Print

Eli the Good
Silas House
In his timely YA debut, a best-selling novelist revisits a summer of tumult and truth for a young narrator and his war-torn family.Bicentennial fireworks burn the sky. Bob Seger growls from a transistor radio. And down by the river, girls line up on lawn chairs in pursuit of the perfect tan. Yet for ten-year-old Eli Book, the summer of 1976 is the one that threatened to tear his family apart. There is his distant mother; his traumatized Vietnam vet dad; his wild sister; his former warprotester aunt; and his tough yet troubled best friend, Edie, the only person with whom he can be himself. As tempers flare and his father’s nightmares rage, Eli watches from the sidelines, but soon even he cannot escape the current of conflict. From Silas House comes a tender look at the complexities of childhood and the realities of war — a quintessentially Southern novel filled with music, nostalgic detail, a deep respect for nature, and a powerful sense of place.
Book Details

Roland Wright
Gregory Rogers, Tony Davis
A laugh-out-loud chapter book series filled with knightly adventures!Roland Wright wants to be a knight in armor. The problem: Roland’s dad is a blacksmith, and only boys from noble families can even dream of becoming knights. When mysterious visitors arrive in the village one day, everything changes. Roland finds himself in the contest of a lifetime, with a real chance to become a page, the first step on the road to knighthood. But how can skinny, clumsy Roland beat an opponent who is bigger, stronger, and older—and who doesn’t play by the rules?From the Hardcover edition.
Book Details

Age 14
Geert Spillebeen
Set during the First World War, Age 14 is a heartbreaking and powerful story about growing up quickly in the face of war. Twelve-year-old Patrick Condon wants to escape his impoverished and tedious life in Ballybricken, County Waterford, so he hatches a plan. Not wanting to wait until he is old enough to join at sixteen, Patrick gives the army the name, John, and age, seventeen, of his older brother, and is enlisted. In the army, Patrick, now John, makes friends easily. The man's world is just what he always desired; if only there was more action. John gets all the action he is looking for when the war breaks out following the murder of the Austrian Crown Prince in 1914. Before he knows it, he is training with bayonets but it is nearly a game so long as no blood is spilled. The battle seems so far away. But the war is very real, and it is only a matter of time before John is at the front of it all. Based on a true story, this faction is about dreams, about war and peace, and the lives lost to achieve both. It is about a young boy named Patrick, and named John, the adventure and glory he so craved, and the tragic way he achieved both.
Book Details

Beating Heart
A. M. Jenkins
She haunts his dreams.She is a momentary chill in warm sunlight, a shadow, and a memory of secret kisses and hidden passion. He is seventeen, and ever since he moved into this house he has dreamt of her . . . hot, wordless dreams that turn darker and more intense every night. Ghost and boy fascinate each other—until her memories and his desire collide in a moment that changes them both forever.
Book Details

Panama
Shelby Hiatt
After moving from a small town in Ohio to Panama while her father takes part in building the Panama Canal, a fifteen-year-old girl yearning for new experiences meets Frederico, a Spanish aristocrat who is working as a canal digger, and they begin a romance.
Book Details

Avalon High: Coronation
Jinky Coronado, Meg Cabot
Meg Cabot's magical Arthurian epic continues . . . Manga style!Will's dangerous brother, Marco, has been released from the mental hospital, and it seems as if he's turned over a new leaf. But Ellie isn't sure she trusts him yet, especially when she keeps having creepy nightmares about him every night. Meanwhile, Mr. Morton is still convinced that Ellie's boyfriend, Will, is the reincarnation of King Arthur and that if Ellie doesn't help Will believe this, too, the world is going to end—this Friday. But all this won't stop Ellie from trying to pull off the big dinner party she's arranged to reunite Will with his parents . . . even though it might be a total disaster. When you and your friends are reliving Arthurian legend, you can never catch a break!
Book Details

Girl on the Other Side
Deborah Kerbel
Short-listed for the 2010 CLA Young Adult Book Award Tabby Freeman and Lora Froggett go to the same school, but they live in totally opposite worlds. Tabby is rich, pretty, and the most popular girl in her class. But behind closed doors, her perfect life is rapidly coming apart at the seams. On the other side, Lora is smart, timid, and the constant target of bullies. While struggling to survive the piranha-infested halls of her school, she becomes increasingly nervous that somebody might discover the unbearable truth about whats been happening to her family. Despite their differences, Tabby and Lora have something in common theyre both harbouring dark secrets and a lot of pain. Although theyve never been friends, a series of strange events causes their lives to crash together in ways neither could have ever imagined. And when the dust finally settles and all their secrets are forced out into the light, will the girls be saved or destroyed?
Book Details

The Calligrapher's Daughter
Eugenia Kim
"A beautiful, deliberate and satisfying story spanning 30 years of Korean history . . . Elegant."―Publishers Weekly (starred review)In early-twentieth-century Korea, Najin Han, the privileged daughter of a calligrapher, longs to choose her own destiny, though her country―newly occupied by Japan―is crumbling, and her family, led by her stern father, is facing difficulties that seem insurmountable. Narrowly escaping an arranged marriage, Najin takes up a new role as a companion to a young princess. But the king is soon assassinated, and the centuries-old dynastic culture comes to its end.Najin pursues a coveted education and is surprised to find love. After one day of marriage a denied passport separates her from her new husband, who continues alone to America. As a decade passes and the world descends into war, Najin loses touch with her husband. Will the love they share be enough to sustain her through the deprivation her country continues to endure? The Calligrapher's Daughter is a richly drawn novel about a nation torn between ancient customs and modern possibilities, and is a "vivid, heartfelt portrait of faith, love and life for one family during a pivotal time in history" (Bookpage).
Book Details

The Nine Pound Hammer
John Claude Bemis
What if John Henry had a son?Twelve-year-old Ray is haunted by the strangest memories of his father, whom Ray swears could speak to animals. Now an orphan, Ray jumps from a train going through the American South and falls in with a medicine show train and its stable of sideshow performers. The performers turn out to be heroes, defenders of the wild, including the son of John Henry. They are hiding the last of the mythical Swamp Sirens from an ancient evil known as the Gog. Why the Gog wants the Siren, they can’t be sure, but they know it has something to do with rebuilding a monstrous machine that John Henry gave his life destroying years before, a machine that will allow the Gog to control the will of men and spread darkness throughout the world.From the Hardcover edition.
Book Details

Change-Up
John Feinstein
A behind-the-scenes mystery at the World Series from bestseller John Feinstein. Bestselling author, journalist, and Edgar Award winner John Feinstein is back with another high-stakes sports mystery. Teen reporters Stevie Thomas and Susan Carol Anderson are covering baseball's World Series, and during the course of an interview with a new hot pitcher, they discover more than a few contradictions in his life story. What's he hiding? An embarrassing secret? A possible crime? Let the investigation begin!