In this revelatory, groundbreaking novel, the love of sixteen-year-old Hal Robinson for self-confident Barry Gorman is revealed through Hal’s own observations, press clippings, and the scattered notes of a social worker. These various perspectives contribute to an extraordinarily sensitive portrait of the intensity of first love.
When Louie and Willa first meet, they don't know their lives will soon be changed forever. Self-assured Louie is gearing up for another successful year in high school, starring in a production of Twelfth Night and running the Comedy Club. Kicked out of her last school and still stinging from a past relationship, Willa wants only to get through her final year at school quietly so she can graduate and become a chef.
Marshall’s experiences with ghosts and the supernatural are legendary, but when a boy a hundred-years dead turns up in his bedroom with the cryptic message “Blackford Manor,” Marshall realizes his adventures with the other side have only began. As more specters appear to Marshall, he begins to assemble the pieces of a puzzle that lead him to Graymoor Mansion and a set of crimes more heinous than those of modern day serial killers.
Johnny’s had kind of a tough life so far, and he’s always been a bit of a freak. His goth look usually includes black nail polish and a little mascara. When he discovers Debbie Harry, the lead singer of Blondie, he not only likes her music but realizes that he kind of, sort of, wants to BE her.
Told by her brother Parr, this is the story of 18-year-old Evie, her Missouri farm family, and the turmoil created by Evie's love for the local banker's daughter.
Scott Faraday is sixteen and has no idea that his world is about to radically change. Scott is fun-loving, in a small-town rock band, and out—but only to a select few. Isolated in a high desert town, Scott doesn’t know anyone else who is gay. When Ryan St. Charles, a troubled 17-year-old, moves to Yucca Valley, Scott’s world tilts on its axis.
When sixteen-year-old Walker gets caught up in a witch-hunt against homosexuals, he is left to stand by and watch as a tragedy unfolds.
Disastrous Dates & Dream Boys is the story of teenaged boys who want what we all want, to love and be loved. The boys from A Better Place are back. Shawn yearns for a boyfriend, but fears his father’s wrath if he discovers the truth. Dane, too, is seeking a soul mate and trying to leave his checkered past behind. He yearns for Billy, but if he approaches him will the result be happiness or disaster?
Sometimes questions have no answers. Fifteen-year old Virginia Dunn discovers this after her dog is run over, her dad is diagnosed with a mysterious illness, and her mom’s drinking worsens. The people she has known forever are suddenly strangers. Into this mystery walks Jane, and Virginia soon realizes that she has become a stranger to herself as well.
In Do You Know That I Love You, Ralph, a young gay teen living on a farm in Indiana, has an aching crush on a rock star and wants nothing more than to see his idol in concert. Meanwhile, Jordan, the rock star, is lonely and sometimes confused with his success, because all he wants is someone to love him and feels he will never find the love he craves.
Here's what it means to be a tortillera. It means you're a girl who loves girls. Which means you get kicked out of Catholic school faster than Mother Superior Sicko can say "immoral." Which means your wacko Mami finds out. Which means you're kicked to the curb with nowhere to go, and the love of your life is shipped off to Puerto Rico to marry a guy. But this is Miami, and if you have a bighearted best friend and a loyal puppy at your side, and if your broken heart is still full of love, you just might land on your feet.
Spawned from Hollywood's A-list glitterati, nearly every student at the exclusive Orion Academy is a singer, dancer, model, or actor -- with the ego to match. So how do you fit so many budding stars into one school musical? Multi-cast, of course. It's a Wizard of Oz like no other: four Dorothys, two Scarecrows, two Glindas, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Every "star" gets a moment in the spotlight.
School's out, but the drama never stops at the superposh Orion Academy. Hartley Blackstone -- the famous director, producer, choreographer, and genuine Broadway icon -- has chosen Orion to hold auditions for one lucky guy and girl to attend his summer theater program in New York City.
Naturally, every wannabe-It girl and boy at Orion is going mad, prepping to win Blackstone's approval. With any luck, it could be Bryan and his BFF, Sam, stepping onto a Broadway stage.
The Renaissance Faire has come to town! Okay, so the exclamation point doesn't make it any cooler, but Sam is overjoyed to reunite with her former faire folk (say that ten times fast). Bryan, on the other hand, can do without all the "thees," "thous," and -- oh yes -- man tights. But he'd best take part in the festivities lest he lose his head...with Sam doing the chopping.
It's time for the Fall One-Act Festival, and Hope gets the honored privilege of debuting her very first original play! With Bryan directing and Jason and Sam as the leads, it seems as if nothing could go wrong with this dream team of talent. But where's the fun in that?
