Fiction

We All Looked Up
Four high school seniors put their hopes, hearts, and humanity on the line as an asteroid hurtles toward Earth in this contemporary novel.They always say that high school is the best time of your life. Peter, the star basketball player at his school, is worried “they” might actually be right. Meanwhile Eliza can’t wait to escape Seattle—and her reputation—and perfect-on-paper Anita wonders if admission to Princeton is worth the price of abandoning her real dreams. Andy, for his part, doesn’t understand all the fuss about college and career—the future can wait. Or can it? Because it turns out the future is hurtling through space with the potential to wipe out life on Earth. As these four seniors—along with the rest of the planet—wait to see what damage an asteroid will cause, they must abandon all thoughts of the future and decide how they’re going to spend what remains of the present.
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The Island of Dr. Libris
Chris Grabenstein
New from the author of Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library and coauthor of the I Funny series with James Patterson! Celebrate the power of imagination with this action-packed New York Times bestseller that shows that sometimes the real story starts after you close the book! What if your favorite characters came to life? Billy’s spending the summer in a lakeside cabin that belongs to the mysterious Dr. Libris. But something strange is going on. Besides the security cameras everywhere, there’s Dr. Libris’s private bookcase. Whenever Billy opens the books inside, he can hear sounds coming from the island in the middle of the lake. The clash of swords. The twang of arrows. Sometimes he can even feel the ground shaking. It’s almost as if the stories he’s reading are coming to life! But that’s impossible . . . isn’t it? “A wonderful tale. . . . This book is like no other I’ve read. It’s a complete original.” —James Patterson"Kids will enjoy the cartoonish mayhem, especially given Grabenstein's breezy narrative voice and jaunty wit....as in 'Lemoncello', there is a winning generosity and sweetness to the story's telling."--The New York Times"Chris Grabenstein gleefully plunders great works of literature for his cast of secondary characters . . . a madcap mash-up that 8-to-12 year olds will want to devour in big gulps."—The Wall Street Journal"Effortlessly readable and a whole lot of fun." — Booklist Reviews
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Ms. Rapscott's Girls
Elise Primavera
Fans of Mary Poppins will love this whimsical tale of a boarding school for children of very busy parents, where an extraordinary headmistress teaches them life lessons about courage, adventure, friendship . . . and the importance of birthday cake.Nestled inside a lighthouse, Great Rapscott School for the Daughters of Busy Parents takes its motto from Amelia Earhart: Adventure is worthwhile in itself. Headmistress Ms. Rapscott couldn’t agree more, but her students, who are shipped to the school in boxes, could use a little convincing. Still, despite their initial reluctance, the students are soon soaring through the sky and getting lost on purpose. In addition to learning what birthday cakes are and how best to approach a bumbershoot tree, the students also manage to learn a little something about strength and bravery.Bestselling author Elise Primavera has created an irresistible, richly illustrated story about finding your way.
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Beast Charming
Perfect for fans of Mercedes Lackey's "500 Kingdoms" series!Beast Charming tells the story of Beauty, who works as a temp at an agency run by a high-tempered dragon. To avoid running into her conniving and desperately-craving-for-nobility father--conveniently named Noble--she takes on a peculiar job that will force her to converse with James, who got cursed by an ex-girlfriend and is now spending his days as, well, a beast. The rest of the story develops into a hysterical tale of a classic fairy tale romance gone modernly awry.
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Gray Zone
In this award-winning book the victim of a cyber-prank gone viral, Autumn, was forced to transfer schools--not exactly what she wanted to do as a sophomore. But what choice did she have when all her personal information was posted all over the web? Determined to make the best of her situation, Autumn decides to reinvent herself as the outgoing, popular, not-at-all-shy girl she'd always wanted to be. But even the best plans go awry and Autumn fails to change the old habits that had given her that shy girl reputation in the first place. So when she learns that her best friend, Sophie Rose, is transferring to her new school she's relieved, until Sophie starts keeping her distance. Autumn finds herself adrift without the support of her best friend. But when tragedy shakes her world she stops feeling sad. Now she's angry--and she's determined to put a stop to this cyber-torture and bullying of herself and the people she loves in this powerful and poignant novel.
