family problems

"Underprivileged and keenly self-aware, SoCal fourteen-year-old Layla Bailey isn't used to being noticed. Except by mean girls who tweet about her ragged appearance. All she wants to do is indulge in her love of science, protect her vulnerable younger brother, and steer clear of her unstable mother. Then a school competition calls for a biome. Layla chooses her own home, a hostile ecosystem of indoor fungi and secret shame. With a borrowed video camera, she captures it all. The mushrooms growing in her brother's dresser. The black mold blooming up the apartment walls. The unmentionable things living in the dead fridge. All the inevitable exotic toxins that are Layla's life. Then the video goes viral. When Child Protective Services comes to call, Layla loses her family and her home. Defiant, she must face her bullies and friends alike, on her own. Unafraid at last of being seen, Layla accepts the mortifying reality of visibility. Now she has to figure out how to stay whole and stand behind the truth she has shown the world"--OCLC.

Sixteen-year-old Leo Coughlin's life is increasingly stressful because his autistic older brother Caleb's behavior is becoming more bizarre and even violent, and their parents' marriage is falling apart--but Leo finds an escape in long distance running, and in two new friends: Curtis, himself a potential state champion who teaches him the strategy of running, and Mary, his would-be girlfriend.

In Punjab, 1929, the young bride Mehar does not even know who her new husband is, having been sequestered in the family "china room" with the other two women forced to marry three brothers. They are only allowed out at night when Mai, their controlling mother-in-law, summons them to a dark room at night. Mehar, strong-willed, vows to uncover what Mai doesn't want her to know about her new husband. Many decades later in 1999, a young man arrives at his uncle's Punjab house, hoping to find help overcoming an addiction and a history of racism and violence in England, all having to do with the secret that Mehar found out nearly a century earlier.

While both deal with problems at home, one-time best friends Jill and Max, seventeen, kiss, and while Jill knows that was a mistake, she struggles not to kiss him again.

"The other orphans say Margot is lucky. Lucky to survive the horrible accident that killed her family. Lucky to have her own room because she wakes up screaming every night. And finally, lucky to be chosen by a prestigious family to live at their remote country estate. But it wasn't luck that made the Suttons rescue Margot from her bleak existence at the group home. Margot was handpicked to be a companion to their silent, mysterious daughter, Agatha. At first, helping with Agatha--and getting to know her handsome older brother--seems much better than the group home. But soon, the isolated, gothic house begins playing tricks on Margot's mind, making her question everything she believes about the Suttons . . . and herself. Margot's bad dreams may have stopped when she came to live with Agatha--but the real nightmare has just begun"--Provided by publisher.

"There's always been a hole in Gio's life. Not because he's into both guys and girls. Not because his father has some drinking issues. Not because his friends are always bringing him their drama. No, the hole in Gio's life takes the shape of his birth mom, who left Gio, his brother, and his father when Gio was nine years old. For eight years, he never heard a word from her . . . and now, just as he's started to get his life together, she's back" -- Jacket flap.

"While thirteen-year-old Teddy fights for his life after a football injury at training camp, his friends and family gather to support him and discuss events leading to his coma. Told through dialogue, text messages, newspaper articles, transcripts, an online forum, and Teddy's inner thoughts"--OCLC.

Can seventeen-year-old Jonah save his family restaurant from ruin, his mother from her sadness, and his danger-seeking girlfriend Vivi from herself?.

When Mari and her stepsister Sierra share a ride to a music festival with two brothers, T.J. and Tyler, Mari and T.J. are instantly attracted to each other, but Mari is only in Chicago for a weekend with her father's new family, and eventually she will have to return to her increasingly abusive mother--unless she can overcome her reservations about dating and maybe arrange to stay in Chicago permanently.

Claudia Dalton, twelve, embarks on an unexpected treasure hunt that she hopes will bring her missing father home and heal whatever is wrong with her family. Told through notes, emails, audio and video transcripts, and more from Claudia's scrapbook.