Rex Ogle

In his award-winning memoir I, Rex Ogle’s abuela features as a source of love and support. In this companion-in-verse, Rex captures and celebrates the powerful presence a woman he could always count on ― to give him warm hugs and ear kisses, to teach him precious words in Spanish, to bring him to the library where he could take out as many books as he wanted, and to offer safety when darkness closed in.

Sixth grade isn't as great as Rex thought it would be. He's the only kid who hasn't had a growth spurt, and the bullies won't let him forget it. His closest friend is unreliable, at best. And there's a cute girl in his class, who may or may not like hiim back. With so much going on, everything is a blur -- including Rex's vision! So when he discovers that he needs glasses, and his family can only afford the ugliestpair in the store, any hope Rex had of fitting in goes completely out of focus.

Instead of giving him lunch money, Rex’s mom has signed him up for free meals. As a poor kid in a wealthy school district, better-off kids crowd impatiently behind him as he tries to explain to the cashier that he’s on the free meal program. The lunch lady is hard of hearing, so Rex has to shout.

Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy are having a really tough year: with their father serving in the military overseas, they must work overtime to make ends meet...and each girl is struggling in her own way. Whether it's school woes, health issues, boy troubles, or simply feeling lost, the March sisters all need the same thing: support from each other. Only by coming together--and sharing lots of laughs and tears--will these four young women find the courage to discover who they truly are as individuals...and as a family.

On the first day of seventh grade, Rex encounters a bump in the road -- a big angry pimple right in the center of his forehead. And this is only the beginning of his problems. What follows is a frustrating battle with stubborn acne, body odor, and other embarrassments of puberty. Still struggling with a home life edging on the poverty line, Rex can't afford to buy the acne medication or deodorant he needs, and bullies are noticing Rex's awkward transformation. On top of it all, things have gotten weird with his friends, making Rex feel like he can't do or say anything right.

Punching Bag is the compelling true story of a high school career defined by poverty and punctuated by outbreaks of domestic abuse. Rex Ogle, who brilliantly mapped his experience of hunger in Free Lunch, here describes his struggle to survive; reflects on his complex, often paradoxical relationship with his passionate, fierce mother; and charts the trajectory of his stepdad’s anger. Hovering over Rex’s story is the talismanic presence of his unborn baby sister.

When Rex was outed the summer after he graduated high school, his father gave him a choice: he could stay at home, find a girlfriend, and attend church twice a week, or he could be gay ― and leave. Rex left, driving toward the only other gay man he knew and a toxic relationship that would ultimately leave him homeless and desperate on the streets of New Orleans. Here, Rex tells the story of his coming out and his father’s rejection of his identity, navigating abuse and survival on the streets.

Will Hunter thought his life couldn’t get any worse. His parents just got divorced, his best (and only) friend now is his dog, Fitz, and his mom moved them from New York City to the middle-of-nowhere town called East Emerson. But Will was wrong — things are about to get way worse. Because East Emerson is filled with a whole lot of monsters, and he’s the only person who can see them.

Things are starting to look up for Will Hunter in East Emerson. He’s pretty much used to seeing monsters all over the place, he’s become best friends with neighbors Ivy and Linus (the only people who can see what he sees), and together they saved the town from a pet-napping vampire! But Will’s problems are far from over.

Will Hunter just wants a quiet day in East Emerson. But instead, a bully won’t leave him alone at school, his mom is struggling to make ends meet, and together with friends Ivy and Linus, he’s had to save the town from a pet-napping vampire and a werewolf army.