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Return To Sender
Julia Alvarez
Synopsis: After Tyler's father is injured in a tractor accident, his family is forced to hire migrant Mexican workers to help save their Vermont farm from foreclosure. Tyler isn’t sure what to make of these workers. Are they undocumented? And what about the three daughters, particularly Mari, the oldest, who is proud of her Mexican heritage but also increasingly connected her American life. Her family lives in constant fear of being discovered by the authorities and sent back to the poverty they left behind in Mexico. Can Tyler and Mari find a way to be friends despite their differences?

In a novel full of hope, but no easy answers, Julia Alvarez weaves a beautiful and timely story that will stay with readers long after they finish it.
Publication Date: 01/13/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
The Devil's Paintbox
Victoria McKernan
Synopsis: When orphans Aiden and Maddy Lynch first meet trailrider Jefferson J. Jackson in the spring of 1865, they’re struggling to survive on their family’s drought-ravaged Kansas farm. So when Jackson offers an escape—a 2000-mile journey across the roughest country in the world—Aiden knows it’s their only choice.

They say there are a hundred ways to die on the Oregon Trail, and the long wagon journey is broken only by catastrophe: wolf attacks, rattlesnakes, deadly river crossings, Indians, and the looming threat of smallpox, “the devil’s paint.” Through it all, Aiden and Maddy and a hundred fellow travelers move forward with a growing hope, and the promise of a new life in the Washington Territory. But one question haunts them: who will survive the journey?

In an adventure-filled and historically accurate new novel, Victoria McKernan captures both the peril and the stunning beauty of the frontier West. Shackleton’s Stowaway (“Truly thrilling” according to The Washington Post) was Victoria McKernan’s first novel for young adults. She lives in Washington, D.C..
Publication Date: 01/13/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
Sacrifice of Ericc
Anthony G. Wedgeworth
Synopsis: Thorik Dain takes a vow to save Ericc from being sacrificed to end a prophecy. However, in doing so he finds Ericc has revenge on his mind for the murder of his father. Thorik chases Ericc across Australis to prevent him from attacking his father's killer. The same man who is planning to Sacrifice Ericc once he comes out of hiding.
Publication Date: 01/09/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
The Stepsister Scheme
Jim C. Hines
Synopsis: What would happen if an author went back to the darker themes of the original fairy tales for his plots, and then crossed the Disney princesses with Charlie's Angels? What's delivered is The Stepsister Scheme?a whole new take on what happened to Cinderella and her prince after the wedding. And with Jim C. Hines penning the tale readers can bet it won't be "and they lived happily ever after."
Publication Date: 01/06/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
Shelter Me
Alex McAulay
Synopsis: From the acclaimed author of Bad Girls comes a “dark, break-neck paced journey through wartime England, full of twists and turns you’ll never see coming” (Christopher Golden, author of Soulless) as a teenage girl discovers that evil comes in many forms when she and a group of friends run away from boarding school in this stunning novel of suspense and survival.

Maggie Leigh just wants to be a normal teenager, but when German bombs tear apart London during World War II, her ultra-religious mother sees the destruction as divine punishment. She sends Maggie to a remote boarding school in coastal Wales, supposedly to keep her safe, but also to keep her in line. The school is creepy, the headmistress is a lunatic, and the students range from spoiled rich girls to speechless trauma victims. But when a tragic accident happens on the beach, Maggie and three friends are forced to flee the school, plunging into the nightmarish world of Europe during wartime. Now every decision Maggie makes is fraught with danger, and living to see another day depends on how quickly she can think and act...and how far she's willing to go.
Publication Date: 01/06/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
Just Another Judgement Day
Synopsis: Just another success from the New York Times bestselling author

God's own enforcer, the righteous engine of destruction known as the Walking Man, has come to the Nightside. His sole purpose is the elimination of the wicked and the guilty, which means no one will be left in the Nightside once he gets started. So the Authorities have hired P.I. John Taylor to stop him. Legend has it that he can't be killed. Taylor is very much hoping that the legend isn't true.
Publication Date: 01/06/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
Lucky Chica
Berta Platas
Synopsis:

Rosie Caballero hates her nagging boss, her "ditch-me" dating history, her second-hand wardrobe and third-rate job--nothing is easy. She can't even afford to pay for her dog Tootie's food.

