absentee mothers

"Nothing will get in the way of Millie Price's dream of becoming a Broadway star. Not her lovable but super introverted dad, who raised Millie alone since she was a baby. Not her drama club rival, Oliver, who is the very definition of Simmering Romantic Tension. And not her 'Millie Moods,' the feelings of intense emotion that threaten to overwhelm. Millie needs an ally. And when an accidentally left-open browser brings Millie to her dad's embarrassingly moody LiveJournal from 2003, Millie knows just what to do--find her mom. But how can you find a new part of your life and expect it to fit into your old one without leaving any marks?"--OCLC.

"In this dual-POV novel in verse, Black seventh graders Ebony 'Eb' Wilson and De'Kari 'Flow' Flood contemplate the conflict that sees them both suspended from school. A ten-day suspension has tweens De'Kari and Ebony seeing the world with a fresh perspective. Don't miss this poignant novel in verse from the award-winning author of Isaiah Dunn Is My Hero. Two kids. One fight. No one thinks they're wrong"--Provided by the publisher.

What if your biggest opponent is yourself? Finn Hunter has high hopes of making the national kayaking team one day. And he might just make it too, since he made the regional team last year. But this year, since his mom left home, things have been different. Finn is angry, and his paddling and relationship with his teammates are suffering as a result. Can Finn pull it together to achieve his dreams?.

"In this haunting parable of the American west, a young woman faces the violent past of a remote Montana valley. In Montana's Bitterroot Valley, a young Ruthie Fear sees an apparition: a strange, headless creature near a canyon creek. Raised in a trailer by her stubborn, bowhunting father, Ruthie develops a powerful connection with the natural world but struggles to find her place in a society shaped by men. As she comes of age, her small community fractures in the face of class tension and encroaching natural disaster, and the creature she saw long ago reappears. An entirely new kind of Western and the first novel from one of this generation's most 'wildly imaginative' (NPR) writers, RUTHIE FEAR captures the destruction and rebirth of the modern American West with warmth, urgency, and grandeur. Loskutoff presents this place as balanced on a knife's edge, at war with itself, but still unbearably beautiful and full of love"--Provided by the publisher.

"Isabelle knows all about shouldering responsibility: she looks after her young siblings because their mother is often drunk or absent. School is a nightmare, but one teacher seems to understand that Isabelle has talent to spare"--Publisher.

Why would a mother ever abandon her child? And is an abandoned child destined to grow up and make the same mistake? These were some of Melissa Cistaro's questions after her mother drove off without explanation one summer. Decades later Melissa finds herself at her dying mother's bedside with six days to find answers, fearful that she could do the same to her own little girl. Then she discovers a cache of letters her mother wrote but never sent and stumbles on the answers she'd been seeking.