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Walkers Crossing
Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Synopsis: TAKING SIDES
Ryan Walker has always known what he wants to be -- a cowboy, like his father was before being injured in a riding accident. But when Ryan's older brother, Gil, becomes a member of the Mountain Patriots Association, a militia group that wants to keep Wyoming free from immigrants, minorities, and government interference, Ryan finds himself questioning things he's taken for granted all his life. As tensions in the community build to inevitable violence, Ryan is torn between his love for the world in which he grew up and his sense of fairness and decency. How can he stand up for what is right when he's not sure what that is?
Publication Date: 06/01/01
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Golden Compass
Philip Pullman
Synopsis: ***** Includes a preview of THE BOOK OF DUST, the long-awaited new novel from Philip Pullman set in the world of His Dark Materials, and hailed by the New York Times as "a stunning achievement."*****

The modern fantasy classic that Entertainment Weekly named an “All-Time Greatest Novel” and Newsweek hailed as a “Top 100 Book of All Time.” Philip Pullman takes readers to a world where humans have animal familiars and where parallel universes are within reach.

Lyra is rushing to the cold, far North, where witch clans and armored bears rule. North, where the Gobblers take the children they steal--including her friend Roger. North, where her fearsome uncle Asriel is trying to build a bridge to a parallel world.

Can one small girl make a difference in such great and terrible endeavors? This is Lyra: a savage, a schemer, a liar, and as fierce and true a champion as Roger or Asriel could want.

But what Lyra doesn't know is that to help one of them will be to betray the other...

A masterwork of storytelling and suspense, Philip Pullman's award-winning The Golden Compass is the first in the His Dark Materials series, which continues with The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass.

A #1 New York Times Bestseller
Winner of the Guardian Prize for Children's Fiction
Published in 40 Countries

"Arguably the best juvenile fantasy novel of the past twenty years." —The Washington Post

"Very grand indeed."—The New York Times

"Pullman is quite possibly a genius." —Newsweek
Publication Date: 05/22/01
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Ghost in the Tokaido Inn
Thomas Hoobler, Dorothy Hoobler
Synopsis: Teenaged Seikei dreams of being one of Japan's legendary warriors, a samurai-but samurai are born, not made, and Seikei is a tea merchant's son. Then a ruby intended for the shogun is stolen. Seikei is the only witness, and the famous samurai magistrate, Judge Ooka, needs his help. Soon they are hot on the trail of the ruby-and an unforgettable adventure.

"An unusual and satisfying mystery that will be enjoyed by a wide audience."
-School Library Journal, starred review

"Employs suspense, action, superstition, and mystery to entrance readers with this tale of 18th-century Japan and a boy's search for honor...This is a remarkable novel."
-Kirkus Reviews, pointer review
Publication Date: 05/21/01
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Damage Done
Anne Magill, Linda Newbery
Synopsis: Kirsty's father has no interest in her whatsoever, and her horses are her sole source of affection. Until she meets Dally, a teenager living rough after running from his demanding parents.
Publication Date: 02/28/01
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Rewind
William Sleator
Synopsis: When Peter is hit by a car, he is given the ultimate do-over: go back to any point in time before that fateful moment, and alter the events leading up to his death. If he fails, he will die again--this time, for good. Now Peter's racing against time to save his own life, but what should he change? His adoptive parents don't understand him, the school jock is out to get him, and no one appreciates his own talents. This may be his last chance--can Peter cheat death, or will he be lost forever?
Publication Date: 02/19/01
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Dragon's Gate
Laurence Yep
Synopsis:

In 1867, Otter travels from Three Willows Village in China to California -- the Land of the Golden Mountain. There he will join his father and uncle.

In spite of the presence of family, Otter is a stranger among the other Chinese in this new land. And where he expected to see a land of goldfields, he sees only vast, cold whiteness. But Otter's dream is to learn all he can, take the technology back to the Middle Kingdom, and free China from the Manchu invaders.

