Jeannette Walls tells the story about her childhood. She talks about living like nomads, moving among Southwest desert towns, camping in the mountains. Retreating to the dismal West Virginia mining town--and the family-- her father, Rex Walls, had done everything he could to escape. He drank. He stole the grocery money and disappeared for days. As the dysfunction of the family escalated, Jeannette and her brother and sisters had to fend for themselves,...

When he finds a lost beagle in the hills behind his West Virginia home, Marty tries to hide it from his family and the dog's real owner, a mean-spirited man known to shoot deer out of season and to mistreat his dogs.

Sixth-grader Marty and his family try to help their rough neighbor, Judd Travers, change his mean ways, even though their West Virginia community continues to expect the worst of him.

When mean and angry Judd, who has never known kindness, takes to drinking and mistreats his dogs, Marty discovers how deep a hurt can go and how long it takes to heal.

"In the early evening of June 25, 1980 in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, two middle-class outsiders named Vicki Durian, 26, and Nancy Santomero, 19, were murdered in an isolated clearing. They were hitchhiking to a festival known as the Rainbow Gathering but never arrived; they traveled with a third woman however, who lived. For thirteen years, no one was prosecuted for the "Rainbow Murders," though deep suspicion was cast on a succession of local...

"In the rural mountains of West Virginia, seventeen-year-old Michael Faris tries to protect his fragile younger brother from the horrors of the zombie apocalypse"--

"Javari knew that West Virginia would be different from his home in Bushwick, Brooklyn. But his first day at STEM Camp in a little Appalachian town is still a shock. Though run-ins with the police are just the same here. Not good. Javari will learn a lot about science...And also about rich people, racism, and hidden agendas. But it's Cricket, a local boy, budding activist, and occasional thief, who will show him a different side of the holler--and...

Examines efforts by a group of citizens in West Virginia to hold the industrial giant Du Pont responsible for poisoning the drinking water supply as a result of dumping toxic chemicals.

"When Katy's family moves to West Virginia she expects to be bored . . . until she meets her hot neighbor, with his looming height and eerie green eyes. But Daemon is infuriating and arrogant. When a stranger attacks Katy and Daemon literally freezes time with a wave of his hand, well, something unexpected happens. Turns out Daemon and his sister have a galaxy of enemies wanting to steal their abilities, and Daemon's touch has Katy lit up--and in...