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Stuff
Stuff - The Life of a Cool Demented Dude
Matthew S. Armstrong, Jeremy Strong
Stuff. My head's full of it. I don't even know where most of it comes from. I just seem to pick it up, like my brain emits a special sort of tractor beam that locks on to pointless information. But in the face of my problems, all the extra stuff is proving useless. What problems? you ask. I shall tell you.Problem 1: The invasion of my home. Dad's new girlfriend moved in, and, even worse, she brought along her daughter, who has no sense of humor and no taste in music.Problem 2: My girlfriend, Delfine. Her brother would break both my arms if I broke up with her. Problem 3: The new girl at school. Stunning. Gorgeous. Willowy. My Destiny (but see Problem 2).Problem 4: My comic strip. At first it was cool to anonymously author the strip in the school paper, but now that everyone suspects who they are in the strip, I run the risk of getting my legs broken in addition to my arms (see above).Clearly, I need to plan The Great Escape!Part hilarious musings, part graphic novel, stuff is the quirky exposé of a fourteen-year-old boy who, let's face it, could use a little help.

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Chronicles of Ancient Darkness #3: Soul Eater
Soul Eater
Geoff Taylor, Michelle Paver
“Fast-paced and exciting adventure that will enthrall every reader.” —Erin Hunter, author of the New York Times bestselling Warriors seriesReaders who love the Spirit Animal books will flock to the third volume in Michelle Paver’s bestselling fantasy series about a courageous boy who fights evil alongside a loyal wolf.It's winter, and Wolf, Torak's beloved pack-brother, has been captured by an unknown foe. In a desperate bid to rescue him, Torak and Renn must brave the frozen wilderness of the Far North.As they battle for survival amid howling blizzards and the ever-present menace of the great white bear, their friendship is tested to the breaking point, and Torak is forced to get closer to his enemies than ever before.“Compelling from first page to last.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

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SpringFire (Dragonspawn Cycle, Book 3)
Springfire
Terie Garrison
The third book in the imaginative DragonSpawn Cycle begins as Donavah and the red dragon Xyla narrowly escape the dreaded dragonmasters. Suddenly they are transported from the midst of a deadly battle to Stychs, a legendary and mystical land that looks just like Donavah’s home world―though just how and why she is there yields more questions than answers.Only dragons can move between the two worlds so quickly, and Xyla is now gravely ill from the strain. Donavah and her friends must undertake a treacherous journey to find the other red dragons if Xyla is to be healed. Along the way Donovah is kidnapped and cruelly imprisonedby a rogue magician, an ordeal that leaves her forever scarred. Rescued by the desert sages of Delaron, Donavah finally learns of her role in an ancient prophecy―a prophecy that must be fulfilled if maejic is to survive in Alloway.

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WinterMaejic (Dragonspawn Cycle, Book 2)
Winter Maejic
Terie Garrison
In this captivating sequel to AutumnQuest, Donavah is learning to control her vast maejic powers under the tutelage of Yallick, a revered mage. Maejic is outlawed in Alloway, and dreadful news of the Royal Guard drives the majes―along with Xyla the red dragon―from their hidden forest sanctuary. No one realizes the traitor in their midst until it’s too late and Donavah is brutally attacked. Stripped of her voice, the use of her hands, and her maejic, she is utterly helpless until rescued by a handsome and mysterious young man. Evil forces are scheming to dispose of the mages and overthrow the king. Their fate rests on Donavah―perhaps their only hope for restoring the rightful rule of the dragons. Crippled physically and spiritually, can the young mage break free from the terrible spell before all is lost?

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Starcrossed
Starcrossed
Mark Schreiber
A 2008 YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers list nominee! How can Christy Marlowe―an impulsive, wise-cracking horoscope-junkie―be in love with Ben, a well-mannered college freshman who prefers astronomy over astrology? Their fateful first meeting takes place at a plastic surgeon’s office, where both hope to erase painful memories along with unwanted tattoos. Is it a bad omen that Ben has the same name as Christy’s ex-boyfriend, a drug-pedaling punk in juvie for murder? It’s hard for Christy to care when Ben sends her heart "racing through galaxies of bliss." Just as Ben is worried about Christy’s obsessed ex who’s back on the streets, Christy is troubled by the sadness lurking in Ben’s ice-blue eyes.Burying the past isn’t easy and this comedy of love turns upside down when Christy and Ben become ensnared in their own lies. Starcrossed or starmates, can they forgo Romeo and Juliet’s tragic fate and find their way back to truth and trust?

