bildungsromans

Jim, living with his mother and three uncles in the small hamlet of Aliceville, North Carolina, comes of age in the Depression years and begins to realize the largeness of the world outside his happy home.

Cassie, growing up in the 1960s a home her mother calls their Lucky Place, tries to reconcile her feelings for her charming, drunk of a father, and her stepfather Ellis, who she adores.

In 1100, eighteen-year-old Simon struggles to find himself a place in divided England, and when he is offered the chance to accompany the king on a royal hunt, Simon hopes the journey will unlock doors for an exciting future, but when the hunt takes a fatal turn, Simon is forced to flee for his life.

The daily class discussions about the nature of man, the existence of God, abortion, organized religion, suicide and other contemporary issues serve as a backdrop for a high-school senior's attempt to answer a friend's dramatic cry for help.

When teenagers in a California coastal community challenge each other to "jump the Nail"--leap from dangerous cliffs into the ocean--group pressure and manipulative relationships quickly drive the game out of control.

Novalee Nation, seventeen, pregnant, and living in a Wal-Mart store discovers friendship, encouragement, direction and love with a group of caring people in Sequoyah, Oklahoma.

Layla James, a recent graduate and aspiring photographer who has never known her father, receives a letter from her mother--after her death--that sends Layla on a journey from the East coast to a commune in the California desert where Layla tries to uncover secrets from the lives of her parents during the 1960s.

Fourteen-year-old Shawn wonders if he would be better off starting high school in his mother's neigborhood, away from Compton, but the idea of leaving all his friends, and the beautiful Marisol, is less appealing.

Nineteen-year-old Miranda Woke's guilt over the drug-related death of her boyfriend does not keep her from pursuing her life as an extremely rich, severely addicted, party girl in New York society circles, but when friends finally convince her to seek help she discovers an entirely new way of living.