single-parent families

"Everything goes topsy-turvy for Joey as he becomes the man of the house, looking after his new baby brother, taking care of his troubled mother, and seeking out his missing father"--.

Shelby Cooper, nearly eighteen, has been overprotected by her single mother all her life but after a car accident, Shelby's mother steals her away from the hospital, revealing that Shelby's father is not dead, but rather a violent man who promised to hunt them down.

A boy is surprised when his mother tells him to get up and dressed when she returns from work late one night, but soon they are outside, surrounded by neighbors, watching an amazing display of the northern lights.

To the constant disappointment of his mother and his teachers, Joey has trouble paying attention or controlling his mood swings when his prescription meds wear off and he starts getting worked up and acting wired.

Sixteen-year-old Charlotte Reynolds, a die-hard tomboy, finds herself working at a girly boutique to pay off a speeding ticket, and begins falling for her neighbor and long-time friend Braden.

The four Penderwick sisters are faced with the unimaginable prospect of their widowed father dating, and so they hatch a plot to stop him.

From age three, McCutcheon Daniels, now sixteen, has been trained in Mixed Martial Arts and must keep winning to feed his five-year-old sister and father, but chance presents an opportunity to get out of the Detroit slums using his brain instead of his fighting skills.

While working together in a bakery, Evan's sister Brianna introduces Rachel Lee to the Truth Game, a website for anonymously sharing others' mistakes.

As spring arrives on Gardam Street, there are surprises in store for each Penderwick, from neighbor Nick Geiger's expected return from the war to Batty's new dog-walking business, but her plans to use her profits to surprise her family on her eleventh birthday go astray.

"Althea and Oliver, who have been friends since age six and are now high school juniors, find their friendship changing because he has contracted Kleine-Levin Syndrome"--Provided by publisher.