When David Copperfield's widowed mother remarries, David suffers from his stepfather's abuse. At age 8, David is sent away to a harsh school where the principal routinely beats the students. David's circumstances become even worse when he is removed from school and, at age 10, forced to labor from morning to night in a London warehouse. David then decides to take desperate action. He will run away to his great-aunt, who lives in Dover. Having never...

When Claire Barclay receives news that her beloved stepfather has had a stroke, Claire and her husband, Art, leave New York and fly back to Scotland to care for him during the summer. When their visit makes clear that Leo is no longer capable of living on his own but determined to stay in his beloved old house, they offer to purchase the place from Leo and build him a cottage on the property. But Claire's old flame Jonas Fairweather (who has become...

After his mother divorces his father and remarries, Asa's sharp intellect and capacity for forgiveness help him deal with the instabilities of his new world.

At the age of ten, Liza Barton had shot her mother, trying desperately to protect her from her estranged step-father, Ted Cartwright. Despite his claim that the shooting was a deliberate act, the Juvenile Court ruled the death an accident. Many people, however, agreed with Cartwright, and the tabloids compared her to the infamous murderess Lizzie Borden, pointing even to the similarity of their names. To erase Liza's past, her adoptive parents change...

This spellbinding tale takes readers to a sinister, magical, and war-torn world filled with richly drawn characters like trickster fauns, murderous soldiers, child-eating monsters, courageous rebels, and a long-lost princess hoping to be reunited with her family. Spanish Civil War. Ofelia and her pregnant mother, Carmen, have come to live with her mother's new husband in a forest north of Spain. Ofelia is afraid of her new stepfather, whom she has...

Now in paperback, The Year of the Zinc Penny is a contemporary classic. Trygve Soren Napoli is a ten-year-old just beginning to realize that he is alone in the world. Certain inescapable quirks tip him off: He cannot stop himself from repeating aloud each of his sentences, even after his stepfather tapes his mouth shut. Strange black hairs grow from the back of his hand. He has a weird name, unlike the other kids in Los Angeles, his new home. Even...

Working for his stepfather on a charter fishing boat in Hawaii teaches thirteen-year-old Mikey about fishing, and about taking risks, making sacrifices, and facing some of life's difficult choices

He said they want to talk to you, David." "They?" I said. "The cops?" She nodded. "What for?" I don't think I ever worked harder at getting just two words out of my mouth. I tried to sound like I had no idea what the cops would want with me. / When his step-father Phil is shot dead in an apparent robbery, David becomes the prime suspect. Where was David that night, and what does he know about Phil? David has figured out the truth about his step-father,...

Alison's new stepfather, the charismatic plastic surgeon Peter Dunn, is certain he can turn Alison into a vision of loveliness. Reluctantly, Alison agrees to undergo the first procedure, and her transformation begins. But soon Alison discovers a picture of Peter's first wife. To Alison's horror, she notices a resemblance between the image in the photo and the work her stepfather is doing on her.--From publisher description