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Little Fish: A Memoir from a Different Kind of Year
Synopsis: Beyer, Ramsey
Publication Date: 09/03/13
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Manga/Graphic Novel
The Social Code
Sadie Hayes
Synopsis:

In a world where anyone can rise to the top, the only rule is... watch your back, in Sadie Hayes' The Social Code.

Eighteen-year-old twins Adam and Amelia Dory learned the hard way to rely only on each other, growing up in a small town where they understood the meaning of coming from nothing. But everything changes when both are offered scholarships to Stanford University – and catapulted into the dazzling world of Silicon Valley, where anyone with a good enough idea can skyrocket to fame and fortune in the blink of an eye…

Amelia is almost as pretty as she is smart – almost. A shy girl and genius, she is happiest alone in the computer lab, but her brother has other plans for her talents: A new company that will be the next Silicon Valley hit, and will thrust Amelia into the spotlight whether she likes it or not. Where Amelia's the brains, Adam's the ambition – he sees the privileged lifestyle of the Silicon Valley kids and wants a piece of what they have. He especially wants a piece of Lisa Bristol, the stunning daughter of one of the Valley's biggest tycoons.

As Adam and Amelia begin to hatch their new company, they find themselves going from nothing to the verge of everything seemingly overnight. But no amount of prestige can prepare them for the envy, backstabbing and cool calculation of their new powerful peers.

Welcome to Silicon Valley, where fortune, success – and betrayal – are only a breath away…

Publication Date: 09/03/13
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Unwanteds (Island of Fire)
Synopsis: The fate of Artimé is at stake—and an unlikely alliance could redeem it—in book three in the New York Times bestselling Unwanteds series.

The magical world of Artimé is gone. The Unwanteds have no food, no water, and no hope. And everyone is looking to Alex Stowe for answers.

Overwhelmed and feeling totally helpless, Alex knows it’s up to him to find a way to restore Artimé, rescue his captive friends, and free Megan from her voice-stealing necklace of thorns—three impossible tasks. But could help lie with the silent, orange-eyed newcomers?

Meanwhile, Alex’s twin brother Aaron continues to build his army in the stark land of Quill, preparing for the ultimate showdown with the Unwanteds. But a shocking twist reveals that Alex and Aaron share a common enemy more dangerous than either could have imagined...
Publication Date: 09/03/13
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fantasy
Two Lies and a Spy
Kat Carlton
Synopsis: Kari plunges into the world of espionage on a mission to save her parents while trying to impress the guy she’s been in love with forever.

When sixteen-year-old Kari’s dad sends her an unexpected text, she and her brother immediately go into hiding. Because when your parents are superspies and your dad declares a Code Black, it can only mean something bad. Very bad.

Kari soon discovers that her parents have been disavowed and declared traitors, and she’s determined to clear their names. Breaking into the Agency seems like a reasonable plan, especially with the help of a team that includes her longtime crush, Luke, as well as her two best friends—an expert hacker with attitude and a master martial artist—and Luke’s popular, vindictive twin sister. Oh, and a new guy, who’s as cute as he is complicated…
Publication Date: 09/03/13
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Lord of Opium
Nancy Farmer
Synopsis: As the teenage ruler of his own country, Matt must cope with clones and cartels in this riveting sequel to the modern classic House of the Scorpion, winner of the National Book Award, a Newbery Honor, and a Printz Honor.

Matt has always been nothing but a clone—grown from a strip of old El Patron’s skin. Now, at age fourteen, he finds himself suddenly thrust into the position of ruling over his own country. The Land of Opium is the largest territory of the Dope Confederacy, which ranges on the map like an intestine from the ruins of San Diego to the ruins of Matamoros. But while Opium thrives, the rest of the world has been devastated by ecological disaster—and hidden in Opium is the cure.

And that isn’t all that awaits within the depths of Opium. Matt is haunted by the ubiquitous army of eejits, zombielike workers harnessed to the old El Patron’s sinister system of drug growing—people stripped of the very qualities that once made them human.

