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Benito Runs
Justine Fontes
Synopsis:

Running away is the only option.

Benito's father, Xavier, had been in Iraq for more than a year. When he returns, Benito's family life is not the same. Xavier suffers from PTSD—post-traumatic stress disorder—and yells constantly. He causes such a scene at a school function that Benny is embarrassed to go to back to Southside High. Benny can't handle seeing his dad so crazy, so he decides to run away. Will Benny find a new life? Or will he learn how to deal with his dad—through good times and bad?

Publication Date: 03/01/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Dark Mirror
M. J. Putney
Synopsis:

Lady Victoria Mansfield, youngest daughter of the earl and countess of Fairmount, is destined for a charmed life. Soon she will be presented during the London season, where she can choose a mate worthy of her status.

Yet Tory has a shameful secret―a secret so powerful that, if exposed, it could strip her of her position and disgrace her family forever. Tory's blood is tainted . . . by magic.

When a shocking accident forces Tory to demonstrate her despised skill, the secret she's fought so hard to hide is revealed for all to see. She is immediately exiled to Lackland Abbey, a reform school for young men and women in her position. There she will learn to suppress her deplorable talents and maybe, if she's one of the lucky ones, be able to return to society.

But Tory's life is about to change forever. All that she's ever known or considered important will be challenged. What lies ahead is only the beginning of a strange and wonderful journey into a world where destiny and magic come together, where true love and friendship find her, and where courage and strength of character are the only things that determine a young girl's worth.

Dark Mirror is M.J. Putney's first young adult novel, and it's enthralling―an historical fantasy that's both fast-paced and deeply moving.

Publication Date: 03/01/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fantasy
Plan B
Charnan Simon
Synopsis:

Is this happily ever after?

Lucy has her life planned out: she'll graduate and then join her boyfriend, Luke, at college in Austin. She'll become a Spanish teacher and of course they'll get married. So there's no reason to wait, right? They try to be careful. But then Lucy gets pregnant. Now, none of Lucy's options are part of her picture-perfect plan. Together, she and Luke will have to make the most difficult decision of their lives.

Publication Date: 03/01/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Recruited
Suzanne Weyn
Synopsis:

He's destined for the NFL.

Kadeem Jones is a star quarterback for Southside High. He is thrilled when college scouts seek him out. His visit to Teller College is amazing. College cheerleaders pay attention to him. The recruiter even gives him money to have a good time. But then NCAA officials accuse Teller's staff of illegally recruiting top talent. Will Kadeem decide to help their investigation, even though it means the end of the good times? What will it do to his chances of playing college football?

Publication Date: 03/01/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Rock Bottom
Perseus
Synopsis:

From New York Times bestselling author and internationally renowned environmental and consumer advocate Erin Brockovich comes Rock Bottom, a debut thriller and first in a series of novels that introduces one of the most fascinating and memorable characters in suspense fiction.

Ten years ago, a pregnant seventeen-year-old, Angela Joy Palladino, fled her hometown, Scotia, West Virginia, as a pariah. Over time, AJ succeeded in establishing herself as an environmental activist, dubbed “The People’s Champion,” only to be forced to retreat from the spotlight in the wake of a crushing media disaster.

When AJ is offered a job with a lawyer who is crusading against mountaintop removal mining, she is torn. As a single mother of a special needs nine-year-old boy, AJ can use any work she can get. But doing so will mean returning to the West Virginia hometown she left in disgrace so long ago.

Upon arriving in Scotia, AJ learns of the sudden death of the lawyer who hired her. Soon after joining forces with his daughter, Elizabeth, threats begin to surface, bodies begin to pile up, and AJ discovers that her own secrets aren’t the only ones her mountain hometown has kept buried. Hitting rock bottom, AJ must face the betrayal of those once closest to her and confront the harrowing past she thought she had left behind.

In Rock Bottom, Erin Brockovich combines passionate intensity, first-rate storytelling, and her real life experiences in a novel that will leave you breathless.

