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When Life Gives You O.J.
Erica S. Perl
Synopsis: For years, 10-year-old Zelly Fried has tried to convince her parents to let her have a dog. After all, practically everyone in Vermont owns a dog, and it sure could go a long way helping Zelly fit in since moving there from Brooklyn. But when her eccentric grandfather Ace hatches a ridiculous plan involving a "practice dog" named OJ, Zelly's not so sure how far she's willing to go to win a dog of her own. Is Ace's plan so crazy it just might work . . . or is it just plain crazy?

Erica S. Perl weaves an affectionate and hilarious tale that captures the enduring bond between grandparents and grandchildren.  Even when they're driving each other nuts.
Publication Date: 06/14/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
You'll Like It Here (Everybody Does)
Synopsis: While Meggie and David Blue are from another planet, they're a lot like Earth kids, with similar hopes and dreams, and can't wait to grow up. BUT they also have GROSSLY UNIQUE qualities, such as blue streaks in their hair that pop up randomly and language skills that sound like nothing on this planet. The story takes these alien kids, along with their mother and grandfather, by accident, to a far planet in which the society is not only oppressive but hostile to individual freedom. People are kept submissive through drugs and brainwashing. The Blues, who have spent time in free societies recognize the upside-down-ness of this world. They're almost helpless to do anything, but do what they can, plan their escape, and vow to help others.
Publication Date: 06/14/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Chamber of Five
Michael Harmon
Synopsis: In a private-school conspiracy novel, 16-year-old Jason Weatherby knows exactly why he's at the Lambert School for the Gifted. And it's not for his brains. His dad is an influential state senator. It's this same connection that lands him a spot on the secretive Chamber of Five, the elite group of students who run the school with a shadow government, tapping into the same lines of powers as their parents. When he's asked to physically assault and ruin the reputation of another student as part of his initiation, Jason sees firsthand the depravity of the Chamber—and decides to work from the inside to take it down. But Jason taps into a conspiracy—and school secrets—far more insidious than he could ever have imagined. From award-winning author Michael Harmon comes a taut, thrillingly paced novel about the perils of privilege. Can one bold student set things right?
Publication Date: 06/14/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Running Wide Open
Lisa Nowak
Synopsis: Cody Everett has a temper as hot as the inside of a combustion chamber, and it's landed him at his uncle's trailer, a last-chance home before military school. But how can he take the guy seriously when he calls himself Race, eats Twinkies for breakfast, and pals around with rednecks who drive in circles every Saturday night?

What Cody doesn't expect is for the arrangement to work. Or for Race to become the friend and mentor he's been looking for all his life. But just as Cody begins to settle in and get a handle on his supercharged temper, a crisis sends his life spinning out of control. Everything he's come to care about is threatened, and he has to choose between falling back on his old, familiar anger or stepping up to prove his loyalty to the only person he's ever dared to trust.

"Nowak capably depicts a realistic, likable teenager with typical teenager flaws.... An endearing story about a teenager, his mentor, and what a difference true, unselfish love can make." ~ Kirkus Reviews

Named one of BookBub's "6 Seriously Awesome YA Books Even Adults Can Get Into."

"The roar of engines practically explodes off the page in this compelling, heart-thumping debut. Cody Everett is a straight-shooter with attitude, smarts, and whip-cracking wit; he doesn't pull any punches, and neither does author Lisa Nowak. The collision of Cody and the world of stock car racing makes for a great story, one of the best I've read in a long time. Running Wide Open is a book not to be missed." ~ Christine Fletcher, author of Tallulah Falls and Ten Cents a Dance

