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Ugly To Start With
John Michael Cummings
Synopsis:

Jason Stevens is growing up in picturesque, historic Harpers Ferry, West Virginia in the 1970s. Back when the roads are smaller, the cars slower, the people more colorful, and Washington, D.C. is way across the mountains—a winding sixty-five miles away.
 Jason dreams of going to art school in the city, but he must first survive his teenage years. He witnesses a street artist from Italy charm his mother from the backseat of the family car. He stands up to an abusive husband—and then feels sorry for the jerk. He puts up with his father’s hard-skulled backwoods ways, his grandfather’s showy younger wife, and the fist-throwing schoolmates and eccentric mountain characters that make up Harpers Ferry—all topped off by a basement art project with a girl from the poor side of town. Ugly to Start With punctuates the exuberant highs, bewildering midpoints, and painful lows of growing up, and affirms that adolescent dreams and desires are often fulfilled in surprising ways.

Publication Date: 10/01/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile 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: Juvenile 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: Juvenile 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: Juvenile 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: Juvenile Fiction
Galaxy Games: The Challengers
Synopsis: Things are looking up for Tyler Sato (literally!) as he and his friends scan the night sky for a star named for him by his Tokyo cousins in honor of his eleventh birthday. Ordinary stars tend to stay in one place, but Ty's seems to be streaking directly toward Earth at an alarming rate. Soon the whole world is talking about TY SATO, the doomsday asteroid, and life is turned upside down for Ty Sato, the boy, who would rather be playing hoops in his best friend's driveway.

Meanwhile, aboard a silver spaceship heading for Earth, M'Frozza, a girl with three eyes and five nose holes, is on a secret mission. M'Frozza is the captain of planet Mrendaria's Galaxy Games team, and she is desperate to save her world from a dishonorable performance in the biggest sporting event in the universe.

What will happen when Ty meets M'Frozza? Get ready for the most important event in human history--it's off the backboard, around the rim, and out of this world!
Publication Date: 09/01/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Epic Fail
Claire LaZebnik
Synopsis:

Pride and Prejudice goes Hollywood in this winning romantic comedy inspired by Jane Austen’s classic. In her teen fiction debut, the author of Knitting Under the Influence goes back to high school for a tale of sisters, misinformation, and star-crossed love.

Will Elise’s love life be an epic win or an epic fail?

At Coral Tree Prep in Los Angeles, who your parents are can make or break you.

Case in point: As the son of Hollywood royalty, Derek Edwards is pretty much prince of the school—not that he deigns to acknowledge many of his loyal subjects.

As the daughter of the new principal, Elise Benton isn’t exactly on everyone’s must-sit-next-to-at-lunch list.

When Elise’s beautiful sister catches the eye of the prince’s best friend, Elise gets to spend a lot of time with Derek, making her the envy of every girl on campus. Except she refuses to fall for any of his rare smiles and instead warms up to his enemy, the surprisingly charming social outcast Webster Grant.

But in this hilarious tale of fitting in and flirting, not all snubs are undeserved, not all celebrity brats are bratty, and pride and prejudice can get in the way of true love for only so long.

Publication Date: 08/02/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Oracle: Sunken Earth
C.W. Trisef
Synopsis: trisefbook.com/
Publication Date: 06/22/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
The Chamber of Five
Michael Harmon
Synopsis: In a private-school conspiracy novel, 16-year-old Jason Weatherby knows exactly why he's at the Lambert School for the Gifted. And it's not for his brains. His dad is an influential state senator. It's this same connection that lands him a spot on the secretive Chamber of Five, the elite group of students who run the school with a shadow government, tapping into the same lines of powers as their parents. When he's asked to physically assault and ruin the reputation of another student as part of his initiation, Jason sees firsthand the depravity of the Chamber—and decides to work from the inside to take it down. But Jason taps into a conspiracy—and school secrets—far more insidious than he could ever have imagined. From award-winning author Michael Harmon comes a taut, thrillingly paced novel about the perils of privilege. Can one bold student set things right?
Publication Date: 06/14/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
The Queen Bee of Bridgeton
Synopsis: When fifteen-year-old Sonya Garrison is accepted into the prestigious Bridgeton Academy, she soon discovers that rich girls are just as dangerous as the thugs in her home of Venton Heights…maybe more so. After catching the eye of the star white basketball player and unwittingly becoming the most popular girl in school, she earns the hatred of the three most ruthless and vindictive girls at Bridgeton. Can she defeat the reigning high school royalty? Or will they succeed in ruining her lifelong dream of becoming a world class dancer?
Publication Date: 05/17/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Departures
Robin Jones Gunn
Synopsis: Christy Miller and Sierra Jensen cross paths on their way to summer vacations that reveal what a gift it is to have a true Forever Friend.

Now Boarding at Gate 10
After her high school graduation, still aching from Todd’s departure, Christy joins her family on a trip to Wisconsin to visit relatives. While there, she reunites with Matthew, an old friend from junior high. When Matthew starts to show a romantic interest in Christy, she realizes this summer vacation could change everything she thought her future would be.
 
