It's hard to be a "Black Sheep Baxter," at least for 12-year-old Polly. From a poor white family, Polly's best friend, Timbre Ann Biggs, is black, making them the only "salt-and-pepper" friends in town. But in that fall of 1959, life in quiet Holcolm County starts to heat up as one by one, thriving colored businesses burn to the ground. When someone throws a note wrapped around a brick through the window of Biggs Repair, Polly worries that Timber Ann will be blinded by the color of her skin and forget they were ever close. When a tragic fire brings everything to a head, the spotlight falls on Polly's family. Sensitively painting a vivid portrait of the Jim Crow South, Polly's inspiring story captures the defiant spirit of youth in an oppressive small town, just as the seeds of the Civil Rights Movement begin to sprout.

Between Us Baxters

Children's Books

Bethany Hegedus

Literature & Fiction

WestSide Books

Ernie Dolan, 14, is plagued by the curse of the average. Nothing about him stands out-except his stutter. Only best friend Mike Rivers sees him at his best. Then, at a competitive basketball camp, Mike excels while Ernie is-average. When Ernie blunders in a pickup game, Rick Craig, obnoxious camp hotshot, nicknames him "Choke." This sets the tone for Ernie's first week. But he soon finds three new allies: bunkmate Albert Mann, a goofy genius and practical joker; Coach Petrovich, a 6'8" Russian who mangles the English language; and camp director Tim Sanders, the mentor every kid needs. Soon, Ernie and Mike are on the outs, as Mike hangs with Craig and the jocks. But things change dramatically as Ernie morphs from outcast to hero, risking his life to save three campmates from near tragedy. Ernie's funny, heartwarming story unfolds against the backdrop of exciting, authentic basketball action, while touching on typical teen issues of friendship and the near-deadly consequences of peer pressure.

Stepping Up

Mark Fink

Overweight Wrenn Scott desperately wants to be popular and snag a hot boyfriend. Living with her single mom and younger sister, Karly, she lands a lead role in the high school musical, her voice for once overshadowing her weight. Pushing to get thinner by opening night, Wrenn's waistline shrinks as she learns all the wrong ways to lose weight from a new "it-girl" friend in the show. Meanwhile, her mom is falling for Phil, "a balding Channel 8 News-nerd"; her sister is wrapped up in her own share of middle school drama, and Wrenn's best friend has fallen for a guy she met online-but hasn't even seen yet! Topping it off, geeky stage manager Steven has a crush on her. But Wrenn doesn't want to be seen with him- she's holding out for a trophy boyfriend whom everyone will envy. By opening night, the old Wrenn has almost disappeared. After a crisis reveals her weight-loss tricks, Wrenn realizes there are much more important things than being thin, popular, or even dating a hunk.

One Wish

Leigh Brescia

Teen & Young Adult

Three lives intersect unexpectedly in this unique, compelling story. First there's Will, an eighteen-year-old living alone since his mother died and his drug- and alcohol-addled brother went to jail. Then there's Kurt, a troubled fourteen-year-old loner still reeling after the death of his mother's abusive boyfriend and from his part in it. And finally there's Carrie, a middle-aged schizophrenic who "hears" the thoughts of the abused and neglected neighborhood animals she rescues. When Carrie and Kurt meet, she offers to pay him for each "stray" cat or dog he delivers. But when Carrie's "rescuing" goes too far, events spiral dangerously out of control. Told from alternating viewpoints, Listen is the haunting story of people thrown together by fate, each struggling to come to terms with their harrowing past.

Listen

Nancy Coffelt

Teen violin prodigy Cassie has been tiptoeing around her father, whose moods have become increasingly explosive. After he destroys her beloved and valuable violin, Cassie, shocked, runs away, eventually seeking refuge in a homeless shelter. She later learns that her father, a former violinist, was physically beaten as a child by her grandfather, a painful secret he's kept hidden from his family, and the cause of his violent outbursts. With all of their lives shattered in some way, Cassie's family must struggle to repair their broken relationships. As Cassie moves forward, she ultimately finds a way to help others, having developed compassion through her own painful experiences. Written in lyrical prose, Shattered tells the moving story of how one girl finds inner strength through music.

