families

Shortly before her fifteenth birthday, Destiny Lozada's traditional Puerto Rican mother and feminist older sister hijack her quincea?era, each pushing her own agenda and ignoring the possibility that Destiny, a skateboarding tomboy, might have her own ideas about the coming-of-age ritual she is about to participate in.

Unhappy after his parents move to a weird subdivision and become workaholics, thirteen-year-old Travis returns to his old Salinas neighborhood and becomes actively involved in saving the John Steinbeck Library and, at the same time, begins seeing characters from Steinbeck's books who seem to have a message for him.

Kate's hopes for a summer romance are dashed when her mother announces plans to stay with wealthy friends in Cape Cod as a ploy to make Kate's father jealous, but when Kate is introduced to Adam things begin to look brighter.

Emphasizes that strong family units come in different shapes and sizes, focusing on the definition of a family and providing examples of various types.

Emphasizes that strong family units come in different shapes and sizes, focusing on families with members who have mental or physical disabilities and the challenges they face.

Presents a discussion of the perception of celebrity families in contrast to the reality of their issues, covering the additional stresses of public invasiveness and the media, with a look at people such as Drew Barrymore, Colin Hanks, and Miley Cyrus.

Twelve-year-old Joey and his fifteen-year-old sister Philly relate their experiences trying to cope in a family already strained by the mother's extended travel, and pushed further apart by the father's disappointment that Joey is more interested in drawing deer than hunting them.

Seventeen-year-old Meg's surging emotions after her mother, the United States President, is shot, threaten her relationship with boyfriend Josh and best friend Beth, but she strives to maintain control to help her father and younger brothers.

Twelve-year-old Samantha struggles with how to best help her artistic older brother and parents who will not have him tested for a learning disability.

In spite of a busy life on the family pumpkin and watermelon farm in Jubilee, Georgia, twelve-year-old March Anne Tanner feels that something is missing, and when Grenna, the grandmother who has helped raise her since her mother died when she was three, also passes on, March Anne finds that she must act on her feelings of loss.