"Colin Hancock is giving his second chance his best shot. At 28, he's focused only on walking a straight line-- getting his teaching degree, working out at the gym religiously, and avoiding all the places and people that proved so destructive in his earlier life. The last thing he's looking for is a serious relationship. But when Maria Sanchez crosses paths with him on a rainswept night in North Carolina, his plans are upended in a way that will rattle...

"At school Connell and Marianne pretend not to know each other. He's popular and well-adjusted, star of the school football team, while she is lonely, proud, and intensely private. But when Connell comes to pick his mother up from her job at Marianne's house, a strange and indelible connection grows between the two teenagers--one they are determined to conceal. A year later, they're both studying at Trinity College in Dublin. Marianne has found her...

A story about what it's like to travel that strange course through the uncharted territory of high school; the world of first dates, family dramas, and new friends; of sex, drugs, and the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

The story of two couples whose parallel love stories intersect in profound and surprising ways.

"College student Joe Talbert has the modest goal of completing a writing assignment for an English class. His task is to interview a stranger and write a brief biography of the person. With deadlines looming, Joe heads to a nearby nursing home to find a willing subject. There he meets Carl Iverson, and soon nothing in Joe's life is ever the same. Iverson is a dying Vietnam veteran--and a convicted murderer. With only a few months to live, he has been...

After surviving sixth grade, Rafe expects seventh grade to be a fun zone because he's been accepted to art school in the big city, but when he discovers it's more competitive than he expected, he sets out to turn his boring life into the inspiration for a work of art.

"Nate's decided to run for office. Will he triumph over the more popular kids? With Francis's help, he might just have a winning chance"--P. [4] of cover.

Seven fifth-graders at Snow Hill School in Connecticut relate how their lives are changed for the better by "rookie teacher" Mr. Terupt.

Set in a small-town North Carolina amusement park in 1973, Joyland tells the story of the summer in which college student Devin Jones comes to work as a carny and confronts the legacy of a vicious murder, the fate of a dying child, and the ways both will change his life forever.

When her friend Monday Charles goes missing and Monday's mother refuses to give her a straight answer, Claudia digs into her disappearance. Monday Charles is missing, and Claudia seems to be the one person who notices. They've always been inseparable, and when Monday doesn't show up for school for two weeks, Claudia knows that something is wrong. Monday's mother refuses to give Claudia a straight answer, and her sister April is even less help. How...