When Katie O'Roark receives an invitation from the One Last Wish Foundation to spend the summer at Jenny House, she eagerly says yes. Katie is ever grateful to the anonymous "JWC," the person who gave her the gift that allowed her to receive a heart transplant. Now Katie is asked to help others who, like herself, are facing medical odds against them. Being a "Big Sister" to Amanda, an eleven-year-old victim of leukemia; Chelsea, a thirteen-year-old candidate for a heart transplant; and Lacey, a fifeen-year-old diabetic who refuses to face her problems, is a challenge. As the summer progresses, the girls form a bond of friendship as they behave "just like healthy kids." When a crisis occurs and one of the girls does not get to fulfill her dreams, the friends are devastated. The girls vow to gather each summer, so long as one of them is alive, in honor of their dreams and of a friendship strong enough to endure beyond this life. From the Paperback edition.

New York Times bestselling author, comedian, actress, and producer Phoebe Robinson is back with a new essay collection that is equal parts thoughtful, hilarious, and sharp about human connection, race, hair, travel, dating, black excellence, and more. Written in Phoebe’s unforgettable voice and with her unparalleled wit, Robinson's latest collection, laced with spot-on pop culture references, takes on a wide range of topics. From the values she learned from her parents (including, but not limited to, advice on not bringing outside germs onto your clean bed) to her and her boyfriend, lovingly known as British Baekoff, deciding to have a child-free union, to the way the Black Lives Matter movement took center stage in America, and, finally, the continual struggle to love her 4C hair, each essay is packed with humor and humanity.By turns insightful, laugh-out-loud funny, and heartfelt, Please Don’t Sit On My Bed In Your Outside Clothes is...

When an evil artifact offers you the power to turn into a monster, agreeing would be stupid. Mirabelle isn't stupid. She also doesn't have much choice. Her friends all have super powers that let them go on exciting adventures. Mirabelle's super power is to be made of glass, and walking across a room is dangerous enough. But the shiny rock won't shut up, and to get rid of it, she has to use its powers against it. She does that carefully, because Mirabelle isn't stupid. Until Mirabelle falls in love, and love makes everyone stupid. Now supervillains and superheroes are fighting over four pieces of the Heart of Vermiel, and a girl who breaks if she runs has to collect them all, or be broken. She has to turn into a monster on the outside without turning into a monster on the inside. Somewhere in this mess there has to be an ending that lets her stay alive, stay a good person, and maybe get a chance to run, and be angry, and break things just once. Besides, how many girls can say their boyfriend is a dragon?

What do you do when you have the wrong super powers? Magenta's older brother is a superhero. She's starting high school at the school where kids with powers go, including the famous Inscrutable Machine. Except, Magenta's powers are no good for fighting. Her potions are useful, not dangerous. Her other power is just humiliating. What Magenta has plenty of is determination, and she tries fighting a supervillain anyway.She fails.But for Magenta, failure is the beginning, not the ending. Suddenly she has a part-time job working for that same supervillain, who doesn't seem very villainous. She spends her afternoons buying mad science from smugglers, copying memories into a magic book, delivering messages to evil lawyers, and always, always, putting on a show. Soon, she's ducking heroes who want to save her from herself, and her best friends, who don't know the sidekick they're chasing is Magenta.Making sure her parents...

The Unbalanced Party tackle a pesky troll eating a local farmer's sheep.Broke, starving, and desperate as usual, Daveth, Mordwin, and Wulf take up an offer from a local sheep farmer to take care of a troll that has been thieving his sheep. More snappy comebacks, righteous indignation, and insult hurling abound in this third volume of the Unbalanced Party series of short stories

A heartbreaking true story of a broken family and the foster carer who wants to keep them together... The Watsons are no strangers to sibling placements but when Casey takes the call from her supervising social worker one frosty January morning, she can instantly tell from the tone of her colleague's voice that there's a complicated case ahead. And she's right. A four-day-old baby boy called Tommy – born in prison – plus his four-year-old half-brother, the lively Noah. A month later, the very moment she gets out of prison, the boys' mother – a 19-year-old called Jenna – also follows. For Casey, it would it be a difficult scenario on several levels. Caring for a new born in her fifties with a pre-schooler who has spent most of his young life without boundaries tearing around her ankles, while also looking out for his drug-addicted mum who is ill-equipped to parent. It's an unusual situation but one that has arisen in a bid to keep the family together. Can Casey find the energy and...

