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All Books
Front and Center
Catherine Gilbert Murdock
Synopsis: Football season may be over, but basketball is about to begin, and if D.J. thinks she can escape the attention—and the pressure—her star power brings, she is mistaken.

 
Publication Date: 10/19/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Magic Can Be Murder
Vivian Vande Velde
Synopsis: Nola's not much of a witch--she can work only a few useless spells, like the one that lets her spy on people. But there's no spell for keeping her crazy mother--who hears voices and is a magnet for witch-hunters--out of trouble. The two flee from town to town until the day Nola magically witnesses a murder. Which is bad enough, but worse is that the murderer may frame Nola and her mother for the crime. And then no amount of magic will save her. And you think your teenage years are tough. . . .
Publication Date: 10/19/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Ghost Ride
Marina Cohen
Synopsis: 2011 Red Maple Award ― Shortlisted

Fourteen-year-old Sam McLean is less than thrilled with the prospect of moving to a collection of old mansions on the northern fringe of a small town called Ringwood. A nobody at his old school, Sam is desperate to be accepted by the cool kids and latches on to Cody Barns, aka Maniac. Cody’s claim to fame is performing wild stunts ― the crazier the better ― and posting them on his blog.

When Sam reluctantly joins Cody and his sidekick, Javon, on their midnight ghost riding, a practice in which the driver and passenger climb onto the hood of their moving car and dance, something goes terribly wrong. Cody convinces Sam to flee the scene, leaving Javon for dead. But soon mysterious messages appear on Cody’s blog and anonymous notes are slid into Sam’s locker. As Sam struggles with his conscience, a haunting question remains: Who else knows the truth?
Publication Date: 10/19/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
The Day of the Pelican
Katherine Paterson
Synopsis: 2013 Laura Ingalls Wilder Award

Meli Lleshi is positive that her drawing of her teacher with his pelican nose started it all. The Lleshis are Albanians living in Kosovo, a country trying to fight off Serbian oppressors, and suddenly they are homeless refugees. Old and young alike, they find their courage tested by hunger, illness, the long, arduous journey, and danger on every side. Then, unexpectedly, they are brought to America by a church group and begin a new life in a small Vermont town. The events of 9/11 bring more challenges for this Muslim family--but this country is their home now and there can be no turning back.A compassionate, powerful novel by a master storyteller.
Publication Date: 10/19/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Goth Girl Rising
Barry Lyga
Synopsis:

Time is a funny thing in the hospital. In the mental ward. You lose track of it easily. After six months in the Maryland Mental Health Unit, Kyra Sellers, a.k.a. Goth Girl, is going home. Unfortunately, she’s about to find out that while she was away, she lost track of more than time.

Kyra is back in black, feeling good, and ready to make up with the only person who’s ever appreciated her for who she really is.

But then she sees him. Fanboy. Transcended from everything he was into someone she barely recognizes.
And the anger and memories come rushing back.

There’s so much to do to people when you’re angry.
Kyra’s about to get very busy.

Publication Date: 10/19/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Flash Burnout
L. K. Madigan
Synopsis:

Winner of the 2010 William C. Morris Award!

Fifteen-year-old Blake has a girlfriend and a friend who’s a girl. One of them loves him; the other one needs him.

When he snapped a picture of a street person for his photography homework, Blake never dreamed that the woman in the photo was his friend Marissa’s long-lost meth addicted mom. Blake’s participation in the ensuing drama opens up a world of trouble, both for him and for Marissa. He spends the next few months trying to reconcile the conflicting roles of Boyfriend and Friend. His experiences range from the comic (surviving his dad’s birth control talk) to the tragic (a harrowing after-hours visit to the morgue).

In a tangle of life and death, love and loyalty, Blake will emerge with a more sharply defined snapshot of himself.

Publication Date: 10/19/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
The Other Side of Blue
Valerie O. Patterson
Synopsis:

Cyan was named after a shade of blue, her artist mother's favorite color. The color of the sea. Since her father's death last year, she’s felt just as mercurial and dark as her namesake, and the distance between Cyan and her mother has grown as wide as an ocean. Now they're returning to the island of Curaçao in the Caribbean, where her father's mysterious accident occurred, and joining them will be Kammi--who may soon become a stepsister. Haunted by the secrets of the past, Cyan will explore all the depths of her blueness this summer, discovering the light, the darkness, and the many shades in between that are within her—and within us all.

Publication Date: 10/19/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
I Learned A New Word Today....Genocide
Synopsis: Javier Mendoza has learned a new word and he does not like it. As his fifth grade class explores the shocking history of countries ranging from Armenia to Sudan, Javier realizes that the past—and even the present—is telling him a story that he cannot ignore. Then he overhears a conversation that triggers a mysterious chain of events at his school. Now Javier is faced with the reality that no one is immune to the consequences of genocide. And perhaps everyone has a responsibility to help end it, even himself.
Publication Date: 10/16/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
The Twilight Gods
Hayden Thorne
Synopsis: London during the Great Exhibition of 1851 is a new world of technological advances, eye-popping inventions, and glimpses of exotic treasures from the East. For fifteen-year-old Norris Woodhead it's a time of spectral figures mingling with London's daily crowds, and an old rectory in a far corner of the English countryside, a great house literally caught in time, where answers to curious little mysteries await him. Confined by his family's financial woes, Norris suffers a lonely and unsatisfying time till the day he (and only he) notices "shadow-folks" in the streets. Then a strange widow appears, rents a vacant room in the house, and takes him under her wing. She becomes his guardian, slowly revealing those shadows' secrets, Norris' connection with them, and the life-altering choices he has to face in the end. The Twilight Gods is a retelling of Native American folktale called "The Girl Who Married a Ghost." Set in Victorian England, it's an alternative perspective on a gay teen's coming-out process, with Norris' journey of self-discovery couched in magical and supernatural terms and imagery.
Publication Date: 10/14/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Shadowfae
Erica Hayes
Synopsis:

