Kategoria BISAC: Young Adult Fiction >> Social Themes - Drugs, Alcohol, Substance Abuse

The thing was that me and Rise were blood brothers, but sometimes I really didn't know him. . . .

As Jesse fills his sketchbook with drawings and portraits of Rise, he tries to make sense of the complexities of friendship, loyalty, and loss in a neighborhood plagued by drive-bys, vicious gangs, and abusive cops.

I can give it up any time I want . . .

Sometimes maybe you need an experience. The experience can be a person or it can be a drug. The experience opens a door that was there all the time but you never saw it. Or maybe it blasts you into outer space. This time it was Lily and Rob and Gemma spending all that time to make me feel one of them, but it was the drug too. All that crap--about Gemma leaving me, about Mum and Dad, about leaving home. All that negative stuff. All the pain . . .
It just floated away from me, I just floated away from it . . . up and away . . .
I leaned...

With a family always on the move, popularity and the ability to fit in quickly are vital to Brent Bishop's high school survival. When he blows his chances with the girl of his dreams in front of everyone, he's devastated. Brent tries to end it all in a fatal car crash, but instead he finds an unlikely beginning. He's sent on a journey of repentance--a cross-country trip building whirligigs. His wind toys are found by people in need: a Maine schoolgirl yearning for her first love, a Miami street-sweeper desperate for peace and quiet, a kid in Washington who just wants to play baseball, and...

Cee and her family live under a terrible curse. It may not be a spell out of the fairy tales, but it still dooms Cee and her sisters, Deana and Rose. Her father's alcoholism hangs over their house like a black cloud. It is getting worse, and young Cee doesn't know what to do.

Cee tries to block it out and spend more time with her best friends, Mo and Jimmy, but Mo is drifting away for some unknown reason. At the same time, Cee makes friends with someone who understands exactly what she's going through. Will it be enough support for the hard road ahead?

This poignant story...