Showing titles in Bullying & Abuse

Theo is better now. She’s eating again, dating guys who are almost appropriate, and well on her way to becoming an elite ballet dancer. But when her oldest friend, Donovan, returns home after spending four long years with his kidnapper, Theo starts reliving memories about his abduction - and his abductor. Donovan isn’t talking about what happened, and even though Theo knows she didn’t do anything wrong, telling the truth would put everything she’s been living for at risk. But keeping quiet might be worse.

The Haves. The Have-Nots. Kate O'Brien appears to be a Have-Not. Her whole life has been a series of setbacks she's had to snake her way out of—some more sinister than others. But she's determined to change that. She's book-smart. She's street-smart. And she's also a masterful liar. As the scholarship student at the Waverly School in NYC, Kate has her work cut out for her: Her plan is to climb the social ranks and land a spot at Yale. She's already found her "people" among the senior-class "it" girls.

One step out of line and Becky Vilhauser, first most popular girl in school, will make her life a living hell. So when former loner Logan McDonough shows up one September hotter, smarter, and more mysterious than ever, Anika knows she can't get involved. It would be insane to throw away her social safety for a nerd. So what if that nerd is now a black-leather-jacket-wearing dreamboat, and his loner status is clearly the result of his troubled home life?

It’s eighteen-year-old Gita Desai’s first year at Stanford, and the fact that she’s here and not already married off by her traditional Gujarati parents is a miracle. She’s determined to death-grip her good-girl, model student rep all the way to med school. Should be easy: If there’s one thing she’s learned from her family, it’s how to chup-re—to “shut up,” fade into the background. But when childhood memories of her aunt’s desertion and her then-uncle’s best friend resurface, Gita ends up ditching the books night after night in favor of partying and hooking up with strangers.

Here, in a luminous poetic narrative, acclaimed author Carole Boston Weatherford tells Marilyn's story in a way that restores her voice to its rightful place: center stage. Revisiting Marilyn's often traumatic early life - foster homes, loneliness, sexual abuse, teen marriage - through a hard-won, meteoric rise to stardom that brought with it exploitation, pill dependency, and depression, the lyrical narrative continues through Marilyn's famous performance at JFKs birthday party, three months before her death.

Zoe Alamandar has one goal: Win the State Field Hockey Championships and earn a scholarship that will get her the hell out of Central New York. She and her co-captain, Ava Cervantes, have assembled a fierce team of dedicated girls who will work hard and play by the rules. But after Zoe is sexually assaulted at a party, she finds a new goal: Make sure no girl feels unsafe again. Zoe and her teammates decide to stop playing by the rules and take justice into their own hands.

When Elijah is dragged to a high school play in the next town, he can't take his eyes off Kristen, the star. But when his swooning face is captured on camera along with an out-of-context sexual comment, his words go viral. Elijah sets out to apologize, and, surprisingly, she forgives him for his unthinking comment. They hit it off right away, and Kristen believes she's finally found a boy who understands her. But strangers online are threatening Elijah's special needs sister, and Kristen's father wants Elijah gone.

When Caroline's little brother is kidnapped, his subsequent rescue leads to the discovery of Ethan, a teenager who has been living with the kidnapper since he was a young child himself. In the aftermath Caroline can't help but wonder what Ethan knows about everything that happened to her brother, who is not readjusting well to life at home. And although Ethan is desperate for a friend, he can't see Caroline without experiencing a resurgence of traumatic memories.

I am Comet Caldwell. And I sort of, kind of, absolutely hate my name. People expect extraordinary things from a girl named Comet. That she’ll be effortlessly cool and light up a room the way a comet blazes across the sky. But from the shyness that makes her book-character friends more appealing than real people to the parents whose indifference hurts more than an open wound, Comet has never wanted to be the center of attention. When new student Tobias King blazes in from America and shakes up the school, Comet thinks she’s got the bad boy figured out.

Georgia and Billy have always been the best of friends but when new girl, Wren, arrives at Maywood High, the balance of their friendship is tested. And, unbeknown to the new trio, Wren and Georgia have a secret history. When auditions for the school play take place and Wren gets the main part, divisions become even wider. Then Georgia finds the drama teacher, dead, but his body vanished, and no one believes her. Just where is the teacher? Is he really dead? When people start to receive sinister messages from his phone, the three new friends set out to get to the bottom of it all.

