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The Zero of Oxymoron
Pierre Moessinger
Synopsis: Oxymoron impresses his contemporaries by his abilities to make additions and subtractions. But when he suggests to introduce the number zero, no one understands what it means. Characters are fictitious, but the problems encountered to understand the notion of zero in antiquity and later are real.

Excerpt :

[Oxymoron] was the first man to add wolves and goats. Before him, a wolf plus a goat equal a wolf, which seems obvious since the wolf eats the goat. Oxymoron reformulated the problem, saying a wolf in Sparta plus a goat in Athens equal two animals. This reasoning, as soon as it was published, met with staunch opposition from the scholars of the time. It seemed inconceivable to separate animals in order to add them, and especially to put them in cities as distant and as different as Athens and Sparta. "The nature of addition is to bring together," they were saying.
This reasoning, General Aurelias and Professor Nikias did not accept either. According to their calculations, which they had just redone, a cat plus three mice equal a cat. Nikias and Aurelias however quarreled about the number of mice a cat can eat in the same meal.
- Many, claimed Aurelias.
- Not as many as a weasel, snapped Nikias.
In the face of Nikias’ protests, Aurelias added: "You know little about weasels."
http://philosophical-story.com/

Publication Date:
Age Level: 5 - 8
Genre: Fiction
Resurgence
Shannon Nilaja Evans, Ravenink and Andrei Titus, Virginia Vayna
Synopsis: What would happen if your past caught up with you, and then turned you into your reincarnated spirit of old millennia? That is exactly what happened to Jolan Vajnbirg when she was reintroduced to Prince Colemund William Frederick Van Oranje-Nassau. Love is not all that stirs in the air, however, the Order lurks throughout the realm. The Order of Hunters want to destroy what is good, what is fair, and what is just.

Contemplate your actions for a moment. If a love swept you off your feet, and turned you into your past, could you maintain your sanity? Would you understand its purpose? Explore the story of Queen Constanjii, the water element formerly known as, Jolan Vajnbirg.


While working on her studies at the Churchill Military Academy in Kinsburgh, England, Jolán Vajnbirg’s final year at the academy develops into a year of competition, aristocratic love, a reincarnated breakthrough, fierce romance, and a calling from the sky world to help save earth from the death and destruction caused by the Order of the Hunters.

When Jolán Vajnbirg encounters Prince Colemund William Frederik Van Oranje-Nassau, the two bring the celestial destiny of the sky world to perfection. Jolán was born as a reincarnated spirit, but it took a synchronicity of events to spark her supernatural breakthrough.

The sky world is steadily preparing Jolán for her future fate. The hunters have upset the universal balance of earth, and the hunters have upset the sky world.

The Hunters and the Queen Series:
Book I: Resurgence
Book II: Transcendence
Book III: Emergence (Coming Soon)
Book IV: Soon Thereafter


Publication Date:
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Take My Family, Please
Betty Jo Schuler
Synopsis: Isn’t every teen embarrassed by their family at some time? Lacy Gingham’s family members are middle class eccentrics and Eric Vanderhorst’s are staid upper crust. Read “crazy” opposite “snooty” and add that Lacy and Ric get together under false pretenses, and get set for a bumpy ride to love when the truth comes out.

When they meet at an out-of-state wedding, she reinvents her family and he downplays his, thinking they’ll never meet again, and they enjoy a few time-of-your life days. She assumes he lives in Chicago, site of the wedding, and she tells him she’s from California. But when Ric discovers Lacy lives an hour away from him in Indiana, he sets out to learn the truth. He really, really likes her, but why did she lie? He didn’t exactly come clean, but that’s not the same.

Lacy invented the ideal family and life she’d always wanted instead of the pervo group she was born into, and a week later, Ric who’s to die for, shows up in her hometown looking for her. Unless she goes underground, she’ll have to give it up and expose him to the Ginghams. Ha!
Publication Date:
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Transcendence
Shannon Nilaja Evans, Ravenink, Virginia Vayna
Synopsis: Jolán and Colemund have made a pact with each other. Their solidarity is sealed within the Aegean Sea; however, a future of chaos awaits on their horizon. They must prepare. They must gain their strength. A battle is developing in the realm.

In the meantime, Sadeiq, the gypsy hunter, tries desperately to stop her transformation. She is turning into a hunter, and she desires to stop the process. Sadeiq desperately needs to locate Jolán for help.

The realm is deeply disturbed by the overwhelming destruction caused by the Order of the Hunters. The Order must keep a planetary balance, but they have developed into selfish and monopolistic creatures. The hunters are prepared to fight for their dominance; they do not want to lose their control. The sky world hungers for a planetary balance, and are prepared to use their forces in a fight against the Order.

