Sara Zarr

"At the start of seventh grade, Kyra believes her alcoholic mother, who has been sober for five years, has relapsed and with no one to count on, not even her best friend, she starts to question whether being just enough is not enough at all"--

"Expert advice and encouragement are paired with exercises to help you face down your fears, let go of expectations, stop comparing yourself to others, and make your art with courage"--

Receiving a mysterious guitar the night before she leaves the city to live with her mom and new stepdad, Lou believes that if she learns how to play it, she can bring a piece of her old life home. From award-winning author Sara Zarr comes a story of the small moments that show us who we are, and how family is not just something you're part of, but something you make. Lou and her family don't have much, but for Lou it's enough. Mom. Her sister, Casey....

Lucy Beck-Moreau once had a promising future as a concert pianist. The right people knew her name, her performances were booked months in advance, and her future seemed certain.
That was all before she turned fourteen.
Now, at sixteen, it's over. A death, and a betrayal, led her to walk away. That leaves her talented ten-year-old brother, Gus, to shoulder the full weight of the Beck-Moreau family expectations. Then Gus gets a new piano...

"A story that broke my heart and put it back together again. You won't want to let Gem and Dixie go." —Sarah Dessen, New York Times bestselling author of Saint Anything

From renowned author and National Book Award finalist Sara Zarr comes a deep, nuanced, and gorgeously written story about the complex relationship between two sisters from a broken home.

Gem has never known what it is to have security. She's never

...

Hope can be hard to hold on to.
When thirteen-year-old Jody goes missing, the national spotlight turns to Samara Taylor's small town of Pineview. With few clues for investigators to follow, everyone is a suspect, including Jody's older brother, Nick. But even as the town rallies in solidarity, Sam feels more alone than ever. Her mother is drifting farther and farther away while her father grows increasingly preoccupied as he steps in to...

There are a lot of books about writing out there. If you're like most writers, you've read them all. But learning how to write (and organize and outline and plot and edit and save the cat and market a breakout book) is one thing. Making and living a sustainable creative life in the face of...everything...is an entirely different matter. To know how to do that, we need to take a look at what goes on between the lines of our lives as writers so that...

Thirty-one young adult authors share their own struggles with mental illness, ranging from such topics as neurodiversity and addiction to OCD and PTSD.