Summary: Darwin finds the perfect mate in his first-cousin Emma, who becomes his comforter, editor, mother of his 10 children—and sparring partner. Charles and Emma were on opposite sides when it came to the role of God in creation. The Darwin family letters and papers craft a full-bodied look at the personal influences that shaped Charles’ life as he worked mightily to shape his theories. This intersection between religion and science is where the book shines, but it is also an excellent portrait of what life was like during the Victorian era, a time when illness and death were ever present, and, in a way, a real-time example of the survival of the fittest.
Henry Holt
Summary: On his way to State University, nineteen-year-old James runs into a former friend and is immersed in memories from the year they were twelve and learned that monsters exist in the world–and within themselves.
Summary: A group of teenaged boys holds a competition to see who can kiss the most girls at their school in England.
Summary: In the small town of Ondine, Louisiana, fourteen-year-old Iris uncovers family secrets when she conjures up the ghost of a boy missing for decades and decides to solve the mystery of his disappearance.
Summary: Seventeen-year-old Quinn has heard all her life about how untrustworthy men are, so when she discovers that her charismatic but selfish father, with whom she has recently begun to have a tentative relationship, has stolen from the many women in his life, she decides she must avenge this wrong.
Summary: In an overpopulated world where all signs of nature have been obliterated and a wall has been erected to keep out plague-ridden animals, twelve-year-old Mika refuses to believe that his twin sister was killed after being abducted, and continues to search for her in spite of the dangers he faces in doing so.
Summary: Traces the author’s experiences growing up with a white father who believed himself to be African-American, describing how his efforts to indoctrinate her into black culture caused her to be rejected by her black and white peers.
Summary: Ninth-grader Allison has always been the least attractive among her sisters, but when she allows the devil to possess her cell phone in exchange for appearing to be gorgeous, she must confront the power and deceptiveness of appearances.
Summary: Spenser reflects back to when he was fourteen-years-old and how he helped his best friend Jeannie when she was abducted by her abusive father.
Summary: Dara’s seventeen and when her classmates find out about her illustrious resume, their jaws drop. That’s just one of her many problems. Another is that her control-freak mom won’t get off her case about anything. Yet the one that hurts the most is the family secret: Dara has an older sister her parents tried to erase from their lives.