K. L. Going

"A poetic look at the interconnectedness of Earth, nature, and its many creatures"--

Seventeen-year-old Troy, depressed, suicidal, and weighing nearly 300 pounds, gets a new perspective on life when a homeless teenager who is a genius on guitar wants Troy to be the drummer in his rock band.

Illustrations and onomatopoeic text capture a busy day in the life of two young siblings as they pick berries, help make a pie, and "thumpety-thump" their way to bed.

Eve gave up her belief in stories and magic after her mother's death, but a mysterious seed given her as an eleventh-birthday gift by someone she has never met takes her and a boy who claims to be a ghost on a strange journey, to where their supposedly cursed town of Beaumont, New York, flourishes.

Iggy Corso, who lives in city public housing, is caught physically and spiritually between good and bad when he is kicked out of high school, goes searching for his missing mother, and causes his friend to get involved with the same dangerous drug dealer who deals to his parents.

Twelve-year-old Tia lives in a white slum in New Orleans with her mother, and her whole world revolves around singing in the gospel choir with her best friend, Keisha--but when practice is interrupted by a shooting outside the church, and a baby is killed, Tia finds that she cannot sing, and she is forced to confront her feelings about her incarcerated father who killed a girl in a failed robbery years before.

A story for everybody who has ever needed to find their inner rock star. Set against the backdrop of the Seattle music scene it is a coming-of-age story about two dysfunctional teenagers searching for something more out of their completely hopeless existence. Troy Billings is fat. His life sucks. He's about to end it all by jumping in front of a bus, when Marcus Macrae, a charismatic punk rock superstar, tackles him to the ground and changes his life...