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Following Christopher Creed
Carol Plum-Ucci
Synopsis: Years later . . . what really happened to Christopher Creed?

When Torey Adams posts on his blog that a body has been found in Steepleton—four years after Christopher Creed disappeared—college reporter Mike Mavic sells his laptop and hops a plane to capture the story that will undoubtedly launch his journalistic career. But what Mike finds is a town suffering under a cloud of bad frequency and people with an underlying streak of meanness. To the teens of Steepleton, Chris is nothing more than history—but to Justin Creed, a teen obsessed with his older brother’s memory and balancing on the edge of sanity, discovering what really happened to Chris Creed is a matter of life and death.
Publication Date: 09/06/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Mystery
All These Things I've Done
Gabrielle Zevin
Synopsis:

In 2083, chocolate and coffee are illegal, paper is hard to find, water is carefully rationed, and New York City is rife with crime and poverty. And yet, for Anya Balanchine, the sixteen-year-old daughter of the city's most notorious (and dead) crime boss, life is fairly routine. It consists of going to school, taking care of her siblings and her dying grandmother, trying to avoid falling in love with the new assistant D.A.'s son, and avoiding her loser ex-boyfriend. That is until her ex is accidently poisoned by the chocolate her family manufactures and the police think she's to blame. Suddenly, Anya finds herself thrust unwillingly into the spotlight--at school, in the news, and most importantly, within her mafia family.

From Gabrielle Zevin--the author of the critically acclaimed Elsewhere--comes All These Things I've Done, a masterful novel about an impossible romance, a mafiya family, and the ties that forever bind us.

Publication Date: 09/06/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
City of Orphans
Greg Ruth, Avi
Synopsis: The streets of 1893 New York are full of life: crowded, filthy, dangerous. If you are a newsboy like thirteen-year- old Maks Geless, you need to watch out for Bruno, leader of the Plug Ugly Gang whose shadowy, sinister boss is plotting to take control of all the newsies on the lower East Side. With Bruno’s boys in fierce pursuit, Maks discovers Willa, a strange girl who lives alone in an alley. It is she, stick in hand, who fights off the Plug Uglies--but further dangers await. Maks must find a way to free his sister Emma from The Tombs, the city jail where she has been imprisoned for stealing a watch at the glamorous new Waldorf Hotel. Maks, believing her innocent, has only four days to prove it. Fortunately, there is Bartleby Donck, the eccentric lawyer (among other employments) to guide Maks and Willa in the art of detection. Against a backdrop alive with the sights and sounds of tenement New York, Maks, as boy detective, must confront a teeming world of wealth and crime, while struggling against powerful forces threatening new immigrants and the fabric of family love. 
Publication Date: 09/06/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Historical Fiction
Ashes
Ilsa J. Bick
Synopsis: It could happen tomorrow . . .
 
An electromagnetic pulse flashes across the sky, destroying every electronic device, wiping out every computerized system, and killing billions.
Alex hiked into the woods to say good-bye to her dead parents and her personal demons. Now desperate to find out what happened after the pulse crushes her to the ground, Alex meets up with Tom—a young soldier—and Ellie, a girl whose grandfather was killed by the EMP.

For this improvised family and the others who are spared, it’s now a question of who can be trusted and who is no longer human.
 
Author Ilsa J. Bick crafts a terrifying and thrilling novel about a world that could be ours at any moment, where those left standing must learn what it means not just to survive, but to live amidst the devastation.

Gripped me from beginning to end – dark, creepy and suspenseful.  James Dashner,
New York Times Best-Selling author of The Maze Runner and The Scorch Trials       
             
A haunting and epic story of survival in a shattered world, ASHES is a must read.  
Michael Grant, New York Times Best-Selling author of Gone
Publication Date: 09/06/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Science Fiction
Double Crossing
Elaina Lee, Meg Mims
Synopsis:
WINNER of the 2012 BEST FIRST NOVEL Spur Award from Western Writers of America AND a 2012 FINALIST for the USA BOOK NEWS Awards - for Fiction: Western

A murder arranged as a suicide ... a missing deed ... and a bereft daughter whose sheltered world is shattered. August, 1869: Lily Granville is stunned by her father's murder. Only one other person knows about a valuable California gold mine deed -- both are now missing. Lily heads west on the newly opened transcontinental railroad, determined to track the killer. She soon realizes she is no longer the hunter but the prey.

