Jude Farraday is a helicopter parent and she knows it. She does everything she can to protect her kids, assuming that if she keeps their home a welcoming place then her children and their friends will remain safe under her watchful eye. This becomes increasingly difficult, though, as twins Mia and Zach get older, start [...]

Tags: coming of age, family life, friendship, grief, incarceration, social classes
Filed under: Book Review

High school freshman Janie Gorman just wants to fit in. She doesn’t need to be most popular or rule the school, she merely hopes to feel normal. However, when Janie shows up to school with goat poop on her shoe, joins a jam band, befriends a behemoth upperclassmen named Monster and a couple elderly civil [...]

Tags: animals, coming of age, family life, high schools, humor, identity, music, race
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This review was written by Isaiah Vianese. Isaiah is a poet and writing instructor in New York. You can read his blog and some of his poetry here. Martin Wilson’s What They Always Tell Us takes its cue from John Donovan’s I’ll Get There. It Better Be Worth the Trip. Like Donovan, Wilson does not [...]

Tags: family life, homosexuality
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Payton is the kind of girl who has a soft spot for office supplies and a serious need for organization. She strives for order and perfection on the basketball court, at school, and at home. However, when Payton finds out that her father has been diagnosed with MS–and she’s the only family member who hasn’t [...]

Tags: family life, fathers and daughters, high schools, humor, illness, romance, sports, therapy
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Arranged marriages are history, right? The kind of thing that only happens in movies. Or maybe still in India. But not in America. And not to Jasbir. Jasbir, known as Jazz by her friends, is shocked and upset when her parents tell her that they will be setting her up with a husband. After all, [...]

Tags: dating, family life, race, road trip, secrets, social classes
Filed under: Book Review