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Priscilla the Great
Sybil Nelson
Synopsis: Did you ever want a blowtorch for a finger? Meet Priscilla Sumner, an ordinary seventh grader with extraordinary gifts. As if middle school isn't hard enough, not only does Priscilla have to fight pimples and bullies, but genetically enhanced assassins trying to kill her and her family. Armed with wit, strength, and a genius best friend, Priscilla must defeat the Selliwood Institute, a mysterious organization with a mission of turning children into killing machines.
Publication Date: 12/14/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Returning
Jean Sorrell
Synopsis: It is the summer of 1951 in Kansas City, six years following the end of World War II. The worst flood of the century is about to happen, but eleven-year-old Sara Johnson and the rest of her neighbors along Southwest Boulevard have no idea of the impending disaster. Sara clings to the belief that haer father, missing in action since the battle of Iwo Jima, will return to her. She finds a kindred spirit in her friend, Nathalie Springer, a Jewish refugee from France, whose uncle owns the bookstore down the street. The two girls, with the help of a mysterious book and its author, Aaron Fishchel, explore the idea of soul transference, where people are reborn into the body of someone else. The reason for their interest is connected to the new pastor at Trinity Presbyterian Church. Reverend Emmett Bell looks amazingly like Sara's daddy, and he was there on Iwo Jima, but his severe wounds obscured some of his features and left him with amnesia. Is it possible the new minister is actually Sara's father, or Sara's father in the body of Emmett Bell? The coincidences add up and the idea tantalizes the girls, but their investigation leads to heartbreak and division in their families, among the neighbors and their new minister. The folks who live on Southwest Boulevard want to bury physical and emotional wounds suffered during the war. Sara's questions go too far. What is God's plan for the hereafter? It might be unexplainable to the folks who live on Southwest Boulevard in Rosedale, Kansas, but not to an eleven-year-old girl, who proves that love can cross all boundaries, including death.
Publication Date: 12/09/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Bubblegum Psychology
Synopsis: Brenna Goldsmith was a person who generally kept her thoughts to herself. When she is caught with arson on her hands, she is sent to a local sanatorium where she finds she has the opportunity to say whatever she wants. She is sent from doctor to doctor, feeding them fake stories and finding just the right thing to get them upset enough to transfer her. That is, until Dr. Cannon. Though Dr. Cannon doesn't seem anything special, he can always tell when Brenna is lying, and abruptly brings their psychology sessions to an end if she does. Interested by this, the girl starts telling the truth, unbelievable as it seems.
Publication Date: 12/08/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Conspiracy 365: December
Gabrielle Lord
Synopsis: In the final month of his 365 day countdown, fifteen-year-old fugitive Cal works to get to Ireland in hopes of finally reaching the Ormond Singularity and saving his life.
Publication Date: 12/01/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Stealing the Wild
Guy Zoellner, Beth Hodder
Synopsis: 2011 Purple Dragonfly Book Award winner: First Place in the Children's Chapter Book category! Jessie Scott, 12, hopes to enjoy time with new friends, Will and Allie, at Jessie's home in the remote Schafer Meadows Ranger Station within the Great Bear Wilderness of Montana. This sequel to the award-winning The Ghost of Schafer Meadows finds the three friends and Jessie's dog, Oriole, unwittingly hunting for whoever is poaching wildlife in the wilderness. People come and go--four backpackers, a lone horseman, and a lost single backpacker. Suspicion surrounds each of them as the three young friends and Oriole get pulled deeper into the mystery.
Publication Date: 12/01/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Silver Zombie
Carole Nelson Douglas
Synopsis: Zombies and Witches and Vamps . . . Oh, My!

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas—at least that’s Delilah Street’s hope. With Sin City’s vampire and werewolf mobs wanting to cash in her chips once and for all, she’s retreating with her partner Ric Montoya and half-wolfhound Quicksilver to her Kansas birthplace. Unfortunately, when it comes to finding trouble, there’s no place like home. . . .