As things progress from bad to worse, Lily is uncertain who to trust--the China-bound missionary who wants to marry her, or the wandering Texan who offers to protect her ... for a price. Will Lily survive the journey and unexpected betrayal?
Publication Date: 09/01/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
Butterflies
Susanne Gervay
Synopsis: Severely burned as a child, Katherine is now eighteen and trying to make peace between her inner, true self and the scarred exterior that everyone sees.
Publication Date: 09/01/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Z: Zombie Stories
J. M. Lassen
Synopsis: When the zombie apocalypse comes, it's not just those crusty old folks who will struggle against the undead, it's the young people. What happens when you come of age during the zombie apocalypse? Z: Zombie Stories has the answer to that question.

Z: Zombie Stories gathers together some of the hottest zombie fiction of the last two decades, from authors including Kelly Link, Jonathan Maberry, and Catherynne M. Valente. These stories focus on those who will inherit a world overrun with the living dead: a young man who takes up the family business of dealing with the undead, a girl struggling with her abusive father...who has become a zombie, a poet who digs up the wrong grave, and a Viking maiden imprisoned with the living dead...

Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.
Publication Date: 09/01/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
You Will Call Me Drog
Synopsis: Parker is a normal sixth grader--or he was normal before the puppet. It's just an old hand puppet, sticking out of a garbage can, and even though Parker's best friend says leave it, Parker brings the puppet home and tries it on. Or maybe it tries him on. "You will call me Drog!" the puppet commands once they're alone. And now, no matter how hard Parker tries, he can't get Drog off his hand.

Drog is sarcastic, cruel, unpredictable, and loud--everything Parker isn't. Worse yet, no one believes that Drog--not Parker--is the one saying the outrageous things that get Parker into trouble. Then Drog starts sharpening his snarky wit on the most fragile parts of Parker's life--like his parents' divorce. Parker's shocked, but deep down he agrees with Drog a little. Perhaps Drog is saying things Parker wants to say after all.

Maybe the only way to get rid of Drog is to truly listen to him.
Publication Date: 09/01/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
In Trouble
Ellen Levine
Synopsis: Jamie and Elaine have been best friends forever, and now they're finally juniors in high school. Elaine has a steady boyfriend, and Jamie could have one--if she'd just open her eyes and see Paul. But Jamie has a bigger problem to worry about. Then Elaine gets "in trouble"--something they thought only happened to "other" girls. Are there any good choices for a girl in trouble?

In Trouble is a novel born of author Ellen Levine's interviews with women who came of age in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including those who knew what it was like to be a teen facing a horrible choice. In the decades before Roe v. Wade, a young woman "in trouble" had very few options--and all of them meant shame, isolation, and maybe much worse. Jamie and Elaine's stories are just two among the thousands of stories of teenagers facing unplanned pregnancies.
Publication Date: 09/01/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Mystery
Brooklyn, Burning
Steve Brezenoff
Synopsis: When you're sixteen and no one understands who you are, sometimes the only choice left is to run. If you're lucky, you find a place that accepts you, no questions asked. And if you're really lucky, that place has a drum set, a place to practice, and a place to sleep. For Kid, the streets of Greenpoint, Brooklyn, are that place. Over the course of two scorching summers, Kid falls hopelessly in love and then loses nearly everything and everyone worth caring about. But as summer draws to a close, Kid finally finds someone who can last beyond the sunset.

Brooklyn, Burning is the story of two summers in Brooklyn, two summers of fires, music, loss, and ultimately, love.

Publication Date: 09/01/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Ultraviolet
R. J. Anderson
Synopsis: "Once upon a time there was a girl who was special. This is not her story. Unless you count the part where I killed her."

Sixteen-year-old Alison wakes up in a mental institution. As she pieces her memory back together, she realizes she's confessed to murdering Tori Beaugrand, the most perfect girl at school. But the case is a mystery. Tori's body has not been found, and Alison can't explain what happened. One minute she was fighting with Tori. The next moment Tori disintegrated--into nothing.

