Sam Webber, forced to relocate with his mother after his father disappears, is fearful of the new neighborhood, his classmates, and the spector of his father's depression, but over the course of a year he makes friends and begins to heal.

Edwards's philosophies and practices, as illustrated in The Fair Garden and the Swarm of Beasts, have influenced and inspired generations of librarians since its original publication in 1969, and continue to be a foundation for today's new young adult librarians.

Young adult readers have special needs and concerns, and librarians have become increasingly interested in selecting books suitable for them. This reference provides information about 290 books for young adults. These books received major awards between 1997 and 2001, reflect the voices of 242 different authors, and range from new to familiar themes. Included are nearly 750 alphabetically arranged entries for individual works, authors, characters, and settings. Many of these books were originally written for adults but have become popular among younger readers. Entries for works provide plot summaries and critical assessments, while author entries focus on those aspects of the writers' lives most relevant to literature for young people. The reference is a valuable selection tool for librarians and teachers and a useful guide for students.

"Darby's first-person narrative is frank and immediate . . . expressing what it's like for an ordinary white kid who suddenly discovers evil — and courage — where she lives." — BOOKLIST "From my back porch, I can see where my best friend lives. Evette’s tenant house sits on my daddy’s property . . . but on account of her being black and me being white, she hardly ever comes in my house, and I don’t go in hers. My daddy says that’s just the way it is." Darby Carmichael thinks her best friend is probably the smartest person she knows, even though, as Mama says, Evette’s school uses worn-out books and crumbly chalk. Whenever they can, Darby and Evette shoot off into the woods beyond the farm to play at being fancy ladies and schoolteachers. One thing Darby has never dreamed of being - not until Evette suggests it - is a newspaper girl who writes down the truth for all to read. In no time, and with more than a little assistance from Evette, Darby and her column in the Bennettsville Times are famous in town and beyond. But is Marlboro County, South Carolina, circa 1926, ready for the truth its youngest reporter has to tell?

After hearing what he believes are other peoples' thoughts and learning that he may have schizophrenia, high school sophomore Penn has to decide whether to accept the diagnosis.

Puttnam Douglas Steward isn't having an identity crisishe is one. To his father Carl, he's a disappointment, and has been since the day he came home from the hospital. To his mother, he's Mama's Boy, and will forever be nothing less and nothing more. The Army thinks he's a hero, having single-handedly saved his troops from an ambush when they stumble upon a major, unknown supply line in Vietnam, then exposing a major Soviet espionage ring in the U.S. Only Milton, Putt's college friend and environmental activist, and Putt's sister Mary see that something is deeply confused about Puttnam Steward. Yet neither of them knows that the only time Putt ever truly feels happy is when he wears a woman's clothes and becomes, for a brief, fleeting moment, someone else. And they don't know how much that disgusts him. In the Wake of the Boatman is a brilliant drama, stirringly and sensitively told, about the elusiveness of identity. Another important novel from one of America's most praised and accomplished novelists, it's a masterpiece that won't soon be forgotten.