Coming-of-Age stories are those in which a young person has a life-changing experience that enables him or her to become an adult -- an individual both within and independent of society.

All titles are published in 2004.

Abani, Christopher. Graceland.
Born into poverty in the chaotic capital city of Nigeria, Elvis is tempted by the underworld and enters a life of crime, encountering beggars, musicians, and American pop culture as he tries to survive in postcolonial Nigeria.

Blum, Jenna. Those Who Save Us. A professor of German history begins a long journey back into a past she has pushed aside, returning to Germany to reopen the wounds of her own life--as well as that of her mother--as a child living in Nazi Germany.

Caldwell, Ian. The Rule of Four.
Trying to decipher an ancient text that weaves a mathematical labyrinth within a love story, two young researchers obtain a diary that may contain the key to the code, but when a fellow researcher is killed, they realize that the book contains a dangerous secret.

Callanan, Liam. The Cloud Atlas.
During World War II, Louis Belk, a young American bomb disposal sergeant, is sent on a mission to Anchorage, Alaska, to find and disarm the balloon bombs launched by the Japanese against North America, a search that leads him to encounters with a variety of haunting individuals and sends him on a lifelong quest to understand the meaning of faith, friendship, trust, and love.

D’Ancona, Matthew. Going East.
Her life of privilege devastated by a terrible crime, Mia Taylor struggles to come to terms with what has happened to her and uncovers how corruption, bigotry, and class warfare contributed to her new status.

Davis, Bridgett M. Shifting Through Neutral.
Coming of age in the early 1970s, middle-class African-American Rae finds her precarious optimism unbalanced when her mother abandons the family for her lover, a situation complicated by Rae's need to care for an ailing father, a hip older sister's return, and her own budding sexuality.

Dorrell, Linda. The Trees of Eden.
Searching for a Paradise to call her own, and longing to be free from the grasp of her controlling mother, Wren Birdsong finds her life forever changed by an unexpected encounter with a neighbor, in this poignant novel of family, tragedy, and hope.

Gibbons, Kaye. Divining Women.
In 1918, Maureen Ross struggles to deal with a difficult pregnancy and her emotionally abusive husband Troop, until the arrival of Troop's niece, Mary Oliver, the child of a wealthy, freethinking family who sets out to protect her aunt.

Gillespie, Karin. Bet Your Bottom Dollar.
Running the local general store for their small-town South Carolina community, manager Elizabeth enlists her two fellow shopkeepers and a crew of friends to save the store from a rival who would put her out of business.

Grodstein, Lauren. Reproduction is the Flaw of Love.
Impatiently waiting outside the bathroom door of his possibly pregnant girlfriend, who stalls for time by overextending her grooming activities, twenty-nine-year-old Joel Miller grapples with his fears about marriage and fatherhood.

Jackson, Jeremy. In Summer.
Learning that his mother has cancer, recent high-school graduate Leo endeavors to lose himself in complex relationships in order to figure out what is important about family, love, and life.

Joe, Yolanda. My Fine Lady.
Talented young singer Imani is surrounded by men with their own interest in her career--including her father, her boyfriend, and Orenthal Hopson, who believes that he can transform her from a hip-hop diva to a traditional jazz singer.

Just, Ward S. An Unfinished Season.
Class struggle and family tensions explode in this novel of life in a Chicago suburb in the 1950s, as a teenager watches his father's psyche crumble in the wake of union problems and marital difficulties.

Keltner, Kim Wong. The Dim Sum of All Things.
A thoroughly modern young American woman living in San Francisco, Lindsey Owyang has little in common with her Chinese heritage, until an unexpected event forces her to reexamine her family's history and the need to meld the old culture with the new.

Kimmel, Haven. Something Rising (Light and Swift).
Cassie Claiborne, the most grounded person in her family, shoulders the burden herself while her father is away, but when he returns home and teaches her to play pool, she discovers she has an innate talent and dreams that her destiny might lie beyond her small town.

Mitcham, Judson. Sabbath Creek.
Fourteen-year-old Lewis Pope, forced to confront scars left by his alcoholic father and emotionally distant mother, develops a friendship with an elderly black man after Lewis and his mother are stranded by car trouble in southern Georgia.

Naylor, Clare. The Second Assistant.
A former congressional intern who takes a job as second assistant at a powerful Hollywood talent agency, Elizabeth Miller copes with the trials, tribulations, and dirty dealings of the film world.

Stevens, Marcus. Useful Girl.
When a construction crew uncovers the remains of a Cheyenne girl, the foreman, anxious about deadlines, orders his men to keep working, but his daughter secretly helps Charlie, one of the workers, to rebury the remains in a sacred place and develops a passionate relationship with the man as an outlet for her repressed emotions.

Stevenson, Talitha. An Empty Room.
A young woman begins to feel the closing walls of existential angst when the carefree party that has characterized her teenage life comes to an end and she drifts into an ultimately unhealthy relationship with a married man.

Trigiani, Adriana. The Queen of the Big Time.
Ambitious teen Nella, the daughter of an Italian family from a small Pennsylvania village, aspires to live in society far from the rigors of farm life, a dream that is compromised when a poet she loves mysteriously disappears.

Weinstein, Debra. Apprentice to the Flower Poet Z.
Delighted when she lands a job with the eminent Flower Poet Z., Annabelle G., an aspiring young poet, soon realizes that she has acquired the mentor from hell instead of finding a meaningful relationship.

Compiled 8/04, KG; Holdings checked 7/06 KRL