Shattered

Kathi Baron

Courtney Condon, a funny, off-beat junior, is caught smack in the middle of the war between the Lewds and the Prudes at Delaware-Valley High School. Court's the founder of an abstinence club at Dull-Val. But when she's assigned an Op Ed piece for the school paper that forces her to work with Lance, the major player and hottest guy at school, this up-close and personal contact with Lance throws her into a Whirlwind of Confusion over her chaste ideals. Meanwhile, Courtney's staunchly devout, strict-Catholic mom is pushing her own form of prudishness to the point of alienating the entire family, especially when Mom catches Court in a lip-lock with Lance in his car, right in her very own driveway! Laugh-out-loud funny, Dear Big V illuminates the conflict between hormones and values that teens face every day.

Dear Big V

Ellen W. Leroe

Set against the backdrop of a child murder in 1930s-era Chicago, three teenagers' lives are about to change dramatically. From different sides of the tracks, Zane and Fred forge a bond through their shared love of cartooning. But Fred quickly realizes that Zane has a dark undercurrent, especially when he violates Maizy, the sturdy but naive working class neighborhood girl whose lack of self-esteem and lifelong love for Zane overwhelm her judgment. Meanwhile, Zane's father harbors a shocking secret that only Maizy and Fred discover, and the events that follow lead all three teens to make difficult, life-changing decisions. Told with compassion and honesty from each teen's perspective, Something Terrible Happened on Kenmore unflinchingly examines love and loss, friendship and sexuality, all significant factors on the path to becoming an adult.

Something Terrible Happened on Kenmore

Marci Stillerman

Andy Crenshaw, 15, is about to have a summer he didn't expect. He lives in the shadow of his good-looking, athletic older brother, Brad, and they don't get along. Lately they only agree on their excitement over their upcoming trip to Hawaii. But the family's plans change at the last minute, packing the boys off to rural Wisconsin. They'll be stuck with their wacky, free-spirited aunt and uncle--on a farm with no cable TV and Internet. Things start looking up when Andy scores a date with Laura, a cute teenage local celebrity pianist, and even Brad's impressed. Laura's amazing: besides her late night jam sessions at a local jazz club, she's the funniest, little-bit-crazy girl Andy's ever met. He's shocked at first to see her in a wheelchair, but nothing stops Laura--her killer bowling skills leave Andy in the dust. Meanwhile, Andy and Brad share a series of misadventures and narrow escapes that move their brotherhood to a whole different level. It all adds up to a summer no one will soon forget.

The Summer I Got a Life

At 16, Star's life has changed drastically now that she's become the mother of a baby boy. To learn what's best for him, Star's taking parenting classes at a center for teen moms. But she's having trouble keeping up with the baby's demands, and her grandmother is threatening to force her to put the baby up for adoption. To top it off, Wilson, a popular star athlete, is in denial about being the father. He doesn't know about Star's terrible, painful secrets. But as Wilson's friends and family push him to accept his responsibility, he learns the truth about Star's disturbing past, facts that change his life forever. Told from Star's and Wilson's points-of-view, Star in the Middle reveals a compelling snap-shot of the difficult lives of teenage parents.

Star in the Middle

Carol Larese Millward

The last place fifteen-year-old Willow wants to spend her summer is on a run-down former coffee barge in a boatyard in Rockaway, New York. But that's where her aunt is converting the broken down hulk into a floating concert hall and Willow has no choice but to help; her unstable mom has kicked her out for the summer. Willow's miserable when she sees that there isn't even a shower on the barge, and she has to deal with Craig, the leering hunk of a construction worker working with her aunt. The only bright spot is Axel, an older teenage boy living alone on a neighboring sailboat. Introverted and mysterious, he has the soul of a poet, a deep, philosophical mind, and loves Shakespeare. He's also scarred by a painful, disturbing past, and the two bond through their shared pain and laughter. But when devastating events threaten to destroy them, Willow and Axel struggle to save each other--and themselves--before it's too late.

Saved by the Music

Selene Castrovilla

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