Book 1 in the Full Throttle Series
Publication Date: 06/13/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Gamers
Thomas K Carpenter
Synopsis: Two points for brushing your teeth. Ten points for keeping your room tidy. Seventy-two points for the Bioeconomic Game Design pop quiz on the ride to school in your personal FunCar. Another thirty for making every hurdle in gym class. Life is a game, unless you're not the one winning. When Gabby DeCorte, top student and reality-hacker extraordinaire, learns the truth about LifeGame, she must choose between winning and what she believes in.
Publication Date: 06/13/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Unto The Breach
Sidney Gale
Synopsis: Eric, Rob and Anthony's sailing adventure goes horribly wrong when a life-threatening injury occurs. Emergency surgery is required, but can the boys rise to the challenge?
Publication Date: 06/08/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Unto the Breach
Sidney Gale
Synopsis: Eric, Rob and Anthony's sailing adventure goes horribly wrong when a life-threatening injury occurs. Emergency surgery is required, but can the boys rise to the challenge?
Publication Date: 06/08/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Nyx in the House of Night
Trinity Faegen, Yasmine Galenorn, John Edgar Browning, Bryan Lankford, Ellen Steiber, Jeri Smith-Ready, Amy H. Sturgis, Christine Zika, Jana Oliver, Karen Mahoney, Jordan Dane, Kristin Cast, P. C. Cast
Synopsis: The House of Night is no ordinary school—and not just because it's for vampyres. It's a place where magic, religion, folklore, and mythology from multiple traditions merry meet and meld to create something incredible and new.

In Nyx in the House of Night—a 2-color illustrated companion to the House of Night series—some of your favorite YA authors, plus a few experts, help you navigate the influences behind the House of Night series in a guide that would get even Damien's seal of approval.

Travel with P.C. Cast as she gets her first tattoo in Ireland, climbs the ruins of Sgiach's castle, and discovers the lore that led to the Isle of Skye vampyres. Read Kristin Cast's defense of women in history and mythology who, like Zoey, have made a practice of juggling multiple men. Sit in on a vampyre lecture by Bryan Lankford, the real-life basis for House of Night instructor Dragon Lankford, on the parallels between Wiccan and vampyre circle rituals. Tour Tulsa's House of Night landmarks with local Amy H. Sturgis.

Plus:

•Karen Mahoney on Nyx and other goddesses of the night
•John Edgar Browning on vampires in folklore, fiction, and reality
•Jana Oliver on tattoos and other Marks
•Ellen Steiber on feline familiars
•Yasmine Galenorn on priestesses and goddess worship
•Jordon Dane on Zoey's Cherokee heritage
•Jeri Smith-Ready on the Raven Mockers and Kalona's less than heavenly inspiration
•Christine Zika on the connection between Nyx and the Virgin Mary
•Triniy Faegen on the Greek version of the Otherworld

Nyx in the House of Night also includes an appendix of character names that reveals the myth behind Zoey's last name, which House of Night cats have ties to Camelot, Egypt, and Middle-earth, and more!
Publication Date: 06/07/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Thistle Down
Irene Radford
Synopsis: Dusty Carrick lived in the small town of Skene Falls, Oregon, her entire life. And, like many of the local children, she played with "imaginary" Pixie friends in Ten Acre Woods.

But the Pixies are not imaginary at all, and Ten Acre Woods is their home. Now, the woods are in danger, and if it falls, the Pixies too will die. Only Thistle Down, exiled from her tribe and trapped inside a mortal woman's body, can save her people-as long as she can convince Dusty Carrick to help her before it's too late.
Publication Date: 06/07/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Spirits of the Noh
Thomas Randall
Synopsis:

Kara Harper is finally starting to fit in at her boarding school in Japan-after all, nothing bonds you with your classmates like having an ancient demon put a curse on you. Hoping life can go back to normal now that the monster has been laid to rest, Kara joins her friends Sakura and Miho in putting on a play for the Noh drama club. It's the story of the Hannya, a snake demon who inhabits the body of a beautiful woman. When a few members of the Noh club go missing, Kara fears that the real Hannya has been awakened by the curse. Then Miho is abducted, and Kara must find her before the Hannya exacts her terrible revenge. But the demon is wily and may be hidden in the last place anyone would think to look.

