Akron Public Library

The struggle of three brothers to stay together after their parent's death and their quest for identity among the conflicting values of their adolescent society. When it was first published in 1967, The Outsiders defied convention with its immediate, deeply sympathetic portrayal of Ponyboy and his struggle to find a place for himself in a difficult world. Thirty years later, it speaks to teenagers as powerfully as ever. Puffin is proud to publish...

Maverick feels strongly about family ties, making choices he feels necessary to help support his mom while his King father serves time, and leave him literally holding his son in a doctor's waiting room after he gets paternity test results back and his babymomma ghosts. Now the child he's raising is impacting the lives of his family and his girlfriend, and the gang life he led to support them all financially could leave them all bearing his responsibilities...

When he returns to Illinois and the gang culture on the south side of Fairfield after six years in Colorado, high school senior Luis Fuentes, who dreams of becoming an astronaut, falls for a girl and enters a dark world after learning some disturbing news about his family.

In 1893 New York, thirteen-year-old Maks, a newsboy, teams up with Willa, a homeless girl, to clear his older sister, Emma, from charges that she stole from the brand new Waldorf Hotel, where she works. Includes historical notes.

When Cody and his friends accept a challenge from a local gang to steal a park bench, their main concern is keeping themselves on the gang's good side. But Cody quickly learns that the theft is no harmless prank.

"Though secrets and lies keep Juliette and Roma apart, a monster still prowls the city of Shanghai, and the two are going to have to put aside their differences to end this threat to once and for all"--

"Beans Curry owns this town. He and his gang of barefoot buddies know everyone in Key West, and they know how to get things done -- and get paid. Most of the time, anyway. But it's the middle of the Great Depression, and times are tough. there are no jobs and everyone is out for themselves, which means it's hard for a kid to make a cent. Luckily, Beans isn't' like other kids. And when his first scheme doesn't work out, he realizes he has to think...

Talented magician Danny, who is half-Chinese, half-British, and dwarf strongman Zamora try to find the connection between the disastrous end of the circus Mysterium, where Danny's performer parents were killed, and the disappearance of his guardian aunt, who is investigating sinister gangs in Hong Kong.

Two eighth-grade loners decide to take up residence in a department store. Little do they know that theirs is not an original idea.

Sixteen-year-old Tom Harvey was an ordinary Londoner until an attack that caused fragments of an iPhone to be embedded in his brain, giving him incredible knowledge and power, but using that power against the gang that attacked him and a friend could have deadly consequences.