It doesn’t take long before Delilah realizes she’s not in Vegas anymore. Zombie cowboys and spectral cattle drives are kicking up dust, the local weather girls are total witches who forecast perfect storms, and some Hollywood fanatic is recasting zombies as the greatest stars of the silver screen. And speaking of silver, Delilah’s special affinity for the all-purpose monster-repellent leads her posse straight down a silver brick road—and into a notso- fun house of mirrors—putting her face-to-face with her dicey past and a mystery woman named Lilith, who’s a real dead ringer for Delilah. The key word being dead.
Publication Date: 11/30/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Invisible Things
Jenny Davidson
Synopsis:

Sixteen-year-old Sophie knows there is more to the story of her parents' death. And she's on a mission to find the truth. To aid her in solving the decades-old mystery, Sophie has enlisted her best friend, Mikael, whose friendship has turned into something more. It's soon clear that Sophie's future is very much wrapped up in the details of her family's past, and the key lies with information only one man can provide: her parents' former employer, the elusive billionaire Alfred Nobel.

As the threat of war looms in Europe, dangers to Sophie and her loved ones grow. While her determination to solve the mystery doesn't waver, forces beyond her control conspire to keep her from her purpose. Then, news of her great-aunt Tabitha's death sets off a chain of events that leaves Sophie questioning everything.

The more Sophie learns, the more she realizes that nothing—and no one—in her life is what it seems. And coming to terms with the dark secrets she uncovers means imagining a truth that she never dreamed possible. Full of gorgeous settings, thrilling adventure, and romance, invisible things is a novel that dares to ask, what if?

Publication Date: 11/23/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Labeled
Mark A. Salvatore
Synopsis: "For a narrative of adolescent despair and bravado, a passing parade of weird people and recitation of bizarre drug trips, Labeled works. It’s not The Catcher in the Rye, but there is something here. I think it’s an unmistakable honesty coupled with a struggle to understand what life is all about. No answers, but good questions." Sharon Dirlam (author of Two Years Beyond Siberia)
Publication Date: 11/16/10
Age Level: Mature Young Adult
Genre: Fiction
Mesmerized
David-Matthew Barnes
Synopsis: Rainbow Award Winner for Best LGBT Coming of Age/Young Adult Novel! While being punished for writing a controversial article in her high school paper, Serena Albright is befriended by the enigmatic loner Brodie Wiles. Serena witnesses the first time that Brodie meets Lance Royal, who is secretly rehearsing to compete in The Showdown, the biggest dance contest of the year. Immediately, Serena is drawn into their world, inspired by the love she recognizes between them.

Through her close friendship with Brodie and Lance, Serena finds comfort for the grief and guilt she feels over the brutal death of her older gay brother, the victim of a hate crime. Frustrated that her deep-in-denial parents spend endless hours in front of the television and refuse to acknowledge the death of their son, Serena accepts the challenge to have a face-to-face meeting with the boy who killed her brother.
Publication Date: 11/16/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Blank Confession
Pete Hautman
Synopsis: Shayne Blank is the new kid in town--but that doesn't stop him from getting into a lot of trouble very quickly. The other kids don't understand him. He's not afraid of anything. He seems too smart. And his background doesn't add up. But when he walks into the police department to confess to a murder, it quickly becomes apparent that nothing is as it seems. There's more to Shayne--and his story--than meets the eye. As the details begin to fill in, the only thing that becomes clear is that nothing about Shayne's story is clear at all.

Blank Confession is a compelling mystery that will keep readers turning pages, from National Book Award-winning author Pete Hautman.
Publication Date: 11/16/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Element Keepers
E. P. Marcellin
Synopsis: Rhet guts fish for a living, content in obscurity until the day he is plucked from the wharves by nine exotic strangers and carted across the continent to a life-sentence of imprisonment. Though he has done nothing (as far as he knows) to warrant such capture, his captors are certain he will one day destroy the world if they do not prevent him. Though it is true that Rhet discovers great powers, he is neither villain nor hero. He is unique in a world where some can pull threads of wind from the air and weave it to do their bidding; he can bring wind into being where there is none. But a quest for domination begins to unravel the very fabric of the world, destroying the balance that must be maintained. It only took one to start the spiral toward chaos, but one alone cannot save the world, no matter how great his power. A new chapter in the story of the human race has begun. A slave will come to rule, a dockworker will meet his fate, and an unlikely group of companions will find themselves thrust to the forefront of the battle for life's existence. And man's future may be only Whispers in the Wind.
Publication Date: 11/09/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Sweetness of Salt
Cecilia Galante
Synopsis:

Julia just graduated as her high school valedictorian, has a full ride to college in the fall and a coveted summer internship clerking for a federal judge. But when her older sister, Sophie, shows up at the graduation determined to reveal some long buried secrets, Julia's carefully constructed plans come to a halt. Instead of the summer she had painstakingly laid out, Julia follows Sophie back to Vermont, where Sophie is opening a bakery―and struggling with some secrets of her own. What follows is a summer of revelations―some heartwarming, some heartbreaking, and all slowly pointing Julia toward a new understanding of both herself and of the sister she never really knew.

