Showing results by narrator "Taylor Meskimen" in All Categories

Being recruited by the CIA to join a top-secret intelligence program should be the opportunity of a lifetime. For Issa, it's a shot at creating a new and better life for herself and her siblings. For clever con artist Harper, it's a chance to bury the secrets of her troubled past and make sure those secrets stay buried. But for Owen - honor student, star quarterback, and computer-hacking genius - it sounds like a trap. He's right. They've all been tricked by a multibillion-dollar tech company into creating the ultimate computer virus.

Fifteen-year-old Alyx Atlas was raised as a boy, yet she knows something others don't. She's a girl. And after her dad dies, it becomes painfully obvious that she must prove it now - to herself and to the world. Born with ambiguous genitalia, Alyx has always felt a little different. But it's after she sustains a terrible beating behind a 7-Eleven that she and her mother pack up their belongings and move from California to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to start a new life - and Alyx begins over again, this time as a girl.

Twelve-year-old Olivia Hales has a foolproof plan for winning a million dollars so that she and her little sister, Berkeley, can leave behind Sunny Pines Trailer Park. But first she has to: Fix the swamp cooler and make dinner and put Berkeley to bed because her mom is too busy to do all that. Write another letter to her dad even though he hasn't written back yet. Teach Berk the important stuff, like how to make chalk drawings, because they can't afford day care and Olivia has to stay home from school to watch her.

The dark truth behind the Johnstown Flood of 1889 - one of the greatest calamities our country has ever experienced - is revealed in a beautiful, harrowing story, told in luminous verse.

Archie, Betty, Jughead, Veronica, and the rest of the gang are all getting ready for the next stage of their lives after high school graduation - or, at least, they're trying to. But then, one by one, they all receive a mysterious letter from someone calling themselves the Poison Pen. Somehow, the letter writer knows some of Riverdale's deepest, darkest secrets. And the Poison Pen is threatening to reveal all unless Archie and his friends do exactly what they're told - from posting embarrassing videos of themselves to blowing up someone else's marriage.

Jilly thinks she's figured out how life works. But when her sister Emma is born deaf, she realizes how much she still has to learn. A big fantasy reader, Jilly connects with another fan, Derek, who is African American and a deaf ASL user. She goes to Derek for advice but doesn't always know the best way to ask for it and makes some mistakes along the way. Jilly has to step back to learn to be an ally, a sister, and a friend, understanding that life works in different ways for different people, and that being open to change can make you change in the best possible ways.

Meet Moon! She's more than just a rock - she’s Earth’s rock, her best friend she can always count on. Moon never turns her back on her friend (Literally: She's always facing Earth with the same side!). These two will stick together forever. With characteristic humor and charm, Stacy McAnulty channels the voice of Moon in this next celestial "autobiography" in the Our Universe series.

Port Winston, Texas - home to sun, sand, and shopping. What's not to like? Everything to 14-year-old Elizabeth Barker. Port Winston is a far cry from small-town Missouri where Elizabeth used to be somebody and family meant something a whole lot different. Taunted at school as the newbie camera geek, Elizabeth's given up trying to fit in. Between Mom's journalism assignment in Mexico, Dad's 14-hour workdays on top of weekends minding Grandpa and his shrimp boat, Elizabeth's once close-knit family life is in shreds....

Spring break...heartache? For coder extraordinaire Ashley, high school is all about prepping for college. Her love life? Virtually nonexistent. She's never been on a date. Never been kissed. Never been in love. When her plans veer off course, Ashley realizes she might be missing out on her high school experience. Now that spring break is finally here, Ashley vows to have fun...and, for the first time, follow her heart.

A husband’s search for his wife’s lover, lost amid the turbulence of the Yom Kippur War, is the heart of this dreamlike novel. Through five different perspectives, Yehoshua explores the realities and consequences of the affair and the search, laying bare deep-rooted tensions within family, between generations, between Jews and Arabs.

