Growing up in Jersey City, New Jersey, from 1966 to 1979, Tony quickly learns that there are few rules on the streets. A child born in the city has to learn fast, and Tony is no exception. The fictionalized memoir of author Jerry McGrellis speaks to the carefree days of the past while simultaneously focusing on the current problems of inner-city youth.

In a gripping novel with a plot pulled from the headlines, Todd Strasser turns his attention to gang life in the inner-city projects. DeShawn is a teenager growing up in the projects. Most of his friends only see one choice: join up to a gang. DeShawn is smart enough to want to stay in school and make something more of himself, but when his family is starving while his friends have fancy bling and new sneakers, DeShawn is forced to decide--is his integrity more important than feeding his family?

“I wonder sometimes if there’s something to the old superstition about the number thirteen. Maybe that superstition was originally created by the mothers in some tribe who noticed that in their children’s thirteenth year, they suddenly became possessed by evil spirits. Because it did seem that whenever Taz was around, things spilled and shattered, calm turned into chaos, and tempers were lost.” So laments the mother of one thirteen-year-old boy, Taz, a teen who, overnight it seemed, went from a small, sweet, loving boy to a hulking, potty-mouthed, Facebook/MySpace–addicted C student who didn’t even bother to hide his scorn for being anywhere in the proximity of his parents. As this startling transformation floors journalist Beth Harpaz and her husband, Elon, Harpaz tries to make sense of a bizarre teenage wilderness of $100 sneakers, clouds of Axe body spray (to hide the scent of pot?!), and cell phone bills so big they require nine-by-twelve envelopes. In the process, she begins chronicling her son’s hilarious, sometimes harrowing, indiscretions, blaming herself (“I am a terrible mother” becomes her steadfast refrain), Googling unfamiliar teenage slang, reading every parenting book she can get her hands on, and querying friends who also have teens. From a derailed family vacation where Taz is more interested in trying to get a cell phone connection than looking at the world’s largest trees (boring!), to a prom where Taz is caught with liquor, to a trip to Australia sans parents in which Taz actually doesn’t get into any trouble and manages to do his own laundry, the events that mark Taz’s newfound and troublesome independence are told with a wry and poignant voice by a woman who’s both wistful for the past and trying her hardest to understand her son’s head-scratching new behavior. In her quest to infiltrate his world by spying on his MySpace page (where he claims he’s twenty-two), Harpaz expands her online monitoring and soon becomes a Facebook addict. She also reflects on her own youth and entry into middle age, and in the process achieves hard-won wisdom. A book for any parent of teens—be they girls or boys—13 Is the New 18 is a delightfully comical foray into today’s increasingly widening generation gap and one mom’s attempt to figure it all out with little guidance and a whole lot of misplaced guilt.

We Heard It When We Were Young tells the story of a young boy, first-generation Mexican American, who is torn between cultures: between immigrant parents trying to acclimate to midwestern life and a town that is, by turns, supportive and disturbingly antagonistic.

This volume documents the continuing growth of concentrated poverty in central cities of the United States and examines what is known about its causes and effects. With careful analyses of policy implications and alternative solutions to the problem, it presents: A statistical picture of people who live in areas of concentrated poverty. An analysis of 80 persistently poor inner-city neighborhoods over a 10-year period. Study results on the effects of growing up in a "bad" neighborhood. An evaluation of how the suburbanization of jobs has affected opportunities for inner-city blacks. A detailed examination of federal policies and programs on poverty. Inner-City Poverty in the United States will be a valuable tool for policymakers, program administrators, researchers studying urban poverty issues, faculty, and students.

*Finalist for the National Book Award* *Finalist for the Kirkus Prize* *Instant New York Times Bestseller* *Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR, New York Post, BuzzFeed, Shelf Awareness, Bustle, and Publishers Weekly* An essential read for our times: an eye-opening memoir of working-class poverty in America that will deepen our understanding of the ways in which class shapes our country and “a deeply humane memoir that crackles with clarifying insight”.* Sarah Smarsh was born a fifth generation Kansas wheat farmer on her paternal side, and the product of generations of teen mothers on her maternal side. Through her experiences growing up on a farm thirty miles west of Wichita, we are given a unique and essential look into the lives of poor and working class Americans living in the heartland. During Sarah’s turbulent childhood in Kansas in the 1980s and 1990s, she enjoyed the freedom of a country childhood, but observed the painful challenges of the poverty around her; untreated medical conditions for lack of insurance or consistent care, unsafe job conditions, abusive relationships, and limited resources and information that would provide for the upward mobility that is the American Dream. By telling the story of her life and the lives of the people she loves with clarity and precision but without judgement, Smarsh challenges us to look more closely at the class divide in our country. Beautifully written, in a distinctive voice, Heartland combines personal narrative with powerful analysis and cultural commentary, challenging the myths about people thought to be less because they earn less. “Heartland is one of a growing number of important works—including Matthew Desmond’s Evicted and Amy Goldstein’s Janesville—that together merit their own section in nonfiction aisles across the country: America’s postindustrial decline...Smarsh shows how the false promise of the ‘American dream’ was used to subjugate the poor. It’s a powerful mantra” *(The New York Times Book Review).

John Stapleton and Gino Cicarelli, two high school students who met at a wrestling competition, become friends and begin a journey together that explores John’s past and Gino’s future aspirations. Along the way, they come into conflict with traditional religious institutions and eventually end up in the military. But this is only the beginning. As their friendship grows closer and their lives become more intertwined, they face a situation that neither understands and neither knows how to deal with. Their opinions on how to remedy the situation differ wildly and results in the first conflict these two young men ever had between them. The results of this conflict are devastating.

Trish was born knowing who she was at a young age. She came to this world with abilities all of us who are born into this world have but, due to free will, we are mainstreamed and soon forget these abilities. Trish slipped through the cracks, and she carried her abilities through life. They were her means of survival. The touch of ones hand told her if she could trust someone. Astral traveling gave her the escape, and speaking with spirits gave her the comfort of friends. As she journeys from foster home to foster home, she soon finds that she is different in a world full of labels. Her story takes you on a journey of self-discovery and a fight to be who she is through pain, rejection, drama, death, judgment, and even love. As this true story unfolds, it teaches us that being different and embracing our true self has rewards beyond imaginable.

Pedophilia has become Americaas dirty little secret. No one wants to talk about it and pedophiles are literally getting away with murder. The authorities canat catch them, the courts are too soft on them, and no one is doing anything about it. No one, that is, except Dan Forester. After his son is molested and murdered, Dan wages a one-man war on pedophilia, all the while playing cat and mouse with the FBI and his own conscience. It is an exhilarating story of one manas tragedy and triumph with more twists and turns than an L.A. freeway.