It's 1963 and fourteen-year-old Esther Young is looking for excitement. Cursed with a lack of talent in a family filled with artistic types, Esther vows to get some attention by initiating a summer romance with a black teen accused of murdering a white man in Alabama.King-Roy Johnson shows up on Esther's doorstep that summer, an angry young man who feels betrayed by the nonviolent teachings of Martin Luther King Jr. Sent north by his mother to escape a lynch mob, he meets a follower of Malcolm X's who uses radical teachings about black revolution to fuel King-Roy's anger and frustration. But with each other's help, both Esther and King-Roy learn the true nature of integrity and find the power to stand up for what is right and true.National Book Award-winning author Han Nolan brings readers a bold new voice—by turns funny and poignant, innocent and worldly—in this powerful coming-of-age story set during the turbulent struggle for civil rights.

After Grandma Mary dies, sixteen-year-old JP's safe, secure world quickly unravels. He finds himself living in complete chaos when his mother wins a farmhouse in an essay contest and insists on sharing her good fortune with other neighborhood outcasts. Suddenly there are no rules, and the house is filled with poets, musicians, a reformed drug addict, an abused teen, and too many others who seem to have replaced JP and his father in his mother's life.JP longs for his family to be restored to what it once was. But then somehow, amid the madness, his idea of family is redefined in ways he never expected.

"Archibald Caswell could never please his domineering granddaddy Silas. Now with Granddaddy gone, Archie finds himself lost, confused, and wondering what his grandfather could have possibly meant by his dying words: ""Young man, you are a saint!"" Clare Simpson knows exactly what Silas meant. She convinces Archie to dedicate his life to God, give up his possessions, steal his granddaddy's truck, and head north to the Cloisters in New York, where she and Archie secretly live after museum hours. For Clare the journey is a return to the only place where she has felt happy and loved. For Archie, the pilgrimage leads him to a closer relationship with God—and a burning desire for home.Includes a reader's guide and an interview with the author."

Leshaya is a survivor. Rescued from the brink of death, this child of a heroin addict has seen it all: revolving foster homes, physical abuse, an unwanted pregnancy. Now, as her tumultuous childhood is coming to an end, she is determined to make a life for herself by doing the only thing that makes her feel whole . . . singing.Han Nolan pulls no punches in this hard-hitting story of a girl at the bottom who dreams of nothing but the top.

A thought-provoking and courageous new novel by National Book Award winner Han Nolan. Nobody gets away with telling Eleanor Crowe what to do. But as a pregnant sixteen-year-old, her options are limited: move to Kenya with her missionary parents or marry the baby's father and work at his family's summer camp for overweight kids. Despite her initial reluctance to help out, Elly is surprised that she actually enjoys working with the campers. But a tragedy on the very day her baby is born starts a series of events that overwhelms Elly with unexpected emotions and difficult choices. Somehow, she must turn her usual obstinance in a direction that can ensure a future for herself—and for the new life she has created.

Hilary hates Jews. As part of a neo-Nazi gang in her town, she's finally found a sense of belonging. But when she's critically injured in an accident, everything changes.Somehow, in her mind, she has become Chana, a Jewish girl fighting for her own life in the ghettos and concentration camps of World War II.Han Nolan offers powerful insight into one young woman's survival through the Holocaust and another's journey out of hatred and self-loathing.Reader's guide and an interview with the author included.

Miracle McCloy has always known that there is something different about her: She was pulled from the womb of a dead woman—a "miracle" birth—and Gigi, her clairvoyant grandmother, expects Miracle to be a prodigy, much like Dane, the girl's brooding novelist father. Having been raised according to a set of mystical rules and beliefs, Miracle is unable to cope in the real world. Lost in a desperate dance among lit candles, Miracle sets herself afire and is hospitalized. There Dr. DeAngelis, a young psychiatrist, helps her through her painful struggle to take charge of her life.

A sleepy, God-fearing community in Alabama erupts in chaos when a flamboyant artist from New York City returns to her hometown for an artistic experiment. "A fresh voice and an enigmatic subject combine to make kids engage in an activity they probably don't do much-contemplate."-Booklist

A Heart in a Body in the World by Deb Caletti meets Amber Smith's The Way I Used to Be in this young adult mystery following a teen searching for the truth behind the deadly car crash that claimed the lives of her twin sister and the high school football coach.What happens to the twin left behind? Scottie O'Doul isn't looking forward to starting her senior year. Last May, her identical twin sister, Cait, died in a car crash involving the school's beloved football coach. There's been no official report on the accident yet, but before she died, Cait told Scottie a disturbing secret. When Scottie reveals this secret, half the town turns against her, certain that Scottie is lying to protect her sister and that Cait deliberately lost control of the car. Scottie knows her twin would never take her own life, or someone else's, but how can she prove it? As she faces bullying and hostility at school, she starts to wonder if what Cait said was...

Chapter One Ever since the fifth grade, I've had this imaginary audience in my head who follow me around and watch me like I'm the star in a movie. I talk to them, and yeah, they talk to me, but I know they aren't really there. I'm very clear about that. Anyway, I don't think I'm the only fifteen-year-old who does this. It's our culture. It seems everybody is famous now. You can get yourself on TV for doing almost anything, the stupider the better. Everyone thinks his or her life is movie worthy. So now you're here. This is my honors English class we're in right now. Don't ask me how I got into honors. Okay, I know this classroom is pretty drab. There aren't nearly enough windows, but it's an old school. They're building a new one over on Clement. I haven't named you yet. I'll just call you You for now. Maybe you'll just be part of my laugh track, a body filling one of the seats in my theater but having no singular voice. We'll see. If you are part of the laugh track,...