Showing results by narrator "Lauren Davis" in All Categories

A fifth grade class, repelled by the overweight new student who has serious home problems, finally learns to accept her.

In many ways, Carrie Parker is like any other eight-year-old: playing make-believe, dreading school, dreaming of faraway places. But even her imaginative mind can't shut out the realities of her impoverished North Carolina home or help her protect her younger sister, Emma.

My name is Julia, and I’m the daughter of Connor and Ellery Black. I may look like Daddy’s little princess, but I’m far from it. My life consists of lying to my parents and sneaking out of the penthouse. My CEO millionaire father seems to think that at the tender age of sixteen, I’m too young to date boys. My mother, the artist, tries to stay neutral and doesn’t say too much. My best friend London and I hang out almost every day. We love to shop, and we try to pick up all the bad boys that our parents wouldn’t approve of.

A Caldecott Honor Book! Today is a special day for Sal, because she gets to go to Buck's Harbour with her dad. But when she wakes up to brush her teeth with her baby sister, she discovers something shocking.... Her tooth is loose! And that's just the start of a huge day!

Set at a small, affluent liberal-arts college in New England at the height of the Reagan '80s, The Rules of Attraction is a startlingly funny, kaleidoscopic novel about three students with no plans for the future - or even the present - who become entangled in a curious romantic triangle.

J.B. Hammock played by his own rules, and rule number one was never settle down. He treated his women well, but with a no-strings detachment they all accepted. But sweet Tellie Maddox hovered about like a gossamer butterfly, always trying to take care of him, always caring about him. It was enough to make a confirmed bachelor take drastic measures.

Desiree Edwards knew it wouldn’t be easy to let go and move past her first love, NFL superstar Troy Harris. However, time healed her broken heart. She’s married Jamal, a handsome, successful doctor, and he should have been the man of her dreams, but the honeymoon is over, and their marriage is in trouble.

In his three novellas, In Short Measures, Strong Conspirators, and Sally Forth, Michael Ruhlman delves deeply into the nuanced complexity of romantic and sexual love - and the inevitable evolution of the heart over the span of years and decades. Each novella asks questions about the nature of love in terms of loyalty and fidelity - what are one's obligations toward one's spouse, one's family, and one's heart?

Patricia Polacco is now one of America's most loved children's book creators, but once upon a time she was a little girl named Trisha starting school. Trisha could paint and draw beautifully, but when she looked at words on a page, all she could see was jumble. It took a very special teacher to recognize little Trisha's dyslexia: Mr. Falker, who encouraged her to overcome her reading disability. Patricia Polacco will never forget him, and neither will we.

Mystery is in Herculeah Jones’ blood. How could it not be, with a father on the police force and a mother who’s a private eye? So when Herculeah notices a man hanging around the "Dead Oaks" mansion, she can’t resist doing some investigating of her own. Legend has it the old estate was the site of a murder, and now, it looks like there’s something even more nefarious going on. Can Herculeah crack the case before the mystery man closes in on her?

In spring 2008, inspired by the Vietnam-era Winter Soldier hearings, Iraq Veterans Against the War gathered veterans to expose war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq. Here are the powerful words, images, and documents of this historic gathering, which show the reality of life in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The world tilted a little on its axis the second that innocent little country girl appeared from the other side of the privacy glass on my penthouse terrace. Everything changed. Her timing couldn't be any worse, but the second she climbs onto my balcony, I have to have her. Her name is Dahlia. My doll. Now she's my property.

Samantha (“Sam”) Powers, a 34-year-old investigative reporter, has returned to her hometown of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, to take care of her ailing father, the town’s former police chief. At the urging of a family friend, she takes a job as the new travel columnist for Carmel Today, a local lifestyle magazine. Sam sets out on her first big press trip to a luxury resort on Maui. There she meets her fellow travel writers and the resort representatives hosting the trip, all of whom become suspects when one of the writers is found dead in his suite.

Nicola Lancaster is spending her summer at the Siegel Institute, a hothouse of smart, intense teenagers. She soon falls in with Katrina (manic computer chick), Isaac (nice guy despite himself), Kevin (inarticulate composer)...and Battle, a beautiful blonde dancer. The two become friends - and then, startlingly, more than friends. What do you do when you think you're attracted to guys and then you meet a girl who steals your heart?

Fifteen-year-old Indigo Summer's world finally seems to be going in the right direction: she hooks up with the star linebacker on the high-school football team, gets a date for homecoming, and makes the high-school dance squad all in the same week. But sometimes things are just too good to be true.

Summer camp means lots of things: new friends, roommates... But it's also a chance to be on your own and to reinvent yourself. A shy girl can become the belle of the ball, and a jock might find new competition. Natalie, Jenna, Grace, and Alex have all found themselves at Camp Lakeview for different reasons. And each is keeping a secret. But if everyone is hiding something, how will they ever become friends? If Natalie, a city girl more interested in fresh sushi than fresh air, can loosen up, she might even enjoy herself - unless the secret she's been keeping gets in her way...

What's a 40ish woman to do if her free-spirited elderly mom's moving in, her previously do-gooder teenage daughter's sneaking out, her prize-winning stud bulldog can't get it on, and her soon-to-be ex-husband can't get his mind off girls half his age?

Sara and Tobey couldn't be more different. She is focused on getting into her first-choice college; he wants to win Battle of the Bands. Sara's other goal is to find true love, so when Dave, a popular jock, asks her out, she's thrilled. But then there's Tobey. His amazing blue eyes and quirky wit always creep into her thoughts. It just so happens that one of Tobey's goals is also to make Sara fall in love with him. Told in alternating points of view, Sara and Tobey's real connection will have everyone rooting for them from the minute they meet!

When Herculeah Jones's best friend, Meat, decides to take a comedy class, he just expects to get a few laughs. But then he discovers a dead body in the bathroom and realizes that there's nothing funny about murder. Things can't get any worse - until the body disappears! Meat needs Herculeah's help to uncover the clues, but she's busy investigating a case of her own.

Sunita has always wanted a cat, but her parents are dead set against it. Then she finds a group of strays living in the wild, and knows she can domesticate them - even though she’s been told that these are feral cats, who see humans as their enemies. First, she convinces Dr. Mac to examine the cats, fix them, and give them shots. Then she wants to re-release the cats, now healthy, into the neighborhood. The problem is, the neighbors consider the cats dangerous pests. Will Sunita's plan backfire?