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The Pink Locker Society: Girls in Charge
Synopsis:

Inspired by the popular KidsHealth website, THE PINK LOCKER SOCIETY features a trio of teens who have taken on a mysterious mission--to help middle school girls by answering their questions about anything, especially the PBBs (Periods, Bras, and Boys).

For the first time in a long time, Jemma, Piper, and Kate have tossed boys aside to spend time on their one true love: THE PINK LOCKER SOCIETY. And with the help of two-well placed school officials, they're back in their swanky pink offices. But how long will it last?
Jemma is juggling school, the cross country team, becoming a big sister, and all the Pink Locker action, including a tough new problem from a bullied classmate. With 8th grade graduation around the corner, the girls have to decide who will carry on the Pink Locker Society's important mission. Are there 7th graders who have the right stuff to be in the PLS? And just as Jemma's life is bursting with excitement, Forrest reappears and seems genuinely interested in her. Even though she keeps him at arms' length, she has one lingering question: Was he the one who sent her a pink carnation on Valentine's Day?

From crushes, to friendship, to family surprises, GIRLS IN CHARGE explores the concerns that so many young girls talk about with their friends. Funny, entertaining, and honest, this fourth installment of the Pink Locker Society series feels like having your BFF by your side.

Publication Date: 09/27/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Beating Teenage Heart
C. K. Kelly Martin
Synopsis: Ashlyn Baptiste is falling. One moment she was nothing—no memories, no self—and then suddenly, she's plummeting through a sea of stars. Is she in a coma? She doesn't remember dying, and she has no memories of the life she left behind. All she knows is that she's trapped in a consciousness without a body and she's spending every moment watching a stranger.

Breckon Cody's on the edge. He's being ripped apart by grief so intense it literally hurts to breathe. On the surface, Breckon is trying to hold it together for his family and his girlfriend, but underneath he's barely hanging on.

Even though she didn't know him in life, Ashlyn sees Breckon's pain, and she's determined to find a way help him. As her own distressing memories emerge from the darkness, she struggles to communicate with the boy who can't see her, but whose life is suddenly intertwined with hers. In alternating voices of the main characters, My Beating Teenage Heart paints a devastatingly vivid picture of both the heartbreak and the promise of teenage life—a life Ashlyn would do anything to recover and Breckon seems desperate to destroy—and will appeal to fans of Sarah Dessen, John Green, and David Levithan.
Publication Date: 09/27/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Gordon Ryder's Blues
Synopsis: Gordon Ryder has the blues. It's 1969, the worst year of Gordon's life so far. He has no friends, and when his father deserts the family, Gordon is left alone with his overly controlling mother. Gordon's only solace is running, which leads to an encounter in the forest preserve that could change everything. Myra Roth, a hippie leader at Gordon's high school, invites him into her inner circle. Gordon must decide: should he enter Myra's world of war protests, drugs, and free love? Gordon Ryder's Blues tells the story of a teenager coming of age in the turbulent Sixties, a story written to entertain young adults curious about that time, baby boomers eager to reminisce, and everyone in between.
Publication Date: 09/27/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Nolichuck! TJ's Wild Frontier Adventure (Green Series)
Synopsis:

TJ s just an ordinary fourteen year old kid with extraordinary problems at home and school: A broken up family from his parents bitter divorce, evil bullies almost every afternoon, failing grades, boring classes, snobby girls, mean teachers, cut from basketball tryouts, few friends. Life is rough for TJ Cockrell.


And then that mysterious little green book had to go and throw him into the past. And not just any past, but into the untamed forbidding forests of 1802 eastern Tennessee along with the savage Indians, wild beasts, bloodthirsty robbers, backwoods ruffians, and log cabin living! Yup, it s definitely not 2011 Knoxville anymore.


And he thought his present life was bad news! But TJ s adventures are only beginning. Along the way, he fights off killer beasts and bandits and braves, gains a world of confidence in himself, finds his first real love, and meets a fantastic frontier family who really has it together. When he returns to the present, he s a brand new person ready to defeat deadly robbers in his own home, beat the bullies at school, win the girl, gain friends, and make great grades. He even gets his family back together again. Sort of. In the end, the little green book is really cool. And TJ can t wait to go on another action-packed adventure into the perilous past!


Publication Date: 09/21/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Underdogs
Mike Lupica
Synopsis: #1 New York Times bestseller Mike Lupica tackles football!

Will Tyler can fly on a football field. He may not be the biggest running back around, but no one can touch him when it comes to hitting the hole and finding the end zone. And no one can match his love of the game. When Will has a football in hand, he may as well be flying for real because life can't touch him - his dad isn't so defeated, his town isn't so poor, and everyone has something to cheer for. All of which does him no good if the football season is canceled. With no funding for things like uniforms and a cared-for playing field, with seemingly every other family moving to find jobs, there simply isn't enough money or players for a season. Unless one kid can rally an entire town and give everyone a reason to believe . . .

