NCW Libraries

"Ian Gray isn't supposed to have a dog, but a lot of things that shouldn't happen end up happening anyway. And Gather, Ian's adopted pup, is good company now that Ian has to quit the basketball team, find a job, and take care of his mom as she tries to overcome her opioid addiction. Despite the obstacles thrown their way, Ian is determined to keep his family afloat no matter what it takes. And for a little while, things are looking up: Ian makes friends,...

"Addiction can be an incredibly difficult subject for parents and caregivers to discuss with children, who are often the ones most impacted by it. This book provides an avenue for dialogue with the over 18 million children who are affected by addiction in America. It follows a simple metaphor of addiction as the main character, Sam, is swept away in a bubble. At first he is curious and excited, but he slowly becomes bored and isolated, encounters...

"In the tradition of parent-child memoirs from The Liar's Club to The Glass Castle, here is the haunting story of a daughter's quest to understand her father, to save him from his own demons and to save herself from following his self-destructive path. Marco Antonio was born in Mexico, but as a teenager migrated with his large family north to California, where he met Jean's mother, a young Puerto Rican woman just out of med school. Marco was a self-taught...

Ward (Salvage the Bones) tells the story of three generations of a struggling Mississippi family in this astonishing novel. "We don't walk no straight lines. It's all happening at once. All of it. We all here at once." This is the explanation 13-year-old Jojo is provided by his grandmother, the family matriarch, on her deathbed. "I'll be on the other side of the door," she reassures him, "With everybody else that's gone before." Jojo and his little...

A collection of true stories about growing up with a family member suffering from an addiction.

A haunting, unforgettable mother-daughter story for a new generation--the debut of a blazing new lyrical voice. Ruta grew up in a working-class, unforgiving Italian town north of Boston. Her unconventional coming of age--a darkly hilarious chronicle of a misfit O90s childhood and the necessary and painful act of breaking away--is a brilliant stylistic feat.

Gabi Hernández está en su último año de la preparatoria. Para entretenerse, escribe todo lo que le pasa en su diario: las solicitudes a las universidades, el embarazo de Cindy, cuando Sebastián salió del clóset, los chicos guapos de su clase, la adicción de su padre a la metanfetamina, y toda la comida que se le antoja. Pero lo mejor de todo lo que escribe es la poesía que la ayuda a ser quien es. Sixteen-year-old Gabi Hernandez chronicles...

In kindergarten, the author's teacher asks him to draw his family, with a mommy and a daddy. But his family is much more complicated than that. His mom is an addict, in and out of rehab, and in and out of his life. His father is a mystery - he doesn't know where to find him, or even what his name is. The author lives with his grandparents - two very loud, very loving, very opinionated people who had thought they were through with raising children...