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The Shalamar Code
The Shalamar Code
Mary Louise Clifford
This thrilling tale of romance and intrigue offers a close-up view of Pakistani culture in a post-9/11 world.Political unrest is on the rise in Pakistan, where remnants of AlQaeda are stirring up trouble in tribal territories. It’s clearly not the best time for fifteen-year-old Mumtaz―the daughter of a famous lawyer who’s also the leader of an outlawed opposition party―to get mixed up in Karachi’s criminal underworld. But when her brother is held hostage by a drug-running thug named Moocher, she has no choice. Defying her parents and generations of cultural tradition, Mumtaz gets involved with a young man who risks everything to assist her on a dangerous mission to expose Moocher as a spy. Not until she gets caught does the bright Pakistani teenager realize she may be in over her head.

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Titans of Chaos (The Chronicles of Chaos)
Titans of Chaos
John C. Wright
Titans of Chaos completes John Wright's The Chronicles of Chaos. Launched in Orphans of Chaos--a Nebula Award Nominee for best novel in 2006, and a Locus Year's Best Novel pick for 2005--and continued in Fugitives of Chaos, the trilogy is about five orphans raised in a strict British boarding school who discovered that they are not human. The students have been kidnapped, robbed of their powers, and raised in ignorance by super-beings. The five have made incredible discoveries about themselves. Amelia is apparently a fourth-dimensional being; Victor is a synthetic man who can control the molecular arrangement of matter; Vanity can find secret passageways through solid walls; Colin is a psychic; Quentin is a warlock. Each power comes from a different paradigm or view of the universe. They have learned to control their strange abilities and have escaped into our world: now their true battle for survival begins. The Chronicles of Chaos is si

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Ace of Spades: A Memoir
Ace of Spades
David Matthews
A take-no-prisoners tale of growing up without knowing who you areWhen David Matthews's mother abandoned him as an infant, she left him with white skin and the rumor that he might be half Jewish. For the next twenty years, he would be torn between his actual life as a black boy in the ghetto of 1980s Baltimore and a largely imagined world of white privilege. While his father, a black activist who counted Malcolm X among his friends, worked long hours as managing editor at the Baltimore Afro-American, David spent his early years escaping wicked-stepmother types and nursing an eleven-hour-a-day TV habit alongside his grandmother in her old-folks-home apartment. In Reagan-era America, there was no box marked "Other," no multiculturalism or self-serving political correctness, only a young boy's need to make it in a clearly segregated world where white meant "have" and black meant "have not." Without particular allegiance to either, David careened in and out of community college, dead-end jobs, his father's life, and girls' pants.  A bracing yet hilarious reinvention of the American story of passing, Ace of Spades marks the debut of an irresistible and fiercely original new voice.

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Why I Let My Hair Grow Out (A Morgan Rawlinson Novel)
Why I Let My Hair Grow Out
Maryrose Wood
Being sent to your room is one thing. But being sent to another country? Morgan's boyfriend dumped her on the last day of school-it seemed the only thing to do was to hack off her hair and dye the stubble orange. Unfortunately, Morgan's parents freaked and decided a change of scenery would do her good. So they're sending her off on a bike tour of Ireland. But Morgan gets more than she bargained for on the Emerald Isle-including a strange journey into some crazy, once upon a time corner of the past. There, she meets fairies, weefolk, and a hunky warrior-dude named Fergus, and figures out that she's got some growing to do-and she doesn't just mean her hair.

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Billy Creekmore: A Novel
Billy Creekmore
Tracey Porter
Folks say I'm bound to be unlucky in life, for I was born at midnight on a Friday, the thirteenth of December, and Peggy says it's certain I can commune with spirits. But I ain't never seen any ghosts, not even my own mother, and wouldn't that be the ghost I'd see if I could?So begins the tale of Billy Creekmore, a boy with mystifying powers and the glorious gift of storytelling. But what does life hold for someone growing up in the cruel clutches of the Guardian Angels Home for Boys, where Billy's gifts do more harm than good?Escaping the orphanage seems an impossible feat, but when a stranger comes to claim Billy, he sets off on an extraordinary journey. With only a tin box that holds precious mementos of his beloved mother and mysterious father, Billy travels from the coal mines of West Virginia to the spectacular world of a traveling circus in search of his past, his future, and his own true self.

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