Search

After twenty-four years of marriage and two daughters, Elizabeth and Jackson Shore have drifted apart.

Two bickering strangers trying to foster their younger siblings team up to create a stable home, but the chemistry between them threatens to undo their plans—from the viral TikTok author of Next to You and Out on a Limb. “Funny and huge-hearted and romantic and real.”—New York Times bestselling author Talia Hibbert When people-pleasing Chloe learns that her birth mother has unexpectedly had another baby, she doesn’t hesitate to become a next-of-kin guardian. But when she fails to pass Child Protective Services’ financial evaluation, she is faced with a choice: see her baby sister placed in foster care or participate in CPS’s new initiative, where two prospective guardians join households to qualify. Enter Warren, a surly mechanic’s apprentice attempting to get custody of his deaf fifteen-year-old brother. From the moment Warren drives up thirty minutes late, blasting music out of his car, Chloe is convinced that this is a very bad idea. The two immediately clash but eventually agree to live together for the sake of their younger siblings. As their lives intertwine, and Chloe adjusts to caring for her newborn sister, she begins to see a new, softer side of Warren. In fact, they’re far more similar than she could have imagined. What started as forced begins to feel natural—and far less lonely. Chemistry soon intensifies beyond what either of them can stand, but is their mutual attraction worth risking everything they’ve fought for?

These are the winning stories and poems from the 2017 Van Buren County Teen Creative Writing Challenge! From the Preface: "Our poets this year cover quite a spectrum, from the pastoral to the apocalyptic, from nature to mental illness and bullying, and through a variety of structures. Likewise, our fiction winners exhibit a range of interests and themes. We hear from chickens, horses, ghosts, vampires, and stranger things. But, at the heart of them, these stories are all about relationships, connectedness, and its power to define and change the world."

Everyone knows that Chelsea Knot can't keep a secret Until now. Because the last secret she shared turned her into a social outcast—and nearly got someone killed. Now Chelsea has taken a vow of silence—to learn to keep her mouth shut, and to stop hurting anyone else. And if she thinks keeping secrets is hard, not speaking up when she's ignored, ridiculed and even attacked is worse. But there's strength in silence, and in the new friends who are, shockingly, coming her way—people she never noticed before; a boy she might even fall for. If only her new friends can forgive what she's done. If only she can forgive herself.

Proceedings of the 17th biennial conference and exhibition of the Victorian Association for Library Automation (VALA) held in Melbourne in 2014.