Showing results by narrator "Taylor Meskimen" in All Categories

If high school seniors Siena and Patrick were a superlative, they'd be Couple Most Likely to Marry. Three solid years of dating, and everyone agrees they're perfect for each other. But with college on the horizon, Siena begins to wonder whether staying together is the best idea. Does she really want to be tied down during the most transformative years of her life? So she makes a decision to break up with Patrick, convincing herself it's for the best. Though, before she can get the words out, he beats her to the punch: His family is moving.

Adam, a Southern gentleman, knew the call to arms was near when President Lincoln asked for 100,000 men to stop secession and rebellion in the South. He joined the Union Cavalry - but not before he married his best, and only, friend. Abby, an Irish immigrant that settled with her family in Virginia, was as Southern as you could get.

Welcome to Pity Party, where the social anxieties that plague us all are twisted into funny, deeply resonant, and ultimately reassuring psychological thrills. There's a story about a mood ring that tells the absolute truth. One about social media followers who literally follow you around. And one about a kid whose wish for a new, improved self is answered when a mysterious box arrives in the mail. There's also a personality test, a fortune teller, a letter from the Department of Insecurity, and an interactive Choose Your Own Catastrophe.

Hannah Ashton wakes up to silence. The entire city around her is empty, except for one other person: Leo Sterling. Leo might be the hottest boy ever (and not just because he's the only one left), but he's also too charming, too selfish, and too devastating for his own good, let alone Hannah's.

In many ways, the Hamilton children are like any other kids. Eleven-year-old Mia and ten-year-old Will love playing Minecraft, eating pizza, and playing in the yard. But Mia knows that because Will is on the autism spectrum, some things are different for him. For starters, he doesn’t like things to change. Pizza has to be just so crispy, or he won’t eat it. He uses lines from movies to answer most questions. If his toast is too dark, Will could have a total meltdown. When Mom and Dad announce they’re getting a babysitter for the first time, Mia is alarmed.

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.

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.

It's October 1942, in Oslo, Norway. Fifteen-year-old Ilse Stern is waiting to meet boy-next-door Hermann Rod for their first date. She was beginning to think he'd never ask her; she's had a crush on him for as long as she can remember. But Hermann won't be able to make it tonight. What Ilse doesn't know is that Hermann is secretly working in the Resistance, helping Norwegian Jews flee the country to escape the Nazis.

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.

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.

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....

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!

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.

Some doors were never meant to be opened. Some tales were never meant to be set free. When seventeen-year-old Sahara O’Saughnessy discovers a rift into the realm of lore, the most haunting stories she’s been telling her friends come to life, and she must find a way to stop them before they tear her world apart.

The Recorder's fate has been sealed, but the Consortium is not the only enemy. Labeled an aberration by the Consortium, the Recorder is not yet free. Time is running out as an engineered bioweapon wreaks havoc on friend and foe alike. Stopping both the biological agent and the people who created it is no easy task, especially since the Recorder and her friends are trapped on a research station infested with behemoth insects. Without Consortium technology, the probability of neutralizing the threat falls to nothing.

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.

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.

Across a treacherous strait where deep ocean waters rip back and forth with the tides, and during the depths of the Great Depression, daring teams of engineers and builders set out to make something many thought impossible. Begun in 1933 and officially opened on May 27, 1937, the Golden Gate Bridge and its awe-inspiring and groundbreaking construction are truly a testament to the power of hope and perseverance.

How does a kid grow up to become a scientist? This enthralling nonfiction book from New York Times bestselling author Kate Messner explores the unexpected beginnings behind some of the most fascinating discoveries in scientific history. This book of unexpected beginnings powerfully shows that the great scientists of the future could be practically anyone . . . including you.