Maddie Robinson has always been overlooked: by her parents (who disappeared), by her friends (who are nonexistent), and even science fair judges (who think she has “so much...potential”). So when a mysterious man called The Recruiter invites her to join a secret society of spies, Maddie is floored. Then she discovers that these super secret super spies are the Illuminati - the world’s most covert organization rumored to control, well, everything. And one more thing: The Illuminati are kids, like Maddie!

Jenny Kennedy appears to have it all. She’s the perfect daughter, the popular girl at school and a successful beauty queen. But then Jenny is found dead in a murder that rocks the small town she grew up in to the core. Her estranged half-sister Virginia finds herself thrust into the spotlight as the case dominates the news and is desperate to uncover who killed Jenny. But she soon realises that maybe Jenny’s life wasn’t so perfect after all. The truth is that Jenny has more than a few secrets of her own, and so do her neighbours. What really happened that night?

With her mom and new baby brother home from the hospital, it's almost time for Harriet to pack up and head home from Marble Island and all the friends she's made. But Harriet doesn't have time to think about that—not when she discovers that Moneypenny, her Nanu’s adorable basset hound, has been poisoned! Harriet suspects the culprit is one of the guests staying at Nanu's bed-and-breakfast, and she and her best friend, Clarence, are once again on the case.

After her mother runs off with her much-younger boyfriend, 14-year-old Flanders is shipped off to a boarding school in Virginia. On the train, she meets Carolyn Cardmaker, a preacher's daughter who will become her best friend. She also meets Ernestine Blue. Miss Blue is Flanders' faculty advisor at the Charles School, where each residence hall is named after a Charles Dickens novel. But Miss Blue's strict disciplinarian persona may be concealing a tragic past.

Locklyn Adair thought that finding the Sea Enchantress would lift her family’s curse. But the ramifications of her desire for a tail reach further than she could ever have dreamed. Now the entire Undersea Realm is in peril, as Circe, armed with the locket capable of controlling the Loch Ness monster, journeys to the North Sea in pursuit of revenge.

Ten years after Sofia was killed in a tragic accident, her college ex Caroline and her former roommate Brooke almost have what they’ve always wanted. Caroline is on the precipice of scoring funding for her feminist tech startup. Brooke is newly engaged and starting her dream job at a prestigious prep school. But unless the two best friends can cheat fate a second time, one night’s secrets could unravel everything.

From Katie Vaz, author of Don’t Worry, Eat Cake, the beloved Make Yourself Cozy, and The Escape Manual for Introverts, comes My Life in Plants. Her newest book tells the story of her life through the thirty-nine plants that have played both leading and supporting roles, from her childhood to her wedding day. Plants include a homegrown wildflower bouquet wrapped in duct tape that she carried on stage at age three, to a fragrant basil plant that brought her and her kitchen back to life after grief.

Audrey St. Vrain has grown up in the shadow of someone who doesn’t actually exist. Before she was born, her mother, Camilla St. Vrain, wrote the bestselling book Letters to My Someday Daughter, a guide to self-love that advises treating yourself like you would your own hypothetical future daughter. The book made Audrey’s mother a household name, and she built an empire around it. While the world considers Audrey lucky to have Camilla for a mother, the truth is that Audrey knows a different side of being the someday daughter.

Fifteen-year-old Evia Birtwhistle can’t seem to catch a break. At home, she must deal with her free-spirited mom, and at school she’s the target of ridicule for stating basic truths: like that girls have body hair! When her BFF Frankie—who has facial hair due to her PCOS—becomes the target of school bullies, Evia decides that enough is enough and creates the ‘Hairy Girls’ Club.’ Leading a feminist movement at school is not easy. Boys often look at Evia like she’s a total weirdo, and the self-proclaimed ‘smoothalicious’ girls start their own campaign in retaliation.

Four girls are forced to spend the summer together when their moms reunite at their childhood lake house. Always-sunny Skyler is a softball star who’s hiding how bad her joint pain has gotten. Always-stormy Scarlett, Skyler’s twin, would much rather be hanging out with her boyfriend back home. Amelia Grace just wants to escape her conservative stepdad after he caught her kissing a girl. And homeschooled social-media star Ellie is just excited at the chance to make some friends IRL.