Elle's a loner. She doesn't need people. Which is good, because now she has to move out of her apartment so her mother's boyfriend won't have to deal with her. Then she meets Frank, the guy next door. Being with him is impossible: he's a grown-up and has a girlfriend. Still, Elle can't stop thinking about him. Frank isn't like anyone Elle has ever met. He listens...
GRACE: Ten-year-old Grace knows that her mum loves her, but her mum loves drugs too. And there's only so long Grace can fend off the 'woman from the county' who is threatening to put her into care. Her only hope is...
BILLY: Grown-man Billy Shine hasn't been out of his apartment for years. People scare him, and the outside world scares him even more. Day in, day out, he lives a...
Nathan McCann's life is safe and comfortable but not much more. His wife has her own bedroom, usually with the door shut. His best friend is his curly-coated retriever, Sadie. But Flora won't even allow her in the house.
One morning at dawn, on a routine duck hunt, his dog finds an abandoned newborn in a pile of leaves in the woods. It's a cold October morning, so Nathan assumes he...
Richard is a 36-year-old man who’s just lost his beloved wife in a car accident. Still in shock and not even having begun the process of grieving, he is invited to the hospital to meet Vida, the young woman who received her donor heart. Vida takes one look at Richard and feels she’s loved him all her life. Richard assumes she’s just a foolish young girl. And maybe she is. Or maybe...
When Theresa brings James to a party as her date, it’s just for the night . . . and he knows that. But when everything goes horribly wrong, James drives his motorcycle off a cliff.
Theresa tries to run away from the pain, becoming a new young woman with a whole new life. She meets people, of course, but she never really makes connections—she’s too scared she’ll hurt them, too. But...
One girl: Vida is nineteen, very sick, and has spent her short life preparing for death. But a new chance brings its own story, because for Vida to live, someone had to die. One man: Richard has just lost his beloved wife in a car accident. He hasn't even begun to address his grief, but feels compelled to meet the girl who inherited his wife's heart. Someone else's heart: In...
Nathan McCann's life is sane and comfortable but not much more. His wife has her own bedroom, usually with the door shut. His best friend is his curly-coated retriever, Sadie. But Flora won't even allow her in the house.
One morning at dawn, on a routine duck hunt, his dog finds an abandoned newborn in a pile of leaves in the woods. It's a cold October...
Ernie doesn't have a lot of friends at school. Just Will. They have stuff in common—like fishing. But more important, they have common enemies: the school jocks, who seem to find bullying just another sport.
Ernie and Will take life at high school in stride. Until Will has one very bad day. Now nothing is remotely funny. Ernie finds himself a witness—to loss, to...
This provocative, unlikely love story that starts on a New York subway car and blossoms under the windmills of the Mojave Desert. Sebastian and Maria live in worlds ruled by fear. Sebastian, a lonely seventeen-year-old, is suffocating under his dominant father's control; Maria, young mother of two, tries to keep peace at home despite her boyfriend's abuse. When their eyes meet...
A moving novel about the bond between a five year old abandoned by his mother and the man who raises him. After accidentally killing a police office five years ago, Pearl has managed to protect her bright, frail young son Leonard from her violent past. Then one day, Pearl drops him off with their neighbor Mitch, and never returns. Mitch is far from the ideal caretaker--he’s having...
Cynnie can take care of herself—and more importantly, she can take care of her little brother, Bill. So it doesn’t matter that her mom is drunk all the time. Cynnie’s got her own life. Cynnie’s the one Bill loves more than anyone. Cynnie’s the real mother in the house. And if there’s one thing she knows for sure, it’s that she’ll never, ever sink as low as her mother. But when...
Meet Jordy. He’s on his own in New York. Nobody to depend on; nobody depending on him. And it’s been working fine. Until this girl comes along. She’s 18 and blond and pretty–her world should be perfect. But she’s seen things no one should ever see in their whole life–the kind of things that break a person. She doesn’t seem broken, though. She seems . . . innocent. Like she...
A dead World War II soldier reaches through time to touch the people he loved most. Michael Steeb is young and more than a bit lost, living a ramshackle life in California with few material possessions, little direction and no real goals, until Walter arrives. As the dead man's past becomes entwined with Michaels' own memories, this spiritual connection moves Michael's mind and...
Hayden Reese, at 50, has lost virtually everything that ever mattered to him, and he's clinging to life after being shot by an angry husband whose wife he loved. His troubles began early. In his mid-teens, Hayden was powered by hatred for his cruel and irrational father and burdened with guilt over the death of his younger brother. In the early years of his marriage his losses...
The moving story of Trevor McKinney, a 12-year-old boy who accepts his social studies teacher’s challenge to come up with a plan to change the world. Trevor’s idea is simple: Do a good deed for three people and ask them to "pay it forward" to three others who need help. He envisions a vast movement of kindness and goodwill spreading beyond his small California town and across the...
Each of the 18 stories in this strong collection by Hyde (Funerals for Horses) holds a dangerous emotional temptation for its protagonist. Often, they arrive in strange towns out West fresh from funerals or breakups, eager to avoid another broken heart. In the first story, a woman discovers that her married lover has suddenly died and left her to care for his emotionally needy and...
Ella Ginsberg, the narrator of this debut novel, comes from a dysfunctional home: her sister commits suicide, her mother descends into psychosis, and her father is imprisoned. Ella, who feels she was "born the wrong species," escapes into her own private world and is protected by her brother, Simon, who takes over the parental reins in their dissolving family. As a growing adult,...
My first experience with Brent was a simple one. He sent me an email, asking if he could review my forthcoming (at the time) Young Adult novel Jumpstart the World for his...
My fourth reader slideshow is done, and this time it's all Pay it Forward, all the time. Many thanks to those who sent in photos of themselves with the book.
If you watch...
Two incredible bloggers (and by that I mean they have great blogs and are great people, both), Adam of Roof Beam Readerand Lauren of Shooting Stars Mag, are holding a...
Photo by Marco van Hylckama VliegAmazing how much I think of Pam—creator of the popularBookalicious blog—as a friend, considering we’ve never met face to face. But we’re only...
Gr 9 Up–When her mother chooses her boyfriend over her own daughter, Elle, 16, is moved into an apartment across Manhattan. She develops a friendship with Frank, who lives next...
Catherine Ryan Hyde is the author of 18 published and forthcoming books including the newest releases Don't Let Me Go, Jumpstart the World, Second Hand Heart and When I Found You. Other novels in print are Becoming Chloe, Love in the...
The Pay It Forward Foundation, Marriage Equality (See Human Rights Campaign), the 350 movement to help ease global climate change, LandWatch San Luis Obispo...
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