A vivid portrayal of working-class life and a deeply moving and highly suspenseful story of the dangerous first love of two young men: Mungo and James. Born under different stars--Mungo a Protestant and James a Catholic--they should be sworn enemies if they're to be seen as men at all. And yet against all odds Mungo and James become best friends as they find a sanctuary in the pigeon dovecote that James has built for his prize racing birds. As they...

Abandoned by the alcoholic father who idealized the natural world without imparting any survival skills to his children, three siblings in 1970s New York embark on difficult adult lives before their father attempts a reconciliation.

Seventeen-year-old Carson Speier is bored of Billings, Montana, and resentful that he has to help his mother take care of his father, a dying alcoholic whom he has not seen in fourteen years--but then he meets Aisha, a beautiful African American girl who has run away from her own difficult family, and together they embark on a journey of discovery that may help them both come to terms with their lives.

Maverick Falconer is just starting middle school and he wishes he were a hero like his father because maybe then he could deal with his mother's drinking and series of abusive boyfriends, not to mention the kids who bully him in middle school (pretty much the same ones who bullied him in elementary school)--but as the year passes he begins to realize that other kids have problems too, and maybe if they can all survive sixth-grade things will get better....

"In this middle-grade novel, Addie has to draw on all her resilience to look after herself and her little brother, Billy, when their mother, who struggles with depression and alcoholism, leaves unexpectedly"--

"It's the summer of 1978 and most people think Elvis Presley has been dead for a year. But eleven-year-old Truly knows Elvis is alive and well and living in her trailer park. It's a busy summer. Though Truly's mother is constantly drinking, smoking, and juggling new boyfriends, Truly is determined to raise money for herself through her lemonade stand, and to prove that her cool new neighbour is the King of Rock 'n' Roll. And when she can't find motherly...

"An 18-year-old basketball star who is being recruited by Cornell University seems to have it all figured out: captain of his team, a good student, has a longtime girlfriend and some good friends. But at home he's struggling with his troubled father who has a gambling addiction. His mother tries to keep the family afloat but does so with great emotional and financial sacrifice."--www.imdb.com.

When eleven-year-old Ivy Blake leaves the nice farm family where she has been living in upstate New York and moves back in with her mother she is finally forced to face up to the fact that her alcoholic, dysfunctional parent will never be able to provide her with a stable home--and if she wants to achieve her dreams she is going to have to take charge of her own future.

Al-Anon's latest, Courage to Be Me, is a treasure-trove of recovery stories specially written by and for Alateens. Every teen living with an alcoholic-recovering or not-should read this book.