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Wintergirls
Laurie Halse Anderson
Synopsis: “Dead girl walking,” the boys say in the halls.
“Tell us your secret,” the girls whisper, one toilet to another.
I am that girl.
I am the space between my thighs, daylight shining through.
I am the bones they want, wired on a porcelain frame.

Lia and Cassie are best friends, wintergirls frozen in matchstick bodies, competitors in a deadly contest to see who can be the skinniest. But what comes after size zero and size double-zero? When Cassie succumbs to the demons within, Lia feels she is being haunted by her friend’s restless spirit.

In her most emotionally wrenching, lyrically written book since the multiple-award-winning Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson explores Lia’s descent into the powerful vortex of anorexia, and her painful path toward recovery.

Publication Date: 03/19/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The King's Rose
Alisa Libby
Synopsis: Life in the court of King Henry VIII is a complex game. When fifteen-year-old Catherine Howard catches the king?s eye, she quickly transforms from pawn to queen. But even luxury beyond imagination loses its luster as young Catherine finds her life?and her heart?threatened by the needs of an aging king and a family hungry for power. Will their agendas deliver Catherine to the same fate as her infamous cousin, Anne Boleyn?sacrificed at the altar of family ambition?

Engaging historical fiction with a throbbing YA heartbeat, this thrilling novel will draw readers into the intrigues and dangers of the Tudor court.

Publication Date: 03/19/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
L.A. Summer
Sheryl Mallory-Johnson
Synopsis: Summer heats up for three teenaged girls in Los Angeles, a city known for itscrime and glamour.
Publication Date: 03/17/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Going Too Far
Jennifer Echols
Synopsis: All Meg has ever wanted is to get away. Away from high school. Away from her backwater town. Away from her parents who seem determined to keep her imprisoned in their dead-end lives. But one crazy evening involving a dare and forbidden railroad tracks, she goes way too far...and almost doesn't make it back.

John made a choice to stay. To enforce the rules. To serve and protect. He has nothing but contempt for what he sees as childish rebellion, and he wants to teach Meg a lesson she won't soon forget. But Meg pushes him to the limit by questioning everything he learned at the police academy. And when he pushes back, demanding to know why she won't be tied down, they will drive each other to the edge -- and over....

Book Details:Format: PaperbackPublication Date: 3/17/2009Pages: 245Reading Level: Age 12 and Up

Publication Date: 03/17/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Crystal Swan
Suzan Tanner
Synopsis:

No one would suspect that a mysterious adventure could start in a nursing home, but that is precisely what happened to thirteen-year old Leah Ward. Leah wanted to spend time with her friends. The last thing on her mind that fateful day was to go with her mother on a visit to Shady Springs rest home. A reluctant teenager went with her mother and was given an object that would change the way she saw the world forever.

The Crystal Swan is a part mystery and part adventure. It follows the story of a thirteen-year old girl who receives an unusual gift. The gift changes the course of the end of one school year through the beginning of another. Follow along with Leah and discover the mystery of, The Crystal Swan.

Publication Date: 03/15/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Son of the Great River
Hajra Meeks, Elijah Meeks
Synopsis: Saffu is forced to leave his tribe for the land of cities and kings. He befriends an indomitable girl and a boy mercenary serving a cursed emperor in a story of princesses, witchcraft, war, glory, and corruption.
Publication Date: 03/12/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Pearl of Baxter Grove
Mary Kay Abbott
Synopsis: A young girl whose mother dies in a tragic car accident searches for a surrogate mom in Mary Kay Abbott’s luminous novel Pearl of Baxter Grove. Young Casey is only 11-years-old, but she’s crumbling under the weight of losing her mother in a car accident on Christmas Eve. Her workaholic, overstressed dad has no time for her, and so she ventures out into nearby bucolic Baxter Grove to find some support. Prospects look bleak when all Casey can find is a kid-hating shop owner and an African American newcomer who greets Casey with a shotgun! But Casey soon learns that what you see isn’t always what you get. She discovers that one of these unlikely women is just what she needs to heal. Warmly written and filled with richly drawn characters, Pearl of Baxter Grove is an inspiring story that children will treasure for years to come.
Publication Date: 03/12/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Lucky  Breaks
Matt Phelan, Susan Patron
Synopsis: "Eleven is much more intrepid than only ten."

On the eve of her eleventh birthday, Lucky wants to let loose and become intrepid; she's ready for life to change. But Hard Pan (population 43) drones on like it always has: Lincoln all tied up in knotty matters, Miles newly diagnosed as a genius but as needy as ever, Brigitte running her Café and trying to figure out what it means to be American.

Enter Paloma, tagging along on a visit to Hard Pan with a pack of hungry geologists. She's smart and pretty and fun -- definitely best-friend material. But will Lucky be able to cope with tomato worms, Short Sammy's mysterious box, the potential for disaster when Paloma's parents visit Hard Pan, and Lincoln's fame among knot tyers of the world?

Lucky's intrepidness is put to the test in this satisfying sequel to the Newbery Award-winning The Higher Power of Lucky.
Publication Date: 03/10/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Genie Scheme
Kimberly K. Jones
Synopsis: When Janna impulsively buys a winter hat for a bag lady, she expects nothing in return. But Janna's kindness pays off in a big way when the bag lady turns out to be a genie! Now Janna is the genie's master and she couldn't be happier, especially when she learns that the "three wishes" rule is strictly for fairy tales!

