Fiction

The Second Life of Linus Hoppe
Catherine Temerson, Anne-Laure Bondoux
After intentionally getting himself expelled from Realm One, Linus Hoppe believed he would experience more of real life. But life in inferior Realm Two is a nightmare. For months Linus has been imprisoned in a factory, where he toils on an assembly line. At night, he’s so tired that he no longer dreams of a future, of the destiny he wanted to create for himself. As for his family and friends, he fears he’ll never see them again. He especially misses Chem and Yosh, his co-conspirators in fooling the Great Processor. What made them think they could change society’s rigid hierarchy? Ready to give up, Linus must somehow regain hope and the will to fight for his freedom.
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Open Ice
Pat Hughes
NICKY TAG! NICKY TAG!All his life, crowds have been cheering for Nick Taglio.He’s been skating since he could walk, scoring goals since he picked up a hockey stick. He’s only a sophomore but he rules the ice, because Nicky Tag’s a fighter. Which means you have to take some hits; concussions come with the territory. When he gets another head injury, his doctor, his parents, and his coach tell him he can never play again. Too dangerous, they say. He can’t risk his future. But they don’t understand that without hockey, Nick has no future. It’s not a game, it’s his life. And nobody can stop him from playing.
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Becoming Chloe
Catherine Ryan Hyde
Meet Jordy. He’s on his own in New York City. Nobody to depend on; nobody depending on him. And it’s been working fine.Until this girl comes along. She’s 18 and blond and pretty–her world should be perfect. But she’s seen things no one should ever see in their whole life–the kind of things that break a person. She doesn’t seem broken, though. She seems . . . innocent. Like she doesn’t know a whole lot. Only sometimes she does.The one thing she knows for sure is that the world is an ugly place. Now her life may depend on Jordy proving her wrong. So they hit the road to discover the truth–and there’s no going back from what they find out.This deeply felt, redemptive novel reveals both the dark corners and hidden joys of life’s journey–and the remarkable resilience of the human soul.
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Being Bindy
Alyssa Brugman
Eighth grade is torture–at least it is for Bindy!(1) Her best friend since kindergarten becomes her worst enemy.(2) She’s stuck taking yoga in sports ed, where she unleashes the Very Bad Thing that gets the whole school talking.(3) She suffers total humiliation when certain unmentionables are tossed around at assembly.What’s more, Bindy’s divorced parents are behaving badly.(1) Her laid-back father looks like he’s falling for–could it be?– none other than her ex-best friend’s mother. Which means that . . .(2) . . . Bindy’s worst enemy might just end up as her sister!(3) Her domineering mom always wants Bindy to do things her way.Enough is enough! To survive the drama in her life, Bindy must make some tough decisions in this funny, searching novel about being true to yourself.
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The Sea Singer
Craig Moodie
Craig Moodie's finely crafted adventure novel tells the story of twelve-year-old Finn, who stows away to search for his lost father and brothers. It's a journey that brings storms, shipwreck, tense encounters with the inhabitants of an unexplored continent -- and a coming of age for Finn, who will in the end, face his father as a young man and a Viking. Dramatic and beautifully told, The Sea Singer is a first-rate literary sea story.
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Out of Order
Betty Hicks
One million American children become part of blended family every year. What happens to stepsiblings when the oldest child suddenly becomes the middle child, and the youngest even younger? Out of Order delivers four electric points of view from stepsiblings, ages nine to fifteen, in a super-unsettled, scrambled-up family. An unforgettable Rock, Paper, Scissors tournament, plus 120 hazardous bug snacks, equals humor, insight, and serious indigestion. Betty Hicks gives us her most entertaining and complex novel yet.
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Anthem
Leonard Peikoff, Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand’s classic tale of a dystopian future of the great “We”—a world that deprives individuals of a name or independence—that anticipates her later masterpieces, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.They existed only to serve the state. They were conceived in controlled Palaces of Mating. They died in the Home of the Useless. From cradle to grave, the crowd was one—the great WE.In all that was left of humanity there was only one man who dared to think, seek, and love. He lived in the dark ages of the future. In a loveless world, he dared to love the woman of his choice. In an age that had lost all trace of science and civilization, he had the courage to seek and find knowledge. But these were not the crimes for which he would be hunted. He was marked for death because he had committed the unpardonable sin: He had stood forth from the mindless human herd. He was a man alone. He had rediscovered the lost and holy word—I.“I worship individuals for their highest possibilities as individuals, and I loathe humanity, for its failure to live up to these possibilities.”—Ayn Rand
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I Am Alive and You Are Dead
Timothy Bent, Emmanuel Carrère
For his many devoted readers, Philip K. Dick is not only one of the "one of the most valiant psychological explorers of the 20th century" (The New York Times) but a source of divine revelation. In the riveting style that won accolades for The Adversary, Emmanuel Carrère's I Am Alive and You Are Dead, follows Dick's strange odyssey from his traumatic beginnings in 1928, when his twin sister died in infancy, to his lonely end in 1982, beset by mystical visions of swirling pink light, three-eyed invaders, and messages from the Roman Empire. Drawing on interviews as well as unpublished sources, he vividly conjures the spirit of this restless observer of American postwar malaise who subverted the materials of science fiction--parallel universes, intricate time loops, collective delusions--to create classic works of contemporary anxiety.
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The Seropia Crystal
Tabitha Olzinski
When twelve year old Riley Benson moves with her family to her Grandmother's country home for the summer, she doesn't know what to expect. She soon discovers some friends that live hidden in the forest and desperately need her help. Her summer takes on a new meaning as she struggles to help her new friends before her family leaves to return to their home in the city.
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Chopstick
Sandra, Byrd
Thirteen-year-olds Paige and Kate find themselves competing for the same worship-music contest and the same $500 prize. Each girl is so sure she will win that each has already promised the prize money to a favorite worthy cause. Via the contest's Web site, Paige and Kate meet and begin a friendship that will make both girls examine their ideas about their faith and what worship really is. They realize that, like a single chopstick, the body of Christ cannot work well alone. Each girl decides to share a bit of her strongest gift with the other, thereby increasing the chances that one of them--but only one of them--will win. Friends For a Season Book 2.