Zimmerman is the perfect kid: polite, well-behaved, honourable, a parent's dream. So why aren't his parents happy? At first they try to tempt him into joining their own lifestyle of indulgence and excess. Then they experience a sudden conversion and see their son as some kind of saint. The pressure of their desires and expectations is a bit too much for Zimmerman. He is heading for a precipice...

"My uncles patted me on the head as they walked by, my aunts bestowed wet kisses on my cheeks. They called me Eugene but most of them seldom looked into my eyes and I wondered if they really knew who I was." In a series of brief and elliptical vignettes that read more like free verse than the chapters in a novel, Robert Cormier paints a darkly beautiful picture of family life in an impoverished factory town.

Alexander "Sandy" Huntington-Ackerman has always lived an idyllic life with his parents in their country retreat. Except for the monthly visits of Sandy's uncles (ugly, envious and decidedly unpleasant), all is peaceful. Even the loony bin next door doesn't intrude on their serenity, until... uncles Bart and Bernie plot to poison Sandy's parents, sending them into comas. Suddenly Sandy gets a crash course in conflict and must find a way to revive his parents, expose the evil-doings of his uncles, save the band of loveable eccentrics at Walnut Manor, and win the girl of his dreams. A fresh and funny fable a la "The Truman Show".

"Do you remember the bad things in your life more than the good? I tend to remember disasters... This annoys my mother, who says I had a perfectly decent childhood. And maybe she's right, because compared to the catastrophe that happened when I was sixteen, the sum of all the painful events of my childhood would be as microscopic as those first single-celled bacteria climbing up the lips of volcanoes." Callisto May is pregnant. There is nobody she can talk to - not her grieving mother, not her distant, busy father, not her shallow and self-absorbed boyfriend, and certainly not her loving (and much-loved) little brother. Callisto is on her own. A thoughtful and poetic novel about love and loss.

Will Flowers and his sister are at war. And why? Because his sister Estelle, a formerly reasonable human being has been kidnapped and replaced by a banshee. There is no other explanation. This wild, angry person is not his sister. Inspired by another tale from the trenches, Will decides to write about it. This is his story... Anne Fine is the author of a number of wise and funny books about family life including Flour Babies and Goggle-Eyes. Her novel, Alias Madame Doubtfire became the movie, Mrs. Doubtfire.

Sara Moone feels as though she has been a foster kid forever. Just when she sets down roots, it's time to move on. But Sara has learned to cope - she has decided to bury her heart so it can't be broken again. If she can survive just one more placement, she will soon be sixteen and free to go out on her own. But the Huddlestons aren't making it easy to remain indifferent. Winner of the Governor General's Literary Award.

When Davey was a child, his sister Joanne took care of him. She had to; their mother would not, or could not. Now Joanne herself is a mother at seventeen, alone and desperate, and Davey begins to take on the role of parent to her child. A bittersweet story of love that is never enough.

Did you ever wish that a fictional character could be your real parent? Tessa Ramsay thinks Atticus, from "To Kill a Mockingbird", would be an ideal father. Her own has always seemed to care more for his work as a surgeon than for her. Now that he is home from Vietnam, things are even worse: Tessa's father is a cold stranger tormented by terrible nightmares. It seems that Tessa must be the parent, but her own need for love is dangerously powerful...

Memphis Riley didn't mean to drive her Aunt Clover to the edge. She didn't mean to, but she did. Now Clover has vanished down Blue Parrot Road and Memphis is in serious trouble. The three days that follow will change her life forever.

"I didn't believe Pamela would ever die. She was too big, too mad, too furious for anything so shabby and easy as death. And for a few moments as she lay on the floor that day, I thought it was one of her jokes." But it wasn't. Em Thurkill is on her own. She should be glad to be free of her sister's cruelty and violence, her relentlessly spiteful tongue. But Em finds that starting your life over is a frightening prospect and believing that you are a person who matters is hard when your whole life has taught you otherwise. Em's story is heartbreaking yet hopeful, and impossible to forget.

Seventeen. Pregnant. It is 1967 and Anne Harper is in a group home for unwed mothers waiting for the arrival of a baby she does not want, cannot keep, and will never know. She doesn't care; she refuses to care. When it's all over she will take up her life where she left off, and forget this ever happened. Definitely.

Maggie Morrison is one tough kid. She has to be - life in Oregon in the 1930's isn't easy, especially in Maggie's family. Her father drinks; her mother cries and copes. They move a lot. In spite of the hardships of her life, Maggie remains hopeful, loving her family and dreaming of a future as an artist. Honest, outspoken, and blessed with a talent for boxing, Maggie is her father's daughter.

Grady Grennan's mother died three years ago - of an overdose, in her car, in a rooftop parking lot. She was a rock star and her adoring fans expect Grady to love her as much as they do, but Grady isn't sure he can be positive about the woman who abandoned him. Adding to his troubles, Grady's grandmother has left him in search of a new home, going on an RV road trip with her new husband. Staying with his mentally disabled half-brother and his devoutly religious (and deeply disciplinarian) stepmother is not a walk in the park for Grady, but they are his family...

Can Preston Scott ever forgive his father? Should he try? Danny Scott murdered his wife, Preston's mother. He has served his time in jail. Now he is coming home, and Preston doesn't know how to feel or what to do. Based on a true story.

Jeff's mother Melody thought the starving children and endangered wildlife of the world needed her more than he did. He was seven when she left. Jeff has been very careful ever since, working hard to please his father in case he decides to leave as well. Years later, Melody comes back into Jeff's life - only to betray his trust again. Hearts are easily broken and difficult to mend. But Jeff is not alone. Fans of Cynthia Voigt's earlier books about the Tillerman family (Homecoming, Dicey's Song, Seventeen Against the Dealer, Sons from Afar) will enjoy meeting Dicey Tillerman again in this companion volume to the series.

There was only one miracle in the Bailey family. But now Milagro - their mother - is dead. Lafayette and his two older brothers struggle with their loss. At twenty-two Ty'Ree has abandoned his dreams of college to be the sole guardian of Lafayette and Charlie. Charlie has his own problems. He was in a correctional institution when his mother died, doing time for holding up a convenience store at the tender age of twelve. He's home now, but the boy they knew is long gone and "NewCharlie" just can't seem to stay away from trouble. A snapshot of the tragedy and hope of inner city life from the graceful pen of Jacqueline Woodson, author of If You Come Softly and I Hadn't Meant to Tell You This.