Before long, Janna's room is overflowing with clothes and gadgets -- but things aren't quite as simple as they seem. Making wishes comes with its own set of rules, and Janna discovers that "unlimited" has some...well, limits. Genies can't make something out of nothing, so everything that Janna wishes for is taken from somebody else. Oops. And then there's the problem of genie wattage -- there's only so much of it, and Janna is using it up faster than she'd like. What's a greedy girl to do?

With insight, warmth, and a refreshing dose of humor, Kimberly K. Jones puts a new twist on the old adage "Be careful what you wish for."
Publication Date: 03/10/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Alligator Bayou
Donna Jo Napoli
Synopsis: Talullah, Louisiana. 1899.

Calogero, his uncles, and cousins are six Sicilian men living in the small town of Tallulah, Louisiana. They work hard, growing vegetables and selling them at their stand and in their grocery store.

To 14-year-old Calogero, newly arrived from Sicily, Tallulah is a lush world full of contradictions, hidden rules, and tension between the Negro and white communities. He’s startled and thrilled by the danger of a ’gator hunt in the midnight bayou, and by his powerful feelings for Patricia, a sharpwitted, sweet-natured Negro girl. Some people welcome the Sicilians. Most do not. Calogero’s family is caught in the middle: the whites don’t see them as equal, but befriending Negroes is dangerous. Every day brings Calogero and his family closer to a a terrifying, violent confrontation.
Publication Date: 03/10/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Brutal
Michael Harmon
Synopsis: With her martyr-doctor mother gone to save lives in some South American country, Poe Holly suddenly finds herself on the suburban doorstep of the father she never knew, who also happens to be a counselor at her new high school. She misses Los Angeles. She misses the guys in her punk band. Weirdly, she even misses the shouting matches she used to have with her mom.

But Poe manages to find a few friends: Theo, the cute guy in the anarchy Tshirt, and Velveeta, her oddly likeable neighbor—and a born victim who’s the butt of every prank at Benders High. But when the pranks turn deadly at the hands of invincible football star Colby Morris, Poe knows she’s got to fix the system and take down the hero.

With insightfulness, spot-on dialogue, and a swiftly paced plot, Michael Harmon tells the story of a displaced girl grappling with a truly dangerous bully.
Publication Date: 03/10/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Fate
Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Synopsis: For the past two years, Bailey Morgan has lived a double life: high school student by day, ancient mystical being by night. As the third Fate, Bailey literally controls the fate of the world, but as Plain Old Bailey, her life is falling apart. She’s got a tattoo that was supposed to be temporary (but isn’t), friendships that were supposed to last forever (but might not), and no idea what her future holds after high school graduation.

Then Bailey meets the rest of the Sidhe, an ancient race defined by their power, beauty, and a sinister habit of getting what they want at any cost. Before Bailey knows it, she’s being drawn into an otherworldly web more complicated than anything she weaves as a mortal Fate.
Publication Date: 03/10/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Highway to Hell
Rosemary Clement-Moore
Synopsis: Maggie Quinn was expecting to find plenty of trouble with Lisa over Spring Break. Give a girl a bikini, a beachfront hotel, and an absent boyfriend, and it’s as good as a road map to the dark side. But Maggie doesn’t have to go looking for trouble. Trouble has started looking for her. One dead cow and a punctured gas tank later, she and Lisa are stuck in
Dulcina, Texas—a town so small that it has an owner. And lately life in this small town hasn’t been all that peaceful. An eerie predator is stalking the ranchland.

Everyone in town has a theory, but not even Maggie’s psychic mojo can provide any answers. And the longer the girls are stranded, the more obvious it becomes that something is seriously wrong. Only no one—not even Maggie’s closest ally—wants to admit that they could have been forced on a detour down the highway to hell.
Publication Date: 03/10/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Surface Tension
Brent Runyon
Synopsis: The cottage on the lake is always the same, but Luke is changing. At thirteen he’s excited. At fourteen he’s cool. At fifteen he’s pissed off. At sixteen he’s in love.

Through four summers’ worth of trips to the emergency room, campfires and house fires, parties and feuds with neighbors, Luke is doing his best to navigate life. He makes discoveries, makes mistakes, freaks out, and comes to see things in a new light.

Brent Runyon has crafted a remarkable portrait of a boy at four distinct points in his life and literally shows us his coming of age. It’s a story that explores what is ever-changing and what is timeless, and how we are shaped by both the people and places we love.
Publication Date: 03/10/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Hollywood Sisters: Truth or Dare
Synopsis: Only in L.A. would a school internship involve celebrity guest stars and hitting your mark. Acting is not my thing (can you say shy spasm?) . . . but mysteries are. I’m working as an extra on my sister’s latest movie, and legend has it that the mansion we’re filming in is haunted. With disappearing paintings, a glowing ghost, and Eva acting possessed (by love?), I’m starting to believe the stories are true!

Chills. Thrills. Things that go bump in the night. Is my jinx on overdrive or have I stepped into a real-life horror flick?
Publication Date: 03/10/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Just One Wish
Janette Rallison
Synopsis: Seventeen-year-old Annika Truman knows about the power of positive thinking. With a little brother who has cancer, it?s all she ever hears about. And in order to help Jeremy, she will go to the ends of the earth (or at least as far as Hollywood) to help him believe he can survive his upcoming surgery.

But Annika?s plan to convince Jeremy that a magic genie will grant him any wish throws her a curveball when he unexpectedly wishes that his television idol would visit him. Annika suddenly fi nds herself in the desperate predicament of getting access to a hunky star actor and convincing him to come home with her. Piece of cake, right?

Janette Rallison?s proven talent for laugh-out-loud humor, teen romance, and deep-hearted storytelling shines in a novel that will have readers laughing and crying at the same time.

Publication Date: 03/05/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction

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