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Royal Blood
Ellen Schreiber
Synopsis:

Summer break is over, and Raven is hardly eager to be returning to Dullsville High. Not only does school mean daily interaction with preppy pest Trevor Mitchell, but her sleep-filled days and romantic nights with her immortal boyfriend, Alexander, must come to an end. Plus the shock of morning classes isn't the only change in store.

An unexpected letter turns up at Alexander's mansion—announcing his parents will be coming to town. And once they arrive, just about everyone has had a sighting of the macabre couple except Raven. What could be delaying Alexander from introducing Raven to them? Could Alexander be hiding something about his parents' homecoming?

When Raven is finally invited to the most thrilling dinner party of her life, the next turn of events could transform her entire future with Alexander. The sixth book in Ellen Schreiber's bestselling Vampire Kisses series takes an unusual twist in the continuing romance of Raven and Alexander.

Publication Date: 05/19/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Series
The Coffin Club
Ellen Schreiber
Synopsis:

There's a hot new underground club in town . . . but membership lasts an eternity.

It's summer break, and Raven knows she should stay put in Dullsville until her immortal love returns. But when she decides to go after Alexander, she can't resist a visit to her favorite Goth-spot, The Coffin Club. Sneaking inside, Raven is shocked to discover a secret door that leads to the entrance of another hidden club. There's something peculiar about this cryptic hangout—and it's too enticing for Raven to resist. Soon a dangerous battle for the club's rule erupts between Alexander's old nemesis and a mysterious new guy. Can Raven avoid the clash before her curiosity lands her in serious trouble?

Publication Date: 05/19/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fantasy
Burning Skies
David J. Williams
Synopsis: In his electrifying debut, The Mirrored Heavens, David J. Williams created a dark futuristic world grounded in the military rivalries, terror tactics, and political wrangling of our own time. Now he takes his masterful blend of military SF, espionage thriller, and dystopian cyberpunk one step further—to the edge of annihilation . . . .

Life as U.S. counterintelligence agent Claire Haskell once knew it is in tatters—her mission betrayed, her lover dead, and her memories of the past suspect. Worse, the defeat of the mysterious insurgent group known as Autumn Rain was not as complete as many believed. It is quickly becoming clear that the group’s ultimate goal is not simply to destroy the tenuous global alliances of the 22nd century—but to rule all of humanity. And they’re starting with the violent destruction of the Net and the assassination of the U.S. president. Now it’s up to Claire, with her ability to jack her brain into the systems of the enemy, to win this impossible war.

Battling ferociously across the Earth-Moon system, and navigating a complex world filled with both steadfast loyalists and ruthless traitors, Claire must be ready for the Rain’s next move. But the true enemy may already be one step ahead of her.
Publication Date: 05/19/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Yokai Doctor 1
Yuki Sato
Synopsis: TIME FOR YOUR INJECTION

Yokai are mysterious, troublemaking spirits and demons that have tormented Japan for centuries. Kotoko’s grandfather exorcised them for a living, but Kotoko never thought that her family lineage was an asset. Then she meets Kuro, a yokai doctor. Yokai have doctors? Now Kotoko is learning firsthand that healing the yokai is a lot more challenging than getting rid of them!

Includes in-depth translation notes and a preview of the next volume!
Publication Date: 05/19/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fantasy
City Boy
Jan Michael
Synopsis: Set in contemporary Malawi, a poignant account of an orphaned boy's transition from city life to village life.

Sam's widowed mother has died from "the Disease," and Sam is claimed by his aunt Mercy, who lives in the small African village where Sam's mother was born and raised. The gap between Sam's life in the city, where he had his own room, attended private school, and used a computer, and his new life in the dirt-floored one-room hut, which he is to share with his aunt and cousins, is vast beyond imagining. Grief, loneliness, and the absence of everything familiar make for a rocky transition to a traditional culture where possessions count for little and everyone is expected to do his or her share.
Publication Date: 05/18/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Martin Chuzzlewit
Margaret Cardwell, Charles Dickens
Synopsis: This edition of one of Dickens's earlier novels is based on the accurate Clarendon edition of the text and includes the prefaces to the 1850 and 1867 editions and Dickens's Number Plans.