New York Times best-selling author Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez’s young adult debut is filled with sharp, witty dialogue and colorful characters. Pasquala Rumalda Quintana de Archuleta (“Paski,” please!) is happy with her quiet life in Taos, New Mexico. But when her comic book artist father Rudolfo gets a huge break in the film industry, the two of them quickly transplant to glamorous Los Angeles. There, Paski runs afoul of upper crust Jessica Nguyen and her beautiful friends. How will Paski get by in a place filled with nothing but haters?

Keir Sarafian insists he did nothing wrong. But no one will believe that he's the good guy he knows he is - no one except his father, Ray. And Ray is just the person Keir has to leave in order to have the fresh start he deserves. Now at Carnegie College, Keir's life isn't what he thought it would be. Two soccer players are poised to take his spot as kicker. Ray keeps calling, and Joyce, his guiding light on campus, seems to be avoiding him. When tragedy strikes, will Keir finally be able to confront his past actions and realize his potential?

Everyone has heard a different version of what happened that night at MacCallum College. Haley was already in bed when her roommate, Jenny, arrived home shell-shocked from the wild Conundrum House party. Richard heard his housemate Jordan brag about the cute freshman he hooked up with. When Jenny formally accuses Jordan of rape, Haley and Richard find themselves pushed onto opposite sides of the school's investigation.

For 17-year-old Denver, music is everything. Writing, performing, and her ultimate goal: escaping her very small, very White hometown. So, Denver is more than ready on the day she and her best friends Dali and Shak sing their way into the orbit of the biggest R&B star in the world, Sean "Mercury" Ellis. Merc gives them everything: parties, perks, wild nights - plus hours and hours in the recording studio.

Marcos Rivas yearns for love, a working cell phone, and maybe a pair of sneakers that aren't falling apart. But more than anything, Marcos wants to get out of Maesta, his hood, away from his indifferent mom and her abusive boyfriend - which seems impossible. When Marcos is placed in a new after-school program, he meets Zach and Amy, whose friendship inspires Marcos to open up to his Maesta crew, too, and starts to think more about his future and what he has to fight for.

After the death of her father, sixteen-year-old Iris Wight is uprooted from her hometown in Maine and sent to live on a farm with her hard-bitten aunt Sue and her hulking, monosyllabic cousin, Book. Immediately, Iris, a vegetarian and animal lover, clashes with Aunt Sue, who mistreats her livestock, fritters away Iris' small inheritance, and thinks nothing of striking Iris for the smallest offense. Grief-stricken and alone, Iris finds solace in her aunt’s herd of goats. But when Iris sets two of the young goats free to save them from slaughter, the tensions between her and Aunt Sue come to a frightening and violent head.

For the past eight years, 16-year-old Emilia DeJesus has done her best to move on from the traumatic attack she suffered in the woods behind her elementary school. She's forced down the memories. Most of all, she's tried to forget about Jeremy Lance, the boy responsible, the boy who caused her such pain. Emilia believes that the crows who watched over her that day, who helped her survive, are still on her side, encouraging her to live fully. And with the love and support of her mother, brother, and her caring boyfriend, Emilia is doing just that.

Christine’s dream is just out of reach. The photos she needs to make it a reality have vanished from her laptop. Terrified of the implications, she seeks out the one person who can help her, even if he’s nothing more than a name on a screen. Erik. Disfigured and driven by a dark secret, Erik uses his hacking skills to expose the masks of others and the secrets they hide. He’s the best at what he does, and Christine’s optimism and beauty are a stark contrast to his shadowed world. Erik believes he knows who’s behind the theft. But as they dig deeper, Christine fights to prove him ...

Bullied, befriended, and betrayed, my life has been an emotional roller coaster since moving into the Kincaid Mansion and enrolling at Everly Prep. After everything they did to me, and all I went through to prove myself innocent, they received a slap on the wrist and a stern talking to - their punishment wasn’t nearly enough. So I had to take matters into my own hands. I had a plan and a few select friends I trusted to help me pull it off. Together, we were going to turn this school upside down.

As rehearsals begin for the ballet version of Peter Pan, the teenaged members of an Ohio dance troupe lose their focus when one of their own goes missing. The Crystal Pointe Dance Academy is a refuge for the group of students who take classes and participate in dance recitals. Each of them - Diamond, Layla, Mercedes and Justin, the only boy in the group - has a different reason to dance, but they all want to earn a role in the upcoming production of Peter Pan.