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Smelling Herself: A Novel
Terris McMahan Grimes
Smelling Herself is told through the voice of Bernadine, a precocious eleven-year-old wordsmith. Being an African American girl living in West Oakland projects in 1964 is a vulnerable and scary affair. Bernadine is convinced that the solution to her predicament is to grow up. But she soon discovers that growing up is more complicated than she expected. Bernadine’s precarious sense of well-being begins to unravel when Jessie Mae, a girl not much older than she, moves into the apartment above hers and Bernadine discovers the girl is being abused. Bernadine makes it her mission to save Jessie Mae as though she’s saving herself and every other child who lives with constant threats, though the harder she tries the more her loved ones are put in danger.Smelling Herself is imbued with Bernadine’s humor, intelligence, and kindred love, as Terris McMahan Grimes unflinchingly investigates—through the eyes of a quick-witted child—what it means to navigate dangerous times without fully understanding the world she lives in. It’s the story of childhood’s brazen hopes and hindrances.
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Love and Mischief in Middle School
Lelia M Schilling
This is a coming of age story of several neighborhood teens going into middle school. There they learn much more than what the teachers are dishing out. They learn how to navigate all the new things at middle school that are so different than what elementary school was like. Boys and girls learn about new feelings for each other as hormones start kicking in. They learn about mischief while pulling a few pranks, but in the end, no one gets into serious trouble. Just starting out in middle school, Jeannie is tiny and afraid. She has always lacked the self-confidence to fit in with the crowd. Will this be her time to finally make friends with the popular boys and girls or merely be a repeat of what made her cry at night last year. She is so far behind the other girls in development, maybe this will even be worse! Although there are many mischievous things happening along the way, we can see from the cover that at least some things are looking up. It is written at a young adult level and if it were a movie, it would probably be rated a PG13.
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Alec Kerley and the Wrath of the Vampire
Adventure, mystery, and monsters converge in this fast-paced middle grade series perfect for fans of Goosebumps, Cirque du Freak, the Cooper Kids, and the Hardy Boys. "A MODERN DAY DRACULA FOR MIDDLE SCHOOLERS..."-- Electively PaigeFirst Bigfoot, now a vampire.It's been four months since Alec Kerley and his friends had their run-in with Bigfoot in the Ozark Mountains. During a field trip to southeast Kansas, they are confronted by a vampire.This vampire knows them. He has been stalking them -- watching, observing, tracking. He knows Alec's father works for a secret government agency that investigates monsters.And now the monsters want revenge.Still dealing with the loss of his mother, Alec will have to gather all the courage he can muster, because the monster hunters have become the hunted.Hold on tight for the scariest Monster Hunters story yet!****Alec Kerley and the Wrath of the Vampire is a middle grade inspirational monster novel filled with adventure. It is a legitimately scary story with some gruesome elements, and a great read for all ages -- middle graders, teens, and adults. Parental guidance is suggested. 52,000 words, 24 chapters.Alec Kerley and the Wrath of the Vampire is the second book in a series, including Alec Kerley and the Terror of Bigfoot (Book One) and Alec Kerley and the Roar of the Dinosaur (Book Three).
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Killer of Enemies
Years ago, seventeen-year-old Apache hunter Lozen and her family lived in a world of havesand have-nots. There were the Ones—people so augmented with technology and geneticenhancements that they were barely human—and there was everyone else who served them. Then the Cloud came, and everything changed. Tech stopped working. The world plungedback into a new steam age. The Ones’ pets—genetically engineered monsters—turned on themand are now loose on the world. Lozen was not one of the lucky ones pre-C, but fate has given her a unique set of survivalskills and magical abilities. She hunts monsters for the Ones who survived the apocalyptic eventsof the Cloud, which ensures the safety of her kidnapped family. But with every monster she takesdown, Lozen’s powers grow, and she connects those powers to an ancient legend of her people.It soon becomes clear to Lozen that she is not just a hired gun. As the legendary Killer of Enemies was in the ancient days of the Apache people, Lozen ismeant to be a more than a hunter. Lozen is meant to be a hero.
