Dear Jo

Maxine and her best friend Leah enjoyed chatting with boys online, and so what if they lied about their ages--it was just Internet stuff. But when Leah disappeared, Max realized they weren't the only ones lying online. And what has happened to Leah?

These nuggets of wisdom are offered by an Academy Award–nominated actor (James Woods), a popular comedian (Aasif Mandvi), and a world-famous novelist (Jodi Picoult) to their sixteen-year-old selves. No matter how accomplished and confident they seem today, at sixteen, they were like the rest of us—often unsure, frequently confused, and usually in need of a little reassurance. In Dear Me, 75 celebrities, writers, musicians, athletes, and actors have written letters to their younger selves that give words of comfort, warning, humor, and advice. These letters present intimate, moving, and witty insights into some of the world’s most intriguing and admired individuals. By turns funny, surprising, raw, and uplifting, this singular collection captures the universal conditions that are youth, life, and growing up.

Anna has never felt like she belongs, but now she feels detached. The only solution she sees is taking her own life. Through the perspectives of Anna, her best friend, and her mother, her story shows how depression taints even the simplest human interactions, and how different people can interpret the same scenario in vastly different ways.

Maxine's best friend, Leah, has been missing for six months, and Maxine helps the police investigate the possibility that her disappearance is connected to their online friend, 2funE, who claims to be a sixteen-year-old boy.

A finalist for the 2022 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction A finalist for the 2022 PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel Introducing an extraordinary and original writer whose first novel explores the intersections of grief and rage, personal strength and healing--and what we owe one another. Fern seeks refuge from her mother’s pill-popping and boyfriends via Soul Train; Gwin finds salvation in the music of Prince much to her congregation’s dismay and Jesenia, miles ahead of her classmates at her gifted and talented high school, is a brainy and precocious enigma. None of this matters to Boss Man, the monster who abducts them and holds them captive in a dilapidated house in Queens. On the night they are finally rescued, throngs line the block gawking and claiming ignorance. Among them is lifetime resident Miss Metropolitan, advice columnist for the local weekly, but how could anyone who fancies herself a “newspaperwoman” have missed a horror story unfolding right across the street? And why is it that only two of the three girls—now women—were found? The mystery haunts the two remaining “victim girls” who are subjected to the further trauma of becoming symbols as they continuously adapt to their present and their unrelenting past. Like Colson Whitehead's The Nickel Boys, Ferrell’s Dear Miss Metropolitan gives voice to characters surviving unimaginable tragedy. The story is inventively revealed before, during, and after the ordeal in this singular and urgent novel.

When Wally Prichard receives a diary for his ninth birthday, he has no idea what a valued confidante and adviser his diary will become, as it chronicles his increasingly bizarre journey through life. Wally's mind runs rampant with non-stop imagination, perverse wit and escalating madness, taking the reader to oft-times unbelievable reality. Born in the small town of Lark, Iowa in the mid forties, Wally has it made. Orphaned in his teens he inherits more money than he will ever need, with all the time in the world to follow his heart's desire: doing nothing. Watching the tube, journalizing and giving in to every instant gratification he can lay his hands on, Wally leads a meaningless existence, filled with endless excess and fantasy. The town's perception of Wally as a lazy good ole boy with money is only partially correct. Lazy? Absolutely! Money? You Bet. But Good? You'd better check with Gil Joy, Iris Skiddaul, Otto Pertz, Raymond Burr and the others about that.

Celebrate feelings in all their shapes and sizes in this New York Times bestselling picture book from the Growing Hearts series! Happiness, sadness, bravery, anger, shyness . . . our hearts can feel so many feelings! Some make us feel as light as a balloon, others as heavy as an elephant. In My Heart explores a full range of emotions, describing how they feel physically, inside, with language that is lyrical but also direct to empower readers to practice articulating and identifying their own emotions. With whimsical illustrations and an irresistible die-cut heart that extends through each spread, this gorgeously packaged and unique feelings book is sure to become a storytime favorite.

"I want to be swept away into a beautiful romantic world, where men are heros and there really is such a thing as true love. This book did that . . . A Page turning sizzler packed full of fun!" ~Cindy Fegan, Reader Lord Arcenbryght Malloren is done with love. If he marries it will be for money to invest in his favorite scheme—canal building. Then he meets the impoverished Portia St. Claire, and is soon entangled in her and her family's ruinous affairs. It doesn't take Bryght long to decide that Portia is the woman for him. But can he persuade Portia to trust a rich, devastatingly handsome nobleman who appears to be a reckless gamester? From The Publisher: Author Jo Beverley is known for her consumate attention to historical detail that wisks the reader back in time to a near first-hand experience. Fans of Regency romance and historical British fiction set in the 19th century, as well as readers of Jess Michaels, Mary Balogh, Christi Caldwell, Stephanie Laurens, Madeline Hunter and Mary Jo Putney will want to read every book by Jo Beverley. "Romance at its best . . ." ~Publisher's Weekly "Intricately plotted, fast-paced, and delightfully wicked . . ." ~Library Journal "A fantastic novel. Jo Beverley shows again why she is considered one of the genre's brightest stars." ~Affaire de Coeur