About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
Publication Date: 05/15/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Alvor
Inc., Cedar Fort, Laura Bingham
Synopsis: Erin and her twin brother, Bain, never expected to find that the cabin in the woods near their home is actually a secret entrance to a magical world. Surrounded by pegasi, dragons, and fairies, they discover new powers within themselves and a secret they have unknowingly been preparing for: they are training to become elves. Now they are faced with the decision to stay in this dream world or return home to the life they knew. A spellbinding tale of fantasy and fairy tale, Älvor draws you into an enchanting world of all things magical.
Publication Date: 05/15/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
Chasing The Bear
Robert B. Parker
Synopsis: For almost forty years, Robert B. Parker's inimitable private investigator Spenser has been solving cases and selling millions of books worldwide. Now, for the first time, see how it all began as the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master sheds light on Spenser's formative years spent with his father and two uncles out West. This is an event book for every fan of Spenser, and a revelation for teens about to discover an American icon.
Publication Date: 05/14/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Death By Denim
Linda Gerber
Synopsis: Aphra Connolly is being chased by some very dangerous people. She knows her survival depends upon staying far away from love interest Seth, and listening to her mom?s lectures on the finer points of anonymity and survival. But how is a girl supposed to live under the radar and not think about her boyfriend when she?s in Paris?the most romantic city in the world? When her mom?s contact in Paris is found floating in the Seine with a deadly message stuffed in his mouth, Aphra realizes that she will never be able to stop running unless she confronts the situation head-on. Sneaking away from her mom, Aphra tracks down the criminal mastermind in Italy, only to unwittingly reveal Seth?s location. And her mistake has just put them both in mortal danger. . . .
Publication Date: 05/14/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Series
Doc Wilde and The Frogs of Doom
Synopsis: **THIS IS AN OLDER VERSION OF THIS BOOK. IT HAS SINCE BEEN REPUBLISHED IN AN EXPANDED, FULLY-ILLUSTRATED EDITION FROM OUTLAW MOON BOOKS.**

To the world at large, the Wilde family is an amazing team of golden skinned adventurers, born to daring escapades and globetrotting excitement! Doctor Spartacus Wilde, world class scientist and inventor, physical exemplar, ultimate warrior, and loving dad!
Brian and Wren Wilde, the world's most swashbuckling kids, able to survive the most perilous situations through quick wits and the intensive training and astonishing gadgets that are their birthright!
Now the Wildes must confront the deepest mysteries of Dark Matter and penetrate the tangled depths of uncharted jungles to face the likely end of the world in the clammy clutches of The Frogs of Doom...
Publication Date: 05/14/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Blackbringer
Laini Taylor
Synopsis: When the ancient evil of the Blackbringer rises to unmake the world, only one determined faerie stands in its way. However, Magpie Windwitch, granddaughter of the West Wind, is not like other faeries. While her kind live in seclusion deep in the forests of Dreamdark, she's devoted her life to tracking down and recapturing devils escaped from their ancient bottles, just as her hero, the legendary Bellatrix, did 25,000 years ago. With her faithful gang of crows, she travels the world fighting where others would choose to flee. But when a devil escapes from a bottle sealed by the ancient Djinn King himself- the creator of the world- she may be in over her head. How can a single faerie, even with the help of her friends, hope to defeat the impenetrable darkness of the Blackbringer?

At a time when fantasy readers have an embarrassment of riches in choosing new worlds to fall in love with, this first novel by a fresh, original voice is sure to stand out.

Publication Date: 05/14/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
Darkwood
M. E. Breen
Synopsis:

Darkness falls so quickly in Howland that the people there have no word for evening. One minute the sky is light, the next minute it is black. But darkness comes in other forms, too, and for thirteen-year-old Annie, the misery she endures in her Uncle's household makes the black of night seem almost soothing. When Annie escapes, her route takes her first to a dangerous mine where a precious stone is being stolen by an enemy of the king, and later to the king's own halls, where a figure from Annie's past makes a startling appearance. All the while, reported sightings of kinderstalk― mysterious, wolf-like creatures that prowl Howland's dark forests―grow more frequent. Eloquent, suspenseful, and imbued with fairy-tale motifs found in The Brothers Grimm, this is a riveting coming-of-age story of a girl who must learn to trust her instincts if she's to lead the people she is destined to rule.