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Amelia's Middle-School Graduation Yearbook
Amelia is excited to graduate from middle school, but she's nervous about starting high school, especially when she finds out she won't have her best friend, Carly, with her. In her graduation yearbook, drawings and "photos" nostalgically recap her earlier years and notebooks as Amelia figures out how to face the changes ahead.
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Silent Alarm
Jennifer Banash
Alys’s whole world was comprised of the history project that was due, her upcoming violin audition, being held tightly in the arms of her boyfriend, Ben, and laughing with her best friend, Delilah. At least it was—until she found herself on the wrong end of a shotgun in the school library. Her suburban high school had become one of those places you hear about on the news—a place where some disaffected youth decided to end it all and take as many of his teachers and classmates with him as he could. Except, in this story, that youth was Alys’s own brother, Luke. He killed fifteen others and himself, but spared her—though she’ll never know why. Alys’s downward spiral begins instantly, and there seems to be no bottom. A heartbreaking and beautifully told story.
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The Cake House
Latifah Salom
Rosaura Douglas's father shot himself after her mother left him . . . or at least that's the story everyone is telling. Now her mother has remarried and Rosie is trapped in "The Cake House," a garish pink edifice in the hills of Los Angeles that's a far cry from the cramped apartment where she grew up. It's also the house where her father died—a fact that everyone else who lives there, including her mother, Dahlia, and her mysteriously wealthy stepfather, Claude, want to forget. Soon, however, her father's ghost appears, sometimes in a dark window, sometimes in the house’s lush garden, but always with warnings that Claude is not to be trusted. And as the ghost becomes increasingly violent—and the secrets of her family’s past come to light—Rosie must finally face the truth behind the losses and lies that have torn her life apart.
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Terminal
Brendan Reichs, Kathy Reichs
The gripping finale to Kathy and Brendan Reichs’ New York Times bestselling VIRALS seriesThe Virals are back—but they’re not the only pack in town anymore. Terminal finds Tory Brennan and the rest of the Morris Island gang tracking a pack of rogue Virals who call themselves the Trinity. The new pack was infected by a strain of supervirus created by Tory’s nemesis and sometimes-crush, Chance Clayborne, who accidentally infected himself, too.These red-eyed Virals have openly challenged Tory’s pack for domination of Charleston, and they’ll stop at nothing to bring their rivals down—even if that means giving them up to a shadowy government agency intent on learning the secret to the Virals’ powers. Surviving it all is going to test the limits of the gang’s abilities.In the riveting conclusion to the Virals series, Tory and the others are nearing an impossible choice—and the ultimate showdown.
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My Near-Death Adventures (99% True!)
Alison DeCamp
For history lovers and journal fans comes a “hilarious and heartbreaking . . . 99–100% fantastic” (A Fuse #8 Production, School Library Journal) story about a boy on a mission to find his long-lost father in the logging camps of Michigan. There are many things that 11-year-old Stanley Slater would like to have in life—most of all, a father. But what if Stan’s missing dad isn’t “dearly departed” after all? Armed with his stupendous scrapbook, full of black-and-white 19th-century advertisements and photos, Stan’s attempt to locate his long-lost hero/cowboy/outlaw dad is a near-death adventure fraught with pesky relatives, killer lumberjacks, and poisonous pies! His tale will leave readers in stitches, but not the kind that require medical attention. Praise for My Near-Death Adventures (99% True!) “A knee-slapper of a debut featuring a narrator who is rather less than 99 percent reliable but 100 percent engaging.” —Kirkus Reviews“[An] exuberant first novel.” —Publishers Weekly“Stan’s story is full of his hilarious misunderstandings and overactive imagination. Interspersed throughout are pictures and news clippings embellished with wisecrack remarks, speech bubbles, and the occasional mustache.” —Booklist