 

Publication Date: 03/01/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
After Hours
Patricia Bray, Joshua Palmatier
Synopsis: Science fiction and fantasy readers have long shown an affinity for a good "bar story". Now some of today's most inventive scriveners have decided to tell their own tall tales-from an alewife's attempt to transfer the gods' curse to Gilgamesh, to Odin's decision to introduce Vikings to the Ur-Bar, from the Holy Roman Emperor's barroom bargain, to a demon hunter who may just have met his match in the ultimate magic bar, to a bouncer who discovers you should never let anyone in after hours in a world terrorized by zombies.
Publication Date: 03/01/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Science Fiction
Late Eclipses
Seanan McGuire
Synopsis: New York Times-bestselling October Daye series • Hugo Award-winning author Seanan McGuire • "Top of my urban-paranormal series list!" —Felicia Day

October "Toby" Daye, changeling knight in the service of Duke Sylvester Torquill, finds the delicate balance of her life shattered when she learns that an old friend is in dire trouble. Lily, Lady of the Tea Gardens, has been struck down by a mysterious, seemingly impossible illness, leaving her fiefdom undefended.

Struggling to find a way to save Lily and her subjects, Toby must confront her own past as an enemy she thought was gone forever raises her head once more: Oleander de Merelands, one of the two people responsible for her fourteen-year exile.

Time is growing short and the stakes are getting higher, for the Queen of the Mists has her own agenda. With everything on the line, Toby will have to take the ultimate risk to save herself and the people she loves most—because if she can't find the missing pieces of the puzzle in time, Toby will be forced to make the one choice she never thought she'd have to face again...
Publication Date: 03/01/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fantasy
Hastur Lord
Deborah J. Ross, Marion Zimmer Bradley
Synopsis: A gripping fantasy novel set in Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover universe.

Regis Hastur was the heir to the most powerful domain on Darkover. When his grandfather died, he would inherit the title Hastur of Hastur, Regent of Darkover—king in everything but name. But ironically, this mantle was the last thing Regis had ever wanted. For he dreamed of a different kind of life—a life with the freedom to live and love like an ordinary man, without the expectations and responsibilities of his position.

Yet even Regis recognized Darkover’s desperate need for strong, rational leadership—leadership only he had been trained to provide. But now that his time was at hand, was Regis willing to make the personal sacrifices necessary to lead his world? Or would he turn away from his destiny and finally make his real dreams come true? For on his grandfather’s deathbed Regis learns that he has a brother—an older half-brother who could finally relieve Regis of the burden of title he had never wanted…. Would Regis finally let himself be free to be the man he had always dreamed of being?
Publication Date: 03/01/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Lock Artist
Steve Hamilton
Synopsis:

"I was the Miracle Boy, once upon a time. Later on, the Milford Mute. The Golden Boy. The Young Ghost. The Kid. The Boxman. The Lock Artist. That was all me.
But you can call me Mike."


Marked by tragedy, traumatized at the age of eight, Michael, now eighteen, is no ordinary young man. Besides not uttering a single word in ten years, he discovers the one thing he can somehow do better than anyone else. Whether it's a locked door without a key, a padlock with no combination, or even an eight-hundred pound safe ... he can open them all.

It's an unforgivable talent. A talent that will make young Michael a hot commodity with the wrong people and, whether he likes it or not, push him ever close to a life of crime. Until he finally sees his chance to escape, and with one desperate gamble risks everything to come back home to the only person he ever loved, and to unlock the secret that has kept him silent for so long.

Steve Hamilton steps away from his Edgar Award-winning Alex McKnight series to introduce a unique new character, unlike anyone you've ever seen in the world of crime fiction.

The Lock Artist is the winner of the 2011 Edgar Award for Best Novel.

Publication Date: 03/01/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Unlocked
Ryan G. Van Cleave
Synopsis: Winner of the 2011 Florida Book Awards Gold Medal for Young Adult Literature. Winner of the 2012 Florida Publishers Association Gold Medal in Young Adult Literature.Andy is the janitor's son, an outcast, a nobody. Then the rumor starts-that Blake has a gun in his locker. In a moment of misguided hopefulness, Andy steals the keys from his dad and opens up Blake's locker, hoping that finding the gun will change his own status. But the gun isn't there and Andy remains an outcast. When an unlikely friendship develops between the two loners, Blake shares most of his secrets with Andy, including the gun. But there's one secret that worries Andy more than anything-the date circled on Blake's calendar. Does Blake have something planned? Something that Andy can prevent? In a fascinating look at how teens deal with the now constant threat of school violence, debut author Ryan G. Van Cleave provides a unique, emotional perspective on how it feels to be the one who can prevent a tragedy.
Publication Date: 03/01/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Betrayal
Lee Nichols
Synopsis:

