child abuse

Aoife is absolutely unwilling to give up the boy she loves, so she is determined to save him from self-destruction. She becomes trapped in a world she doesn't understand, but her heart is stronger than what's trying to drag her down. Aoife will never give up on Joey, no matter how much is stacked against them.

With a family who refuses to learn sign language, twelve-year-old Effie is mostly cut off from human communication at home, unable to speak of her abusive stepfather or violent father--only her interpreter understands, and Miss Kathy is willing to take Effie's case to court to provide her with a safe home. Told in verse.

"After years of physical and verbal abuse from her mother, fourteen-year-old Coi moved in with her father, and together, they created a peaceful life. But now, four years later, that peace is shattered when her mother dies, soon after reaching out to Coi. While Coi struggles to find kindness in her heart for the woman who did nothing but hurt her, her mother's passing does help reopen the door to her mother's side of the family. It's only through reconnecting with her estranged family members, especially her younger half-sister Kayla, that Coi's long-held views about her mother are challenged. And when Coi begins to see visions of her mother in her dreams, she is forced to ask herself what it means to forgive and be forgiven, and, most importantly, what it means to be a family"--Provided by publisher.

For Matt and his sisters, life with their mother is a day-to-day struggle for survival. But then Matt sees a guy called Murdoch coming to a child's rescue in a convenience store-and amazingly, Murdoch begins dating his mother. For the first time, Matt feels hope. But the relief doesn't last. When Murdoch inevitably breaks up with his mother, and life gets even worse, Matt knows he needs to take action. But what can he do? Matt's Rules of Survival: 1. Sometimes, the people who mean you harm are the ones who say they love you. 2. Fear is your friend. When you feel it, act. 3. Protect the little ones. 4. If you coped before, you can cope now. 5. Always remember: in the end, the survivor gets to tell the story.

Growing up in 1970s Ohio, Mexican American brothers Pedro and Daniel, who are not like other boys, manage an abusive home life, school, coming out, first loves, first jobs, and the AIDS epidemic, leaning on each other always and forever. A fictionalized account of the author's relationship with his brother and their childhood.

When a school-wide personality test reunites Nova with Sam--and reveals they are each other's top matches--they begin to remember why they were such close friends all those years before and why a romantic relationship between them would never work out--or so they think.

"After her parents' divorce, seven-year-old Lisa's father convinces her to leave home in the middle of the night. After all, according to their radical religious beliefs, she belongs to him, and it is her duty to obey him. Ever the dutiful daughter--at least outwardly--and confused by the sinful changes in her mother, Lisa complies. For the next nine years, Lisa and her father go from place to place--hiding out in a rural town populated by the cult, living on the streets, and preaching the Word. She is taught that her mother, who divorced her father and left the cult, is deemed 'dead' by the Word's doctrine--a shell without a soul. The only school she's allowed to attend is one run by one of the cult's community leaders. She has to be small, quiet, and modest. When the police finally catch up with them, Lisa returns to her mom's home in Oregon--a home with freedoms that Lisa has never really known. But her father has a plan to take back what's his--a plan that was set in motion the moment the police arrived at his home. Now Lisa must make a decision: follow the plan and go home with the hope that she'll see her father again, or risk everything to figure out what life could be when she makes her own choices"--Provided by publisher.

David Young, Deacon Price, and Beth Harris live with a dark secret. They grew up in an overbearing religious community on the isolated mountain Red Peak; and they were a few of the only survivors of its horrific last days. Years later, the trauma of what they experienced never feels far behind. And when a fellow survivor commits suicide, they reunite to confront their past and share their stories. As long-repressed memories surface, they begin to recall different images of that final night. Images that raise questions with no easy, or even believable, answers. Together, they will return to Red Peak. But discovering the terrifying truth might make escaping a second time almost impossible.

"After an incident shatters their family, eleven-year old Samantha and her older sister Caitlin are sent to live in rural Oregon with an aunt they've never met. Sam wants nothing more than to go back to the way things were--before she spoke up about their father's anger. When Aunt Vicky gives Sam a mysterious card game called 'A Game of Fox & Squirrels,' Sam falls in love with the animal characters, especially the charming trickster fox, Ashander. Then one day Ashander shows up in Sam's room and offers her an adventure and a promise: find the Golden Acorn, and Sam can have anything she desires. But the fox is hiding rules that Sam isn't prepared for, and her new home feels more tempting than she'd ever expected. As Sam is swept up in the dangerous quest, the line between magic and reality grows thin. If she makes the wrong move, she'll lose far more than just a game"--OCLC.