National Network for Equitable Library Service

Just when Josh starts to think his break from school is going to be all chores and no cheer, his best friend, Mark, invites him to spend their break helping restore a historic home and mill in Oregon. With the help of their friends Angela and Mary Jane, and under the watchful eye of Aunt Sue and Uncle Doug, the kids spend weeks fixing up the grounds, basking in the freedom of country life and learning about the surrounding area. Not to mention eating bugs, domesticating feral cats and starring in a movie! But it's not all fun and filming.

After accepting a ride home, sixteen-year-old Emma Kennedy is raped by a boy from school. But handsome, popular Ross Schroeder tells everyone the sex was consensual, and Emma is immediately branded as a slut. Even Emma's best friend, Jen, doesn't believe Emma's version of events. In fact, she is angry with Emma because she feels betrayed. After all, she liked Ross first. But when Ross starts showing interest in Jen, Emma knows she will have to find a way to get Jen to believe that she really is in grave danger. Before it's too late.

Lauren, who has Autism Spectrum Disorder (an umbrella term that has included Asperger Syndrome since 2013), navigates the ups and downs of school and home life. School friendships have always been a challenge, but Lauren finds she is exactly the friend a brand new classmate needs On slug days Lauren feels slow and slimy. She feels like everyone yells at her, and that she has no friends. Today there is a different bus driver; Dan and Sachi are sitting in Lauren's seat on the bus; and Lauren's teacher interrupts her reading time. It is definitely a slug day.

Before Rory and Jillian's mother died two years ago, she hired Rebecca to be the family housekeeper. But Rebecca is a terrible cook and not so great at housework either. The weird lunches and laundry disasters drive the twins crazy. One day Jillian catches her father flirting with Rebecca and decides it's time to find him a girlfriend. Rory disagrees. But eventually he goes along with the idea, and they create a profile for their father on an online dating site. Dad is very reluctant, but Jillian gets him to agree to go on three dates before giving up.

Sixteen-year-old Penny has moved with her mom and huge dog, Ollie, to live above a small-town pub owned by her aunt. It's a relief to start over in a place where no one knows her father is in prison. It's summer, and the only person she knows is her nerdy cousin Simon. Soon she meets Simon's best friend, Brent, and Brent's twin sister, Tara, and their pug, Wolfgang. When Ollie digs up a human bone in the backyard of the pub, police are called. It turns out the bone is over twenty years old. Who can the dead person be? Surely Aunt Stella can't be involved.

When valuable cargo ships vanish from Rockfall Mountain's busiest port, crime-fighting goblin detective Fizz Marlow and his troll sleuthing partner, Tank Wrenchlin, know Detective Hordish is going to need their help (whether he wants it or not). But it's Tank's mom, the harbor master who is really feeling the heat. It's her responsibility to keep the harbor safe, and the lost ships quickly cost her her job.

Ryan Hale, aka Replay, is the most successful running  back in his high school's history. With university scouts making him offers he can't refuse, his future seems set. The problem is, Ryan would much rather go to film school. But his dad doesn't want to hear it. His teammates sure don't. He can't afford the application fees anyway. But then a solution appears when Markus, a strange exchange student with outrageous stories about mobsters and hackers, offers to pay Ryan to be his bodyguard.

Amber Fang enjoys life's simple pleasures. A perfect evening for her includes a good book, a glass of wine and, of course, a great meal, preferably straight from the jugular. Raised to eat ethically, Amber dines only on delicious cold-blooded killers. But confirming that her chosen victims deserve to die takes time. And patience. So it's a good thing Amber is studying to be a librarian. Her extraordinary research skills help her hunt down her prey, seek out other vampires and stay on the trail of her mother, who has been missing for over two years now.

Ryan Chandler, a successful but apathetic student, drops out of university and is soon leading a rudderless existence. Living at home, working a dead-end part-time job, but deeply dissatisfied, he accepts a rare opportunity to pursue his own research project. Soon installed in the German city of Karlsruhe, Ryan throws himself into his project, studying aspects of the first-ever international scientific meeting and focussing on the contributions to that meeting made by one of the delegates, a man who ultimately becomes a famous Italian chemist.

This is the story of Levi Pepperfield, who tries to navigate his future while indulging in the sorrows of his past. With the intersection of parallel worlds-of age and youth, of teacher and student, of man and woman, of real and fictional characters-and the help of a female rabbi, a former student, and a succession of literary giants both real and imagined, Levi begins to find his purpose and gets a second chance at life. Perhaps.