Otter and the others board a machine that will change his life -- a train for which he would open the Dragon's Gate.

Publication Date: 01/23/01
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Dragonwings
Laurence Yep
Synopsis:

Newbery Honor Book Dragonwings by Lawrence Yep takes readers on an adventure-filled journey across the world.

Inspired by the story of a Chinese immigrant who created a flying machine in 1909, Dragonwings touches on the struggles and dreams of Chinese immigrants navigating opportunity and prejudice in San Francisco.

Moon Shadow only knows two things about his father, Windrider: he lives in San Francisco and used to craft beautiful kites.

One day shortly after his eighth birthday, Cousin Hand Clap arrives with a letter from Windrider asking Moon Shadow to join him in San Francisco. When Moon Rider arrives in America he learns that his father makes a living doing laundry and dreams of building a flying machine just like the Wright Brothers. But making this fantastical dream a reality proves to be no easy task, as intolerance, poverty, and even an earthquake stand in their way.

Publication Date: 01/23/01
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Burning Up
Caroline B. Cooney
Synopsis: This bestselling author explores the destructive nature of hatred, the crime of indifference, and the power of accepting love and responsibility.

Fifteen-year-old Macey Clare has always loved her quiet, beautiful Connecticut hometown. It's the place where her grandparents live, the place where her mother grew up. Macey is looking forward to the summer to come. She's hoping for fun and romance with her neighbor's perfect grandson Austin. But when Macey wants to research the facts behind who set fire to a barn across the street from her grandparent's home, she is shocked no one wants to answer questions about the place that burned down 38 years ago. And when a tragedy strikes a new friend who lives in the inner city, something clicks in Macey. She must discover her own true colors and face whatever it is she is going to find. Can she stand alone and take responsibility for the present while uncovering the past?
Publication Date: 01/09/01
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Ender's Shadow
Orson Scott Card
Synopsis:

The novel that launched the bestselling Ender's Shadow series.

The human race is at War with the "Buggers," an insect-like alien race. As Earth prepares to defend itself from total destruction at the hands of an inscrutable enemy, all focus is on the development of military geniuses who can fight such a war, and win. The long distances of interstellar space have given hope to the defenders of Earth--they have time to train these future commanders up from childhood, forging them into an irresistible force in the high orbital facility called the Battle School. Andrew "Ender" Wiggin was not the only child in the Battle School; he was just the best of the best. In Ender's Shadow, Card tells the story of another of those precocious generals, the one they called Bean--the one who became Ender's right hand, part of his team, in the final battle against the Buggers. Bean's past was a battle just to survive. His success brought him to the attention of the Battle School's recruiters, those people scouring the planet for leaders, tacticians, and generals to save Earth from the threat of alien invasion. Bean was sent into orbit, to the Battle School. And there he met Ender....

THE ENDER UNIVERSE

Ender series
Ender’s Game / Ender in Exile / Speaker for the Dead / Xenocide / Children of the Mind

Ender’s Shadow series
Ender’s Shadow / Shadow of the Hegemon / Shadow Puppets / Shadow of the Giant / Shadows in Flight

Children of the Fleet

The First Formic War (with Aaron Johnston)
Earth Unaware / Earth Afire / Earth Awakens

The Second Formic War (with Aaron Johnston)
The Swarm /The Hive

Ender novellas
A War of Gifts /First Meetings

Publication Date: 12/15/00
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Hidden Talents
David Lubar
Synopsis: Martin Anderson and his friends don’t like being called losers. But they’ve been called that for so long even they start to believe it. Until Martin makes an incredible discovery: each of his friends has a special hidden talent.

