After spending her life with her mentally retarded mother and agoraphobic neighbor, twelve-year-old Heidi sets out from Reno, Nevada, to New York to find out who she is. Living with her mentally disabled mother who only knows just over twenty words, young Heidi has learned to live in her special world until a new word is suddenly used and repeated by her mother; causing Heidi to think it might be a key to a secret past about which she knows so little...

Shelby Cooper, nearly eighteen, has been overprotected by her single mother all her life but after a car accident, Shelby's mother steals her away from the hospital, revealing that Shelby's father is not dead, but rather a violent man who promised to hunt them down.

A thirteen-year-old girl gains a much more sympathetic understanding of her relationship with her mother when she has to spend a day in her mother's body

"At sixteen, Mina's mother is dead, her magician father is vicious, and her silent heart has never beat with love for anyone--has never beat at all, in fact, but she'd always thought that fact normal. She never guessed that her father cut out her heart and replaced it with one of glass. When she moves to Whitespring Castle and sees its king for the first time, Mina forms a plan: win the king's heart with her beauty, become queen, and finally know...

"Margot doesn't know anything about her family, beyond her quiet life with her mother. But she wants more and when she finds a clue that leads her to a town called Phalene, she leaves to investigate. Only Phalene and her family history are full of secrets, some that may prove more dangerous and deadly than Margot ever could have bargained for"-- Ever since Margot was born, it's been just her and her mother. No history to hold on to, no relative to...

Sixth-grader Sugar and her mother lose their beloved house and experience the harsh world of homelessness.

When her favorite teacher is murdered, true-crime obsessed teenager Natalie Temple launches her own investigation with the help of a new boy in town, but soon discovers some secrets were never meant to be told.

Amelia Bedelia suggests that her Mom, who is feeling blue, go on a play date while Amelia Bedelia is doing the same, and then enlists her friends to help make chalk drawings on the house, sidewalk, and more to brighten Mom's day with her favorite things.

The making of "Show ways," or quilts which once served as secret maps for freedom-seeking slaves, is a tradition passed from mother to daughter in the author's family

"A young Asian girl notices that her eyes look different from her peers'. They have big, round eyes and long lashes. She realizes that her eyes are like her mother's, her grandmother's, and her little sister's. They have eyes that kiss in the corners and glow like warm tea, crinkle into crescent moons, and are filled with stories of the past and hope for the future. Drawing from the strength of these powerful women in her life, she recognizes her...