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Toby and the Secrets of the Tree
Sarah Ardizzone, Francois Place, Timothee de Fombelle
Synopsis: A breathless, high-stakes quest to save the miniature world of the Tree —and reunite loved ones lost —unfolds with wit, suspense, and startling revelations. (Ages 9 and up)

Toby’s world is under greater threat than ever before. A giant crater has been dug right into the center of the Tree, moss and lichen have invaded the branches, and one tyrant controls it all. Leo Blue, once Toby’s best friend, is holding Toby’s beloved Elisha prisoner, hunting the Grass People with merciless force, and inflicting a life of poverty and fear on the Tree People. But after several years among the Grass People, Toby has returned to fight back. And this time he’s not alone: a resistance is forming. In the much-anticipated sequel to the award-winning TOBY ALONE, the compelling eco-adventure reaches its gripping conclusion.
Publication Date: 08/10/10
Age Level: 8 - 12
Genre: Fiction
The Wonder of Charlie Anne
Kimberly Newton Fusco
Synopsis: Charlie Anne is devastated when her father must go north to build roads after the Depression hits. She and her siblings are left with their rigid cousin, Mirabel, and a farm full of chores. The only solace Charlie Anne finds is by the river, where the memory of her mother is strongest.
 
Then her neighbor Old Mr. Jolly brings home a new wife, Rosalyn, who shows up in pants—pants!—the color of red peppers. With her arrives Phoebe, a young African American girl who has also lost her mother. Phoebe is smart and fun and the perfect antidote to Charlie Anne's lonely days. The girls soon forge a friendship and learn from each other in amazing ways.
 
But when hatred turns their town ugly, it's almost more than they can bear. Now it's up to Charlie Anne and Phoebe to prove that our hearts are always able to expand.
Publication Date: 08/10/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Flipped
Wendelin Van Draanen
Synopsis: Wendelin Van Draanen’s highly acclaimed he-said, she-said teen romance is going to be a major motion picture. Written and directed by Rob Reiner, the film features a stellar cast, including Madeline Carroll and Callan McAuliffe as Juli and Bryce, and Aidan Quinn, Rebecca De Mornay, Anthony Edwards, Penelope Ann Miller, and John Mahoney.

This movie tie-in edition will feature full-color movie stills, an interview with the author, and a preview of her next romantic comedy, Confessions of a Serial Kisser.

Flipped is a romance told in two voices. The first time Juli Baker saw Bryce Loski, she flipped. The first time Bryce saw Juli, he ran. That’s pretty much the pattern for these two neighbors until the eighth grade, when, just as Juli is realizing Bryce isn’t as wonderful as she thought, Bryce is starting to see that Juli is pretty amazing. How these two teens manage to see beyond the surface of things and come together makes for a comic and poignant romance.
Publication Date: 08/10/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
If The Witness Lied
Caroline B. Cooney
Synopsis: This young adult thriller takes place in twenty-four hours and explores how people as well as the media can exploit a situation with devastating results, especially when innocent children are involved.
 
 
Jack Fountain knows that what’s happened to his family sounds like the most horrible soap opera anyone could ever write. But it’s all true. It happened—to his parents; to his sisters, Smithy and Madison. And to his baby brother, Tris. What made it worse was that the media wanted to know every detail.
   Now it's almost Tris’s third birthday, and everything’s starting again. Aunt Cheryl, who’s living with the Fountain children, has decided that they will heal only if they work through their pain—on camera. It will be a field day for the media, and no one, except Cheryl, wants that. Jack and his sisters gear up to keep Tris’s adorable face off-screen, but they quickly realize that there is more at stake than their privacy. The very identities they’ve created for themselves are called into question. What really happened the day of their father’s accident?
   The Fountain siblings have less than twenty-four hours to change their fate. Together, they will ask questions no one asked at the time of the tragedy. And together, they vow that this time, they will not be exploited.
Publication Date: 08/10/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Nine Pound Hammer
John Claude Bemis
Synopsis: What if John Henry had a son?

Twelve-year-old Ray is haunted by the strangest memories of his father, whom Ray swears could speak to animals. Now an orphan, Ray jumps from a train going through the American South and falls in with a medicine show train and its stable of sideshow performers. The performers turn out to be heroes, defenders of the wild, including the son of John Henry. They are hiding the last of the mythical Swamp Sirens from an ancient evil known as the Gog. Why the Gog wants the Siren, they can’t be sure, but they know it has something to do with rebuilding a monstrous machine that John Henry gave his life destroying years before, a machine that will allow the Gog to control the will of men and spread darkness throughout the world.


From the Hardcover edition.
Publication Date: 08/10/10
Age Level: 8 - 12
Genre: Fiction
Treasure Lost
R. G. Cordiner
Synopsis: What do you treasure and how far would you go to find it? Peter and Farren are two brothers who think adventure is sneaking into a pub or going rabbit hunting. Little do they know! Soon the youths are on a whirlwind trip of betrayal, daggers, self-discovery and a giant reticulated python! Somehow they have to find a way to stop fighting with each other, avoid a sadistic Navy Admiral and a mysterious pirate captain whilst remembering to tap the biscuits on the side of the ship - maggots are never good for breakfast! "If you came for treasure it lies within, if you did not, what you treasure lies beyond your grasp." TREASURE LOST is suitable for all readers aged 8 years and above.
Publication Date: 08/03/10
Age Level: 8 - 12
Genre: Fiction
No and Me
Delphine de Vigan
Synopsis:

Parisian teenager Lou has an IQ of 160, OCD tendencies, and a mother who has suffered from depression for years. But Lou is about to change her life-and that of her parents-all because of a school project about homeless teens. While doing research, Lou meets No, a teenage girl living on the streets. As their friendship grows, Lou bravely asks her parents if No can live with them, and is astonished when they agree. No's presence forces Lou's family to come to terms with a secret tragedy. But can this shaky, newfound family continue to live together when No's own past comes back to haunt her?


