Norma Fox Mazer
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How is it possible to feel more at home with your friends than with your own family? Sometimes Calvin Miller really hates that he and his mother, Nina, don’t have a home of their own. Instead, they live in Garo’s house—well, more precisely, Alan’s house. A pilot who is always away, Alan is also Nina’s boss. As his live-in housekeeper, Nina raises Alan’s son, Garo, right alongside Cal. Luckily, the boys are good friends despite their...
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Some loves last forever-others, only a summer The summer Mary turns fifteen, she meets an unsuitable boy with an even more unsuitable motorcycle. Who cares if he's from the wrong side of the tracks? He's fun, and that's a risk Mary decides is worth taking. Before she got married and had three children, Zelda quit college to work in a factory because she thought it would impress her seriously political boyfriend. But it was in the factory that she...
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Eight extraordinary stories of heartbreak, growing up, and the importance of finding your voice Everything changes eventually. Jessie Granatstein doesn't think she'll have anything to say in the journal her teacher asks her to write-until suddenly, the words come tumbling out. Zoe Eberhardt has been raised and cherished by the strong, powerful women in her family, but when she turns fourteen, she starts to see that she'll soon have to establish...
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It's little sister vs. big in this fresh take on a classic struggle by a master storyteller.Everything ten year-old Sprig wants, her older sister Dakota already has. Everything Sprig does, Dakota does better. And anytime Sprig complains, Dakota just grins and calls her a baby. It's enough to make a kid wish her sister would disappear.But in a year when Sprig's father is away, her favorite neighbor is ill, and the class bully is acting almost like,...
5) Girlhearts
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Some families you're born into, some you have to find for yourself Sarabeth Silver knows that her mom is different. Jane Silver is younger, prettier, harder working, and poorer-making just enough money cleaning houses for her and Sarabeth to live in a little trailer. It's always been just the two of them, but when tragedy suddenly strikes, Sarabeth will have to figure things out on her own. Sarabeth has never known either of her parents' families,...
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After falling asleep in a park, fourteen-year old Zan awakens to find herself transported back in time to the forest world of a band of prehistoric cave dwellers. Adopted by the group, she learns their language and customs, exults in their triumphs, and shares in their grief. However, the society's wise woman has her doubts about Zan, who she believes has brought misfortune with her. In mortal danger, Zane is able to return to her own time-an eleven-month...
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Escaping from the terrors of World War II, Karin gets the chance for a new life in America-but she can't stop thinking about her mother, who she left behind in France Karin Levi's life in Paris was happy and normal. She never dreamed she would find herself hiding in a cramped attic with her family, sitting silently while police went from house to house hunting for Jews and turning them over to German soldiers. Hopeless and scared, only Maman's loving...
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How's a girl supposed to know when she's in love - and more importantly, how does she get out of it? One remarkable older sister would be bad enough, but Karen Freed has two: Liz, a beautiful poet, and Tobi, compellingly intense and argumentative. Karen knows she couldn't possibly compete, but it would be nice to be known for something of her own. The three have been inseparable all through Karen's childhood, but now her sisters have moved into a...
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Bunny is funny, but that doesn't mean she's totally clueless when it comes to more serious matters. With her quick wit and lighthearted personality, Bunny Larrabee can make people laugh about almost anything. She collects knock-knock jokes, riddles, and all kinds of comedy routines to try out on her best friend, Emily. The only thing Bunny doesn't find humor in is her unusual name - she's heard jokes about it her whole life, and none of them are funny....
10) What I Believe
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Vicki wishes she could solve her problems as easily as she can arrange words into a poem Vicki Marnet has two wonderful big brothers who are completely regular people. They like sports, chess, and the student senate, and are totally normal-unlike Vicky, who feels in her heart that she's different. For one thing, she writes poetry for fun. She plays with sonnets, pantoums, sestinas-all kinds of stanzas and rhymes, anything to take her mind off what's...
11) Missing Pieces
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Jessie's father has always been a missing piece of her life-but if she were to find him, how would he feel about her? Jessie Wells thinks four is a good number. Things with four sides are sturdy and strong. A box, a chair, a room with four walls. But ever since the day Jessie's dad left, Jessie, her mother, and Aunt Zis have been a triangle-three-sided, though solidly linked. Jessie has heard the story: Her beautiful young mother had married a...
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Fourteen-year-old Terri has lived with her father since the death of her mother in a car accident when she was four. Father and daughter move often, the reason for which becomes clear when Terri finds out that her mother is not dead, and that she was kidnapped by her father when her parents were getting a divorce.
13) Someone to Love
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Nina always thought that if just one person would love her perfectly and completely, she'd never be alone again Nina's the first person in her family to leave home and go to college. Maybe that's why she feels so isolated once she gets there, especially compared to some of the other students-like her roommates, who have been friends for so long they can finish one another's sentences. But it seems like her narrow, small-town past hasn't prepared her...
14) Out of Control
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Going along with the crowd can have shattering consequences Why does everyone always want you to make so many choices? Pizza or burgers, swimming or a movie, one friend or another, yes or no. For Rollo Wingate, who's always been the biggest guy in school, sometimes it's easier to relax and let someone else take the lead. After all, when he and his two best friends get together, they're always on the same page-which is probably why he goes along with...
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How is it possible that the one guy Jenny falls for is totally off limits? March isn't usually Jenny's month. For one thing, it's too dark and gray. For another, her sister, Gail, died two years ago in March after being hit by a drunk driver, a blow her family hasn't yet recovered from. But March is also when she first sees Rob. He's new in school, and although Jenny doesn't know who he is yet, she can't look away when they pass each other in the...
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Danita knows that nobody's perfect, but it's never easy to admit that might include your own parents Danita's parents love to remind their daughter that she weighed less than a loaf of bread when she was born, but now that she's almost fourteen and perfectly healthy, Danita really wishes they'd give her some space. Obviously still in love and completely devoted to their family, even Danita's best friend, Laredo, thinks Mr. and Mrs. Merritt are the...
17) Downtown
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In real-life, happily ever after can be hard to come by Pete Greenwood loves history. Any era or country will do as long as the books are lengthy and full of the past. But that may be because Pete's own history is a work of fiction. For the last eight years, he's lived with his uncle Gene under an assumed name. He's had to keep his parents' existence a secret ever since they committed an act of political protest that went tragically wrong. Living...
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Both overlooked in the middle of a big, noisy family, Jenny and her grandpa will always have each other to confide in . . . right? No one in Jenny Pennoyer's family understands her at all-no one, that is, except her grandfather, who lives in an apartment in the basement of her family's home. Jenny and her grandfather have been close ever since she was born, when Grandpa, newly widowed, found that a baby was just the thing he needed to get back...
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Emily just wants everything to be perfect-is that too much to ask? When Emily's parents got divorced two years ago, her dad still made time to see her and the twins as much as possible. But since he moved to Chicago with Marcia, his phone calls have started getting less and less frequent and it feels like he might as well live at the North Pole. And if that weren't bad enough, her mom seems ready to start a new family, too! Emily knows that it's...
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The more things change, the more Ami wishes they'd stay exactly the same. Ami and her best friend, Mia, share almost everything - even the letters in their names! But when Ami's mom and dad separate and her mom moves out, even all of the traditions she and Mia share can't put her family back together. Ami wants everything to go back to the way it was - for her mother not to live in an apartment and have a life of her own, and for her dad not to go...