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Sucks To Be Me
Kimberly Pauley
Synopsis: Mina Hamilton's parents want her dead. (Or undead to be precise.) They're vampires, and like it or not, Mina must decide whether to become a vampire herself. But Mina's more interested in hanging out with best friend Serena and trying to catch the eye of the too-hot-for-high-school Nathan Able than in the vampire training classes she's being forced to take. How's a girl supposed to find the perfect prom date and pass third-year French when her mom and dad are breathing down her neck--literally?
Publication Date: 08/26/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Black Dragon Codex
R.D. Henham
Synopsis: What happens when an evil black dragon becomes your ally?

Snatched from the street by a young black dragon, Satia seems destined to end her life as a snack. But her position as a menu item quickly changes when her black dragon captor runs into two young red dragons and a wanna-be Dragonlord. In a quick twist of events, the black dragon is transformed into an ordinary teenaged boy. Always one step ahead of their pursuers, Satia makes a bargain with her captor: her life in exchange for her help. But now she must live up to her end of the bargain. With no magic and only the strength of two humans, how will Satia outwit the Dragonlord and his minions?
Publication Date: 08/26/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
I Am Apache
Tanya Landman
Synopsis: A young woman seeks to avenge her brother's death by becoming an Apache warrior — and learns a startling truth about her own identity.

After watching helplessly as Mexican raiders brutally murder her little brother, fourteen-year-old Siki is filled with a desire for vengeance and chooses to turn away from a woman's path to become a warrior of her Apache tribe. Though some men, like envious Keste, wish to see Siki fail, she passes test after test, and her skills grow under the guidance of her tribe's greatest warrior, Golahka. But Keste begins to whisper about Siki's father's dishonorable death, and even as Siki earns her place among the warriors, she senses a dark secret in her past — one that will throw into doubt everything she knows. Taking readers on a sweeping and suspenseful journey through the nineteenth-century American Southwest, Tanya Landman draws on historical accounts to imagine the Black Mountain Apache as a tribe in a fight for survival against the devastating progress of nations.
Publication Date: 08/26/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Ghosts of Kerfol
Deborah Noyes
Synopsis: In an enthralling work of Gothic suspense, an Edith Wharton story inspires five connected tales set in the same haunted manor over the centuries.

In her classic ghost story "Kerfol," Edith Wharton tells the tale of Anne de Barrigan, a young Frenchwoman convicted of murdering her husband, the jealous Yves de Cornault. The elderly lord was found dead on the stairs, apparently savaged by a pack of dogs, though there were no dogs — no live dogs — at Kerfol that day. In this remarkable collection of intertwining short stories, Deborah Noyes takes us back to the haunted manor and tells us Anne de Barrigan's story through the sympathetic eyes of her servant girl. Four more tales slip forward in time, peering in on a young artist, a hard-drinking party girl, a young American couple, and a deaf gardener who now tends the Kerfol estate. All these souls are haunted by the ghosts of Kerfol — the dead dogs, the sensual yet uneasy relationships, and the bitter taste of revenge.
Publication Date: 08/26/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Riding High
Donna King
Synopsis:

Billie and her beautiful gray gelding, Valentine's Kiss, are three-day eventing naturals--winning every regional trial they enter. But suddenly, Billie loses interest in the sport and avoids training with her beloved horse. While her rivals say that she's lost her nerve, the truth is that Billie witnessed a terrible accident during her last cross-country event, in which the horse broke its leg, and she's terrified that the same fate could befall Valentine's Kiss. A new trainer makes Billie face her demons and trust in her horse's exceptional ability.

Publication Date: 08/19/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Sovay
Celia Rees
Synopsis:

It's England, 1783. When the rich and beautiful Sovay isn't sitting for portraits, she's donning a man's cloak and robbing travelers―in broad daylight. But in a time when political allegiances between France and England are strained, a rogue bandit is not the only thing travelers fear. Spies abound, and rumors of sedition can quickly lead to disappearances. So when Sovay lifts the wallet of one of England's most powerful and dangerous men, it's not just her own identity she must hide, but that of her father. A dazzling historical saga in which the roles of thieves and gentry, good and bad, and men and women are interchanged to riveting effect.

Publication Date: 08/19/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Zoe's Tale
John Scalzi
Synopsis: How do you tell your part in the biggest tale in history?

I ask because it's what I have to do. I'm Zoe Boutin Perry: A colonist stranded on a deadly pioneer world. Holy icon to a race of aliens. A player (and a pawn) in a interstellar chess match to save humanity, or to see it fall. Witness to history. Friend. Daughter. Human. Seventeen years old.

