Yuma Public Library

Ben McKee desperately tries to find a way to get himself and his mother out of an abusive situation after his mom marries Larry Taylor.

After the success of his brother Dave Pelzer's bestselling memoir, Richard B. Pelzer touched thousands with his own account of an abusive childhood. In his second book, Richard reveals how the horrific treatment he endured as a boy affected him throughout his teenage years. As an adolescent, he found himself turning to drugs--even contemplating suicide--as he struggled to separate and live an autonomous life, away from his horrifying family situation....

"Jenny Blake has a theory about life : big decisions often don't amount to much, but little decisions sometimes transform everything. Her theory proves true the summer she's 14, when she makes the decision to pick up a penny embedded in asphalt and consequently ends up stopping a robbery, getting a job, and meeting someone who changes her life forever, Miss Shaw. Together they form a friendship that dares both of them to confront secrets in their...

Lily Owens is a young girl who lives on the peach farm that her abusive father owns. Rosaleen is a black woman hired by Lily's father to be a stand in mother for Lilly. Rosaleen insults some of the biggest racists in their town. Lily and Rosaleen run away to a town Lily believes that her mother once lived in. They go to live with the three Boatwright sisters on their honey farm. She finds solace in their mesmerizing world of beekeeping.

Sent to reform school after stabbing his abusive father, thirteen-year-old William befriends three boys with whom he works to tame horses before triggering a series of tragic events that brings them into a greater awareness of the world's cruelty and social norms.

Taking readers through the minds of girls trying to define themselves while struggling to remain relevant to the boys in their lives, this Coretta Scott King Honor book offers a complex, always on-point exposition of black youth resolving to find self-worth.

Examines what rape and sexual assault is, discussing what should be done after it has happened, the physical and psychological effects and offers ways to help others heal.

Sophie lives in constant fear of her father, who beats her on a regular basis, until the day the beating is so severe it sends her to the hospital.

Buck, government name Michael Fineday, Ojibwe name Miskwa' doden (Red Deer) is on the brink of suicide. He has just been served divorce papers by his wife Naomi, who is fed up with his savior complex and the danger it often attracts to their door. Living on the border of Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community reservation, Buck makes a living as a boatbuilder and carpenter. He spends his days alone, trying to win the trust of a feral cat ... until a...

Though Savannah Rose is a gifted ballerina, her real talent is keeping secrets. Schooled in silence by her long-dead mother, Savannah has always believed that her lifelong creed, 'I'm not the kind of girl who tells' will make her just like everyone else, normal, happy, safe. But in the aftermath of a brutal assault by her seemingly perfect boyfriend Tristan, Savannah must finally find the courage to confront the ghosts of her past, or lose herself...