Showing results by narrator "Laura Knight Keating" in All Categories

Welcome to the wasteland. At 15, the citizens of Prin marry. At 17, they reproduce. And at 19, they die. Esther thinks there's more to life than toiling at the assignments - Harvesting, Gleaning, Excavating - day after day under the relentless sun, just hoping to make it to the next day. She doesn't care that her best friend, a variant, is considered "the enemy". She doesn't care that Levi, who controls the Source, is the real enemy and might send his Taser boys after her if she makes one wrong move. Then Caleb shows up. Could there be another way to fight for survival?

For Ivy, summer means roller-coaster season, spinning cotton candy at the Fabuland amusement park, and hanging out with her best friend, Morgan. But this summer is different. One morning, Morgan finds a dead body. It's their former classmate and coworker Ethan. To make matters worse, Morgan is taken to a hospital psych ward only days later, and she's not saying much - not even to Ivy. The police claim that Ethan simply took a bad fall, but Ivy isn't convinced and realizes it's up to her to get answers.

Every year on March 26, Verity Peterson visits Ogunquit Beach, where she puts a handwritten message into a bottle and launches it into the waves. It’s a ritual of remembrance for the daughter she hasn’t seen in 16 years - not since her baby’s father, Alan, took two-month-old Gemma and disappeared. Verity keeps searching and hoping, sustained by the thought that someday she might get to be a mother to her own child. And finally, one phone call may change everything...

A little girl and her older friend poetically describe the garden as it changes through the seasons. This quiet, intergenerational story pays homage to experiencing nature as a child and as an adult. The two friends watch the birds, fly a kite, plant flowers and play in the snow. Ms. Zolotow's In My Garden was originally published in 1960.

In this memorable story, a ranger comes across a fox caught in a trap. The ranger frees the fox and promises only to tend to its wounds. The fox recovers and remains curiously close to the ranger, and when unexpected twists occur, the fox ends up being the helper. The ranger asks the fox, "Does this make us even?" and almost immediately feels regret - keeping score has no place in friendship. And so the two continue their journey together.

Could she ever share the secret of The Awful Year? There is one story that novelist Josephine Bourdillon shirked from writing. And now she may never have a chance. Trapped in her memories, she lies in a coma. The man who put her there is just as paralyzed. Former soldier Henry Hughes failed to complete the kill. What's more: he never received full payment - funds that would ensure surgery for his son. As detectives investigate disturbing fan letters, a young but not-so-naive Paige Bourdillon turns to her mother's turbulent past for answers.

Mansfield, Massachusetts, is the last place 17-year-old Edie Price wants to spend her final summer before college. It's the home of wealthy suburban mothers and prima donnas like Edie's cousins, who are determined to distract her from her mother's death with cute boys and Cinderella-style makeovers. She's got her own plans, and they don't include any prince charming. But as she dives into schoolwork and getting a scholarship for college, Edie finds herself drawn to two Mansfield boys strumming for her attention.

Justine Childs is your average teenage girl, until the day ex-child-star Eva Kate Kelly moves in across the way. Eva Kate is gorgeous, seductive, and eager to invite Justine into her glittery world. Their relationship intensifies quickly, but there is a lot they aren't telling each other, and in the midst of the whirlwind, a girl lies dead. Who killed Eva Kate? Justine swears her innocence - and she'd like you to hear her side of the story.

How badly do you want to be famous? What - or who - would you sacrifice? These are the questions Justine Childs is forced to reckon with as the main suspect in the murder of it-girl Eva-Kate Kelly. Not long ago, Eva-Kate drew Justine into her orbit before meeting her untimely end in a Venice Beach canal. Prosecutors and the public want to know: Did Justine, now a social media darling in her own right, kill her celebrity best friend? Can anyone be trusted to tell the truth? Justine has always wanted people to know her name - but not all notoriety is created equal.

Whenever something scandalous happens at Heller High, the Red Court is the name on everyone's lips. Its members deal out social ruin and favors in equal measure, their true identities known only by their leader: the Queen of Hearts. Ember Williams has seen firsthand the damage the Red Court can do. Now, she's determined to hold the organization accountable by taking it down from the inside. But will the cost of revenge be more than she's willing to sacrifice?