Matt wants to use his newfound power to help, to stop the suffering, but he can’t even find a way to smuggle his childhood love, Maria, across the border and into Opium. Instead, his every move hits a roadblock, some from the enemies that surround him…and some from a voice within himself. For who is Matt really, but the clone of an evil, murderous dictator?
Publication Date: 09/03/13
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Believe
Sarah Aronson
Synopsis: When Jaime Freeman was six years old, she was the only survivor of a suicide bombing that killed her parents and dozens of others. Since then, she's become a symbol of hope, peace, faith—of whatever anyone wants her to be. Now she's sixteen, and it's time for her to stop being a symbol and to start being her own person—whoever that is.
Publication Date: 09/01/13
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
A Wounded Name: A Tragedy
Synopsis: Ophelia Castellan will never be just another girl at Elsinore Academy. Seeing ghosts is not a skill prized in future society wives. Even when she takes her pills, the bean sidhe beckon, reminding her of a promise to her dead mother. Now, in the wake of the Headmaster's sudden death, the whole academy is in turmoil, and Ophelia can no longer ignore the fae. Especially once she starts seeing the Headmaster's ghosts—--two of them--—on the school grounds. Her only confidante is Dane, the Headmaster's grieving son. Yet even as she gives more of herself to him, Dane spirals toward a tragic fate—--dragging Ophelia, and the rest of Elsinore, with him. You know how this story ends. Yet even in the face of certain death, Ophelia has a choice to make—and a promise to keep.
Publication Date: 09/01/13
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Paranormal
The Pitcher
William Hazelgrove
Synopsis: What A Mother Won't Do For Her Son...Top 50 Bestselling Baseball Books on Amazon Kindle
"I never knew I had an arm until this guy called out, "Hey you want to try and get a ball in the hole, sonny?" I was only nine, but mom said, "come on, let's play." This Carney guy with no teeth and a fuming cigarette hands me five blue rubber balls and says if I throw three in the hole we win a prize. He's grinning, because he took mom's five bucks and figures a sucker is born every minute. That really got me, because we didn't have any money after Fernando took off, and he only comes back to beat up mom and steal our money. So I really wanted to get mom back something, you know, for her five bucks."

A boy with a golden arm but no money for lessons. A mother who wants to give her son his dream before she dies. A broken down World Series pitcher who cannot go on after the death of his wife. These are the elements of The Pitcher. A story of a man at the end of his dream and a boy whose dream is to make his high school baseball team. In the tradition of The Natural and The Field of Dreams, this is a mythic story about how a man and a boy meet in the crossroads of their life and find a way to go on. You will laugh and you will cry as The Pitcher and Ricky prepare for the ultimate try out of life.
Publication Date: 09/01/13
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Seven Chances
Heather Slee
Synopsis: Abby is a nobody. That is, she was a nobody. Until a ­horrifyingly embarrassing thing happened to her. Now she’s the laughingstock of St. Theodore High. Abby is desperate to get her life back to the way it was, and after meeting a ­mysterious and unlikely ally, it seems she will get her wish. But trying to get it “right,” isn't as easy as it seems. Abby finds out all choices have consequences, good and bad, and you never really know what you're going to get.
Publication Date: 09/01/13
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Beasts of Upton Puddle
Simon West-Bulford
Synopsis: Bringing the mythological world into a modern setting and introducing young adult readers to a variety of strange monsters, this fantasy novel follows 12-year-old Joe Copper, as he travels along in his quest to save humankind. When Joe is hired by the eccentric Mrs. Merrynether as an errand boy at her remarkable veterinary practice—a hidden refuge for a menagerie of creatures that should only exist in dreams and legend—he soon learns that she has a startling plan for his future: he is destined to command an army of beasts to protect humanity from the Conclave—a brutal council of dragons hiding on a distant island. But Joe is plunged into his new role prematurely when the callous tycoon Argoyle Redwar, who has a secret menagerie of his own, tricks Mrs. Merrynether into revealing the location of the island. Overcoming his fears, the school bully, and an escaped creature on the loose in his own village, Joe races to the island to stop Redwar from provoking the dragons to war. He takes the most bizarre team imaginable: Lilly, the surly alcoholic cluricaun; Danariel, the seraph who lives in a lightbulb; Flarp, the giant flying eyeball who can’t control his excitement; Kiyoshi, the narcoleptic kappa with an extraordinary vocabulary; Snappel, the fiery wyvern plagued by hiccups; and Cornelius, the poisoned manticore. Together with newfound allies on the island, the champions are forced into an epic battle against fantastic odds, facing not only the Conclave but Redwar as he seeks total control.
Publication Date: 09/01/13
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Science Fiction
Walking into the Wild
Nancy Means Wright
Synopsis: Join three siblings on an unforgettable journey. March, 1782. Peace has not yet been signed with England, and the Foot siblings are walking up into the Republic of Vermont, driving a stubborn cow. Like other settlers, they'd fled when Tories and Indians raided their home, capturing their Pa, and shocking their mother into silence. Now they are determined to find not only their father, but for 16-year-old Rachel, an elusive fiancé whom her sister Deborah mistrusts. Though the journey is wild, often lonely, and filled with misadventure, there is fun and laughter, too, when the three meet up with exuberant characters like Ethan Allen and a winsome young cobbler named Remember Jones. Told by rebel Deborah, who has a secret she longs to reveal, but cannot, this is also the tale of a girl coming to terms with her conscience, her imperfections, and her budding sexuality. For all three, including Abel, the youngest, it is a search for love and family.
Publication Date: 08/31/13
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Historical Fiction
The Buried Covenant
Kelan O'Connell
Synopsis: When 16-year-old Oakland teen, Calvin Pierce, makes a bad decision and winds up getting arrested, his mother sends him to spend the summer working for his great uncle in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. A black inner-city teenager stuck in the predominately-white region of agriculture and recreational boating—Calvin’s a fish out of water with a chip on his shoulder. But when severed body parts are discovered floating in a slough, his summer of proving himself takes on new meaning.   Something deadly is lurking in the deep murky waterways picking off the locals and tourists alike. Now Calvin and a posse of misfits must band together to contain the living incarnation of a mythical creature before it can escape the confines of the Delta.
Publication Date: 08/29/13
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fantasy
The Sound of Your Voice...Only Really Far Away
Synopsis: In the conclusion to the bestselling Secret Language of Girls trilogy, Marylin and Kate find that boys can be just as complicated as friendship.

