Books with author Emily R. Smith

When Harry's mum tells him they are going to get an au pair, he isn't quite sure what it means. When he finds out it's a girl to help look after him and baby brother, Fred, he feels a bit suspicious. It might just be a good excuse for the school bully to tease him. However, he soon warms to Astrid when she turns up and especially when she gives him an idea that stops the bully from ever bothering him again. All the same, Harry can't help wondering why Astrid's never heard of tin openers or Coke, and how come her suitcase can move around by itself...

After Mama's battle with breast cancer, Isabel must forge a new relationship with her family. Isabel's baby sister Rebekah is getting all of the attention lately, and Isabel is tired of it. She's acting out, talking back, and disobeying Mama. If she could see more of her friend Tara next door, or if Daddy didn't have to work so much, maybe things wouldn't be so bad—but Mama thinks Tara is a bad influence, and Daddy's job takes him out of town for days at a time. Mama has no idea how hard it is for Isabel to make new friends at school. Every day Isabel has to walk past Alicia and the other pink-and-purple girls with their lavender pencils and matching barrettes, and she just knows they're talking about her the moment her back is turned. To top it all off, Ben, the wimpy, awkward son of one of the sick ladies from Mama's cancer support group, has transferred to Isabel's school—and he's in her class. When the teacher asks her to show him around, Isabel ends up in a fight with Alicia. What hope does Isabel have for being accepted into the pink-and-purple girls' group now? When Mama trusts Isabel to look after the baby for a few minutes, Isabel tells her little sister just what she's thinking. And soon she finds the courage to tell her mother what she's been feeling.

What's worse than getting dumped? Not even knowing if you've been dumped. Joy got no goodbye, and certainly no explanation when Zan-the love of her life and the only good thing about stifling, backward Haven, Utah-unceremoniously and unexpectedly left for college a year early. Joy needs closure almost as much as she needs Zan, so she heads for California, and Zan, riding shotgun beside Zan's former-best-friend Noah. Original and insightful, quirky and crushing, Joy's story is told in surprising and artfully shifting flashbacks between her life then and now. Exquisite craft and wry, relatable humor signal the arrival of Emily Wing Smith as a breakout talent.

Coll daydreams all the time about meeting the gorgeous bloke she sees at her local swimming pool. Then, one afternoon, he asks her out. Close-up, he's even more good-looking - but he's also very pushy. As Coll struggles to get what she wants from their relationship, she begins to wonder just how far she could go. Can she cope with a boyfriend who's much more experienced than her? How much should she suppress what she's increasingly feeling? Will she turn out like her man-hating mum - or like Art's sad last girlfriend who suddenly got dumped?