Publication Date: 11/09/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Grounded
Kate Klise
Synopsis:

A middle grade novel about a 12-year-old girl dealing with loss, who uncovers a rather grisly scam involving a crematorium.

After her brother, sister, and father die in a plane crash, Daralynn Oakland receives 237 dolls from well-wishers, resulting in her nickname: Dolly. But dolls are little comfort to a twelve-year-old girl whose world is rocked by the dramatic changes in her life, including her angry, grieving mother's new job as a hairstylist at the local funeral home.

Dolly gets a job, too, where she accidentally invents a fashionable new haircut. But in Grounded by Kate Klise, her real work begins when a crematorium comes to town, and someone has to save a dying business, solve a burning mystery, and resuscitate the broken hearts in Digginsville, Missouri, population 402.

Publication Date: 11/09/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Saraswati's Way
Monika Schröder
Synopsis:

If the gods wanted Akash to have an education, he is told, they would give him one. But Akash has spent his entire twelve years poor and hungry. So he decides to take control of his own life and try for a scholarship to the city school where he can pursue his beloved math. But will challenging destiny prove to be more than he has bargained for? In this raw and powerful novel, fate and self-determination come together in unexpected ways, offering an unsentimental look at the realities of India.

Saraswati's Way is a 2011 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

Publication Date: 11/09/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Sentinels: Stone of Tymora
Geno Salvatore, R.A. Salvatore
Synopsis: The lightning-paced conclusion to the Stone of Tymora trilogy by best-selling author R.A. Salvatore and his son...

After dueling with a dragon and a demon, Maimun knows he must destroy the stone that has kept him on the run for most of his life. The question now is how. With Joen by his side, Maimun journeys to the Tower of Twilight to beg famed wizard Malchor Harpell for answers. But Harpell's help comes at a steep price. Friends become enemies. Lost secrets come to light. And deep in the shadows, the sentinels are watching, scheming to save the stone--even if it means someone must die.

Featuring the sage words and signature swordwork of R.A. Salvatore's best-selling character Drizzt Do'Urden, this final book of the Stone of Tymora trilogy is packed with action, magic, intrigue, and a heart-stopping twist that Salvatore fans won't want to miss.
Publication Date: 11/09/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Teenage Waistland
Lisa Pazer, Lynn Biederman
Synopsis: “You all believe that losing one-hundred-plus pounds will solve everything, but it won’t. Something far heavier is weighing on you, and until you deal with that, nothing in your lives will be right.”
 –Betsy Glass, PhD, at first weekly group counseling session for ten severely obese teens admitted into exclusive weight-loss surgery trial
 
Patient #1: Female, age 16, 5'4", 288 lbs.
Thrust into size-zero suburban hell by remarried liposuctioned mom. Hates new school and skinny boy-toy stepsister.Body size exceeded only by her big mouth. 
Patient #2: Male, age 16, 6'2", 335 lbs.
All-star football player, but if he gets “girl surgery,” as his dad calls it, he’ll probably get benched.Has moobies—male boobies. Forget about losing his V-card—he’s never even been kissed. 
Patient #3: Female, age 15, 5'6", 278 lbs.
Morbidly obese and morbid, living alone with severely depressed mother who won’t leave her bed.Best and only friend is another patient, whose dark secret threatens everything Patient #3 believes about life. 
Told in the voices of patients Marcie Mandlebaum, Bobby Konopka, and Annie “East” Itou, Teenage Waistland is a story of betrayal, intervention, a life-altering operation, and how a long-buried truth can prove far more devastating than the layers of fat that protect it.


Contains an afterword by Jeffrey L. Zitsman, MD, director of the Center for Adolescent Bariatric Surgery at Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital
Publication Date: 11/09/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction

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