Marylin knows that, as a middle school cheerleader, she has certain obligations. She has to smile as she walks down the hall, be friends with the right people, and keep her manicure in tip-top shape. But Marylin is surprised to learn there are also rules about whom she’s allowed to like—and Benjamin, the student body president, is deemed unnacceptable. But maybe there is a way to convince the cheerleaders that her interest in Benjamin is for their own good—maybe she’ll pretend that she’s using him to get new cheerleading uniforms!

Kate, of course, finds this ludicrous. She is going to like whom she likes, thank you very much. And she just so happens to be spending more time than ever with Matthew Holler. But even a girl who marches to the beat of her own guitar strings can play the wrong notes—and are she and Matthew even playing the same song? She’s just not sure. So when Matthew tells Kate that the school’s Audio Lab needs funding from the student government, she decides to do what she can to help him get it.

But there isn’t enough money to go around, and it soon becomes clear that only one of the two girls can get her way. Ultimately, though, is it even her way? Or are both girls pushing for something they never really wanted in the first place?
Publication Date: 08/27/13
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Crown of Midnight
Sarah J. Maas
Synopsis:

She is the greatest assassin her world has ever known.
But where will her conscience, and her heart, lead her?

After a year of hard labor in the Salt Mines of Endovier, eighteen-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien has won the king's contest to become the new royal assassin. Yet Celaena is far from loyal to the crown – a secret she hides from even her most intimate confidantes.Keeping up the deadly charade-while pretending to do the king's bidding-will test her in frightening new ways, especially when she's given a task that could jeopardize everything she's come to care for. And there are far more dangerous forces gathering on the horizon -- forces that threaten to destroy her entire world, and will surely force Celaena to make a choice. Where do the assassin's loyalties lie, and who is she willing to fight for?

Publication Date: 08/27/13
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Romance
The Morning Star
Robin Bridges
Synopsis: Lush and opulent, romantic and sinister, The Morning Star, Vol. III in the Katerina Trilogy, reimagines the lives of Russia's aristocracy in a fabulously intoxicating and page-turning fantasy.

St. Petersburg, Russia, 1890
Katerina Alexandrovna, Duchess of Oldenburg, wants to be known as a doctor, not a necromancer. But Tsar Alexander III forbids women to attend medical school; his interest in Katerina extends only to her ability to raise the dead. Twice now, Katerina has helped him by using her power to thwart the forces of darkness—vampires bent on resurrecting the lich tsar Konstantin Pavlovich so that he can take what he sees as his rightful place on the throne. Katerina thought she had bound Konstantin to the Greylands, the realm of the dead, but he has found a way out. Now he is searching for the Morning Star, a sword that will allow him to command a legion of supernatural warriors.

Katerina must find the sword before Konstantin does—and she must travel to Egypt to do so. Along the way, she puts up with unwanted attention from her former fiancé, the nefarious Prince Danilo, and struggles with her feelings for her true love, George Alexandrovich. But with the looming threat from Konstantin, Katerina's focus remains on the sword. Russia's fate will be determined by whoever wields the Morning Star—and delivers the final blow.
Publication Date: 08/27/13
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Bitter Kingdom
Rae Carson
Synopsis:

The New York Times‒best-selling series!

"Carson joins the ranks of writers like Kristin Cashore, Megan Whalen Turner, and Tamora Pierce as one of YA's best writers of high fantasy."—Locus

In the deeply satisfying conclusion to the bestselling Girl of Fire and Thorns trilogy, seventeen-year-old sorcerer-queen Elisa travels into the unknown realm of the enemy to win back her true love, save her country, and uncover the final secrets of her destiny.

Elisa is a fugitive in her own country. Her enemies have stolen the man she loves in order to lure her to the gate of darkness. As she and her daring companions take one last quest into unknown enemy territory to save Hector, Elisa will face hardships she's never imagined. And she will discover secrets about herself and her world that could change the course of history. She must rise up as champion—a champion to those who have hated her most. Riveting, surprising, and achingly romantic, Rae Carson has spun a bold and powerful conclusion to her extraordinary trilogy.

Publication Date: 08/27/13
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fantasy

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