Jack’s got a lot on his mind: He’s trying to figure out the mystery of the opposite sex, he can’t stop wondering about facial hair, and he won’t let go of his mother’s ghost, even though she died seven years ago. Jack knows he can’t hang on to the past forever, but what he doesn’t know is how to let go. Then he meets Annabel. She’s beautiful, smart, and she gets him. Suddenly love makes sense, and the future seems hopeful. And for the first time, Jack feels ready to leave the past where it belongs…

A special reissue of a bestselling Australian classic from award-winning author Steven Herrick.Jack is an everyday sixteen-year-old boy. He’s obsessed with Annabel, sport and nose hair. He’s also obsessed with a ghost ...There’s a ghost in our housein a red evening dress,black stockingsand Mum’s slingback shoes.Her hair whispersover white shouldersas she dances through the rooms.A bittersweet comedy about the infinite promise of first love and the everlasting sorrow of grief, Love, Ghosts & Nose Hair was shortlisted for the CBCA Book of the Year: Older Readers and New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards.‘Sad, funny, moving and thoughtful.’ - Magpies

Love's a curious thing. Jack is an average sixteen-year-old. He's obsessed with sex, sports, and his maturing body. He's got a lot on his plate, but one issue is constantly on his mind: his mother's death. It's been seven years, but Jack has yet to let her go....That is, until he meets Annabel. Annabel is beautiful, smart, and most important, she gets Jack. Suddenly love makes sense, and the future seems hopeful. And for the first time, Jack feels ready to leave the past where it belongs.

At the request of her many fans, Patty Campbell, editor of the Scarecrow Studies in Young Adult Literature series, has selected some of her best essays, articles, columns, and speeches in Campbell's Scoop. These pieces define the boundaries between children's and adult literature and review the trends, censorship, problems, and glories of the genre. Other essays reflect on some concerns and interests of young adult literature as it has matured: the verse novel, ambivalent endings, violence, the sometimes dubious value of awards and honor lists, the graphic novel, and the difficulties of the genre's recent overwhelming success. A section titled "Inside ALA" looks at the author's many years of service to that organization with, among other pieces, a firsthand look at the Best Books committee at work and a report of her attempt to unite booksellers and librarians in common cause. Many of these selections show the idiosyncratic wit and passion that have made Campbell's column a favorite with Horn Book readers: an exploration of the meaning of the glut of YA novels with death as a theme or character; an indignant denunciation of the fictional abuse of animals; a snarky analysis of "chick lit;" and a technical review from the belly-dancing critic of a YA novel featuring that ancient art. On a more serious note, Campbell pleads for what she calls "Godsearch" in books for teens and pays tribute to her late friend Robert Cormier. Without question, the essays in Campbell's Scoop provide readers with the unique insights of an advocate who is passionate about young adult literature and its future.

Jack and Annabel have decided to put off university and drive around the country. It all seems wildly romantic, but when their car dies two days into the trip, they end up at George’s apple orchard. They figure it’s a temporary pit stop—and at first it is. But when Jack recognizes a familiar suffering in George’s family, he and Annabel decide to stay for a while. They’re not sure how to help, but they know they want to try... This companion to Love, Ghosts, & Facial Hair captures the difficult search for identity in an isolated place.

On Halloween night, Stillwater the giant panda tells Karl, Addy, and Michael a spooky and unusual story. Based on a Zen koan, includes an author's note with a history of the story and facts about Zen koans.

Sharon, Linda and Debra-is it possible that three sisters can grow up in the same house and be so different? Sharon, the youngest of the three, looks at life through rose colored glasses. But after her very first love affair, she soon discovers that everything that glitters isn’t gold. Linda, the middle sister, may be rough around the edges, but there’s more to her than even her sisters may know. She has more men than she can count, yet she’s more miserable than anyone could imagine. But out of the sea of names and faces, one bright star emerges-and he may just find the key to her heart. Debra, the oldest, has her intentions set on one man. She meets with pain early on, but because of her big heart and undying love, she’s willing to forgive and forget-quite possibly the biggest mistake of her life. Meanwhile, Kenneth, Marcus and Jay are determined to show us all that there are still good men around that are capable of loving a woman like she needs to be loved. Love Ghosts is a wonderful story about the triumphs and sorrows of life and love, and how they can haunt us if we refuse to let go of the past.

Weary of life with his alcoholic, abusive father, sixteen-year-old Billy packs a few belongings and hits the road, hoping for something better than what he left behind.

The acclaimed New York Times–bestselling biography and “emotionally detailed portrait of the artist as a young man” (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times) In the first biography of the iconic David Foster Wallace, D.T. Max paints the portrait of a man, self-conscious, obsessive and struggling to find meaning. If Wallace was right when he declared he was “frightfully and thoroughly conventional,” it is only because over the course of his short life and stunning career, he wrestled intimately and relentlessly with the fundamental anxiety of being human. In his characteristic lucid and quick-witted style, Max untangles Wallace’s anxious sense of self, his volatile and sometimes abusive connection with women, and above all, his fraught relationship with fiction as he emerges with his masterpiece Infinite Jest. Written with the cooperation of Wallace’s family and friends and with access to hundreds of unpublished letters, manuscripts and journals, this captivating biography unveils the life of the profoundly complicated man who gave voice to what we thought we could not say.

This volume brings together a range of scholars from diverse disciplinary backgrounds to re-examine the histories of facial hair and its place in discussions of gender, the military, travel and art, amongst others. Chapters in the first section of the collection explore the intricate history of beard wearing and shaving, including facial hair fashions in long historical perspective, and the depiction of beards in portraiture. Section Two explores the shifting meanings of the moustache, both as a manly symbol in the nineteenth century, and also as the focus of the material culture of personal grooming. The final section of the collection charts the often-complex relationship between men, women and facial hair. It explores how women used facial hair to appropriate masculine identity, and how women’s own hair was read as a sign of excessive and illicit sexuality.