The Hunters and the Queen Series:
Book I: Resurgence
Book II: Transcendence
Book III: Emergence (Coming Soon)
Book IV: Soon Thereafter

****Chapters from book III, Emergence, included at the end of Transcendence.****

Publication Date:
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
My Vicksburg
Ann Rinaldi
Synopsis: Claire Louise Corbett and her Confederate family flee their home as Union soldiers shell their town of Vicksburg, Mississippi. They venture out from the safety of a cave only three times a day, when the Union army takes their meals at eight in the morning, noon, and eight at night. Although many of the townspeople suffer from a lack of food, the Corbetts receive extra rations from Claire Louise's brother, Landon, a doctor with the Union army. When Claire Louise discovers her brother tending to a Confederate soldier who is responsible for Robert E. Lee's "lost order" (causing the South to lose the Battle of Antietam), she is forced to make a difficult choice between family and friends.
Award-winning historical novelist Ann Rinaldi paints a story of family, courage, and secrets during the forty-seven-day siege of Vicksburg, a battle that has sometimes been ignored in history because it ended the same day as the Battle of Gettysburg.
Publication Date:
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Hidden Voices
Pat Lowery Collins
Synopsis:

While studying under Vivaldi, three girls in a Venice orphanage forge their own notions of love in a sensuous, engrossing novel told in three narrative voices.

It is a longing and search for love that motivates three girls living in the Ospedale della Pietà, an orphanage renowned for its extraordinary musical program. But for Rosalba, Anetta, and Luisa, the love they seek is not where they expect to find it. Set in the early 1700s in the heart of Venice, this remarkable novel deftly weaves the history of Antonio Vivaldi’s early musical career into the lives of three young women who excel in voice and instrument. Under the composer’s tutelage and care, the orphans find expression, sustenance, and passion. But can the sheltered life of the orphanage prepare them for the unthinkable dangers outside its walls?

Publication Date:
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Monster Variations
Daniel Kraus
Synopsis: This fast-paced read will keep readers on the edge of their seats!

Someone is killing boys in a small town. The murder weapon is a truck, and the only protection is a curfew enacted to keep kids off the streets. But it’s summer—and that alone is worth the risk of staying out late for James, Willie, and Reggie.

Willie, who lost his arm in the first hit-and-run attack, finds it hard to keep up with his two best friends as they leave childhood behind. All of them are changing, hounded by their parents, hunted by the killer, and haunted by the “monster,” a dead thing that guards the dangerous gateway between youth and manhood. But that’s not all: shadowing the boys everywhere is Mel Herman, the mysterious and brilliant bully whose dark secrets may hold the key to their survival. As the summer burns away, these forces collide, and it will take compassion, brains, and guts for the boys to overcome their demons—and not become monsters themselves.

In this chilling and poignant debut novel, Daniel Kraus deftly explores the choices boys grapple with and the revelations that occur as they become men.
Publication Date:
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days
Synopsis: It’s summer vacation, the weather’s great, and all the kids are having fun outside. So where’s Greg Heffley? Inside his house, playing video games with the shades drawn.
 
Greg, a self-confessed “indoor person,” is living out his ultimate summer fantasy: no responsibilities and no rules. But Greg’s mom has a different vision for an ideal summer . . . one packed with outdoor activities and “family togetherness.”
 
Whose vision will win out? Or will a new addition to the Heffley family change everything? 

F&P level: T
Publication Date:
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Short Circus
Stephen V. Masse
Synopsis: Jem Lockwood has been fatherless for four years and finally gets a Big Brother, but just as the best summer of his life is about to begin, he discovers that Jesse Standish's rented house is about to be sold. Jem does all in his daring imagination to make Jesse's house unmarketable. This three-ring circus romps with Jem's boyhood friends and older brother Chris, all recognizable kids who share in the rough-and-tumble delight of living in a Massachusetts city whose newspaper is delivered by kids on bikes, where kids play in the streets, and the local convenience store is owned by the family of Jesse’s girlfriend, Andrea. Meanwhile the city’s swimming pond has been sabotaged, and the city has to close it to all recreation after two boys are injured. Jem is sure he knows who did it, and helps carry out a plan to punish the evildoer.
Publication Date:
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Ghostgirl: Homecoming
Tonya Hurley
Synopsis: Heaven couldn't be a phone bank, could it?

Charlotte Usher discovers that the afterlife isn't quite what she pictured when she's forced to intern at a hotline for troubled teens. Before she can officially cross over, she'll have to be a source of guidance for one such teen. The problem is she doesn't have much advice to offer since dying hasn't exactly boosted her confidence level.

But when Hawthorne High's leading, love-to-hate cheerleader Petula and her gothic little sis' Scarlet find themselves suddenly resting-in-peace in comas, Charlotte's opportunity to save them will prove to be the risk of a lifetime-for all of them.


