Tony Hogan Bought Me an Ice-cream Float Before He Stole My Ma

Bastard Out of Carolina

Dorothy Allison · 309 pages

Bone, an illegitimate child in a family of social outcasts, sees her mother's happiness with her new husband and will not tell when the stepfather begins abusing her in the 1950s.

Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow

Faiza Guene · 179 pages

Struggling with an overworked mother, an absent father, and the challenges of life within the infamous Paradise projects of suburban Paris, fifteen-year-old French Muslim Doria endures a parade of social workers, experiences a first kiss, and assumes a philosophical outlook regarding her circumstances.

The Book of Ruth

Jane Hamilton · 328 pages

"I learned slowly, that if you don't look at the world with perfect vision, you're bound to get yourself cooked." Having come within an inch of her life, Ruth Dahl is determined to take a good look at it - to figure out whether, in fact, she's to blame for the mess." Pegged the loser in a small-town family that doesn't have much going for it in the first place. Ruth grows up in the shadow of her

The House on Mango Street

Sandra Cisneros · 110 pages

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A coming-of-age classic, acclaimed by critics, beloved by readers of all ages, taught in schools and universities alike, and translated around the world—from the winner of the 2019 PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature. The House on Mango Street is the remarkable story of Esperanza Cordero, a young Latina girl growing up in Chicago, inventing for he

Hideous Kinky

Esther Freud · 186 pages

Two little girls are taken by their mother to Morocco on a 1960s pilgrimage of self-discovery. For Mum it is not just an escape from the grinding conventions of English life but a quest for personal fulfilment; her children, however, seek something more solid and stable amidst the shifting desert sands.'Just open the book and begin, and instantly you will be first of all charmed, then intrigued an

The Center of Everything

Laura Moriarty · 321 pages

The Bean Trees

Barbara Kingsolver · 240 pages

Taylor, a poor Kentuckian making her way west with an abandoned baby girl, stops in Tucson where she finds friends and discovers resources in apparently empty places.

The Diamond Girls

Jacqueline Wilson · 240 pages

Another hit novel for readers of 9+, from the bestselling Jacqueline Wilson - with a new introduction and cover look!Dixie is the youngest of the Diamond family. She and her sisters, dreamy Martine, glamorous Rochelle and tough Jude, could hardly be more different from each other but their Mum's tried to teach them the value of sticking together. Now Mum's expecting yet another baby and she's conv

Sour Heart

Jenny Zhang · 310 pages

Love Me Back

Merritt Tierce · 220 pages

"Marie, a young single mother, lands a job at an upscale Dallas steakhouse. She is preternaturally attuned to the appetites of her patrons, but quickly learns to hide her private struggle behind an easy smile and a crisp white apron. In a world of long hours and late nights, where everything runs on a currency of favors, cash, and cachet, Marie gives in to brutally self-destructive impulses. She l

Labor Day

Joyce Maynard · 244 pages

With the end of summer closing in and a steamy Labor Day weekend looming in the town of Holton Mills, New Hampshire, thirteen-year-old Henry—lonely, friendless, not too good at sports—spends most of his time watching television, reading, and daydreaming about the soft skin and budding bodies of his female classmates. For company Henry has his long-divorced mother, Adele—a onetime dancer whose summ

As Hot as It Was You Ought to Thank Me

Nanci Kincaid · 355 pages

In the summer after her father's abandonment, thirteen-year-old Berry witnesses her mother's pursuit of the local preacher and the arrival of a handsome convict who helps repair hurricane-damaged roads in her conservative Florida hometown. By the author of Crossing Blood.

Long Bright River

Liz Moore · 473 pages

A female cop begins to fear for her addicted sister. A serial murder is targeting homeless female prostitutes. Can Mickey find her sister before the killer does ?

Half His Age

Jennette McCurdy · 262 pages

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of I’m Glad My Mom Died comes a sad, funny, thrilling novel about sex, consumerism, class, desire, loneliness, the internet, rage, intimacy, power, and the (oftentimes misguided) lengths we’ll go to in order to get what we want. Waldo is ravenous. Horny. Blunt. Naive. Wise. Impulsive. Lonely. Angry. Forceful. Hurting. Perceptive. Endlessly wanting. And

Anita and Me

Meera Syal · 336 pages

Hope Farm

Peggy Frew · 352 pages

All We Had

Annie Weatherwax · 265 pages

"For thirteen-year-old Ruthie Carmichael and her mother, Rita, life has never been stable. The only sure thing is their love for each other. Though Rita works more than one job, the pair teeters on the edge of poverty. When their landlord kicks them out, Rita resorts to her movie-star looks and produces carpet-installer Phil, "an instant boyfriend," who takes them in. Before long, Ruthie convinces

Gather

Kenneth M. Cadow · 325 pages

Publisher Annotation: A resourceful teenager in rural Vermont struggles to hold on to the family home while his mom recovers from addiction in this striking debut novel.

Clever Girl

Tessa Hadley · 292 pages

Follows Stella, a lower-middle-class British girl born in the 1950s, whose coming-of-age experiences mirror the broader cultural development of her times.

The Crazyladies of Pearl Street

Trevanian · 367 pages

An autobiographical novel about growing up poor in America during the Depression follows the life of six-year-old Jean-Luc, living with his little sister and young mother after being abandoned by his con artist father.

Man at the Helm

Nina Stibbe · 256 pages

Not long after her parents' divorce, heralded by an awkward scene involving a wet DAILY TELEGRAPH and a pan of cold eggs, nine-year-old Lizzie Vogel and her sister and little brother are packed off to a small, slightly hostile village in the English countryside. Their mother is all alone, only thirty-one years of age, with three young children and a Labrador. It is no wonder that she becomes a men

Imani All Mine

Connie Rose Porter · 212 pages

Imani All Mine brings together Connie Porter's insight into childhood and her firsthand knowledge of life in today's ghettoized world with the marvelously affecting story of Tasha, fifteen years old and the mother of a baby girl. "Mama say I'm grown now because I got Imani. She say Imani all mine. I know she all mine, and I like it just like that, not having to share my baby with no one." In her

Hope Is a Ferris Wheel

Robin Herrera · 273 pages

After moving from Oregon to a trailer park in California, ten-year-old Star participates in a poetry club, where she learns some important lessons about herself and her own hopes and dreams for the future. (From LOC data.)

Salvage the Bones

Jesmyn Ward · 274 pages

They heard it on the radio. A hurricane is coming, threatening the town of Bois Sauvage, Mississippi. Esch's hard-drinking father can feel it in his bones. Esch and her brothers are trying to help prepare, but there are other worries too. Skeetah is watching his prized pit bull, helpless as her new litter dies one by one. Randall, when not preoccupied with basketball, is busy looking after the you