Since the 1970s, Lawrence Block has been writing award-winning novels and short fiction featuring Matthew Scudder. Now, with both himself and his detective half a century older, the author found himself charged with writing a book about his protagonist. And he decided he wasn't the right person for the job. LB: "What was Matt's family like? How did he spend his childhood? What steered him toward the NYPD, and how did he get all the way from the Police...

"When Daniel de La Luna arrives as a scholarship student at an elite East Coast university, he bears the weight of his family's hopes and dreams, and the burden of sharing his late uncle's name. Daniel flounders at first-but then Sam, his roommate, changes everything. As their relationship evolves from brotherly banter to something more intimate, Daniel soon finds himself in love with a man who helps him see himself in a new light. But just as their...

"Musical lover Riley has big aspirations to become a director on Broadway...but when Riley takes her mom's car without permission, she's grounded and stuck with the worst punishment: spending her after-school hours working at her dad's game shop. Riley can't waste her time working...so she convinces Nathan--a nerdy teen employee--to cover her shifts and, in exchange, she'll flirt with him to make his gamer-girl crush jealous...Soon, Riley starts to...

"Fourteen-year-old Ileth grew up in an orphanage, and thanks to her stutter was never thought to be destined for much beyond kitchen work and cleaning. But she's dreamed of serving with the dragons ever since a childhood meeting with a glittering silver dragon and its female dragoneer. For years she waits, and as soon as she is old enough to join, Ileth runs away to become a novice dragoneer at the ancient human-dragon fortress of the Serpentine....

"Lacey Bond has grown up in her parents' hippie New Hampshire daycare, idolizing her blasphemous, ultra-fashionable sister, Éclair, chasing baby squirrels, and contemplating trees. Then the Satanic Panic hits - the moral hysteria that shook the United States by its shoulders in the 80s and 90s. It's the summer of 1990 when Lacey's parents are handcuffed, flung into the county jail, and faced with a torrent of jaw-dropping accusations from dozens...

Ten-year-old Lina wants to create a viral video to help her mom's business, but as she navigates the world of likes and views with her two best friends, Lina must find the courage to stay true to her authentic self.

"Rarely has an Evangelical upbringing been depicted with the relentless honesty, wide-ranging empathy, and Superbad-meets-Siddhartha playfulness of HELL IS A WORLD WITHOUT YOU. During the time of Pizza Hut buffets, 9/11, and all-night Mario Kart parties, a grieving teenager faces a mortal crossroads: fire-and-brimstone certainty vs. forbidden love. And whether or not you've ever begged God to delay the Rapture (so you could have time to lose your...

"When women of color write history, we see the world as we have never seen it before. In Fruit of the Drunken Tree, Ingrid Rojas Contreras honors the lives of girls who witness war. Brava! I was swept up by this story."--SANDRA CISNEROS, author of The House on Mango Street A mesmerizing debut set against the backdrop of the devastating violence of 1990's Colombia about a sheltered young girl and a teenage maid who strike an unlikely friendship that...

"As a young dragoneer moves through the ranks of a prestigious dragonriding academy, her challenges grow greater and her time grows short to draw out a series of deadly threats, in the second installment of this thrilling coming-of-age fantasy series. Fifteen-year-old Ileth is now an Apprentice Dragoneer, with all of the benefits and pitfalls that her elevation in rank entails. She has survived many challenges to achieve the next step in her training,...

"Andrea Rodríguez is nine years old when her mother whisks her and her brother, Pablo, away from the Woronoco, a tiny New England factory town that is the only home they've ever known. With no plan and no money, she leaves them with family members in Puerto Rico and promises to return. In the years that follow, Andrea and Pablo are brought back to Woronoco, only to discover a rapidly changing town and an All-American culture they almost-but can never...