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The Eyes of a King
Catherine Banner
Synopsis: FIFTEEN-YEAR-OLD LEO NORTH’S prospects in life are limited. He attends military school, lives with his fearful grandmother, and looks after his brother Stirling. He resists his innate powers, because those who demonstrate any sort of magical ability are considered enemies of the state. But when he finds a blank book in the snow, his typical indifference melts away. From the first moment he touches the book, he senses its strange power. Passages start to appear on the pages—revealing family secrets, telling the history of Malonia, and uncovering the story of Ryan and Anna, two teens from a parallel universe. When Leo’s seemingly narrow path takes an unexpected tragic turn, he finds himself on a journey from which he can never really return. And, as he slowly begins to lose touch with reality, Ryan and Anna’s story comes to the forefront. Their idyllic summer romance—seemingly worlds away from Leo—has everything to do with Malonia.
Publication Date: 05/27/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Secrets for Sale
Bruce Emmett, Kristi Holl
Synopsis: When Jeri McKane is blamed by her best friend Rosa for using a secret against her, Jeri's world is turned upside down. Unless the real blackmailer is found, Rosa could be expelled from Landmark School and her starring role in Cinderella given to a snobbish seventh grader. Worse still, Jeri could lose her best friend's trust just when things with her own absentee father are heating up. Why does everything have to be so complicated---and where is God when you need him? Middle schoolers will identify with Jeri and her friends as they solve this mystery and learn valuable lessons about truth-telling, faith, hope, and love.
Publication Date: 05/25/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
The Prism Blade
Patricia Bow
Synopsis:

In The Ruby Kingdom, readers were captivated as Amelia Hammer and her cousin, Simon, and friend, Ike, discovered a secret gate leading from the small, southern-Ontario town of Dunstone to the extraordinary land of Mythrin - a world populated by dragons. Now, dragon leader, Mara, seeks the help of Amelia and her friends again. This time, a peculiar race of humans from a world called Cassar is searching for the Prism Blade - a legendary weapon forged at the beginning of time. Both the dragons and the Casseri seek the Prism Blade for their own protection; both the dragons and the Casseri fear the Blade falling into each others' hands.

Caught in the middle, Amelia, Simon, and Ike are also caught by surprise when they discover that the Prism Blade has been hidden for centuries in their own town ... and is one of the most treasured objects in all of Dunstone.

Publication Date: 05/19/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Toto!  The Wonderful Adventure
Synopsis: SEE THE WORLD WITH ME!

Kakashi is a small-town boy with a big dream: to travel around the world. He’s so determined to leave his little island home behind that he stows away onboard a marvelous zeppelin–one that just happens to be loaded with treasure and a gang of ruthless criminals!
Publication Date: 05/13/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Fading Tracks
Bruce Emmett, Kristi Holl
Synopsis: Lonely and a long way from her Iowa home, twelve-year-old Jeri McKane reacts to boarding school the way most middle schoolers would. Even with close friends, she wonders whether her scholarship to prestigious Landmark School was worth it. She's tempted to give up when her Mom can't make parents' weekend, and the school bus carrying her roommate, Rosa, disappears. But this reporter for the sixth-grade newspaper has an eye like Nancy Drew and more faith and courage than she realizes. Jeri solves the mystery---and makes landmark decisions to trust God and his Word through circumstances and feelings that don't make sense.
Publication Date: 05/13/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Thumbelina
Barbara Ensor
Synopsis: HERE’S A CONTEMPORARY retelling of Andersen’s tale, revamped and fleshed out for today’s hip tweens. As she did in Cinderella (As If You Didn’t Already Know the Tale), Ensor re-imagines this classic, adding her own inimitable humor, flair, and stylish black-and-white silhouette spot illustrations. Thumbelina is that story most of us can’t quite remember. Okay, sure, it’s about a tiny girl just the size of your thumb. But did you know that her troubles (or adventures, if you prefer) begin when she begs her mother to let her sleep outside on the porch? And that in no time she is engaged to a frog, and then a mole, and even receives a proposal from a miniature king?
Publication Date: 05/13/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Confessions of a Serial Kisser
Wendelin Van Draanen
Synopsis: Does the perfect kiss exist?

This smart and funny modern romance explores the pleasures and perils of love. A great book for fans of romantic reads like To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han.
 
Evangeline Logan wants a kiss. Not just any kiss—a “crimson kiss,” like the one in a romance novel she's become obsessed with. But the path to perfection is paved with many bad kisses—the smash mouth, the ear licker, the “misser,” the tentative tight lipper.
 
The phrase 'I don't kiss and tell' means nothing to the boys in her school.  And worse: someone starts writing her name and number on bathroom walls. And worst of all: the boy she's just kissed turns out to be her best friend's new crush.
 
Kissing turns out to be way more complicated than the romance novels would have you believe . . .
Publication Date: 05/13/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Fact of Life #31
Denise Vega
Synopsis: FACT OF LIFE #48: Kat’s mom is No-Last-Name Abra, the best home-birth midwife in Colorado. But with her own daughter, Abra can’t stop teaching and lecturing long enough to be a mom.

Fact of Life #21: Kat’s had a crush on Manny Cruz since seventh grade. Now Manny is showing interest , but could he seriously be into Weird Yoga Girl Kat Flynn?

Fact of Life #14: Gorgeous Libby Giles has always intimidated Kat. But lately there’s something different about Libby, and it’s about to bring her crashing into Kat’s Life. . . .

