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Dear Blue Sky
Mary Sullivan
Synopsis: A timely, eye-opening novel showing how war affects families on both sides

Ever since her brother Sef left for Iraq, Cassie has felt like her life is falling apart. Her parents are fighting over her brother having gone to war. Her smart, beautiful sister is messing up. Her little brother, who has Down syndrome, is pretending he's a Marine. And her best friend no longer has time for her. In her loneliness Cassie turns to a surprising source of comfort: Blue Sky, an Iraqi girl she meets through her blog. The girls begin a correspondence and Cassie learns that when Blue Sky says "I want my life back," she means something profound, as she can no longer venture out in her destroyed city. Cassie takes strength from Blue Sky's courage and is inspired to stop running away from the pain, and to reclaim her life.
Publication Date: 08/02/12
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Normal Kid
Elizabeth Holmes
Synopsis: Sylvan has been angry ever since his parents split up. And now that an embarrassing photo has appeared in the paper, he's stuck with a lame nickname too.

Charity is back in the United States after several years in Africa. And she's learning that home can be a strange place when you've been away for a while.

Neither of them knows what's up with Brian. He spends whole afternoons alone on his trampoline.

From the first day of school, Sylvan knows he doesn't want to hang out with weirdos like Charity or Brian. He'd rather just be a normal kid. But when the principal gets ready to fire their favorite teacher, Sylvan, Charity, and Brian have to find a way to work together.
Publication Date: 08/01/12
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Shadow of Doubt
Norah McClintock
Synopsis: I looked at Ms. Denholm. Her face had turned milk-white. Is there a note in there? she said. I looked into the box again. It contained a dozen red roses. Nestled among them was a baby doll, splattered with what looked like blood but was probably red paint. Its head was missing.

Robyn's new substitute teacher Ms. Denholm is cool, pretty, and possibly the target of a stalker. When Denholm receives a threatening package, Robyn wonders who's responsible. But Robyn has a mystery of her own to worry about. What's with the muddled phone message she receives from her missing ex-boyfriend Nick? Should she try to forget him or is the call a sign he still cares?
Publication Date: 08/01/12
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Shot Down
Jonathan Mary-todd
Synopsis: When a bullet knocks Malik and the Captain's hot-air balloon out of the sky, Malik goes into wilderness survival mode. Actually, he's been in survival mode ever since the world fell apart. Whatever the crisis, he's always counted on the Gene Matterhorn Wilderness Survival Guidebook when things got crazy. Now he and the Captain are in the middle of miles of Kentucky wilderness, being chased by manhunters who believe hunting the weak is their post-apocalyptic duty. Malik is about to find out just how good his survival skills are.
Publication Date: 08/01/12
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Wizards of Wyrd World
Mike Gorman, Pamela F. Service
Synopsis: Josh Higgins and his sister Maggie have vowed not to use the alien gizmo that lets them visit other worlds. But when Josh's favorite writer comes to town, the temptation is too much. Along with famous author P.L. Cuthbertson, Josh and Maggie prepare to visit the land of Cuthbertson's books: Wyrd World.

As soon as the crew arrives, some of Wyrd World's thuggish locals mistake P.L. for a wizard and that's not a good thing. Josh and Maggie begin a rescue mission, sneaking through fortresses and dungeons. But to challenge the planet's evil rulers, they'll have to unite a group of rebels and outcasts who would just as soon fight each other. . . .
Publication Date: 08/01/12
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Otherkin
Nina Berry
Synopsis: In her fresh, inventive debut, Berry introduces a teenage feline shapeshifter coming to terms with her strange powers in the first in a mesmerizing new series that deals with such teen issues as body image and the strength to be found in friendship.
Publication Date: 07/31/12
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Heart of Stone
M. Welsh
Synopsis: After a wonderful summer of sailing, Verity Gallant just wants life to stay the same forever. But as she should know by now, not everything in life turns out as we would like. The land is shifting beneath the ancient harbour town of Wellow, causing mysterious caves to appear in cliff faces, terrifying rock falls, and dangerous landslides. And the earth isn't the only thing crumbling . . . Verity is thrilled that Jeb has returned, but their feelings for each other threaten her friendship with Henry and Martha.

