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Silver Zombie
Carole Nelson Douglas
Synopsis: Zombies and Witches and Vamps . . . Oh, My!

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas—at least that’s Delilah Street’s hope. With Sin City’s vampire and werewolf mobs wanting to cash in her chips once and for all, she’s retreating with her partner Ric Montoya and half-wolfhound Quicksilver to her Kansas birthplace. Unfortunately, when it comes to finding trouble, there’s no place like home. . . .

It doesn’t take long before Delilah realizes she’s not in Vegas anymore. Zombie cowboys and spectral cattle drives are kicking up dust, the local weather girls are total witches who forecast perfect storms, and some Hollywood fanatic is recasting zombies as the greatest stars of the silver screen. And speaking of silver, Delilah’s special affinity for the all-purpose monster-repellent leads her posse straight down a silver brick road—and into a notso- fun house of mirrors—putting her face-to-face with her dicey past and a mystery woman named Lilith, who’s a real dead ringer for Delilah. The key word being dead.
Publication Date: 11/30/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Threads and Flames
Esther Friesner
Synopsis: It's 1910, and thirteen-year-old Raisa has just traveled alone from a small Polish shtetl all the way to New York City. It's overwhelming, awe-inspiring, and even dangerous, especially when she discovers that her sister has disappeared and she must now fend for herself. She finds work in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory sewing bodices on the popular shirtwaists. Raisa makes friends and even-dare she admit it?- falls in love. But then 1911 dawns, and one March day a spark ignites in the factory. One of the city's most harrowing tragedies unfolds, and Raisa's life is forever changed. . . .

One hundred years after the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, this moving young adult novel gives life to the tragedy and hope of this transformative event in American history.

Publication Date: 11/24/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Historical Fiction
I Am Here
Ema Toyama
Synopsis: A SUNFLOWER IN THE SHADE
 
Invisible to her classmates, Hikage Sumino is an eighth grader with no self-esteem. Her only friends are the visitors to her Internet blog. One day, the most popular boy in the grade suddenly talks to her. Encouraged by this twist of fate, Hikage determines to transform her life.
 
Includes special extras after the story!
Publication Date: 11/23/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Manga/Graphic Novel
Invisible Things
Jenny Davidson
Synopsis:

Sixteen-year-old Sophie knows there is more to the story of her parents' death. And she's on a mission to find the truth. To aid her in solving the decades-old mystery, Sophie has enlisted her best friend, Mikael, whose friendship has turned into something more. It's soon clear that Sophie's future is very much wrapped up in the details of her family's past, and the key lies with information only one man can provide: her parents' former employer, the elusive billionaire Alfred Nobel.

As the threat of war looms in Europe, dangers to Sophie and her loved ones grow. While her determination to solve the mystery doesn't waver, forces beyond her control conspire to keep her from her purpose. Then, news of her great-aunt Tabitha's death sets off a chain of events that leaves Sophie questioning everything.

The more Sophie learns, the more she realizes that nothing—and no one—in her life is what it seems. And coming to terms with the dark secrets she uncovers means imagining a truth that she never dreamed possible. Full of gorgeous settings, thrilling adventure, and romance, invisible things is a novel that dares to ask, what if?

Publication Date: 11/23/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
When The Stars Go Blue
Caridad Ferrer
Synopsis:

Winner of an International Latino Book Award

A dancer driven to succeed.

A musical prodigy attempting to escape his past.

The summer they share.

And the moment it all goes wrong.

Dance is Soledad Reyes's life. About to graduate from Miami's Biscayne High School for the Performing Arts, she plans on spending her last summer at home teaching in a dance studio, saving money, and eventually auditioning for dance companies. That is, until fate intervenes in the form of fellow student Jonathan Crandall who has what sounds like an outrageous proposition: Forget teaching. Why not spend the summer performing in the intense environment of the competitive drum and bugle corps? The corps is going to be performing Carmen, and the opportunity to portray the character of the sultry gypsy proves too tempting for Soledad to pass up, as well as the opportunity to spend more time with Jonathan, who intrigues her in a way no boy ever has before.