Enter Sam and Jason's onstage chemistry that's so hot, it's working overtime offstage! Course, Sam's real-life beau, Eric isn't so cool with that.
Each ride on the bucking bull is a lesson in pain. Each landing on the packed dirt is a jarring reminder of reality. Rodeo camp is a tough way to spend a summer, but John is having the time of his life. No clingy girlfriends, no nagging moms, no annoying sisters. Just him and the guys and the biggest bulls he's ever seen.
Nicola Lancaster is spending the summer at the Siegel Institute Summer Program for Gifted Youth-a hothouse of smart, articulate, intense teenagers, living like college students for eight weeks. Nic's had theater friends and orchestra friends, but never just friend friends. And she's certainly never had a relationship.
Autumn and her parents live on a small island in the state of Washington. The slow, natural pace of her island home has always meant a great deal to Autumn, so when her father tells her that they must move to the commercial mainland, Autumn is devastated. Autumn sets out to prove to her parents how important it is for them to stay.
Erik & Isabelle Freshman Year at Foresthill High by Kim Wallace introduces two best friends who share their thoughts and feelings with one another as they experience romantic crushes, family drama, growing pains, and personal victories. Sounds like every other teenager, doesn’t it? The clincher is, they’re both gay.
When Maddy returned with a bottle of brandy and two plastic tumblers and found the wooden picnic table empty, she simply assumed that Jo must have decided to have a look around to stretch her legs. So Maddy bridged the few steps to where, come high tide, the sea would just about meet the grass of the esplanade.
Every day in Coalton is pretty much the same. Mike pumps iron in the morning, drives her truck to school, plays softball in the afternoon, and fixes the neighbors' plumbing at night. But when an exotic new girl, Xanadu, arrives in the small Kansas town, Mike's world is turned upside down.
Margarita "Madge" Diaz is fat, foxy, and fabulous. She loves herself, and is adored by almost everyone else...except queen bee/student-body president Bridget Benson. These two girls have a history that's uglier than a drag queen after last call. During a heated argument, they decide there's only one way to end their rivalry: be named prom queen and the other backs off -- for good.
What does Rusty Quinn do when her mom loses touch with reality, her best friend's dad explodes over a kiss, her other best friend gets committed to a psych ward, and the sanest person she knows is an egotistical Finnish exchange student who swears in a language nobody understands? She could write a soap opera, of course - or go to Mardi Gras. In fact, she could do both!
The story of two boys finding one another in the Midwest of the 1920s, when childhood lasted longer than it does today and even adults were more innocent of what life could bring.
A genuine look at teenage life as seen through the eyes of a seventeen year old basketball phenomenon, Ashley Scheid, whose homosexuality creates a world of conflict. Feuding with family, testing friendship and succumbing to love prove that it is always a long shot at The Foul Line.
Billy Bloom is gay, but it’s mostly theoretical, as he hasn’t had much experience. When he has to move to Florida, he can’t believe his bad luck. His new school is a mix of Bible Belles, Aberzombies, and Football Heroes, none of which are exactly his type.
Melanin Sun's mother has some big news: she's in love with a woman. Now he has many decisions to make: Should he stand by his mother even though it could mean losing his friends?
Arjie is a 'funny boy' who prefers dressing as a girl. This novel follows the life of his family through Arjie's eyes as he struggles to come to terms both with his own homosexuality and with the racism of the society in which he lives.
Russel Middlebrook is convinced he's the only gay kid at Goodkind High School. Then his online gay-chat buddy turns out to be none other than Kevin, the popular but closeted star of the school's baseball team.
Tia Ramirez’s to do list: 1. Haircut, 2. Study for French, 3. Call Andy, 4. Pick up cheese for mom’s enchiladas, 5. Decide what to do with the rest of my life
Fifteen-year-old Carlos Amoroso is a virgin -- and he isn't happy about it. He'd love to hook up with gorgeous Roxy, but she has no idea he's alive. Watching a TV show one night gives Carlos an idea: What if he got a makeover from Sal, a senior at his school who's gay?
Fifteen-year-old Miriam is having stupid arguments with her mother, is bored to death in class, and is trying to get excited by the same old parties with the same old friends in the same old town. She wishes she lived in a big city where she could meet new people and experience new things.
Skye wants what all teenagers want--to survive high school. She lives in Southern California, though, which is making that difficult. Her mother has fallen victim to the pseudo-New Age culture and insists on dragging her to consciousness-raising workshops and hypnotists. As if this weren't difficult enough, Skye falls in love with Jessica, a troubled gothic punk girl who cuts herself regularly with sharp objects.