Edgeview Alternative School was supposed to be end of the road. But for Martin and his friends, it just might be a new beginning.
Publication Date: 11/15/00
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Anna Karenina
Mona Simpson, Constance Garnett, Nina Berberova, Leonard J. Kent, Leo Tolstoy
Synopsis: Considered by some to be the greatest novel ever written, Anna Karenina is Tolstoy's classic tale of love and adultery set against the backdrop of high society in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. A rich and complex masterpiece, the novel charts the disastrous course of a love affair between Anna, a beautiful married woman, and Count Vronsky, a wealthy army officer. Tolstoy seamlessly weaves together the lives of dozens of characters, and in doing so captures a breathtaking tapestry of late-nineteenth-century Russian society. As Matthew Arnold wrote in his celebrated essay on Tolstoy, "We are not to take Anna Karenina as a work of art; we are to take it as a piece of life."
Publication Date: 10/10/00
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Ivanhoe
Graham Tulloch, Sir Walter Scott
Synopsis: "Fight on, brave knights! Man dies, but glory lives!"

Banished from England for seeking to marry against his father's wishes, Ivanhoe joins Richard the Lion Heart on a crusade in the Holy Land. On his return, his passionate desire is to be reunited with the beautiful but forbidden lady Rowena, but he soon finds himself playing a more dangerous game as he is drawn into a bitter power struggle between the noble King Richard and his evil and scheming brother John. The first of Scott's novels to address a purely English subject, Ivanhoe is set in a highly romanticized medieval world of tournaments and sieges, chivalry and adventure where dispossessed Saxons are pitted against their Norman overlords, and where the historical and fictional seamlessly merge.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
Publication Date: 10/01/00
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Landry News
Salvatore Murdocca, Brian Selznick, Andrew Clements
Synopsis: NEW STUDENT GETS OLD TEACHER
The bad news is that Cara Landry is the new kid at Denton Elementary School. The worse news is that her teacher, Mr. Larson, would rather read the paper and drink coffee than teach his students anything. So Cara decides to give Mr. Larson something else to read -- her own newspaper, The Landry News.
Before she knows it, the whole fifth-grade class is in on the project. But then the principal finds a copy of The Landry News, with unexpected results. Tomorrow's headline: Will Cara's newspaper cost Mr. Larson his job?
Publication Date: 09/01/00
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Pickwick Papers
Mark Wormald, Mark Wormald, Charles Dickens
Synopsis: 'One of my life's greatest tragedies is to have already read Pickwick Papers - I can't go back and read it for the first time' Fernando Pessoa

Few first novels have created as much popular excitement as The Pickwick Papers - a comic masterpiece that catapulted its twenty-four-year-old author to immediate fame. Readers were captivated by the adventures of the poet Snodgrass, the lover Tupman, the sportsman Winkle and, above all, by that quintessentially English Quixote, Mr Pickwick, and his cockney Sancho Panza, Sam Weller. From the hallowed turf of Dingley Dell Cricket Club to the unholy fracas of the Eatanswill election, via the Fleet debtors' prison, characters and incidents spring to life from Dickens's pen, to form an enduringly popular work of ebullient humour and literary invention. This edition is based on the first volume edition of 1837, and includes the original illustrations. In his introduction, Mark Wormald discusses the genesis of The Pickwick Papers and the emergence of its central characters.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
Publication Date: 08/01/00
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Boxes
William Sleator
Synopsis: Annie's Uncle Marco goes on one of his mysterious trips, leaving her in charge of two sealed boxes on one condition: she must not open either one while he is away. But she is tempted...and soon she has unleashed the unspeakable. The creatures inside the box are crab-like and grotesque. And they possess a power Annie could never have imagined: the power to transmute time."Sleator is the master of the creepy-crawly, and his inventiveness is at full power here." --The Horn Book
Publication Date: 08/01/00
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Dark Portal
Robin Jarvis
Synopsis: In the British tradition of Redwall comes this first novel of a trilogy that is sure to capture fans both young and old. In the sewers of Deptford, there lurks a dark presence that fills the tunnels with fear. The rats worship it in the blackness and name it "Jupiter, Lord of All." Into this twilight realm wanders a small and frightened mouse-the unwitting trigger of a chain of events that hurtles the Deptford mice into a world of heroic adventure and terror.
Publication Date: 08/01/00
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction

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