Verity and her friends are embroiled in a tale of evil, intrigue, and lost love, as a powerful force works its way towards Wellow, hell-bent on putting an end to all happiness. The Heart of Stone is the key, and the race is on to find it.
Publication Date: 07/24/12
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Poison Tree
Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
Synopsis: The rich stew of the author's creations—SingleEarth, vampires, shapeshifters, Tristes, the Bruja Guilds—are at full boil here in the story of two 20-ish young women trying to out run their very different pasts, and figure out where they fit in and who they might become. Each has landed in a more "normal" place, and each wonders if, like a tattoo that can't be covered up, they can ever really fit into "normal."
Publication Date: 07/10/12
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Scorpions of Zahir
Kelly Murphy, Christine Brodien-Jones
Synopsis: Zagora Pym has always wanted to be a desert explorer. Her father, Charlie Pym, is exactly that, and she's always loved to look over his maps of far away exotic places. One day she'd be trekking through the deserts of Africa and China, discovering hidden treasures from lost tribes. But Zagora would never have guessed that her chance to prove herself would come so soon. Like most adventures, it starts with a mysterious letter. The question is, how will this adventure end?

Zagora's dreams of desert exploration are about to come ture, but are she and her father and brother being followed? And will they ever make it back to civilization?
Publication Date: 07/10/12
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Sammy Keyes and the Power of Justice Jack
Synopsis: "The most winning junior detective ever in teen lit. (Take that, Nancy Drew!)" —Midwest Children's Book Review

Sammy thought she'd seen all the weirdness her town had to offer—and then she met Justice Jack, Santa Martina's very own superhero. Well, really he's just a guy in spandex and a mask who rides around town on a dirt bike, hoping to find some crime to fight.

The old folks in town think he's wonderful. So wonderful that they've asked him to track down Sammy's neighbor Mrs. Wedgewood, who seems to have disappeared—along with a lot of other people's cash. Sammy's friends think Justice Jack is funny and cool. Billy Pratt's even auditioning to be his sidekick! But Sammy thinks he's kind of . . . lame. He's more of a showstopper than a crime stopper. And when a real mystery comes along, Sammy finds herself right in the middle of it. . . .

The Sammy Keyes mysteries are fast-paced, funny, thoroughly modern, and true whodunits. Each mystery is exciting and dramatic, but it's the drama in Sammy's personal life that keeps readers coming back to see what happens next with her love interest Casey, her soap-star mother, and her mysterious father.
Publication Date: 07/10/12
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Secrets From The Sleeping Bag
Synopsis: School is out for the summer in this final book in the BLOGTASTIC! series! And Sofia Becker, Middlebrooke Middle School blogger extraordinaire, is back to let you know everything that goes down at camp.

Sofia is spending the summer at Camp Krakatow! S'mores, crafts, bug juice, water sports, boys(!) . . . Sofia doesn't want to forget one second of sleepaway camp!
Publication Date: 07/10/12
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Such a Rush
Jennifer Echols
Synopsis: The wildly popular author of Going Too Far, Forget You, and Love Story returns with a sexy and poignant romantic tale of a young daredevil pilot caught between two brothers.

A sexy and poignant romantic tale of a young daredevil pilot caught between two brothers.

When I was fourteen, I made a decision. If I was doomed to live in a trailer park next to an airport, I could complain about the smell of the jet fuel like my mom, I could drink myself to death over the noise like everybody else, or I could learn to fly.

Heaven Beach, South Carolina, is anything but, if you live at the low-rent end of town. All her life, Leah Jones has been the grown-up in her family, while her mother moves from boyfriend to boyfriend, letting any available money slip out of her hands. At school, they may diss Leah as trash, but she’s the one who negotiates with the landlord when the rent’s not paid. At fourteen, she’s the one who gets a job at the nearby airstrip.

But there’s one way Leah can escape reality. Saving every penny she can, she begs quiet Mr. Hall, who runs an aerial banner-advertising business at the airstrip and also offers flight lessons, to take her up just once. Leaving the trailer park far beneath her and swooping out over the sea is a rush greater than anything she’s ever experienced, and when Mr. Hall offers to give her cut-rate flight lessons, she feels ready to touch the sky.