Everyone on Earth knows the tale I am part of. But you don't know my tale: How I did what I did — how I did what I had to do — not just to stay alive but to keep you alive, too. All of you. I'm going to tell it to you now, the only way I know how: not straight but true, the whole thing, to try make you feel what I felt: the joy and terror and uncertainty, panic and wonder, despair and hope. Everything that happened, bringing us to Earth, and Earth out of its captivity. All through my eyes.

It's a story you know. But you don't know it all.
Publication Date: 08/19/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Dark Vengeance
Ed Greenwood
Synopsis: Orivon Firefist was captured as a six-year-old child by the Nilfghar—the dark elves—who attacked his village by night on one of their surface raids. Fifteen years later, he was a moon-pale, scarred, muscular giant of a man, who  spent his days at forgework for a dark elf family. He had been trained (and flogged and ordered about) by the beautiful Tsarnarra, a lash-wielding matron who is icily cruel, but proud of the slaves that she has trained.   Through all of this, Orivon's spirit had never been broken and he rose up and opposed his underworld tyrants.  He has successfully returned to the surface world home that he thought only existed in his most distant dreams.   But the score is far from settled. Years of oppression and new revelations of the dark deeds of his former captors only fuel his forge of rage. And the fact that their evil still permeates the underworld only intensifies his desire for a dark vengeance.
Publication Date: 08/19/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Faust
Katsushi Ota, Takashi Takeuchi, Ueda Hajime, Takeshi Obata, Clamp, Otaro Maijo, Kinoko Nasu, Kouhei Kadono, Otsuichi, NISIOISIN
Synopsis: A stunning new collection of fiction inspired by the fantastic world of manga–and featuring artwork by the best in the business, including

“Outerholic,” by NISIOISIN (illustrated by CLAMP): CLAMP fans everywhere will appreciate the original art in this tale excerpted from NISIOISIN’s upcoming novel–set in the world of CLAMP’s bestselling xxxHOLiC–about a woman compelled to choose disaster.

“F-sensei’s Pocket,” by Otsuichi (illustrated by Takeshi Obata): What would you do if you could make all your dreams come true? Here’s the story of a girl who is really very ordinary–until a bunch of magic gadgets suddenly blow onto her porch.

“Outlandos d’Amour,” by Kouhei Kadono (illustrated by Ueda Hajime): For a boy who can make lightning strike, the only thing harder than learning how to control his powers is falling in love.

“The Garden of Sinners,” by Kinoko Nasu (illustrated by Takashi Takeuchi [TYPE-MOON]): Too many young girls are flying and dying. It has to stop–and only Shiki can put an end to it.

“Drill Hole in My Brain,” (Written and illustrated by Otaro Maijo): The ill-fated love story of a boy with a hole in his head and a girl with a horn on hers. It was great while it lasted, but the end of their affair just might mean the end of the world.

PLUS more illustrated stories, columns, interviews, and bonus features!
Publication Date: 08/19/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Seaborn
Craig Moodie
Synopsis:

“THE BOAT IS SINKING. YOU HAVE TO MOVE.”

When Luke’s sailing trip goes horribly wrong, he must face the vast and brutal sea in this story of one boy’s survival and coming-of-age. On the evening before Luke’s family’s annual summer sailing trip off Cape Cod, Luke’s mother leaves. Luke is left with his angry, confused father on a small boat for a week and the trip goes horribly wrong when a summer storm sweeps Luke’s father overboard. Not knowing whether his father is dead or alive, Luke must figure out how to survive on a wrecked sailboat far out to sea. Fans of Gary Paulsen and Will Hobbs will be captivated by Craig Moodie’s depiction of the North Atlantic in this coming-of-age adventure.

 