And then, Rosie wins the largest lottery jackpot ever: 600 million. Rosie can hardly believe her new life: she spends thousands on diamonds, makeup, clothes, and promises. Rosie parties like a celebrity―and even meets the hottest actor on the planet, Brad Merritt, who sweeps her off her feet and seems too good to be true. But he's not the only one in her dizzying world―former boyfriends, larcenous advisors, paparazzi all swarm around her, vying for her attention (and money).

In between shopping sprees and photo shoots, Rosie has to find out who she trusts―and what money can (and just can't) buy.

Publication Date: 01/06/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
My Brother Abe
Harry Mazer
Synopsis: Virtually nothing is known about Sarah Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln's older sister. This novel will follow the few known facts of the Lincoln family's early life, starting with the Lincolns' move from Kentucky to Indiana when Sarah was nine. It will cover their years living in a log cabin, the death of Sarah and Abe's mother when Sarah was eleven and Sarah's new responsibilities as woman of the cabin, and will culminate in the arrival of a stepmother a year later. The details of Sarah's character will be invented, but this novel will give us real insight into Abraham Lincoln's childhood, as well as the role of women on the frontier.
Publication Date: 01/06/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
Bone Rattler
Eliot Pattison
Synopsis: In a novel rich in historical detail, acclaimed author Eliot Pattison reconsiders the founding of America and explores how disenfranchised people of any age and place struggle to find justice, how conflicting cultures can be reconciled through compassion and tolerance, and ultimately how the natural world has its own morality.
Aboard a British convict ship bound for the New World, protagonist Duncan McCallum witnesses a series of murders and apparent suicides among his fellow Scottish prisoners. A strange trail of clues leads Duncan into the New World and eventually thrusts him into the bloody maw of the French and Indian War. Duncan is indentured to the British Lord Ramsey, whose estate in the uncharted New York woodlands is a Heart of Darkness where multiple warring factions are engaged in physical, psychological, and spiritual battle.
Exploring a frontier world shrouded in danger and defying death in a wilderness populated by European settlers, Indian shamans, and mysterious scalping parties, Duncan, the exiled chief of his near-extinct Scottish clan, finds that sometimes justice cannot be reached unless the cultures and spirits of those involved are appeased.
Publication Date: 01/01/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
Airs of Night and Sea
Toby Bishop
Synopsis: Country girl Larkyn Hamley, who has been bonded with a winged foal, and her fellow flyers at the Academy, who are secretly learning their craft, must take a stand against Duke William, who, driven by jealousy, has launched his own school and has forced their instructor into hiding. Original.
Publication Date: 01/01/09
Age Level: 8 - 12
Genre: Adventure
The Forest Of Hands And Teeth
Synopsis: In Mary's world there are simple truths.
   The Sisterhood always knows best.
   The Guardians will protect and serve.
   The Unconsecrated will never relent.
   And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village; the fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth.
   But, slowly, Mary’s truths are failing her. She’s learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power. And, when the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness.
   Now, she must choose between her village and her future, between the one she loves and the one who loves her. And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded in so much death?