What do you do when you have the wrong super powers? Magenta's older brother is a superhero. She's starting high school at the school where kids with powers go, including the famous Inscrutable Machine. Except, Magenta's powers are no good for fighting. Her potions are useful, not dangerous. Her other power is just humiliating. What Magenta has plenty of is determination, and she tries fighting a supervillain anyway.She fails.But for Magenta, failure is the beginning, not the ending. Suddenly she has a part-time job working for that same supervillain, who doesn't seem very villainous. She spends her afternoons buying mad science from smugglers, copying memories into a magic book, delivering messages to evil lawyers, and always, always, putting on a show. Soon, she's ducking heroes who want to save her from herself, and her best friends, who don't know the sidekick they're chasing is Magenta.Making sure her parents...

The most stressful interactions for me are ones like this, where the person's face says one thing but their words say another. Which one am I supposed to believe? Faces seem to be more truthful, but people always act as though their words are the only things that matter.Erin is looking forward to schoolies, at least she thinks she is. But her plans are going awry. She's lost her job at Surf Shack after an incident that clearly was not her fault, and now she's not on track to have saved enough money. Her licence test went badly, which was also not her fault: she followed the instructor's directions perfectly. And she's missing her brother, Rudy, who left almost a year ago. But now that she's writing letters to him, some things are beginning to make sense.Kay Kerr's Please Don't Hug Me depicts life on the cusp of adulthood—and on the autism spectrum—and the complexities of finding out and accepting who you are and what's important to...

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Magic, mad science, and teenagers are a recipe for trouble. As the only living necromancer, fifteen-year-old Avery Special has too much trouble as it is. Trying to use her dark powers for good, she awakens a cyborg from a coma. The superintelligent Tonika is grateful and full of plans to help Avery help others, but the more Avery helps, the more trouble she gets in. Her parents are worried. Her boyfriend and girlfriend are lonely. A robot-possessing ghost is on the loose. Oh, and she stole a crystal ball from a museum. How much helping is too much? Can she afford to not help when the ultimate evil mad scientist tries to destroy the world?

The original series from the Master of Fright—now a major motion picture in theaters August 7, 2015! The original books featuring the scariest creatures from the Goosebumps movie, in theaters August 7th, 2015! You buy something called "Vampire in a Can." At first you think its just a goofy vampire costume with a cape, plastic fangs, and a tattoo of teeth marks. But then you find a packet in the bottom of the can labeled: DANGER-KEEP AWAY! If you try to open the packet with your teeth, it rips in your mouth. Uh-oh. Looks like you've been transformed into a vampire—and you're really thirsty. If you decide not to open the packet, your dog sinks his teeth into it. Now your cute little poodle has become a ferocious vampire dog! Can you save your pooch before he bites off more than he can chew? The choice is yours in this scary Goosebumps adventure that's packed with over 20 super spooky endings!

Avery Special is the world's only living necromancer, and she's pretty bad at it. She also just moved to L.A., where trouble has been waiting for a necromancer. Trouble that doesn't care how strong she is, or that she's only fifteen. Monsters, magical artifacts, occultists and television producers only care that a real necromancer is back.There are definitely upsides. Chris, Annie, Sue, and Peggy have their own creepy super powers and are the best friends a girl could hope to make on her first day in a new city. Her Pudgy Bunny coloring book can teach her more than a stack of grimoires. Her ghostly ancestors are so eager to help it's annoying.Not that she has time for any of that, because Chris and Sue are both in love with her.

When the lumber mill closes, laying off most everyone in Fossett, Oregon, Melanie MacDonald plans to revitalize her beloved but beleaguered homestead by running her border collie Shep in Fossett's mayoral race . . . Shep wins by a landslide. A lover of democracy and dog treats, Shep is rapidly earning the goodwill of Fossett's citizens. Tourists are streaming in and everyone wants to glad-paw the new mayor. Suddenly Melanie and Shep are media darlings, with requests for interviews, game shows, and personal appearances through the roof. But there's trouble in paradise. Determined to win back his former wife, Bryce MacDonald discovers a rival in tabloid reporter Chad Cameron, who's in Fossett to dig up dirt on Melanie and Shep. He finds a willing co-conspirator in the malcontent who lost the election. Hounded by the press and desperate to head off a potential dog-napping, Melanie unwittingly puts herself in danger. Shep comes to the rescue, proving his mettle to save his...

Imagine you're a flamboyant teenage girl convinced that super powers are the social edge you need. Imagine you convince a mad scientist to give you those powers. They always need test subjects, right? Imagine those powers come with a big drawback, like they always do.Congratulations, you're Stella Deetz, the best dressed and most popular fear eating monster in LA.And you forgot to keep a secret identity. Oops.

Debut author Laura Tims writes an intense and utterly gripping contemporary YA tale perfect for fans of Pretty Little Liars. Joy has done everything to protect her twin sister...including murder.Joy killed Adam Gordon for what he did to her sister, Grace. At least, that's what she thinks happened. Now Adam can't hurt anyone ever again, and her sister can be free from the boy who harmed her.But someone else knows what Joy did, and they're going to out her as a cold-blooded killer if she doesn't expose the scandalous secrets bubbling just below the surface of her mundane town. As the demands escalate, and she finds herself falling for Adam's half brother, Joy must figure out the blackmailer's identity before everything spirals out of control.