No one thought that MacTrump - Lord of MacTrump Towers, Son of New York - would ascend to the highest position in the kingdom. Yet with the help of his unhappy but dutiful wife Lady MacTrump, his clever daughter Dame Desdivanka, and his coterie of advisers, MacTrump is comfortably ensconced in the White Hold as President of the United Fiefdoms, free to make proclamations to his subjects through his favorite messenger, McTweet. The Democrati, mourning the loss of their cherished leader O'Bama, won't give up without a fight.

In this authentic and heartfelt middle-grade novel, Maple uses her artwork to help sort through sibling relationships, school drama, and her parents’ increasingly fraught marriage. Ten-year-old Maple can’t wait for summer: No more math! Adventures with her friends! Best of all, she and Dad are finally going to build a real treehouse. Or are they? Lately Dad has been quick to storm off when he argues with Mom, which happens more and more. Maple seeks refuge in her sketchbook, filling it with comics and other drawings and posing the questions she can’t bring herself to ask anywhere else.

Penelope has been all over the globe, from the tippity top to the bottomitty bottom, traveling alongside her godmother, the super celebrity Queenie Bee. And she’s done things most kids never dream of, like feeding giraffes, exploring real glaciers, and hopping from one five-star hotel to the next. But there’s one thing she has never done, and she desperately wants to give it a try: go to school!

Girls in New America must have a chaperone with them at all times. Because of this, Stella is never alone. She can't go out by herself or learn about the world. She can't even spend time with boys except at formal Visitations. Still, Stella feels lucky that her chaperone, Sister Helen, is like a friend to her. And then the unthinkable happens. Sister Helen dies suddenly, and Stella feels lost. Especially when she's assigned a new chaperone just days later.

This is a book of oral presentations given by us animals, for us animals, and about us animals. The cleaner fish will talk about his friend the shark and his sharp teeth. The zebra will get to tell you about all the black-and-white animals in the world. The mole knows everything there is to know about the daddy longlegs. The southern cassowa—yes, fox? What is it? Yes, you'll get to talk about geese. Huh? Yes, you'll get to talk about how delicious they are.

Chronically ill seventeen-year-old Ivy has stayed inside baking all summer—pies are better than people, and they don’t trigger her social anxiety. So when her (also) chronically ill mom and sister cook up a plan to get Ivy out of the house and into a support group, Ivy doesn’t expect to say more than a few words. And she certainly doesn’t expect Grant. Grant is CUTE: class-clown cute, perfectly-messy-hair cute, will-always-text-you-back cute. There’s an instant connection between them. He has the same illness as her—juvenile rheumatoid arthritis—and he actually understands Ivy’s world.

By studying the Weston Farm Circles, her town’s legendary crop circle phenomenon, she’ll not only demonstrate the existence of extraterrestrial life, but also win the McMurray Youth Science Competition—a feat she’s sure will impress her distant NASA scientist father. Dani most certainly does not believe in aliens. How can she, when they go against every scientific principle she’s been taught?

Seventeen-year-old Gabe’s life is a mess. His debut album—produced by his rock star dad—made him an overnight sensation, but his second album tanked, he just got dumped by his on-again, off-again girlfriend, and he’s desperate to come up with the money he needs to fix a major screwup. The only place he can be free from the paparazzi and rumors is the family farm—the farm that 17-year-old Juniper’s family has managed since before she was born.

Franny never lets anyone know how often she thinks of the charismatic, troubled mom who left her years ago, any more than she talks about the unaccountable things Mom did while she was still in the picture. Life with Nana is safe and secure, and Franny’s innovative art projects fill in any lonesome times.

Monreith, Massachusetts, was once a small community of whalers and farmers. These days it’s a well-to-do town filled with commuters drawn to its rugged coastline and country roads. A peaceful, predictable place—until popular restaurateur Laurel Thibodeau is found brutally murdered in her own home. Suspicion naturally falls on Laurel’s husband, Simon, who had gambling debts that only her life insurance policy could fix. But there are other rumors too. Among the group of six friends gathered for Alice Stone’s fortieth birthday, theories abound concerning Laurel’s death.