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Empress of the Sun
Ian McDonald
World-hopping, high-action adventure starring a smart boy with computer skills and a tough girl who pilots a blimp The airship Everness makes a Heisenberg Jump to an alternate Earth unlike any her crew has ever seen. Everett, Sen, and the crew find themselves above a plain that goes on forever in every direction without any horizon. There they find an Alderson Disc, an astronomical megastructure of incredibly strong material reaching from the orbit of Mercury to the orbit of Jupiter. Then they meet the Jiju, the dominant species on a plane where the dinosaurs didn't die out. They evolved, diversified, and have a twenty-five million year technology head-start on humanity. War between their kingdoms is inevitable, total and terrible. Everness has jumped right into the midst of a faction fight between rival nations, the Fabreen and Dityu empires. The airship is attacked, but then defended by the forces of the Fabreen, who offers theEverness crew protection. But what is the true motive behind Empress Aswiu's aid? What is her price? The crew of the Everness is divided in a very alien world, a world fast approaching the point of apocalypse.
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The Rivalry for Alsatia
Reggit Dogger, Justice Shepherd
Magic is a limited resource in Alsatia, where the friction between order and chaos is fraying the fabric of reality and forcing everyone to pick sides. Take Catalina Dewin, an aspiring mage who is confronted with a series of complex choices about which of her future selves she will become. When she accidentally pulls her long-lost brother through a hole in space and time, she gets kicked out of school and apprentices with the eccentric Archmage Kalron Castellan. At Kalron’s keep, Catalina meets a temperamental fire-wright, a failed paladin, a bookish illusionist and an undead knight. Together, this unlikely band of heroes faces off with influential wizards with opposing ideas about the nature of security, freedom and the purpose of power. As tensions escalate, Catalina and her friends face down brazen attacks from trolls, golem and a rogue mage during a wild adventure that spans barren desert, ancient burial grounds, desolate caves and the lawlessness of Tacabre, a town where everything is for sale. The race is on to find an enchanted key that will protect the world from the forces of chaos – or that just might unravel it all. Complete in itself, The Rivalry for Alsatia is the first of an epic seven-novel series where every decision matters, and nothing is quite what it seems.
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Into the Wilderness
Mandy Hager
Into the Wilderness First published in New Zealand by Random House New Zealand, 2010.
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No One Told No One
Daniel Meehan
In the middle of London, a dilapidated former car factory sits seemingly empty and abandoned. But it hides a secret: a community of children called the Island, all orphans or runaways, living off the grid and almost unknown to the outside world. The Island has managed to stay hidden for over twenty years through luck, ingenuity and one unbreakable rule: No One Tells No One.But now the rule has been broken. One of the Islanders has taken a risk and invited a newcomer who would not normally even be considered. Katy is an ordinary middle-class girl from an ordinary middle-class family, with very ordinary middle-class problems. To Katy, the Island is a revelation: a heady drug of freedom from the restrictions of the adult world. And despite the warnings of the Islanders that freedom and responsibility come hand-in-hand, she runs away from home to join them. But she soon comes to realise that her actions have the potential to destroy the mask that keeps the Island hidden.
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Unbroken
Larry Benjamin
My parents, unable to change me, had instead, silenced me. When they'd stilled my hands, they'd taken my words, made me lower my voice to a whisper. Later, I remained silent in defense, refusing to acknowledge the hateful words: Brainiac. Sissy. Antiman. Faggot.Lincoln de Chabert's life is pretty unremarkable until he comes home from kindergarten and announces he will marry his best friend, Orlando, when he grows up. His parents spring into immediate action, determined to fix him, igniting an epic battle of wills as Lincoln is determined to remain himself, and marry whom he chooses, at all costs.
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McAlister's Hoard
Richard Marman, Richard Marman
Only months after escaping from Frenchy Duval's band of cut throat pirates (McAlister's Way), Danny McAlister and Angela Holyman are once again thrown into a thrilling, helter-skelter adventure in their tropical, South-Sea paradise. Following only the flimsiest clues they embark on a perilous treasure hunt in a desperate struggle against old enemies in order to save the lives of new friends. WHAT READERS ARE SAYING ABOUT THE MCALISTER SERIES: "Waiting for the sequel" "McAlister's Spark is a fast paced, action riddled, amazing read you will struggle to put down" "A great action read for teenagers and great graphics......a great literary effort".
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