Alamosa Public Library

Sixteen-year-old Jace Witherspoon arrives at the doorstep of his estranged brother, Christian, with a broken face, $3.84, and a secret. He wants to make a fresh start, but the realities of his old life keep pulling him back; Mom is still trapped with his dad, the abuser. And Jace's ex-girlfriend is sitting on a secret just waiting to explode. After you decide to leave, after you make the split--how do you make a life?

While trying to impress a beautiful, unattainable classmate, fourteen-year-old Andy discovers that a fellow social outcast may be planning an act of school violence.

As Palmer comes of age, he must either accept the violence of being a wringer at his town's annual Pigeon Day or find the courage to oppose it.

"The young girl tells us that her mom's new friend is just like the big bad wolf. At first the wolf is sweet and kind to her mom, though the girl notices the wolf's cold eyes from the very beginning. When her mom arrives home late one day, the wolf suddenly hurls angry words and terrible names at her. From that day on her mother doesn't smile anymore. The girl is careful to clean her room and brush her teeth and do everything to keep the peace, but...

"In these three novellas, Gary Paulsen explores how children can survive the most difficult circumstances through art and the love of dogs"--Provided by publisher.

When Rob, the charismatic leader of the senior class, turns the school nerd into Prince Charming, his actions lead to unexpected violence.

When brothers Max and Jay help a classmate in trouble, they struggle with the consequences of their violent actions and worry they may be more like their abusive father than they thought, so the brothers turn to their Bribri roots to find their way forward.

Follows an African-American teenager through four years at her inner-city high school.

When seventeen-year-old Alex starts dating Cole, a new boy at her high school, her two closest friends increasingly mistrust him as the relationship grows more serious.

When nineteen-year-old Eddie drops out of college, he struggles to find a place for himself as a Mexican American living in a violence-infested neighborhood of Fresno, California. A junior college dropout, 19-year-old Eddie is trying to support himself in this story set in the barrio of Fresno, California. Annotation. For Eddie there isn't much to do in his rundown neighborhood but eat, sleep, watch out for drive-bys, and just try to get through each...