Publication Date: 05/12/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
The Chosen  One
Carol Lynch Williams
Synopsis:

Carol Lynch Willams' The Chosen One is a dazzling novel about a young teenager's rebellion from the polygamist cult that would have her become the seventh wife to her 60-year-old uncle

Thirteen-year-old Kyra has grown up in an isolated community without questioning the fact that her father has three wives and she has twenty brothers and sisters, with two more on the way. That is, without questioning them much---if you don't count her secret visits to the Mobile Library on Wheels to read forbidden books, or her meetings with Joshua, the boy she hopes to choose for herself instead of having a man chosen for her.

But when the Prophet decrees that she must marry her sixty-year-old uncle---who already has six wives---Kyra must make a desperate choice in the face of violence and her own fears of losing her family forever.

Publication Date: 05/12/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Secret Subway
Martin W. Sandler
Synopsis: This is the incredible story of the visionary engineer who built New York City’s first subway. The Secret Subway is the gripping tale of a man whose vision was years ahead of his time; a man whose dream was crushed by the greed and political jockeying for power that characterized the city in the days of Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall.

In the late 1860s New York was congested and dangerous, a place one terrified commentator described as "bedlam on wheels. "Alfred Beach, a multitalented young man, set out to solve the problem. Rather than just addressing the chaos on the streets, he looked deeper for a solution, into the very foundations of the city. He financed the subterranean project himself, and pledged his workers to secrecy. When the fruits of his plans were revealed the public raved about his new tunnel, single station and subway car. Many believed this new system would relieve some of the congestion aboveground, and could be the first step toward a wider transportation network. But perceiving such ideas as a direct threat to his power, Boss Tweed intervened. The subway system Beach envisioned remained buried in the realm of dreams.

Between 1900 and 1904, a subway line was finally built in NYC. Workers extending that line cut right into Beach’s tunnel, which remained intact. The station, tunnel, and car—except for the decaying wooden parts—were just as Beach had left them. To this day they lie buried beneath the city’s streets, an interred monument to a dream cruelly killed by political greed and jealousy.

National Geographic supports K-12 educators with ELA Common Core Resources.
Visit www.natgeoed.org/commoncore for more information.
Publication Date: 05/12/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Educational
Mudshark
Gary Paulsen
Synopsis: Mudshark is the go-to guy for any mysteries that need solving. Lost your shoe? Can’t find your homework? Ask Mudshark. That is, until the Psychic Parrot takes up residence in the school library and threatens to overturn Mudshark’s position as the guy who knows all the answers. The word in school is that the parrot can out-think Mudshark. And right now, the school needs someone who’s good at solving problems. There’s an escaped gerbil running rampant, an emergency in the faculty restroom, and all the erasers are disappearing from the classrooms.

When Mudshark solves the mystery of who’s stealing the erasers, he discovers the culprit has the best of intentions. Now he has to think of a way to prevent the Psychic Parrot from revealing the eraser-thief’s identity. With a bit of misdirection and a lot of quick thinking, Mudshark restores order to the chaos . . . just for the moment.
Publication Date: 05/12/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Witch Child
Celia Rees
Synopsis: "With its theme of religious intolerance and its touches of the supernatural, this is sure to be in high demand for a long time." — KIRKUS REVIEWS

Welcome to the world of young Mary Newbury, a world where simply being different can cost a person her life. Hidden until now in the pages of her diary, Mary’s startling story begins in 1659, the year herbeloved grandmother is hanged in the public square as a witch. Mary narrowly escapes a similar fate, only to face intolerance and new danger among the Puritans in the New World. How long can she hide her true identity? Will she ever find a place where her healing powers will not be feared?
Publication Date: 05/12/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction

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