But in an uncanny echo of the story they perform every evening, an unexpected competitor for Soledad's affections appears: Taz, a member of an all-star Spanish soccer team. One explosive encounter later Soledad finds not only her relationship with Jonathan threatened, but her entire future as a professional dancer.

Publication Date: 11/23/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Romance
Faking It
Joseph K. Smith
Synopsis: Deborah Sampson was a courageous woman who lived during the American Revolutionary War. Deborah wanted to fight for her country, but women were not allowed to join the military, at that time. She disguised herself as a man, and successfully enlisted in the army. Later, she became the first American woman who went on a lecture tour, and the first woman to collect a military pension in the United States. Deborah Sampson was a brave woman whose story will inspire boys, and girls to go for their dreams
Publication Date: 11/18/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Biography
Mesmerized
David-Matthew Barnes
Synopsis: Rainbow Award Winner for Best LGBT Coming of Age/Young Adult Novel! While being punished for writing a controversial article in her high school paper, Serena Albright is befriended by the enigmatic loner Brodie Wiles. Serena witnesses the first time that Brodie meets Lance Royal, who is secretly rehearsing to compete in The Showdown, the biggest dance contest of the year. Immediately, Serena is drawn into their world, inspired by the love she recognizes between them.

Through her close friendship with Brodie and Lance, Serena finds comfort for the grief and guilt she feels over the brutal death of her older gay brother, the victim of a hate crime. Frustrated that her deep-in-denial parents spend endless hours in front of the television and refuse to acknowledge the death of their son, Serena accepts the challenge to have a face-to-face meeting with the boy who killed her brother.
Publication Date: 11/16/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Blank Confession
Pete Hautman
Synopsis: Shayne Blank is the new kid in town--but that doesn't stop him from getting into a lot of trouble very quickly. The other kids don't understand him. He's not afraid of anything. He seems too smart. And his background doesn't add up. But when he walks into the police department to confess to a murder, it quickly becomes apparent that nothing is as it seems. There's more to Shayne--and his story--than meets the eye. As the details begin to fill in, the only thing that becomes clear is that nothing about Shayne's story is clear at all.

Blank Confession is a compelling mystery that will keep readers turning pages, from National Book Award-winning author Pete Hautman.
Publication Date: 11/16/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Tyger Tyger
Kersten Hamilton
Synopsis: Teagan Wylltson's best friend, Abby, dreams that horrifying creatures--goblins, shape-shifters, and beings of unearthly beauty but terrible cruelty--are hunting Teagan. Abby is always coming up with crazy stuff, though, so Teagan isn't worried. Her life isn't in danger. In fact, it's perfect. She's on track for a college scholarship. She has a great job. She's focused on school, work, and her future. No boys, no heartaches, no problems.
     Until Finn Mac Cumhaill arrives. Finn's a bit on the unearthly beautiful side himself. He has a killer accent and a knee-weakening smile. And either he's crazy or he's been haunting Abby's dreams, because he's talking about goblins, too . . . and about being The Mac Cumhaill, born to fight all goblin-kind. Finn knows a thing or two about fighting. Which is a very good thing, because this time, Abby's right. The goblins are coming.
Publication Date: 11/15/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fantasy
A Long Walk To Water
Ginger Knowlton, Linda Sue Park
Synopsis:

The New York Times bestseller A Long Walk to Water begins as two stories, told in alternating sections, about two eleven-year-olds in Sudan, a girl in 2008 and a boy in 1985. The girl, Nya, is fetching water from a pond that is two hours’ walk from her home: she makes two trips to the pond every day. The boy, Salva, becomes one of the "lost boys" of Sudan, refugees who cover the African continent on foot as they search for their families and for a safe place to stay. Enduring every hardship from loneliness to attack by armed rebels to contact with killer lions and crocodiles, Salva is a survivor, and his story goes on to intersect with Nya’s in an astonishing and moving way.

