Annotation:In the summer of 1964, polio victim Paige Dunn delivers her baby from an iron lung, and ends up raising her daughter, Diana, alone after her husband divorces her. Able to move only her head, Paige requires round-the-clock nursing care that social services barely cover. Now 13, Diana has taken over the night shift to save them money, sharing her mother's care with African-American day worker Peacie, who is protective of Paige and unforgiving of Diana's adolescent yearning for freedom.

Annotation:Jim the Boy is the portrait of a young boy as he takes his first tentative steps toward adulthood in a tiny southern town earlier in this century. He plays baseball, attends a new school, and befriends a rival, all the while measuring himself against the high standards set by his mother and uncles and the long shadows cast by his dead father.

Annotation:Elv, Meg and Claire are the three beautiful, black-haired Story sisters, who live on Long Island with their mother, Annie. Their close bond and happy lives are altered irrevocably one day when Elv and Claire share an encounter with a stranger that will change them forever. They swear themselves to secrecy and attempt to overcome the trauma as best they can. Annie doesn’t understand Elv’s suffering and by the time she realizes what is happening it is too late.

Annotation:As a young teenager, Dolores was raped by her neighbor. She isolates herself and eats in order to cope. By the time she graduates high school, she weighs over 250 pounds and is miserable. After a failed attempt at going to college, Dolores ends up in a mental institution, where she learns how to cope somewhat with the outside world, but it is her experiences after leaving the institution that really allow her to become a full person.

Annotation:Miles O'Malley, a boy with a fascination for the sea, copes with the trials of growing up, his infatuation with the girl next door, bickering parents, and his fear that his life and his beloved Puget Sound are slipping away.

Annotation:A teenage girl, raised on the east end of Long Island among the country estates of the rich, reflects on her understanding of human nature during a seemingly idyllic summer spent with her eight-year-old cousin Daisy.

Annotation:The events of a small-town summer forever alter 12-year-old David Hayden's view of his family. It is a tale of love and courage, of power abused, and of the terrible choice between family loyalty and justice.