In the Event of a Water Landing
Fifteen-year-old Sierra Jensen can’t wait to spend her summer vacation with her friend Jana at a pristine lake in Montana. But when they arrive, it becomes clear that Jana’s only interest is acquiring a boyfriend. Sierra just wants to hang out with the guys as friends, but Jana turns every encounter into a possible romantic relationship. As their friendship begins to suffer, Sierra wonders if it’s possible to find a Forever Friend who will listen to you, laugh with you, and keep your confidences.
Publication Date: 05/03/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Future Imperfect
K. Ryer Breese
Synopsis: When 17-year-old Ade Patience knocks himself unconscious, he can see the future.  However, he's also addicted to the high he gets when he breaks the laws of physics. And while he's seen things he's wanted to change, Ade knows The Rule: You can't change the future, no matter how hard you try. 

His memory is failing, his grades are in a death spiral, and both Ade's best friend and his shrink are begging him to stop before he kills himself.  Luckily, the stunning Vauxhall Rodolfo recently transferred to his school and, just like Ade saw in a vision two years previously, they're destined to fall in love. It's just the motivation Ade needs to kick his habit. Only... things are a bit more complicated than that. Vauxhall has a powerful addiction of her own.  And after a vision in which Ade sees himself murdering someone, he realizes he must break the one rule he's been told he can't. 

Ade and Vauxhall must overcome their addictions and embrace their love for each other in order to do the impossible: change the future. 

Future Imperfect melds the excitement of a classic Marvel Comics hero with the modern romance of Twilight,and the result is a genre-bending Young Adult tour-de-force. 
Publication Date: 04/26/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Wanted
Sara Shepard
Synopsis:

#1 New York Times bestselling series

The eighth book in the #1 New York Times bestselling series that inspired the hit ABC Family TV show Pretty Little Liars.

Hanna, Aria, Spencer, and Emily have been through a lot together—childhood pranks gone horribly wrong, not one, but two stalkers—blackmailers who know all their dirty secrets, not to mention their best friend’s murder investigation. Now these pretty little liars are finally going to uncover all the answers they’ve been searching for, and they can finally put this awful chapter of their lives behind them. Or so they think.

Full of unexpected twists and shocking revelations, Wanted is the eighth book in New York Times bestselling author Sara Shepard’s compelling Pretty Little Liars series. 

Publication Date: 04/26/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Girl vs Ghost
Marie August, Kate McMurry
Synopsis: Isabel Lindley doesn't believe in magic, but her best friend is obsessed with witchcraft. Strictly as a favor, Isabel agrees to help with a spell and is shocked when the ghost of a teenage boy splat-lands in her bedroom. Her friend is thrilled-even though only Isabel can see or hear the ghost-but Isabel is horrified. She's the most ordinary sixteen-year-old girl on the planet. What is she supposed to do with a ghost who doesn't know his own name, how he died, or why the heck he's tied to Isabel with a psychic chain? Her only hope to take back her life is to help him solve the mystery of his demise so he can go to the Light. Or wherever. She's not particular, as long as the ghost is gone.
Publication Date: 04/10/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
The Taker and the Keeper
Pat Perrin, Wim Coleman
Synopsis: Middle-schoolers Gregory Guest and Yolanda Torres have no intention of becoming heroes overnight. But as the only kids in Bainsboro who see that the world has gone horribly wrong, what choice do they have? Aided by their eccentric science teacher and Gregory's trusty red monocle, Gregory and Yolanda travel into the King Arthur legend to save today's real world from a legendary threat. As they ally themselves with the magician Merlin and his young apprentice to thwart the sorceress Morgan le Fay, these reluctant heroes must set whole worlds right again. The first book in the Red Monocle, The Taker and the Keeper will keep young readers up at night as they get swept away in this tightly-plotted adventure.
Publication Date: 03/30/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Mother Daughters
Rae Meadows
Synopsis:

A rich and luminous novel about three generations of women in one family: the love they share, the dreams they refuse to surrender, and the secrets they hold

Samantha is lost in the joys of new motherhood—the softness of her eight-month-old daughter's skin, the lovely weight of her child in her arms—but in trading her artistic dreams to care for her child, Sam worries she's lost something of herself. And she is still mourning another loss: her mother, Iris, died just one year ago.

When a box of Iris's belongings arrives on Sam's doorstep, she discovers links to pieces of her family history but is puzzled by much of the information the box contains. She learns that her grandmother Violet left New York City as an eleven-year-old girl, traveling by herself to the Midwest in search of a better life. But what was Violet's real reason for leaving? And how could she have made that trip alone at such a tender age?

In confronting secrets from her family's past, Sam comes to terms with deep secrets from her own. Moving back and forth in time between the stories of Sam, Violet, and Iris, Mothers and Daughters is the spellbinding tale of three remarkable women connected across a century by the complex wonder of motherhood.

Publication Date: 03/29/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction

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