self-perception

In the 1960s, Rico Fuentes, a pale-skinned Cuban American teenager, abandons drug-infested New York City for the picket fence and apple pie world of Wisconsin, only to discover that he still feels like an outsider and that violent and judgmental people can be found even in the wholesome Midwest.

Fourteen-year-old Clara Luna spends the summer with her grandparents in the tiny, remote village of Yucuyoo, Mexico, learning about her grandmother's life as a healer, her father's decision to leave home for the United States, and her own place in the world.

After being assigned to perform community service at a nursing home, sixteen-year-old Alex befriends a cantankerous old man who has some lessons to impart about jazz guitar playing, love, and forgiveness.

Brainy, less-than-popular Kyra Evans and basketball captain Jason Vincent become Cross High's most unlikely couple, falling fast for each other while working on a class project, but their intense love is threatened by an unexpected betrayal.

Bored with her life, popular high school junior Libby signs up for an internship at the zoo and discovers that the "science nerds" she meets there may have a few things to teach her about friendship and life.

Anna records her struggles with anorexia--which she personifies as Tyranny, her tormentor--in her journal, and describes her efforts to overcome her deadly enemy through strength of character.

In alternating chapters, two teenagers describe how their feelings about themselves, each other, and their families have changed over the years.

Taking a job as a toll-bridge collector to escape family pressures and discover who he is, seventeen-year-old Jan meets and befriends Adam and Tess and the three test their friendship as each faces a turning point in his and her life.

Eight-year-old Clementine, convinced that she has no talents, tries to find a way to avoid participating in the class talent show.

Would-be supervillain Doctor X-Ray swoops into the mall, threatening destruction, only to be confronted by a little girl asking "why" to his every declaration, until finally he is forced to reveal, and understand, the root of his anger--and so departs in peace.