Blake Nelson

Through assignments for English class, seventeen-year-old James Hoff rants against consumerism and his classmates' apathy, puzzles over his feelings for his ex-girlfriend, and expresses disdain for his emotionally-distant parents.

Chloe Thomas is going to the prom. Of course, she doesn't have a date, she needs a dress, and she's the last person anyone expects to see there. But her two oldest friends asked her to go, and she said yes. Right away things start to fall apart. Laura and Jace are too busy with their own preparations to help Chloe, her "real" friends think she's insane, and her parents are so excited that she can't even be in the same room with them. Why on earth did she agree to do this? With drama, humor, and a touch of prom magic, Blake Nelson delivers a story as memorable as prom itself.

It's called Paranoid Park for a reason. It's an outlaw skatepark where Streeters rule and Preps enter at their own risk. But when one Prep braves the scene alone, he gets mixed up in a fight that leaves someone dead. In the sleepless nights that follow, he decides to call the police. Then doesn't. He decides to tell his dad. But can't. Desperate and scared, he puts off making any decision. Maybe no one will ever find out. But when a cop appears at his school wanting to question the skaters, the pressure begins to build. Directed by Gus van Sant (Paris Je T'aime, Good Will Hunting, Psycho).

Emma:Wants Jeff Matthews to notice her. Hates sexist boys. Wonders when she'll get her period. Tom:Must avoid looking like a wuss. Must deal with his blended family. Must get a chance with Kelly A.Then something freaky happens: Emma and Tom switch bodies. And until they can find a remedy: Emma:Can't believe she has a . . . thingie.Hates mean girls. Finds out secondhand that her period has arrived. Tom:Must learn to put on a bra. Must deal with an overachieving family.Must not be alone with Jeff Matthews.From the Hardcover edition.

Seventeen-year-old Max Caldwell has been the perfect high school student--on the honor roll, captain of the debate team, and soon-to-be editor of the school newspaper--but during his senior year, he begins questioning his approach to life and things start to change.

Music is Pete's life. He's happiest when playing his Fender P-Bass. He doesn't care about prestige or getting girls; it's the quality of the music that matters. Then he meets the Carlisle brothers. They can't sing and they can barely play, but somehow they have a following. Pete can't resist, and he joins The Tiny Masters of Today. When the band gets a chance at real stardom, Pete wonders if he's ready. He knows the music should come first . . . but who knew selling out could be so much fun?

"Andrea Marr, the heroine of the bestselling novel Girl, is back. And headed to college. Imagining a typical "J. Crew/college catalog" experience, Andrea leaves Portland to attend prestigious Wellington College in Connecticut. Surrounded by the best and the brightest, she works hard to adjust and keep up. But Andrea has a way finding her own people--not the well-heeled and well-scrubbed--but the weird, the wild, and the brilliant. It isn't long before her college career veers wildly off course. Suddenly her entire future is in question. But in her darkest hour, Andrea will find the key to her destiny.

Robert "Cali" Callahan, seventeen, gets swept up into the private-investigator business and must deal with the ramifications of looking for fellow runaways who may not want to be found--and with falling in love with one of them.

"I was a girl once, but not any more." So begins Girl, Edna O'Brien's harrowing portrayal of the young women abducted by Boko Haram. Set in the deep countryside of northeast Nigeria, this is a brutal story of incarceration, horror, and hunger; a hair-raising escape into the manifold terrors of the forest; and a descent into the labyrinthine bureaucracy and hostility awaiting a victim who returns home with a child blighted by enemy blood. From one of the century's greatest living authors, Girl is an unforgettable story of one victim's astonishing survival, and her unflinching faith in the redemption of the human heart. Northeast Nigeria. When a group of schoolgirls are abducted by Boko Haram, they are suffer incarceration, horror, and hunger. A hair-raising escape into the manifold terrors of the forest leads, not so much to freedom as to a descent into the labyrinthine bureaucracy and hostility awaiting a victim who returns home with a child blighted by enemy blood. Throughout her ordeal the narrator survives through her unflinching faith in the redemption of the human heart. -- adapted from jacket