In the United States, the conversation about teen incarceration has moved from one extreme to another. For centuries, execution of juvenile offenders was legal. By the twenty-first century, the US Supreme Court had moved closer to banning all executions of minors, regardless of the severity of the crime. Since the 1990s, the US juvenile justice system has moved away from harsh punishment and toward alternative evidence-based models that include education,...

"A new, alternative high school, psychotherapy, a romantic interest, and a manga club help tenth-grader Jessica cope with her social anxiety disorder." --

Break free. Before he died, Christy's daddy used to say that when you feel lost, follow the tail lights of the truck in front of you, and they'll get you somewhere safe. Christy keeps chasing those tail lights, but somehow, she's always still lost in Flint, Michigan. Like most teens in Flint, she's dying to leave this dying city. But she's got a secret that she's never told anyone, and it's keeping her chained like a dog to her dead-end life. And

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An outcast in a school full of jocks, sixteen-year-old Bret struggles to keep his individuality through his interest in drama and music, while trying to reconnect with his father.

As one of an ancient line of creatures who gain energy from human tears, seventeen-year-old Cassandra offers sympathy to anyone at her school or the hospital where she works, but she yearns to be fully human for the boy she loves, even if it means letting her family down.