‘I’m going to love my baby and give her lots of attention,’ Jade said. ‘I’ll show my mum she’s wrong.’Jade, 17, is pregnant, homeless and alone when she’s brought to live with Cathy. Jade is desperate to keep her baby, but little more than a child herself, she struggles with the responsibilities her daughter brings.Cathy is worried as soon as Jade arrives: she’s never looked after a pregnant teenager before, but none of the mother and baby carers is free, and – seventeen years old, seven months pregnant and homeless – Jade is in a desperate situation.But Jade doesn’t want to listen or advice and although her daughter is born safely it isn’t long before Jade’s in trouble with the police.Cathy knows that Jade loves her daughter with all her heart, but will she be able to get through to Jade in time to make her realise just how much she might lose?

How much can you hide? Jemima Hutton is determined to build a successful new life and keep her past a dark secret. Trouble is, her jewellery business looks set to fail - until enigmatic Ben Davies offers to stock her handmade belt buckles in his guitar shop and things start looking up, on all fronts.

A riveting psychological thriller.Kurt Cobain stands at the top of the stairs, wearing the brown sweater. 'Please don't leave me,' she yells up at him. But it's too late; he's turning away as the tram slows for the stop out on the street.Then she's lying on the road. Car tyres are going past, slowly. Somebody is screaming. A siren howls.Sweet voices of little children are singing 'Morningtown Ride'.Is Brigitte a loving wife and mother, or a cold-blooded killer?Nobody knows why she was in the east of the city so early on the morning she was left for dead by a hit-and-run driver. It was the Friday before Christmas 1994—the same day police discovered the body of a man beaten to death in her apartment.Fourteen years later, Brigitte is married to the detective who investigated the murder, which she claims to have lost her memory of in the car accident. They have young twins, and seem to be a happy family. Until the reopening of the...

Discover this exquisite poetry and prose collection about the pains of growing up from the popular millennial Instagram poet, perfect for fans of Amanda Lovelace and Rupi Kaur.Following her breakout debut Eighteen Years, poet Madisen Kuhn is thrilled to share this intimate portrait of a young woman navigating early adulthood and leaving her teenage years behind. Chronicling the complexities, joys, and challenges of this transitional phase of life, Please Don't Go Before I Get Better is a powerful, deeply affecting work that pierces your heart with its refreshing candor and vulnerability. A poignant exploration of self-image, self-discovery, and self-reflection, this anthology brilliantly captures the universal experience of growing up, and you are bound to find yourself reflected in these glimmering pages.

Penelope Akk wants to be a superhero. She's got superhero parents. She's got the ultimate mad science power, filling her life with crazy gadgets even she doesn't understand. She has two super-powered best friends. In middle school, the line between good and evil looks clear. In real life, nothing is that clear. All it takes is one hero's sidekick picking a fight, and Penny and her friends are labeled supervillains. In the process, Penny learns a hard lesson about villainy: She's good at it. Criminal masterminds, heroes in power armor, bottles of dragon blood, alien war drones, shapeshifters and ghosts, no matter what the super powered world throws at her, Penny and her friends come out on top. They have to. If she can keep winning, maybe she can clear her name before her mom and dad find out.

The summer Michael Smolij turns sixteen, his father disappears. One by one other men also vanish from the blue-collar neighborhood outside Detroit where their fathers before them had lived, raised families, and, in a more promising era, worked. One man props open the door to his shoe store and leaves a note. "I'm going to the moon," it reads. "I took the cash."The wives drink, brawl, and sleep around, gradually settling down to make new lives and shaking off the belief in an American dream that, like their husbands, has proven to be a thing of the past. Unable to leave the neighborhood their fathers abandoned, Michael and his friends stumble through their twenties until the restlessness of the fathers blooms in them, threatening to carry them away.Hailed as "a triumph" by O, The Oprah Magazine, this haunting, unforgettable debut novel is for anyone who has ever been left longing.

"I’m glad I could do her this one last favor. If it had been the other way round, I know Gina would have done the same for me."Jane and Gina were the best of friends. When Gina’s husband Shaun was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2009, Jane vowed to do everything she could to help her best mate and her two small sons through the awful time to come. But things were about to take a tragic turn for the worse. In 2010, Gina was killed in a shock car crash. Though devastated by her own grief, Jane knew that Gina needed her now more than ever—to help with the boys she had left behind. And after cancer claimed Shaun's life, Jane stepped in to care for the two orphans, becoming the mother her best friend could no longer be. This is the moving true story behind an incredible act of love.