A story about the friendship that develops between a 12-year-old boy who knows what it's like to be without a family, and a whale confined in a too-small tank at an aquatic park.
"San Francisco Chronicle" columnist Adair Lara recounts her attempts to juggle love and discipline during her daughter Morgan's teen years while coping with the return of her own absent father, discussing Morgan's drug use and other rebellious behavior as well as the relationship difficulties in their stepfamily.
Derf describes his classmate Jeffrey Dahmer's teenage years as a lonely oddball. Dahmer would go on to become one of the United States' most notorious serial killers.
Ethan has never hurt a person who did not deserve it, even though he has been in and out of trouble his entire life, but when a home invasion goes terribly wrong, he knows he must find a way to set things right.
Teen Reid Anderson is pulled into an alternate world filled with misfits and outsiders thanks to a mysterious video game, and learns to question authority and stand up for himself and what he believes in.
Luis Rodriguez uses his own experiences as a peacemaker with gangs in Los Angeles, Chicago, and many other cities to explore how people can create nonviolent opportunities to redirect children toward productive, satisfying lives and away from the dangers of gangs, drugs, and violence.
Discusses how to make and keep friends and how to help friends deal with some of the difficult issues young people face, including depression, sex, illness, homosexuality, and violence.
When Brian comes to live with Tim Anderson and his family, Tim can't help but notice his cousin's bizarre behavior and can't get the awful thought out of his mind "Cousin Brian couldn't have killed his own parents...could he?".
Carson, a sixteen-year-old at an expensive private academy for students who have flunked out of other schools, hates everything in the world, including himself, until he meets Christine, who lives alone in a trailer, abandoned by her parents.