[STAR] "A bleak but gripping story...Poignant and powerful."-Publishers Weekly, Starred

"A postapocalyptic romance of the first order, elegantly written from title to last line."-Scott Westerfeld, author of the Uglies series and Leviathan

"Intelligent, dark, and bewitching, The Forest of Hands and Teeth transitions effortlessly between horror and beauty. Mary's world is one that readers will not soon forget."-Cassandra Clare, bestselling author of City of Bones

"Opening The Forest of Hands and Teeth is like cracking Pandora's box: a blur of darkness and a precious bit of hope pour out. This is a beautifully crafted, page-turning, powerful novel. I thoroughly enjoyed it."-Melissa Marr, bestselling author of Wicked Lovely and Ink Exchange

"Dark and sexy and scary. Only one of the Unconsecrated could put this book down."-Justine Larbalestier, author of How to Ditch Your Fairy
Publication Date: 08/02/25
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
Eon
Alison Goodman
Synopsis: Eon has been studying the ancient art of Dragon Magic for four years, hoping he'll be able to apprentice to one of the twelve energy dragons of good fortune. But he also has a dark secret. He is actually Eona, a sixteen-year-old girl who has been living a dangerous lie for the chance to become a Dragoneye, the human link to an energy dragon's power. It is forbidden for females to practice the Dragon Magic and, if discovered, Eon faces a terrible death. After a dazzling sword ceremony, Eon's affinity with the twelve dragons catapults him into the treacherous world of the Imperial court, where he makes a powerful enemy, Lord Ido. As tension builds and Eon's desperate lie comes to light, readers won't be able to stop turning the pages ...
Publication Date: 12/26/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
The Breath of God
Harry Turtledove
Synopsis: Once the great Glacier enclosed the Raumsdalian Empire. Now it€™s broken open, and Count Hamnet Thyssen faces a new world. With the wisecracking Ulric Skakki, the neighboring clan leader Trasamund (politely addressed as Your Ferocity), and his lover, the shaman Liv, Hamnet leads an exploration of the new territory in hopes of finding the legendary Golden Shrine.But dangers abound. A violent and implacable group known as the Rulers has already killed many, and now they attack again. Riding deer and woolly mammoths and using powerful magic, the Rulers triumph and force the Raumsdalians to flee. In the spring another battle ends even more badly for Hamnet's side, but the Glacier is also retreating, so they are able to escape. Meeting a tribe whose desperate living conditions have led them to overcome the Raumsdalian taboo against eating fallen foes, they find unexpected allies. Now, returning to the capital city and its intrigues, Hamnet prepares to lead an a
Publication Date: 12/23/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
The Knights of the Cornerstone
James P. Blaylock
Synopsis: Dedicated to his work and to his collection of rare and quirky books, a reclusive Calvin Bryson finally takes the time to visit his aunt and uncle in the tiny town of New Cyprus, California, only to come face to face with a town hiding strange secrets and an enigmatic group, an incarnation of the Knights Templar, dedicated to the preservation of holy relics.
Publication Date: 12/02/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
Peacekeeper
Laura E. Reeve
Synopsis: First in a brand new action-packed military science fiction series, meet Major Ariane Kedros—daring pilot, decorated soldier, war criminal.

Fifteen years ago, Ariane Kedros piloted a ship on a mission that obliterated an entire solar system. Branded a war criminal, she was given a new identity and a new life in order to protect her from retribution.

But now, twelve of Ariane’s wartime colleagues are dead— assassinated by someone who has uncovered their true identities. And her superiors in the Autonomist army have placed her directly in the assassin’s line of fire on a peacekeeping mission that will decide the fate of all humanity…
Publication Date: 12/02/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
The Crown of Zeus
Christine Norris
Synopsis: Thirteen-year-old Megan Montgomery's world is falling apart. Her father's promotion means leaving her whole life in New York behind. She finds herself transplanted to a huge house in the English countryside, with no one for company but the distant staff. Her new school only adds to her misery --neither the girls nor the teachers seem to like her. Then Megan meets three girls who actually talk to her instead of about her, and at first she thinks things are getting better. The girls seem more interested in the strange rumors that the house is haunted. Megan invites them to sleep over for the weekend. A discovery of a cryptic poem, a key and a diary written by the builder of the manor--an eccentric archaeologist turns the sleepover into a treasure hunt. Clues lead the girls to believe the Parthenon holds a great secret and suddenly they find themselves sucked into one man's version of Ancient Greece. The only way home is to find an object thought to be mere legend. If they survive that long.
Publication Date: 12/01/08
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure

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