Publication Date: 08/19/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Balancing Act
Donna King
Synopsis: Thirteen-year-old Carli lives on her family's guest ranch in Colorado. She's a talented gymnast, but her parents are too busy running their business to give her much support. Carli develops a strong bond with her new coach, who believes that he can help her achieve her goal of Olympic glory. Carli dedicates herself to the vault, uneven bars, and balance beam, but just as she starts to excel, her parents decide that she needs to help out more on the ranch--putting her gold medal dreams in jeopardy.
Publication Date: 08/19/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Mousetraps
Bill Hauser, Pat Schmatz
Synopsis: Back in grade school, Maxie and Rick were best friends. Rick would design crazy inventions, and Maxie, the artistic one, would draw them. Then something terrible happened to Rick, and he vanished from her school and her life. Years later, he shows up at Maxie's high school. In some ways he's the same person she once knew. But in other ways - frightening ones - he's very, very different . . .
Publication Date: 08/18/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Lake That Stole Children
Douglas Glenn Clark
Synopsis: The Lake That Stole Children blends the magic of Disney's Pinocchio with the magnificent quest of Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. It begins with a boy's deep yearning and leads to a grown man's startling discovery. The story begins with a town troubled by a big secret. Children have been disappearing and no one knows why. A fisherman, who lives with his family on the outskirts of town, cared nothing about the town's troubles - until he too lost a son. Following a dangerous search on a nearby lake, the fisherman believes he knows where the children may be and vows to save them. When the town refuses to help in his quest, the fisherman realizes that to save his son he must face one seemingly insurmountable obstacle - himself.
Publication Date: 08/15/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Baby Grape and The River Folk
Synopsis: The adventures continue in this story with more of the events that plague the 'crew.' Having returned home to Pittsburgh,after months on the road, Toby learns that his mother and sisters have had to move downriver to stay with his aunt, which (again) leaves Toby homeless, with four mouths to feed! Old problems resurface, as do enemies, and Toby is again on the run to keep him and the others out of harm's way. There is no escaping as events unfold, separating Toby and Jane from the others and they are forced to find ways to survive on their own. Each of the characters face their own problems -- some life threatening, as deathly sicknesses, revenge driven enemies, and unforeseen tragedies fill the pages and lives of your favorite characters. Love and shame, friendship, and the need for others, make this Toby sequel something you won't want to miss. New immigrants -- and pure dumb luck, add to Toby's arsenal of friends, and begin the setting of something big in the future for the 'River Folk.' So why not join the crew?
Publication Date: 08/15/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Mexican Whiteboy
Matt De La Peña
Synopsis: Newbery Award-winning author Matt de la Peña's Mexican Whiteboy is a story of friendship, baseball, acceptance, and the struggle to find your identity in a world of definitions.

Danny's tall and skinny. Even though he’s not built, his arms are long enough to give his pitch a power so fierce any college scout would sign him on the spot. Ninety-five mile an hour fastball, but the boy’s not even on a team. Every time he gets up on the mound he loses it.
   But at his private school, they don’t expect much else from him. Danny’ s brown. Half-Mexican brown. And growing up in San Diego that close to the border means everyone else knows exactly who he is before he even opens his mouth. Before they find out he can’t speak Spanish, and before they realize his mom has blond hair and blue eyes, they’ve got him pegged. But it works the other way too. And Danny’s convinced it’s his whiteness that sent his father back to Mexico.
   That’s why he’s spending the summer with his dad’s family. Only, to find himself, he may just have to face the demons he refuses to see--the demons that are right in front of his face. And open up to a friendship he never saw coming.

"[A] first-rate exploration of self-identity."-School Library Journal

"Unique in its gritty realism and honest portrayal of the complexities of life for inner-city teens...De la Peña poignantly conveys the message that, despite obstacles, you must believe in yourself and shape your own future."-The Horn Book Magazine

"De la Peña does an excellent job...Readers see themselves in Danny, Uno, and Sofia, whether or not they share their backgrounds. In the end, they find themselves wanting the characters to succeed."-VOYA

"The baseball scenes...sizzle like Danny's fastball...Danny's struggle to find his place will speak strongly to all teens, but especially to those of mixed race."-Booklist

"De la Peña blends sports and street together in a satisfying search for personal identity."-Kirkus Reviews

"Deftly explores the subject of interracial mixing."-Multicultural Review

"Matt de la Pena has done the impossible; fired a perfect fastball on the low inside corner and hit a towering home run at the same time. A tough, funny, edgy, hopeful story about friendship under fire and love in its true sense."-Chris Crutcher, author of Deadline and Whale Talk

"Mexican Whiteboy...shows that no matter what obstacles you face, you can still reach your dreams with a positive attitude. This is more than a book about a baseball player--this is a book about life."-Curtis Granderson, New York Mets outfielder

An ALA-YALSA Top Ten Best Book for Young Adults

A Junior Library Guild Selection
Publication Date: 08/12/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Queen of the Masquerade
Amanda M. Jenkins, Tiffany Trent
Synopsis: BBYA author Amanda Jenkins teams up with Tiffany Trent to give voice to the next Hallowmere heroine...

Christina wakes in a new world with no memory of who she is or where she came from. Tasked with solving a riddle that will save the duke and duchess who rescue her and take her in as a changeling, Christina seeks to puzzle out just what she's doing here and why her memory has fled.

But the riddle isn't just a key to saving the duke and duchess--it's Christina's key to something far more dire, a mission she knows she must remember, one that involves the strange young man who keeps appearing in odd places. Is the riddle a prophecy or a warning?

Acclaimed YA author Amanda M. Jenkins, in partnership with Tiffany Trent, takes on Christina's voice to determine just how much Christina's fate depends upon the answer to that question.
Publication Date: 08/12/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction

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