Publication Date: 11/15/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Historical Fiction
Sugar Changed The World
Marina Budhos, Marc Aronson
Synopsis:

When this award-winning husband-and-wife team discovered that they each had sugar in their family history, they were inspired to trace the globe-spanning story of the sweet substance and to seek out the voices of those who led bitter sugar lives. The trail ran like a bright band from religious ceremonies in India to Europe’s Middle Ages, then on to Columbus, who brought the first cane cuttings to the Americas. Sugar was the substance that drove the bloody slave trade and caused the loss of countless lives but it also planted the seeds of revolution that led to freedom in the American colonies, Haiti, and France. With songs, oral histories, maps, and over 80 archival illustrations, here is the story of how one product allows us to see the grand currents of world history in new ways. Time line, source notes, bibliography, index.

Publication Date: 11/15/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Historical Nonfiction
Ken Karta: Battle of the Onoxmon
Les Polinko, Alison Kartevold, Susan Mary Malone
Synopsis: In KenKarta, all are expected to develop their Gifts. But to stand against an army from the edge of the Abyss, cheetatarah, equidae, stable boy and Princesses alike must now rely on their Gifts to survive. Get ready. With the help of her daughters, this author has created a spectacular fantasy world where-in tweens and teens will revel.
Publication Date: 11/12/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fantasy
Factotum
D. M. Cornish
Synopsis: Rossam?nd Bookchild stands accused of not truly being a human at all, but of being a monster. Even the protection of Europe, the Branden Rose-the most feared and renowned monster-hunter in all the Half-Continent-might not be enough to save him. Powerful forces move against them both, intent on capturing Rossam?nd-whose existence some believe may hold the secret to perpetual youth.
Publication Date: 11/11/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fantasy
Element Keepers
E. P. Marcellin
Synopsis: Rhet guts fish for a living, content in obscurity until the day he is plucked from the wharves by nine exotic strangers and carted across the continent to a life-sentence of imprisonment. Though he has done nothing (as far as he knows) to warrant such capture, his captors are certain he will one day destroy the world if they do not prevent him. Though it is true that Rhet discovers great powers, he is neither villain nor hero. He is unique in a world where some can pull threads of wind from the air and weave it to do their bidding; he can bring wind into being where there is none. But a quest for domination begins to unravel the very fabric of the world, destroying the balance that must be maintained. It only took one to start the spiral toward chaos, but one alone cannot save the world, no matter how great his power. A new chapter in the story of the human race has begun. A slave will come to rule, a dockworker will meet his fate, and an unlikely group of companions will find themselves thrust to the forefront of the battle for life's existence. And man's future may be only Whispers in the Wind.
Publication Date: 11/09/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Sweetness of Salt
Cecilia Galante
Synopsis:

Julia just graduated as her high school valedictorian, has a full ride to college in the fall and a coveted summer internship clerking for a federal judge. But when her older sister, Sophie, shows up at the graduation determined to reveal some long buried secrets, Julia's carefully constructed plans come to a halt. Instead of the summer she had painstakingly laid out, Julia follows Sophie back to Vermont, where Sophie is opening a bakery―and struggling with some secrets of her own. What follows is a summer of revelations―some heartwarming, some heartbreaking, and all slowly pointing Julia toward a new understanding of both herself and of the sister she never really knew.

Publication Date: 11/09/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Grounded
Kate Klise
Synopsis:

A middle grade novel about a 12-year-old girl dealing with loss, who uncovers a rather grisly scam involving a crematorium.

After her brother, sister, and father die in a plane crash, Daralynn Oakland receives 237 dolls from well-wishers, resulting in her nickname: Dolly. But dolls are little comfort to a twelve-year-old girl whose world is rocked by the dramatic changes in her life, including her angry, grieving mother's new job as a hairstylist at the local funeral home.

Dolly gets a job, too, where she accidentally invents a fashionable new haircut. But in Grounded by Kate Klise, her real work begins when a crematorium comes to town, and someone has to save a dying business, solve a burning mystery, and resuscitate the broken hearts in Digginsville, Missouri, population 402.

Publication Date: 11/09/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction

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