The Pressure to Measure Up

Neal Shusterman is the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of Bruiser, which was a Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC) choice, a YALSA Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults pick, and was on twelve state lists; The Schwa Was Here; and the UnWind series, among many other books. Challenger Deep (HarperCollins Children's Books) Deep —Finalist for the 2015 National Book Award in Young People’s Literature— is set on a galleon that's headed for the deepest point on Earth: Challenger Deep, the southern part of the Marianas Trench. A brilliant high school student battling schizophrenia is designated as the ship’s artist in residence. He is split between his allegiance to the captain and the allure of mutiny. NOMINATED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD 2015

In 2013, Corey Ann Haydu was chosen as one of Publisher Weekly’s Flying Starts. Her books have been Junior Library Guild Selections, Indie Next Selections, and BCCB Blue Ribbon Selections. Haydu teaches YA Novel Writing with Mediabistro and is adapting her debut novel, Ocd Love Story, into a high school play, which will have its first run in fall 2015. In Making Pretty (Katherine Tegen Books), a New York City girl experiences the most intense summer of her life. In Rules for Stealing Stars (Katherine Tegen Books), sister discover a magical place that gives them what they truly need: an escape from the complications of their home life.

Tamara Ireland Stone is a former Silicon Valley marketing executive. She is the author of the Young Adult novels Time After Time and Time Between Us, which have been published in over twenty countries to widespread acclaim. Her latest book is Every Last Word (Disney-Hyperion). Samantha McAllister looks just like the rest of the popular girls in her junior class. But Sam has a secret that her friends would never understand: Purely-Obsessional OCD. She is consumed by a stream of dark thoughts and worries that she can't turn off. Sam knows she'd be truly crazy to leave the protection of the most popular girls in school. When Sam meets Caroline, she has to keep her new friend with a refreshing sense of humor and no style a secret.  Caroline introduces Sam to Poet's Corner, a hidden room and a tight-knit group of misfits who have been ignored by the school at large, and starts to discover a whole new side of herself. Slowly, she begins to feel more "normal" than she ever has as part of the popular crowd . . . until she finds a new reason to question her sanity and all she holds dear.