaos, and infinite pain. Perhaps nowhere are the competing ideas of heaven and hell exhibited more clearly than in the dark and tormented soul of Thomas Cale. Betrayed by his beloved...