Frank Carlson Library

Teenage America, a part-black, part-white, part-anything boy who has spent many years in institutions for disturbed, antisocial behavior, tries to piece his life together.

There is a lot going on in his life that thirteen-year-old Tony Miglione does not really understand--like why his parents suddenly have money enough to buy a house on Long Island, why his mother has changed, why his rich friend Joel shoplifts, why he is obsessed with Joel's sixteen-year-old sister, and why he is having terrible stomach pains.

Four suicidal teenagers go on a "celebrity suicide road trip," visiting the graves of famous people who have killed themselves, with the intention of ending their lives in Death Valley, California.

After her brother's death, Grace has difficulty finding meaning in her life and begins to get into various kinds of trouble, until a mysterious new girl at school helps her find her way back to family, old friends, and even God.

Fifteen-year-old Lizzie Cohen recalls what it was like growing up with her imaginative but disturbed older sister Tess, and how she is striving to reclaim her own life since Tess died.

Margaux, known as a "tough chick" at her Los Angeles high school, makes a connection with Danny, who, like her, struggles with the emotional impact of family violence and abuse.

Tells, from four points of view, the ramifications of a pregnancy resulting from a "one-time thing" between Ellie, who feels loved when boys touch her, and Josh, an eager virgin with a troubled home life.

Alternating passages that draw on the myths of Persephone and Narcissus juxtapose the differing viewpoints of a teenaged girl and her older brother as she tries to prevent a manipulative psychotherapist from using her journal as material in a book.

Struggling with emotional problems and an eating disorder, Jayne, a Korean American college student living in New York City, is estranged from her accomplished older sister June, until June gets cancer. Jayne and June are nothing alike. Their family moved from Seoul to San Antonio and finally New York. The sisters don't want anything to do with each other... until June gets cancer. And Jayne becomes the only one who can help her. Now, flung together...