bildungsromans

It is the early 1980s and fifteen-year-old Libby is obsessed with trees. One night, while driving home, her mother, exhausted and overwhelmed with the fighting in the backseat, pulls over and orders Libby's little sister Ellen to walk home. What none of this family knows as they drive off leaving a twelve-year-old girl on the side of the road five miles from home with darkness closing in, is what will happen next.

"Ava, 14 years old and totally on her own, has still not fully processed her mother's death when she finds herself on a train heading to New Orleans, going to stay with Lane, her grandmother whom she's never met. Lane is a well-known artist in the New Orleans art scene. She spends most of her days in a pot-smoke haze, sipping iced coffee, and working on the mural that has been her singular focus for years. Her grip on reality is shaky at best, but her work provides a comfort. Ava's arrival unsettles Lane. The girl bears an uncanny resemblance to her daughter, whom she was estranged from before her death. Now her presence is dredging up painful and disturbing memories, which forces Lane to retreat even further into her own mind. Ava, meanwhile, is entranced and frightened by her grandmother. She wants to be included in her eccentric life, but can't quite navigate Lane's tempestuous moods. Attempting to keep the peace is Oliver, Lane's assistant and confidant. As this unlikely trio attempts to find their way and form a bond, the oppressive heat and history of New Orleans bears down on them, forcing them to a reckoning none of them is ready for"--Provided by publisher.

"Ada's life is a mess. She just caught her boyfriend cheating on her after a humiliating attempt at losing her virginity, and she's had it up to here with her gorgeous older sister's unsolicited advice. But things really hit the fan during a family vacation in Hawaii, where Ada discovers her own mother is having an affair. Apparently, everyone is falling into bed with people they shouldn't. Everyone except Ada. But when Ada decides she's going to stop trying and start doing--sex, that is--her best laid plan overlooks an inconvenient truth: feelings, romantic or not, always get in the way"--Provided by publisher.

In 1970s northern California, fifteen-year-old RJ Armante must fight to save himself and his disabled brother from the Blackjacks gang, and free his hometown, Arcangel, from its past.

"Paris, 1792. From her prison cell, H?l?ne recalls the events that brought her there. Despite her world of privilege, H?l?ne is inspired early on by the radical ideas of her progressive governess. Her determination to find true love is as revolutionary as her attempt to unravel the truth behind a chilling set of eye-shaped brooches and the concealed murder that tore her family apart. As violence erupts, H?l?ne is forced into hiding with her estranged family, where the tangled secrets of their past become entwined with her own. On the blood-stained streets of Paris, she finds everything--and everyone--very much changed. In a city where alliances shift overnight, no one knows who to trust"--OCLC.

"Narrowly surviving the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, a bordello proprietor's daughter bonds with an unlikely new family, from a Chinese clan and an orphan caregiver to tenor Enrico Caruso and tabloid celebrity Alma Spreckels"--OCLC.

"August is an average twelve-year-old. He likes dogs and fishing and doesn't mind early-morning chores on his family's Michigan dairy farm. But following his parents' messy divorce, his mother decides that she and August need to start over in a new town. There, he tries to be an average teen -- playing football and doing homework -- but when his role in a shocking act of violence throws him off course once more, he flees to a ranch in rural Montana, where he learns that even the smallest communities have dark secrets"--Provided by publisher.

"Hannah Webber fears she will never be a mother, but her prayers are finally answered when she gives birth to a son. In an era of high-stakes parenting, nurturing Sam's intellect becomes Hannah's life purpose. She invests body and soul into his development, much to the detriment of her marriage. She convinces herself, however, that Sam's acceptance at age fourteen to the most prestigious of New England boarding schools overseen by an illustrious headmaster, justifies her choices. When he arrives at Dunning, Sam is glad to be out from under his mother's close watch. And he enjoys his newfound freedom--until, late one night, he stumbles upon evidence of sexual misconduct at the school and is unable to shake the discovery. Both a coming-of-age novel and a portrait of an evolving mother-son relationship, The Nine is the story of a young man who chooses to expose a corrupt world operating under its own set of rules--even if it means jeopardizing his mother's hopes and dreams."--Provided by publisher.

"Dumped by her boyfriend the summer after senior year, teen love and relationship columnist Lu Charles has hit a wall with her writing. The words just won't come to her like they used to and if she doesn't find a topic for her column, she'll lose her gig at hip online magazine Misnomer, and the college scholarship that goes along with it. Her best friend, Pete, thinks she should write through her own pain, but when Lu overhears another couple planning a precollege breakup just like hers, she becomes convinced that they're the answer to cracking her writer's block. And when she meets them--super-practical Iris and cute, sweet Cal--and discovers they're postponing their breakup until the end of the summer, she has to know more. Have Cal and Iris prolonged their own misery by staying together, knowing the end is in sight? Or does the secret to figuring out all this love business--and getting over it--lie with them? One thing is certain--if Lu can't make a breakthrough before summer is over, she can kiss her future goodbye."--Amazon.

"Now that she has her driver's license, sixteen-year-old Ruby sets out in search of her birth mother. What she finds is a ramshackle house of castaway women, referred to as 'sisters,' ruled over by a charismatic bully who monitors their every move and her mother with a ten-year-old daughter desperate to escape"--Provided by publisher.