Hilarious and poignant, this is the story of one girl’s sometimes funny, sometimes painful path to self-acceptance and to finding her place in the world.
Publication Date: 05/13/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Hot Mess
Shallon Lester, Julie Kraut
Synopsis: EMMA FREEMAN IS waving buh-bye to her standard summer of stationwagoning around the suburbs. This summer she’s heading to the big city. Emma’s totally prepped for days at a fabulous internship and nights of socialite-ing around town. But when you’re 17 and not an heiress, reality is far from pink fizzy drinks and red velvet ropes. As the summer heats up, Emma learns that glamour is hard to come by when your only friend is too boy-crazy to hang, your budget is more H&M than D&G, and you spend 8 hours a day working for a man who proves that the devil wears Dockers too. Add one little white lie told to one very hot coworker and a roommate who makes Paris Hilton look junior varsity, and this summer in the city is starting to turn into one hot mess.
Publication Date: 05/13/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
The Summer of Cotton Candy
Synopsis:

Most people think The Zone is an amusement park, but Candy Thompson knows it’s really a slave labor camp. What else would you call a summer job that requires a sixteen-year-old girl to set aside her whole social life for the privilege of standing out in the hot sun selling cotton candy? Still, there are perks―particularly the mysterious hunk in the Lone Ranger costume. Behind that mask are the most amazing eyes Candy has ever seen. Who is that masked man? But someone else is just as interested. And romantic competition isn’t the only problem. Besides being hard work, The Zone is eating up major time. How is Candy supposed to stay involved in church? Worse yet, will she lose her best friend, Tamara, who resents how Candy’s job limits their time together? This is NOT the summer Candy hoped for! But as she is about to discover, the summer of cotton candy will be the greatest summer of her life.

Publication Date: 05/11/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Mixed Bags
Melody Carlson
Synopsis: When her mom died, DJ had to move in with her grandmother, internationally famous ’60s fashion model Katherine Carter. Now Mrs. Carter’s opened a boarding home for young ladies, and DJ―who would rather wear her basketball team uniform than haute couture―is just sure they’ll all be unbearable fashion snobs. One by one, the girls arrive and begin to figure out how to fit into this new family, getting to know each other and forming friendships. Sure, there’s an aspiring diva or two, but before long, the Carter House girls are dating, fighting, laughing, shopping, sharing clothes, purses, shoes … and their deepest secrets. DJ may not turn into the perfect little lady her grandmother has in mind, but one thing’s for certain―with all these new “sisters,” her life will never be the same!
Publication Date: 05/11/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Stealing Bradford
Melody Carlson
Synopsis:

The Carter House girls are just getting to know one another when the subject of boys comes up. Rhiannon’s dating Bradford, the most popular jock in school, Eliza’s seeing Harry, and even DJ has dated Conner, although now he acts as if he doesn’t like her. Boys aren’t always easy to understand, but every girl in the house wants a boyfriend―and will do just about anything to get one. So when Taylor decides to put the moves on Bradford, Rhiannon is shocked and hurt. Mistakes are made and feelings battered … there is forgiveness for some and bitterness for others … but at the end of the day, the girls learn a valuable lesson about what it means to be a family.

Publication Date: 05/11/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Playing With Fire
Katie Macalister
Synopsis: Gabriel Tauhou, the leader of the silver dragons, can’t take his eyes of May Northcott—not even when May, who has the unique talent of being able to hide in the shadows, has slipped from everyone else’s sights.

May, however, has little time for Gabriel—not when she’s hiding from the Otherworld law, hunting down a blackmailer, and trying to avoid a demon lord’s demands. But her ability to withstand Gabriel’s fire marks her as his mate, and he has no intention of letting her disappear into the darkness she seems to prefer.

Then May is ordered to steal one of Gabriel’s treasures—an immensely important relic of all dragonkin—and he must decide which to protect: his love or his dragons.

Publication Date: 05/06/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
How I Found the Perfect Dress
Synopsis: Maryrose Wood follows up her hilarious hit Why I Let My Hair Grow Out with another irreverent, teen angst-filled, girl-power romp.

On a bike tour of Ireland last summer, Morgan Rawlinson fell for Colin, the hunky guide, and entered a portal that turned her into the goddess Morganne. Now she?s back to her painfully normal life and her relationship with Colin has fizzled to the occasional e-mail?until he writes saying he?s coming to Connecticut?just in time for the prom.

But when he arrives, he?s exhausted. It seems that when Morgan crossed the portal as Morganne, a spell was cast on Colin. In his dreams he?s being forced to dance ?til dawn with the faeries, who want to boogie with him for eternity. Somehow she has to break the spell on her date, help plan the prom, and find the perfect dress. Oh, what a night?
Publication Date: 05/06/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Front Lines
Denise Little
Synopsis: War—what is it good for?
It’s good for 19 all-new tales from the battlefield...

Nineteen all-new tales that look at war from the perspective of everyone from human to alien, pixie to toy. From epic intergalactic struggles for the future of humankind to the microcosm of a single abandoned toy soldier in a boy’s backyard; from a chemical experiment gone horribly wrong to a young recruit who may hold the key to “understanding” the enemy; from a half-mortal knight trying to avert a war with the Elfin Host to a Battle of Trenton fought against seven-foot tall Saurians, Front Lines brings together a diverse array of imaginative explorations of the phenomenon of war.
Publication Date: 05/06/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Geek Abroad
Piper Banks
Synopsis: The Girl Genius is back and life has never been better! I, Miranda Bloom, finally have an almost-quasi-boyfriend, Dex McConnell, the lacrosse star of Orange Cove High. But when holiday break rolls around, and I jet off to visit my mother in London, Dex suddenly seems to lose all interest in me. Then there's Henry, the very cute and very available British guy, who complicates matters even more by making it clear that he's very interested in me.
 
Things don't get any easier when classes start back up at Geek High. Between the dreaded math team competitions, an annoyingly love-struck best friend and a step-mother who seems to delight in making me miserable, it doesn't take a genius to see that the semester ahead is going to be tough.
Publication Date: 05/06/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction

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