For fans of his bestselling novels Travel Team and Million-Dollar Throw, Mike Lupica delivers a feel-good sports story that will have readers cheering where they sit.

“There's plenty of action for sports fans, and readers will root for Will and his teammates till the very last page.” –School Library Journal
 
“[F]ootball fans will…respond to the detailed and exciting game action once the season gets rolling and find inspiration in Will and his teammates' tenacity.” –Publisher’s Weekly
 
“Will's ingenuity and loyalty are encouraging, causing readers to want to cheer him on as he makes his dream come true.” –VOYA
Publication Date: 09/20/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Girl of Fire and Thorns
Synopsis:

The first book in the acclaimed and award-winning New York Times bestselling trilogy. The Girl of Fire and Thorns is a remarkable novel full of adventure, sorcery, heartbreak, and power.

"I stayed up until two a.m. reading this last night. Intense, unique. . . . Definitely recommended."—Veronica Roth, author of the best-selling Divergent series

Once a century, one person is chosen for greatness. Elisa is the chosen one. But she is also the younger of two princesses. The one who has never done anything remarkable, and can't see how she ever will. Now, on her sixteenth birthday, she has become the secret wife of a handsome and worldly king—a king whose country is in turmoil. A king who needs her to be the chosen one, not a failure of a princess.

And he's not the only one who seeks her. Savage enemies, seething with dark magic, are hunting her. A daring, determined revolutionary thinks she could be his people's savior. Soon it is not just her life, but her very heart that is at stake.

Elisa could be everything to those who need her most. If the prophecy is fulfilled. If she finds the power deep within herself. If she doesn't die young. Most of the chosen do.

"A page-turner with broad appeal."—Publishers Weekly

Publication Date: 09/20/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Persuasion
Jane Austen
Synopsis:

Once so much to each other!

Now nothing!

Ann Elliot has only one regret: that she listened to her family and broke off her engagement to Captain Wentworth. He was poor, but they were in love—and she didn’t realize that love was enough.

But Anne has a new chance: Captain Wentworth has returned from the Royal Navy. With everything stacked against her, can she overcome their heartbreak and persuade him to love her again?

Beautifully presented for a modern teen audience, Jane Austen’s masterpiece is one of the most enduring stories about the resilience of love.

Publication Date: 09/20/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Tankborn
Karen Sandler
Synopsis: Best friends Kayla and Mishalla know they will be separated when the time comes for their Assignments. They are GENs, Genetically Engineered Non-humans, and in their strict caste system, GENs are at the bottom rung of society. High-status trueborns and working-class lowborns, born naturally of a mother, are free to choose their own lives. But GENs are gestated in a tank, sequestered in slums, and sent to work as slaves as soon as they reach age fifteen.

When Kayla is Assigned to care for Zul Manel, the patriarch of a trueborn family, she finds a host of secrets and surprises-not least of which is her unexpected friendship with Zul's great-grandson. Meanwhile, the children that Mishalla is Assigned to care for are being stolen in the middle of the night. With the help of an intriguing lowborn boy, Mishalla begins to suspect that something horrible is happening to them.

After weeks of toiling in their Assignments, mystifying circumstances enable Kayla and Mishalla to reunite. Together they hatch a plan with their new friends to save the children who are disappearing. Yet can GENs really trust humans? Both girls must put their lives and hearts at risk to crack open a sinister conspiracy, one that may reveal secrets no one is ready to face.

Publication Date: 09/15/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Paintings From The Cave
Synopsis: Meet Jake who lives in a neighborhood controlled by street violence and fear. He meets a sculptor across the street, and his eyes are opened to another world.  Or Jojo,who's closer to her three dogs than to her foster family. When Jojo tries to help another girl who needs a friend, the dogs know what to do.  Or Jamie, Erik, and Grandpa, who make up an unusual family.
Publication Date: 09/13/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Empire of Ruins: The Hunchback Assignments
Synopsis: Secret agent Modo's next assignment? Find ancient Egyptian ruins hidden deep in the Australian jungle and the mysterious God Face, rumoured to be a powerful weapon—anyone who looks upon it will be driven mad. And he must find the God Face before the evil Clockwork Guild does!
Publication Date: 09/13/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Journal of a Schoolyard Bully
Synopsis: In the tradition of the mega successful DIARY OF A WIMPY KID and DORK DIARIES comes Niko Kayler, a school bully who must keep a journal to right all the wrongs he has done, but Niko, being a habitual trouble-maker, has other ideas.   Niko Kayler, the terror of his middle school, doles out wedgies and collects money he doesn't need. When he is forced to begin keeping a journal of his activities to curb his bullying ways, he secretly turns his diary into a how-to guide for bullies.  Now, against the wishes of his peers, Niko plans to conquer his middle school and teach everyone a lesson in bullying, including his teachers. 

