**AN ALA BEST BOOK FOR YOUNG ADULTS PICK • A compelling and raw portrayal of a troubled teenager’s struggle for escape“Alternately cocky, funny and maudlin, [this novel] gets its appeal from Pip’s unnervingly convincing teenage voice.”—The Washington Post**Pip’s desperate to escape his life—he’s been skipping classes, drinking, getting high. Anything and everything to avoid his smug teachers, his sweet but needy little brother, his difficult home life. Now he’s bee...

*This diary of a runaway girl and her search for a home celebrates hope, resilience, and happy endings.Holly's run away before, but this time she actually gets away—and what felt like an escape at first soon becomes a daily struggle for survival. She is smart and resourceful, and she manages to make it across the country on her own. But how long can this go on? It's getting harder to avoid the truth—Holly is now homeless.Runaway is a remarkably uplifting po...

*A New York Times Staff Pick**An NPR Best Book of 2018** A Buzzfeed Best YA Book of 2018*In Jen Doll's young adult debut novel, Unclaimed Baggage, Doris—a lone liberal in a conservative small town—has mostly kept to herself since the terrible waterslide incident a few years ago. Nell had to leave behind her best friends, perfect life, and too-good-to-be-true boyfriend in Chicago to move to Alabama. Gr...

Does who you are in high school brand you for life?Nick sure hopes not. It’s senior year, and he has decided that his loser friends may be going nowhere fast, but he isn’t. Instead, Nick has created the perfect list of rules for remaking his life. But meeting dark-eyed Dawn and hanging out with teen thug Zod are nowhere on that list. And making illegal deliveries definitely isn’t on it. So why is Nick caught up with these people and their dangerous schemes? Will Ni...

Jimmy’s hamster is gone–without a trace. He didn’t latch the cage properly, and the beloved pet escaped. Overcome with guilt and sadness, the nine-year-old also has the sinking feeling that perhaps Mom was right when she said a pet would be too great a responsibility for him.In a race against time and weather, Jimmy uses his vivid imagination and sound advice from the school nurse to try to lure the hamster back. His efforts help him cope, but will they work?Perfect for rel...

High school junior Ariella Winters has raised the position of nerd to an art form. Raking in the straight A’s, she couldn’t be happier. Sure, her social skills are lacking a bit, but who needs that stuff anyway? When you’re smart and dedicated, life is pretty perfect. That is, until a school project brings her worst nightmare to life. As part of a revolutionary social experiment, Ariella is thrown into a new school and given a new look that’s totally not her. To ace this project, she needs...