assault and battery

A violent attack on seventeen-year-old Tashera Odom by high school girls in Washington, D.C., has dangerous repercussions for the rest of the family, including her secretive mother Sheila, and her brother Khalil, who is willing to rejoin his gang in order to get revenge.

Explains to children how to protect themselves in potentially dangerous situations with other children or with adults.

An entertaining romp told entirely through e-mails. Melissa Fuller, celebrity-gossip columnist for the New York Journal, lives a relatively shallow existence until her elderly neighbor is attacked and sent to the hospital in a coma, leaving behind her Great Dane and two cats. Melissa gets help in caring for them from the man who is supposedly Mrs. Friedlander's playboy nephew Max, but who is actually his college buddy doing him a favor, and it all becomes a bit complicated when Melissa falls in love with "Max." Every loose plot thread comes into play in the highly satisfactory conclusion, with just enough twists on the way for a fun ride.

Examines current trends in criminal behavior and victim response explaining techniques people can use to avoid harm.

Gossip columnist Melissa Fuller, having found her elderly neighbor in a coma after suffering an attack, contacts the woman's nephew Max, who despite a reputation as a womanizer turns out to be kind, funny, and very lovable, but the growing bond between the two young people is broken when Melissa discovers he is not who he claims to be.