Emma Vaile is the most powerful ghostkeeper in centuries. Which is great when she's battling the wraith-master Neos, but terrible when she's flirting with fellow ghostkeeper (and soul mate) Bennett. When ghostkeepers fall in love, the weaker one loses all power, and that's not something Bennett can handle. Heartbroken and alone, Emma tries to lose herself in school with fellow ghostkeeper, Natalie. When a new team of ghostkeepers arrive-one a snarky teen
boy, the other a British scholar-Emma finds solace in training for the battle against Neos. But as the team grows stronger, they are threatened by an unknown force. One they thought was good.
As chilling and page-turning as Deception, this sequel will grab readers and hold them to the last page. No one is safe from suspicion as Emma closes in on the traitor.

Publication Date: 03/01/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Women Heroes of World War II
Kathryn J. Atwood
Synopsis:

A 2012 VOYA Nonfiction Honor List selection

 

Noor Inayat Khan was the first female radio operator sent into occupied France and transferred crucial messages. Johtje Vos, a Dutch housewife, hid Jews in her home and repeatedly outsmarted the Gestapo. Law student Hannie Schaft became involved in the most dangerous resistance work--sabotage, weapons transference, and assassinations. In these pages, young readers will meet these and many other similarly courageous women and girls who risked their lives to help defeat the Nazis.

            Twenty-six engaging and suspense-filled stories unfold from across Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Denmark, Great Britain, and the United States, providing an inspiring reminder of women and girls’ refusal to sit on the sidelines around the world and throughout history.

An overview of World War II and summaries of each country’s entrance and involvement in the war provide a framework for better understanding each woman’s unique circumstances, and resources for further learning follow each profile. Women Heroes of World War II is an invaluable addition to any student’s or history buff’s bookshelf.

Publication Date: 03/01/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Historical Nonfiction
Cutting Cords
Jo Ramsey
Synopsis: When Shanna's father moves out, leaving Shanna alone with her mother, her home life goes from bad to worse. At least she has Jonah to remind her that she deserves a good life, even if she doesn't always believe him. Stressed about her parents' separation and worried about what it will mean for her, Shanna is glad for the distraction of her friend Tammi's request for information about guides. Although Shanna is still learning, she knows how to answer Tammi's questions. The problem is, the entity Tammi is asking about isn't really a guide. It's a dead spirit who wants to take over Tammi's life. And Shanna discovers that another entity, one with the power to destroy our universe, wants to use Tammi as well. Guided by Jonah and Tethys, and helped by another being of light, Shanna must send the dead spirit to the afterlife before it's too late-for Tammi and for the entire Universe.
Publication Date: 03/01/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Science Fiction
The Big Book of Spy Stuff
Synopsis: From chaos to counter-intelligence, and secret messages to gadgets, The Big Book of Spy Stuff opens top-secret files on sabotage and espionage with humor and amazement. 

With King's entertaining book as a guide, you can pull the cloak of mystery away from history's sneakiest sneaks ... and can work on your own spy activities! But before you're granted a security clearance, take a good look around. Somebody might be watching you right now!
Publication Date: 03/01/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Nonfiction
The Hellandback Kids: Be Careful What You Wish For
Synopsis: The Hellandback Kids: Be Careful What You Wish For, has won several awards: The Pinnacle Book Achievement Award, The Mom's Choice Award, and Royal Dragonfly Award. When the four Hellandback kids visit their great-grandmother in a strange Scottish hospital, they unknowingly fall into a series of bizarre adventures in an alternate reality. With only their own ingenuity, the Hellandback kids must rely on help from a mystic guide, unearthly creatures, and talking animals as they encounter the black plague, deformed beings, a life sucking immortal, and a long trek from exile. Throughout their adventures, the Hellandback kids learn valuable life lessons, and of course, to be careful what they wish for.
Publication Date: 02/24/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fantasy
Tortall and Other Lands
Tamora Pierce
Synopsis: Collected here for the first time are all of the tales from the land of Tortall, featuring both previously unknown characters as well as old friends. Filling some gaps of time and interest, these stories, some of which have been published before, will lead Tammy's fans, and new readers into one of the most intricately constructed worlds of modern fantasy.
Publication Date: 02/22/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fantasy

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