Elliot has lived his first thirteen years confined to his home, incapacitated by fear. Now he’s out of pills, snow is falling, and his only safe person is missing. A terrifying thriller from Carnegie Medalist Kevin Brooks. From the moment of his birth, Elliot’s life has been governed by fear of almost everything, even of his own fear — a beast that holds him prisoner in his room. The beast is kept at bay, though not eliminated, with a daily regimen of pills. But on Christmas Eve, a mix-up at the pharmacy threatens to unleash the beast full force, and his mother must venture out in a raging snowstorm to a store that should be only minutes away. Hours later, when she still hasn’t returned, Elliot sees no choice but to push through his terror, leave the house, and hunt for her. What happens if the last of his medication wears off and the beast starts scratching at the doors of his mind? Everyone has a breaking point — will Elliot come to his? With plot twists and turns that keep readers on the edge of their seats, multi-award-winning author Kevin Brooks offers a high-suspense exploration of fear and what it means to truly be afraid.

Thrown into a terrifying world she didn’t deserve, a small child becomes fractured by the demonic family she was born into as an innocent baby girl. Now faced with the many demons that hunt her, she fights for not only her safety and sanity but also for her survival, learning from the start that there are two types of people in the world; victims and survivors. With only the strength to survive and what she was forced to learn as a child, Stephanie fights through the years with the life she had been given and the only one she knows. If she was going to survive the Monsters who would soon find her, the only hope she had was to learn how to fight harder and more effectively if she was going to survive, but most of all she needed to learn “When to Run”. Her life was anything but normal and she couldn’t always see the danger coming from those lurking in the shadows, around the corner or the situations she was forced to struggle alone. She survived the worst or so she thought, never realizing that being “Born Scared” would be the one thing that could save her. Stephanie would learn to fight her trapped and horrid childhood with the evil that loomed within her family walls that no child should ever have to endure. After that it was up to her to fight the world, the fears that came with it, and the many evils that were thrust upon her along the way. Without understanding why, she would soon learn that her childhood experiences were nothing compared to what she would be up against living “Among the Guilty”. Book 1 When to Run, Born Scared Book 2 Among the Guilty Book 3 Under Attack

For those who feel as if they came into this world afraid, or whose child is fearful for no discernible reason and ask, "Why do I have this? Why is it happening to me or my child?" Born Scared provides answers. Through the use of fascinating case stories, hypnotherapist, Julia Ingram, demonstrates that when clients are prompted to go to the source of their fear, they find when and under what circumstances it was created. From there the path to recovery becomes evident and easy. Ingram's clients found the origin of fears, phobias, eating disorders, low self-esteem and other limiting beliefs. A seven year old boy, afraid to have his mother out of sight, even for a moment, discovered the source of the fear originated prior to his birth, when his mother was critically ill. A woman who felt extreme guilt, akin to survivors guilt, but with no idea why, discovered it began as she watched her twin brother slowly die during their first trimester in the womb. A young man believed he should never have been born until he realized he was conceived by rape and during the grueling months of his gestation heard his teenage mother being shamed for his very existence. Fans of Ingram's earlier books, the NY Times bestseller, The Messengers, and The Lost Sisterhood will not be disappointed. When she prompts her clients to go to the source of a problem, they will often regress further back than even their conception and report what they believe are past lives. A college student discovered the source of her fear of the dark and of closed spaces was a past life in which she was buried alive. A preteen girl found several lifetimes which explained her snake and bug phobias. What is astonishing, is that phobias were cured in a session or two, as compared to the lengthy and painful mainstream process of "exposure therapy." A woman with anorexia came to understand her compulsive need to eat as little as possible, when she recalled being in a concentration camp in her prior life. Along with the stories, the author describes the variety of therapeutic (non-drug) tools she uses to help her clients recover. In a chapter called The Brave Girl: A Micro-preemie Who Survived All Odds, Ingram urges parents of struggling children to explore the myriad of alternatives there are to medicating a still-developing brain. There is a surprising variety of reasons for eating disorders, as well as limiting beliefs and self-sabotage. But with each story, once the origin was discovered, the client was able to change and grow. The final chapter is a three-step process for dealing with anxiety which readers can try on their own, or options to pursue to find additional help. Born Scared offers a new way of looking at lifelong anxiety (or nipping a child's fears in the bud). It will help you be more compassionate towards yourself and those who suffer, and will bring hope to those who have been told, often unsympathetically, that their fears are irrational.

From the bestselling creator of HEARTSTOPPER and LOVELESS, a deeply funny and deeply moving exploration of identity, friendship, and fame. For Angel Rahimi life is about one thing: The Ark -- a boy band that's taking the world by storm. Being part of The Ark's fandom has given her everything she loves -- her friend Juliet, her dreams, her place in the world. Her Muslim family doesn't understand the band's allure -- but Angel feels there are things about her they'll never understand. Jimmy Kaga-Ricci owes everything to The Ark. He's their frontman -- and playing in a band with his mates is all he ever dreamed of doing, even it only amplifies his anxiety. The fans are very accepting that he's trans -- but they also keep shipping with him with his longtime friend and bandmate, Rowan. But Jimmy and Rowan are just friends -- and Rowan has a secret girlfriend the fans can never know about. Dreams don't always turn out the way you think and when Jimmy and Angel are unexpectedly thrust together, they find out how strange and surprising facing up to reality can be. A funny, wise, and heartbreakingly true coming of age novel. I Was Born for This is a stunning reflection of modern teenage life, and the power of believing in something -- especially yourself.

Uses a story format to introduce young children to the concept of feeling scared. Includes suggestions for activites and notes for parents and teachers. Suggested level: junior.

Janie was four years old when she nearly drowned due to her mothers neglect. Through an unhappy foster home experience, and years of feeling that she is unwanted, she keeps alive her dream of someday being a famous singer.

From one of the world's foremost intersex activists, a candid, provocative, and eye-opening memoir of gender identity, self-acceptance, and love. My name is Hida Viloria. I was raised as a girl but discovered at a young age that my body looked different. Having endured an often turbulent home life as a kid, there were many times when I felt scared and alone, especially given my attraction to girls. But unlike most people in the first world who are born intersex--meaning they have genitals, reproductive organs, hormones, and/or chromosomal patterns that do not fit standard definitions of male or female--I grew up in the body I was born with because my parents did not have my sex characteristics surgically altered at birth. It wasn't until I was twenty-six and encountered the term intersex in a San Francisco newspaper that I finally had a name for my difference. That's when I began to explore what it means to live in the space between genders--to be both and neither. I tried living as a feminine woman, an androgynous person, and even for a brief period of time as a man. Good friends would not recognize me, and gay men would hit on me. My gender fluidity was exciting, and in many ways freeing--but it could also be isolating. I had to know if there were other intersex people like me, but when I finally found an intersex community to connect with I was shocked, and then deeply upset, to learn that most of the people I met had been scarred, both physically and psychologically, by infant surgeries and hormone treatments meant to "correct" their bodies. Realizing that the invisibility of intersex people in society facilitated these practices, I made it my mission to bring an end to it--and became one of the first people to voluntarily come out as intersex at a national and then international level. Born Both is the story of my lifelong journey toward finding love and embracing my authentic identity in a world that insists on categorizing people into either/or, and of my decades-long fight for human rights and equality for intersex people everywhere.