Check out JournalofaSchoolyardBully.com for more.
Publication Date: 09/13/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Toys Come Home
Paul O. Zelinsky, Emily Jenkins
Synopsis: “A bit like the great movie Toy Story and a bit like the wonderful Kate DiCamillo book The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. This is a great family book.” —The Washington Post on Toys Go Out, the companion to Toys Come Home
 
Here is the final book in the highly acclaimed Toys trilogy, which includes the companion books Toys Go Out and Toy Dance Party and chronicles the unforgettable adventures of three brave and loving toys.
 
Fans of the series, as well as newcomers, will happily discover how Lumphy, StingRay, and Plastic came to live with the Girl. In six linked adventures, readers will also learn how the one-eared Sheep became one-eared, watch a cranky toy meet an unfortunate end, and best of all, learn why it’s okay for someone you truly love to puke on you. This is perhaps the most charming of three inimitably charming books destined to become classics.

A Wall Street Journal Best Children’s Book of the Year
A Bank Street College of Education Best Children’s Book of the Year
A Junior Library Guild Selection
 
"A timeless story of adventure and friendship to treasure aloud or independently. Wholly satisfying, this may well leave readers expecting to see the Velveteen Rabbit peeking in the bedroom window and smiling approvingly." —Booklist, Starred

“The best talking toy stories since Winnie-the-Pooh.” —Kirkus Reviews

"A book destined to be read to children at bedtime for decades (nay, centuries?) to come. It is rare that prequels exceed the books they are meant to simply introduce, but this is one of the few." —Betsy Bird, A Fuse #8 Production
Publication Date: 09/13/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
All the Earth Thrown to the Sky
Synopsis:

Jack Catcher's parents are dead—his mom died of sickness and his dad of a broken heart—and he has to get out of Oklahoma, where dust storms have killed everything green, hopeful, or alive. When former classmate Jane and her little brother Tony show up in his yard with plans to steal a dead neighbor's car and make a break for Texas, Jack doesn't need much convincing. But a run-in with one of the era's most notorious gangsters puts a crimp in Jane's plan, and soon the three kids are hitching the rails among hoboes, gangsters, and con men, racing to warn a carnival wrestler turned bank robber of the danger he faces and, in the process, find a new home for themselves. This road trip adventure from the legendary Joe R. Lansdale is a thrilling and colorful ride through Depression-era America.

Publication Date: 09/13/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
You Have Seven Messages
Stewart Lewis
Synopsis:    It's been a year since Luna's mother, the fashion-model wife of a successful film director, was hit and killed by a taxi in New York's East Village. Luna, her father, and her little brother, Tile, are still struggling with grief.
   When Luna goes to clean out her mother's old studio, she's stunned to find her mom's cell phone there—charged and holding seven unheard messages. As Luna begins to listen to them, she learns more about her mother's life than she ever wanted to know . . . and she comes to realize that the tidy tale she's been told about her mother's death may not be the whole truth.
    
“. . . a lovely contemporary fairy tale, with a sad Upper West Side princess at the heart of it, and that’s a kind of folklore that many readers will enjoy.”—The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, Recommended
 
“The book contains various delights. . . . the love story element shines, and the book offers a nice window into the life of privileged New York youngsters, refreshingly filled with protective and involved adults.”—Kirkus Reviews
 
“Following Luna through a hazy grief state after the death of her mother is like a beautiful dream. This book takes your hand and leads you on a wonder-filled adventure.”—Melissa Walker, author of Small Town Sinners
 
“Luna is someone to weep with and to cheer for, to wish was your best friend. Readers will fall in love with Luna and her dazzling world.”—Emily Wing Smith, author of Back When You Were Easier to Love
Publication Date: 09/13/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
A Plague Year
Edward Bloor
Synopsis: It's 2001 and zombies have taken over Tom's town. Meth zombies. The drug rips through Blackwater, PA, with a ferocity and a velocity that overwhelms everyone.

It starts small, with petty thefts of cleaning supplies and Sudafed from the supermarket where Tom works. But by year's end there will be ruined, hollow people on every street corner. Meth will unmake the lives of friends and teachers and parents. It will fill the prisons, and the morgues.

Tom's always been focused on getting out of his depressing coal mining town, on planning his escape to a college somewhere sunny and far away. But as bits of his childhood erode around him, he finds it's not so easy to let go. With the selfless heroism of the passengers on United Flight 93 that crashed nearby fresh in his mind and in his heart, Tom begins to see some reasons to stay, to see that even lost causes can be worth fighting for. 

Edward Bloor has created a searing portrait of a place and a family and a boy who survive a harrowing plague year, and become stronger than before.
Publication Date: 09/13/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Things A Brother Knows
Synopsis:

Levi's older brother Boaz returns from fighting with the Marines in the Middle East. He's safe. Levi's family has waited three long years for this. But Boaz is no longer the brother Levi thought he knew. Even if nobody else wants to see it, Levi can tell that Boaz has changed; something's wrong. When Boaz announces he's off to hike the Appalachian Trail, Levi knows he's lying. He's heading somewhere else. So Levi follows, determined to understand who his brother was, what he's been through, and how to bring him home again.

Publication Date: 09/13/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction

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