By the time she’s a high school senior, Leah has become a good enough pilot that Mr. Hall offers her a job flying a banner plane. It seems like a dream come true . . . but turns out to be just as fleeting as any dream. Mr. Hall dies suddenly, leaving everything he owned in the hands of his teenage sons: golden boy Alec and adrenaline junkie Grayson. And they're determined to keep the banner planes flying. Though Leah has crushed on Grayson for years, she’s leery of getting involved in what now seems like a doomed business—until Grayson betrays her by digging up her most damning secret. Holding it over her head, he forces her to fly for secret reasons of his own, reasons involving Alec. Now Leah finds herself drawn into a battle between brothers—and the consequences could be deadly.
Publication Date: 07/10/12
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Four Million
O. Henry
Synopsis: Coney one day, for there was four dollars between us, and Tobin had need of distractions. For there was Katie Mahorner, his sweetheart, of County Sligo, lost since she started for America three months before with two hundred dollars, her own savings, and one hundred dollars from the sale of Tobin sinherited estate, a fine cottage and pig on the Bog Shannaugh. And since the letter that Tobin got saying that she had started to come to him not a bit of news had he heard or seen of Katie Mahorner. Tobin advertised in the papers, but nothing could be found of the col leen. So, to Coney me and Tobin went, thinking that a turn at the chutes and the smell of the popcorn might raise the heart in his bosom. But Tobin was a hardbeaded man, and the sadness stuck in his skin. He ground his teeth at the crying balloons; he cursed the moving pictures; and, though he would drink whenever asked, he scorned Punch and Judy, and was for licking the tintype men as they came.
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such as: Philosophy, Classics, Science, Religion, History, Folklore and Mythology.

Forgotten Books' Classic Reprint Series utilizes the latest technology to regenerate facsimiles of historically important writings. Careful attention has been made to accurately preserve the original format of each page whilst digitally enhancing the aged text. Read books online for free at www.forgottenbooks.org
Publication Date: 07/04/12
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Even White Trash Zombies Get The Blues
Synopsis: Horror meets humorous urban fantasy in second book of the White Trash Zombie series • Winner of the 2012 Best Urban Fantasy Protagonist by the RT Awards

Angel Crawford is finally starting to get used to life as a brain-eating zombie, but her problems are far from over. Her felony record is coming back to haunt her, more zombie hunters are popping up, and she’s beginning to wonder if her hunky cop-boyfriend is involved with the zombie mafia. Yeah, that’s right—the zombie mafia.

Throw in a secret lab and a lot of conspiracy, and Angel’s going to need all of her brainpower—and maybe a brain smoothie as well—in order to get through it without falling apart.
Publication Date: 07/03/12
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Eve
Anna Carey
Synopsis:

The first book in Anna Carey’s chilling Eve trilogy, Eve is perfect for fans of The Handmaiden’s Tale.

After a deadly virus wiped out most of Earth's population, the world is a terrifying place. Eighteen-year-old Eve has grown up isolated from the rest of the destroyed world in an all-girls school. But it isn’t until the night before her graduation that she discovers what her duties will be once she graduates.

To avoid the horrifying fate that awaits her, Eve flees the only home she’s ever known. On the run, she encounters Caleb, a rough, rebellious boy living in the wild. Eve knows she shouldn’t trust him, but he slowly wins her confidence…and her heart. He promises to protect her, but when soldiers begin hunting them, Eve must choose between true love and her life.

Eve is the first book in Anna Carey’s trilogy, full of romance, adventure, sacrifice, all set in a near future that is both wonderfully strange, and chillingly familiar.  

Publication Date: 07/03/12
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Serenata: Through the Keyhole
Synopsis: There is a Golden place called SERENATA… Matthew loves exploring and desires to be one of the world’s greatest explorers. He reads about them and dreams about them. He doesn’t realize it, but his wish is about to come true. He would never have thought his dream of being an explorer would start in the hayloft of a barn. An adventurous 12 year old boy named Matt accidentally discovers a new friend, an alternate universe and some valuable lessons. His new friend Phil (not his real name) is a short tempered sarcastic control freak but also has a surprisingly soft side. Matt finds himself, though reluctantly, being the hero and is caught up in a magical place where time almost stands still. Serenata is a beautiful fun place full of very familiar things that have become unfamiliar. There is also the dark side that Matt contends with along with his new friend and an unexpected old friend. From castles to the darkest of caves, Serenata is a place full of beauty, color and light that will continue forever and never be forgotten. Serenata...Through The Keyhole is a children’s/young adult adventure story.
Publication Date: 06/30/12
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction

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