Baldwin chronicles a fourteen-year-old boy's discovery of the terms of his identity as the stepson of the minister of a storefront Pentecostal church in Harlem one Saturday in March of 1935.
High school senior Paul has dated Angie since middle school, and they're good together. They have a lot of the same interests, like singing in their church choir and being active in Bible club. But when Manuel transfers to their school, Paul has to rethink his life.
Aurin has no intention of throwing off their established equilibrium. But when Neila joins their circle, Aurin realizes that she and Neila are becoming more than friends. Aurin and Neila are happy in their developing relationship, but Kenney feels left out.
In this honest, emotionally captivating short story collection, renowned author and National Book Award finalist Julie Anne Peters offers a stunning portrayal of young women as they navigate the hurdles of relationships and sexual identity.
Growing up Gay, Growing up Lesbian is a literary anthology geared specifically to gay and lesbian youth. It includes more than fifty coming-of-age stories.
Since his parents' divorce, John's mother hasn't touched him, her new fiancé wants them to move away, and his father would rather be anywhere than at Friday night dinner with his son. It's no wonder John writes articles like "Interview with the Stepfather" and "Memoirs from Hell." The only release he finds is in homemade zines like the amazing Escape Velocity by Marisol, a self-proclaimed "Puerto Rican Cuban Yankee Lesbian."
The only son of a traveling merchant, Katjin spends his summer in the clan lands with his grandparents. He wishes his father, his apa, would take him along, but despite the promises that someday he’ll get to go, Katjin is left behind while his apa heads away on business that seems more and more suspicious the older Kat becomes.
Dylan discovers that friendship can get in the way of love.
Dear Diary,
...Until today I was Holly
Lawrence-Jones. But starting tomorrow I'm going to be Yvette
Lawrence-Jones. My family doesn't know that yet, but I'll tell them
tomorrow, and that's the name I'll tell the people at school, too.
Lucas is a genius matchmaker, a hook-up artist, and everyone at Thomas Jefferson High School seems to need his expertise. When it comes to finding his own true love, things aren't so easy. He's had his heart broken and the prospects aren't promising.
Staggerlee doesn't feel like she belongs in her own home town. She's a loner by nature, and her family is set apart by her parents' interracial marriage and by her celebrity grandparents' tragic deaths. Staggerlee claims her dog and harmonica are all the company she needs, but she yearns to have a friend who understands her.
Here are 18 stories, all about love, and about all kinds of love. From the aching for the one you pine for, to standing up and speaking up for the one you love, to pure joy and happiness, these love stories run the gamut of that emotion that at some point has turned every one of us inside out and upside down.
Joanie’s got all of the problems of an almost seventeen year old girl. She’s trying to get her driver’s license, her mom and dad are pressuring her about going to prom, and she never can seem to make it to the bus on time. Even worse, Joanie likes girls, not boys, and all of the girls in her hometown are pretty darned straight.
James Ellsworth is a bit jaded, especially for his young age. He hates school, and longs for his parents’ estate, where life is far more pleasant. Meeting new schoolmate Daniel Courtney is a much-needed distraction, one that will prove more and more engrossing as James and Daniel grow older.
Ben just started high school-and it's tough but exciting. The sophisticated new girl who has just moved into the house across the street thinks he's a cat murderer. At school Ben's freshman football team is the worst ever, but the coach thinks Ben is so good he just might skip JV and go straight to varsity.
Barbara Jean (BJ) Belanger has always suffered from low self-esteem: she has a portwine birthmark on her face, she feels overweight, and has repeatedly suffered the taunts of others her age for which she is a natural target, a victim. One of the very few who have treated her with respect, understanding and affection is Alex, who becomes her best friend. And what's ripping her apart as the story opens is that she knows she has betrayed him in the worst possible way.
In the glittering world of New York City's richest and most famous prep school, best friends Paige and Anthony become equally entranced by the enigmatic, ever–so–cute new guy Max, but in order to snag him, they must first use their charms and wit to discover the truth–is he or isn't he?
In Jack, A. M. Homes gives us a teenager who wants nothing more than to be normal -- even if being normal means having divorced parents and a rather strange best friend. But when Jack's father takes him out in a rowboat on Lake Watchmayoyo and tells his son he's gay, nothing will ever be normal again.
Marco and Katie, devastated by the death of their friend Jerome and separated by thousands of miles, turn to each other for comfort and answers. Marco, in New Zealand, and Katie, in America as a foreign-exchange student, converse through a series of online chats, faxes, and email messages. As they explore the nature of their respective relationships with Jerome, denial gives way to truth.