Winner of the prestigious Booksellers' Prize in France, No and Me is a timely and thought-provoking novel about homelessness that has far-reaching appeal.

Publication Date: 08/03/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
I, Emma Freke
Elizabeth Atkinson
Synopsis:

I, Emma Freke is a charming search-for-identity story about Emma--the only "normal" member of her quirky family. While Emma desperately tries to find her niche, she discovers that perhaps it's better to be her own "freak" than someone else's Freke.

Publication Date: 08/01/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Skin
Rick Jasper
Synopsis: Book Details:Format: PaperbackPublication Date: 8/1/2010Pages: 106Reading Level: Age 11 and Up
Publication Date: 08/01/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Freak Observer
Blythe Woolston
Synopsis: The Freak Observer is rich in family drama, theoretical physics, and an unusual, tough young woman--Loa Lindgren.

For eight years, Loa Sollilja's world ran like one of those mechanical models of the solar system, with her baby sister, Asta, as the sun. Asta suffered from a genetic disorder that left her a permanent infant, and caring for her was Loa's life. Everything spun neatly and regularly as the whole family orbited around Asta.

But now Asta's dead, and 16-year-old Loa's clockwork galaxy has collapsed. As Loa spins off on her own, her mind ambushes her with vivid nightmares and sadistic flashbacks¯a textbook case of PTSD. But there are no textbook fixes for Loa's short-circuiting brain. She must find her own way to pry her world from the clutches of death.

The Freak Observer is a startling debut about death, life, astrophysics, and finding beauty in chaos.

Publication Date: 08/01/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Fool's Girl
Celia Rees
Synopsis:

Young and beautiful Violetta may be of royal blood, but her kingdom is in shambles when she arrives in London on a mysterious mission. Her journey has been long and her adventures many, but it is not until she meets the playwright William Shakespeare that she gets to tell the entire story from beginning to end. Violetta and her comic companion, Feste, have come in search of an ancient holy relic that the evil Malvolio has stolen from their kingdom. But where will their remarkable quest-and their most unusual story-lead? In classic Celia Rees style, it is an engrossing journey, full of political intrigue, danger, and romance.

This wholly original story is spun from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, and includes both folly and suspense that would make the Bard proud.

Publication Date: 08/01/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Protectors
Val Karlsson
Synopsis:

Luke's life has never been "normal." How could it be, with his mother holding séances and his half-crazy stepfather working as Bridgewater's mortician? But living in a funeral home never bothered Luke. That is, until the night of his mom's accident.

Sounds of screaming now shatter Luke's dreams. And his stepfather is acting even stranger. When bodies in the funeral home start delivering messages to Luke, he is certain that he's going nuts. As he tries to solve his mother's death, Luke discovers a secret more horrifying than any nightmare.

Publication Date: 08/01/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Thaw
Richard Reece
Synopsis:

A July storm caused a major power outage in Bridgewater. Now a research project at the Institute for Cryogenic Experimentation has been ruined, and the thawed-out bodies of twenty-seven federal inmates are missing.

At first, Dani Kraft didn't think much of the breaking news. But after her best friend Jake disappears, a mysterious visitor connects the dots for Dani. Jake has been taken in by an infamous cult leader. To get him back, Dani must enter a dangerous, alternate reality where a defrosted cult leader is beginning to act like some kind of god.

Publication Date: 08/01/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Secret of Willow Patch, Book 1
Synopsis: Tina Brooks lived in a quiet rural area that was incredibly normal until the Parker family moved in. Within no time at all, very strange things began to happen that affected both the Brooks and the Parker families. David, Cody and Sherry Parker get sucked into a mystery that is mysterious and frightening, but know that without their help, Tina will never figure it out.
Publication Date: 07/29/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Shadow Chase
Seressia Glass
Synopsis:
In a job like this, one mistake can cost you everything.

As a Shadowchaser, Kira Solomon has been trained to serve the Light, dispatch the Fallen, and prevent the spread of chaos. It’s a deadly job, and Kira knows the horror of spilling innocent blood. But now she has a new role, as the Hand of Ma’at, the Egyptian Goddess of Truth and Order, and an assignment that might just redeem her.

A fellow Shadowchaser has gone missing, and so has a unique artifact imbued with astonishing magic. Unless the Vessel of Nun is returned, it will cause destruction beyond anything the modern world has seen. Kira’s got a team at her back, including Khefar, a near-immortal Nubian warrior who’s already died for her once. But as complicated as her feelings for him are, they’re nothing compared to the difficulties of the task she faces.And the only way to defeat the enemy is to trust in a powershe can barely control, and put her life—and her soul—on the line.
Publication Date: 07/27/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Choir of Angels Seal of Knowledge
Synopsis: Gabe would love to have the life of the average teenager where all he had to worry about was waking up in time to go to school and stealing away to hang out with his girlfriend Angel. Unfortunately the chances of that happening ended when his parents died in a suspicious car accident and he was sent to be raised in an orphanage run by Nuns. When shadowy forces from his past conspire to kidnap his girlfriend and carry her away to a world neither of them can remember, Gabe must act fast to save her or it could spell disaster for the entire planet.
Publication Date: 07/27/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction

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