Praise for ghostgirl:

* Polished dark-and-deadpan humor, it's a natural fit with Gen Y, too." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

* "[Tonya] beats out witty teen-speak like a punk-band drummer, keeping the narrative fast-paced and fun yet thought-provokingly heartwarming. Goofy, ghastly, intelligent, electrifying." --Kirkus (starred review)

*"Tim Burton and Edgar Allan Poe devotees will die for this fantastic, phantasmal read." --School Library Journal (starred review)

* "Readers with a taste for black humor and satire will feast on Hurley's crisp, wise dialogue. Anticipate a well deserved cult following." --VOYA (starred review)

Publication Date:
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Hero and the Crown
Robin Mckinley
Synopsis: A Newbery Medal Winner

Although she is the daughter of Damar's king, Aerin has never been accepted as full royalty. Both in and out of the royal court, people whisper the story of her mother, the witchwoman, who was said to have enspelled the king into marrying her to get an heir to rule Damar-then died of despair when she found she had borne a daughter instead of a son. But none of them, not even Aerin herself, can predict her future-for she is to be the true hero who will wield the power of the Blue Sword...


“[The Hero and the Crown] confirms McKinley as an important writer of modern heroic fantasy, a genre whose giants include C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Ursula K. Le Guin.”—The Washington Post

“An utterly engrossing fantasy.”—The New York Times
Publication Date:
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
My Bonny Light Horseman
Louis A. Meyer
Synopsis: The infamous pirate, riverboat seductress, master of disguise, and street-urchin-turned-sailor Jacky Faber has been captured by the French and beheaded in full view of her friends and crew.      Inconceivable? Yes! The truth is she’s secretly forced to pose as an American dancer behind enemy lines in Paris, where she entices a French general into revealing military secrets—all to save her dear friends. Then, in intrepid Jacky Faber style, she dons male clothing and worms her way into a post as galloper with the French army, ultimately leading a team of men to fight alongside the great Napoleon.

Publication Date:
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Labeled
Mark Salvatore
Synopsis: We meet Vinnie in high school where he does not attend classes. His path leads from untimely deaths, changes of schools, a first love, to problems academically, emotionally and socially. He reels from a failed first encounter with a girl. He reads philosophical works and experiments with alcohol and other drugs. His major conflict is introversion compounded by self-medication. He hitchhikes across the country with two friends. Upon his return he’s under pressure at school. Psychologists and the school administration recommend that Vinnie be transferred to a special school, which he never attends. As Vinnie descends he realizes that he must change. An arrest results in court-ordered rehabilitation.
Publication Date:
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Bug Island
R.G. Cordiner
Synopsis: They destroyed the mighty Mayan Empire. What hope for a few shipwrecked survivors?

A South American cruise. It should have been a once in a lifetime experience. And it was. But not in the way they imagined. Barely surviving a horrific shipwreck, the remaining passengers have to try and cope with finding food, water, shelter, let alone the constant arguments.

And then there are the bugs. Not the sort that you squish and then get on with your day. Oh no. Toe biters, pond skaters, assassin bugs and harvestmen that drop down on top of their victims – all of these could be found in your garden. But on this lost island they are all at least twenty times their normal size. Trapped on an island with a six metre long giant centipede with armoured plates was not on the cruise itinerary. Now all they want is to get off – without being squished!

“Anyone pack the bug spray?”

BUG ISLAND is suitable for anyone aged 8 years or older.
Publication Date:
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Wild Life
Cynthia DeFelice
Synopsis:

Erik is preparing for his first-ever hunting trip when he learns that his parents are being deployed to Iraq. A few days later, Erik is shipped off to North Dakota to live with Big Darrell and Oma, grandparents he barely knows. When Erik rescues a dog that's been stuck by a porcupine, Big Darrell says Erik can't keep him. But Erik has already named her Quill and can't bear to give her up. He decides to run away, taking the dog and a shotgun, certain that they can make it on their own out on the prairie.

In this story of adventure and survival, Erik learns about the challenges and satisfactions of living off the land, the power of family secrets, and the pain of losing what you love.

Publication Date:
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Dream Smashers
Angela Carlie
Synopsis: My name is Autumn Spring Winters. Right? What sane person names their kid after not only one season of the year, but three? Well, the last name was inherited, but still. Nobody ever said my mom was in her right mind, though. I often wonder what life would be like if she wasn’t a tweaker. But, you know, that’s just a daydream. Reality is she’s a meth addict. She’s been an addict for as long as I can remember. Sometimes I like to believe her when she says she’s clean. Sometimes, when she’s high, we get along great. Sometimes we even talk. When she’s coming down, though, it’s best to just hide.

My name is Autumn Spring Winters and Dream Smashers is my story. It’s a love story, but most of all, it’s about letting go.

Readers of Ellen Hopkins, Laurie Halse Anderson, Jay Asher and Leslie Connor will enjoy reading Dream Smashers.

Discover other great novels from Angela Carlie

The Lords of Shifters Novels:
Spider Wars
Loramendi's Story
Dark Horse
Publication Date:
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction

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