But that's impossible. No one is capable of making someone vanish. Right? Alison must be losing her mind--like her mother always feared she would.

For years Alison has tried to keep her weird sensory abilities a secret. No one ever understood--until a mysterious visiting scientist takes an interest in Alison's case. Suddenly, Alison discovers that the world is wrong about her--and that she's capable of far more than anyone else would believe.
Publication Date: 09/01/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Science Fiction
Morning Star
Judith Plaxton
Synopsis: Flower, her parents and her baby brother have escaped from the plantation where they were kept as slaves and are making their way north to freedom via the Underground Railroad. Their journey is dangerous and often desperate, as they are helped and sheltered by some, and hunted by others. Flower's courage helps her family through illness, recapture and to escape again to safety.

Interwoven with Flower's narrative is the story of Felicia, a young girl living over 150 years later in Canada in a small community that was once an end-point of the Underground Railroad. Felicia, one of the few black children in her school, is researching her ancestry for a class project. As she talks to her mother and grandmother and learns about her ancestors' struggles and successes, their bravery gives her the strength to confront the racism of a bullying classmate.
Publication Date: 09/01/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Historical Fiction
Reel Life Starring Us
Lisa Greenwald
Synopsis: Rockwood Hills Junior High is known for the close-knit cliques that rule the school. When arty new girl Dina gets the opportunity to do a video project with queen bee Chelsea, she thinks this is her ticket to a great new social life. But Chelsea has bigger problems than Dina can imagine: her father has lost his job, and her family is teetering on the brink. Without knowing it, Dina might just get caught in Chelsea’s free fall.
Filled with honest truths about status and self-confidence, as well as the bubbly, infectious voice Lisa Greenwald mastered in her breakout, My Life in Pink & Green, this book is sure to charm tween readers everywhere.

Publication Date: 09/01/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Unwelcome
Michael Griffo
Synopsis: Lesson 2: The people we love most may be the ones we know least. . .

Archangel Academy is more than a school to Michael Howard. Within its majestic buildings and serene English grounds, he's found friends, new love, and a place that feels more like home than Nebraska ever did. But the most important gift of Archangel Academy is immortality. . .

Life as a just-made vampire is challenging for Michael, even with Ronan, an experienced vamp, to guide him. Michael's abilities are still raw and unpredictable. To add to the turmoil, the ancient feud between rival vampire species is sending ripples of discord through the school. And beneath the new headmaster's charismatic front lies a powerful and very personal agenda.

Yet the mysteries lurking around the Academy pale in comparison to the secrets emerging from Michael's past. And choosing the wrong person to trust--or to love--could lead to an eternity of regret. . .

Michael Griffo is an award-winning writer and one of six playwrights whose career will be tracked by WritersInsight.com until 2010. He is a graduate of New York University, has studied at Playwrights Horizons and Gotham Writers Workshop, and has written several screenplays.
Publication Date: 09/01/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fantasy
The Guardian
Erik Reed, Robbie Cheuvront
Synopsis: Plunge into the world of seen and unseen forces in The Guardian. Anna Riley has just come into possession of a two-thousand-year old scroll that God gave to John the Disciple. Her mission?to guard the scroll and unlock its secret. Jason Lang, her protector, has his work cut out for him as they begin their journey around the world, facing corruption and dodging bullets?all the while trying to keep his attraction to Anna at bay. Will he succeed in defending the woman he?s vowed to protect? Will Anna, forced to trust other people to stay alive, fulfill the challenge that she?s accepted?
Publication Date: 09/01/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Torrent
Lisa T. Bergren
Synopsis:

 

When Gabi and Lia finally learn to surf the river of time, they realize they must make hard choices about life and love in Torrent, the third and final book in the River of Time series.  Gabi and Lia Betarrini have learned to control their time travel, and they return from medieval Italy to save their father from his tragic death in modern times. But love calls across the centuries, and the girls are determined to return forever—even though they know the Black Plague is advancing across Europe, claiming the lives of one-third of the population. In the suspenseful conclusion of the River of Time series, every decision is about life … and death. 

 

Publication Date: 09/01/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction

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