coming of age fiction

"Betty Cooper and her best friend, Val Smith, are about to start middle school, and they've always done everything together. They play together, have classes together and want to study the same things together. Or so Betty thinks! When Val unexpectedly signs up for a music elective she and Betty are separated for the first tine since they meet many years ago. Now Betty is stuck in the loser drama elective, which is dominated by the snobby Veronica Lodge. Is middle school doomed to be the absolute worst time of Betty's life?"--Back cover.

Seventeen-year-old Maverick "Mav" Carter begins dealing drugs for the King Lords as a way to help support his family while his father is in jail. When he learns that his girlfriend is pregnant, his focus shifts and he tries to make a clean break from drug dealing. However, a loved one's murder makes it difficult to forget his old ties, and he must figure out for himself the meaning of loyalty, manhood, and responsibility.

A young girl living in a Hispanic neighborhood in Chicago ponders the advantages and disadvantages of her environment and evaluates her relationships with family and friends.

When a microaggression at her wealthy Manhattan high school thrusts her into the spotlight, Alejandra Kim, a daughter of second-generation Korean Argentines who feels like an outcast, must carve out a place for herself while dealing with the loss of her father.

In the 1960s, a spiritual man named Jeremiah Land sets out from his Minnesota home with his young son and daughter to find his elder son, Davy, after he escapes jail on the morning of his sentencing for murder.

From the cover: Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life -- dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge -- he follows. After their all-nigher ends and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, alway an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues -- and they're for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees of the girl he thought he knew.

Most people think Charlie is a freak. The only friend he had killed himself, forcing him to face high school alone. But then seniors Patrick and his beautiful stepsister Sam take Charlie under their wings and introduce him to their eclectic, open-minded, hard-partying friends. It is from these older kids that Charlie learns to live and love, until a repressed secret from his past threatens to destroy his newfound happiness. [From the cover.

"Lacey Bond has grown up in her parents' hippie New Hampshire daycare, idolizing her blasphemous, ultra-fashionable sister, ?clair, chasing baby squirrels, and contemplating trees. Then the Satanic Panic hits - the moral hysteria that shook the United States by its shoulders in the 80s and 90s. It's the summer of 1990 when Lacey's parents are handcuffed, flung into the county jail, and faced with a torrent of jaw-dropping accusations from dozens of current and former daycare kids. The criminal trial that follows is one of several in the novel, and it marks the beginning of Lacey's relentless effort to survive after her literal and figurative guardians vanish, one by one. After the hysteria results in a devastating murder, Lacey runs away and starts over in Montreal with a new identity. But will she ever escape the constant fear of being found out and having to face the trauma of the media spotlight all over again? For readers of Ottessa Moshfegh, Emma Cline, and Donna Tartt comes a genuinely unique coming-of-age story that's also an unrelenting interrogation of America's endless cycle of moral panics"--.

"To the students at exclusive Greycliff Academy, Kirby seems to have it all: charm, brains, and a lucky streak that won't quit. He's also the notorious mastermind behind the snarky videos, '7 Good Reasons Not to Grow Up,' which expose how being an adult isn't all it's cracked up to be. Why would any kid want to become one of them? But there's also a mystery about Kirby. And when his best friend, Raja, finds out that Kirby isn't the person he's pretending to be, Kirby, Raja, and their friends may be forced to grow-up sooner than they think and face the world head-on"--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.