Publication Date: 06/07/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Golden Key
Kate Elliott, Jennifer Roberson, Melanie Rawn
Synopsis: In Tira Virte, art is prized for its beauty and as a binding legal record of everything from marriages to treaties. Yet not even the Grand Duke knows how extraordinary the Grijalva family's art is, for certain Grijalva males are born with the ability to alter events and influence people in the real world through that they paint. Always, their power has been used for Tira Virte. But now Sario Grijalva has learned to use his Gift in a whole new way. And when he begins to work his magic both the Grijalvas and Tira Virte may pay the price.
Publication Date: 06/07/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Cascade
Lisa T. Bergren
Synopsis:

 

Mom touched my underdress—a gown made six hundred years before—and her eyes widened as she rubbed the raw silk between thumb and forefinger. She turned and touched Lia’s gown. “Where did you get these clothes?” In Cascade, the second book in the River of Time Series, Gabi knows she’s left her heart in the fourteenth century and she persuades Lia to help her to return, even though they know doing so will risk their very lives. When they arrive, weeks have passed and all of Siena longs to celebrate the heroines who turned the tide in the battle against Florence—while the Florentines will go to great lengths to see them dead. But Marcello patiently awaits, and Gabi must decide if she’s willing to leave her family behind for good in order to give her heart to him forever.

 

Publication Date: 06/01/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Violet Flash
Mike Mason
Synopsis:

 

There’s a rip in the blue umbrella, and time—and Chelsea—are slipping through!             One moment she was there, the next moment she was not, and Ches Cholmondeley was watching when it happened. And he learns of other mysterious goings-on: for three days in a row the world’s atomic clocks have lost a second, resulting in bizarre accidents ranging from dropped casseroles to plane crashes. Are these events related? What’s a brother to do?            Figure out a way to get his sister back, of course. In search of answers, Ches befriends the local clockmaker, Myron Stinchcombe, who knows a lot about time, and seeks out Sky Porter, who knows a lot about, well, everything.            But time is running out. And Ches is torn, knowing that the very deed that can save the world might also keep his sister from ever returning to it.

 

Publication Date: 06/01/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Blackdaw Cottage
Philip Dent
Synopsis: When Abigail, Morton, Ruth and her dog go sledging one snowy day in their sleepy village, they wander off into the forest to find the cottage of the notorious recluse, Bentley. After an encounter with the unpleasant gamekeeper Vargis, they continue through a worsening blizzard to the cottage, where they are forced to take shelter. Bentley returns and the children are scared, but they soon grow to trust the elderly man, who tells them the story of Ivan and Gertrude Murdac, outcasts who lived at Blackdaw Cottage years earlier. Meanwhile, the children's parents wait for them, miles away, worried at the fate of their offspring in such horrendous conditions. Day turns to night, night turns to day, and everyone finds that the snow has changed some things forever.... A novel for teenages, Blackdaw Cottage will keep the reader hooked as they follow the story of the Murdacs and the fate of the three young children and a dog. Author Philip has been inspired by a number of authors, including classic writers the Brontës, Charles Dickens and George Eliot amongst others. He is a particular fan of V S Naipaul, whose book The Enigma of Arrival he studied for his MA.
Publication Date: 06/01/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Gravestone
Travis Thrasher
Synopsis: His Fear Will Soon Turn to Anger…. At first, Chris Buckley was simply warned. And watched. But as Chris unravels the haunting riddles of the town of Solitary, he finds that much more than the life of a town is at stake. Whether facing a pastor with a house full of skeletons or a cousin he never knew existed, Chris is forced to choose between light and darkness, life and nightmarish death. Every choice he makes reminds him that the unthinkable has already happened—and if he trusts the wrong person, it may happen again. This second book in the Solitary Tales continues Chris’s journey toward finding out who he is and what his own role is in the darkness suffocating his tiny new hometown. Filled with shocking twists, Gravestone is a tale of a teenager thrown into a battle over a town, a secret—and ultimately his own soul.
Publication Date: 06/01/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Nightspell
Leah Cypess
Synopsis:

Here be ghosts, the maps said, and that was all.

In this haunted kingdom, ghosts linger—not just in the deepest forests or the darkest caverns, but alongside the living, as part of a twisted palace court that revels all night and sleeps through the daylight hours.

Darri's sister was trapped in this place of fear and shadows as a child. And now Darri has a chance to save her sister . . . if she agrees to a betrothal with the prince of the dead. But nothing is simple in this eerie kingdom—not her sister, who has changed beyond recognition; not her plan, which will be thrown off track almost at once; and not the undead prince, who seems more alive than anyone else.

In a court seething with the desire for vengeance, Darri holds the key to the balance between life and death. Can her warrior heart withstand the most wrenching choice of all?

Publication Date: 05/31/11
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction

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