Imagine a secret world veiled in fairy glamour and brimming with unearthly delights. A city swarming with half-mad fairies, where thieving spriggans rob you blind, beautiful banshees mesmerize you with their song, and big green trolls bust heads at nightclubs. And once you're in, there's no escape…

Enslaved by a demon lord, Jade is forced to spend her nights seducing vampire gangsters and shapeshifting thugs. After two hundred years as a succubus, she burns for freedom and longs to escape her brutal life as a trophy girl for hell's minions. Then she meets Rajah, an incubus who touches her heart and intoxicates her senses. Rajah shares the same bleak fate as she, and yearns just as desperately for freedom. But the only way for Jade to break her bonds is to betray Rajah―and doom the only man she's ever loved to a lifetime in hell.

Publication Date: 10/13/09
Age Level: Mature Young Adult
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Hush, Hush
Becca Fitzpatrick
Synopsis: Nora finds forbidden love with her fallen angel, in the first installment of the New York Times bestselling Hush, Hush Saga.

Nora Grey is responsible and smart and not inclined to be reckless. Her first mistake was falling for Patch. .

Patch has made countless mistakes and has a past that could be called anything but harmless. The best thing he ever did was fall for Nora. .

After getting paired together in biology, all Nora wants to do is stay away from Patch, but he always seems to be two steps ahead of her. She can feel his eyes on her even when he is nowhere around. She feels him nearby even when she is alone in her bedroom. And when her attraction can be denied no longer, she learns the secret about who Patch is and what led him to her, as well as the dark path he is about to lead her down. Despite all the questions she has about his past, in the end, there may be only one question they can ask each other: How far are you willing to fall?.
Publication Date: 10/13/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Adam Canfield; The Last Reporter
Synopsis: Raising money to resurrect the banned school paper brings Adam in contact with some quirky characters in this sharp, funny novel starring the ace middle-grade reporter. (Ages 8-12)

A "dirty" school election, suspicious state test scores — Adam Canfield and his star reporters are chasing some red-hot leads. There’s only one glitch: the school board has shut down THE SLASH for exposing the town’s most powerful family, and now the staff has to find a way to publish it themselves. Enter the Ameche brothers: two goofy kid entrepreneurs with a knack for refurbishing junk — and a talent for selling ads — but a shaky command of journalistic ethics. What’s worse, Adam hasn’t a clue why his coeditor, Jennifer, is suddenly acting weird. . . . With kid-friendly humor and a touch of budding romance, this new adventure revisits a winning cast of characters — and the excitement that comes from uncovering a really great story.
Publication Date: 10/13/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Metamorphosis
Tom Franco, Betsy Franco
Synopsis: He’s a young artist obsessed with myths. But can he fix his own fate? Acclaimed author Betsy Franco and her talented son collaborate on a hip YA novel of "epic" proportions. (Age 14 and up)

Life. Love. Death. Identity. Ovid’s got a lot on his mind, and he pours it all — as confessions, observations, narrative poems, and drawings — into the pages of a notebook. Inspired by his namesake, he wryly records his classmates’ dramas as modern-day Roman mythology. There’s Sophie and Caleb, the Psyche and Cupid of cyber-couples; poetic Paula, who pursues filmmaker Franny like Apollo chasing Daphne; and graphic novelist Duwayne, a Proserpina shuttling between divorced parents. Meanwhile, Ovid hides his own Olympian struggles: his meth addict sister Thena has run off, leaving him with a suffocating home life and a disturbing secret. In her striking YA debut, Betsy Franco introduces an expressive soul with a heartbreakingly authentic voice. Fantastical ink illustrations by her son Tom Franco enhance the intimate tone, delving deep into one intriguing teen’s imagination.
Publication Date: 10/13/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Solace of the Road
Siobhan Dowd
Synopsis: Holly’s story will leave a lasting impression on all who travel with her.

Memories of mum are the only thing that make Holly Hogan happy. She hates her foster family with their too-nice ways and their false sympathy. And she hates her life, her stupid school, and the way everyone is always on at her. Then she finds the wig, and everything changes. Wearing the long, flowing blond locks she feels transformed. She’s not Holly anymore, she’s Solace: the girl with the slinkster walk and the supersharp talk. She’s older, more confident—the kind of girl who can walk right out of her humdrum life, hitch to Ireland, and find her mum. The kind of girl who can face the world head-on.

So begins a bittersweet and sometimes hilarious journey as Solace swaggers and Holly tiptoes across England and through memory, discovering her true self and unlocking the secrets of her past.
Publication Date: 10/13/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Almost Perfect
Brian Katcher
Synopsis: Whether you’re trans, gay, lesbian, bi, queer, questioning, or straight, this winner of the Stonewall Children’s & Young Adult Literature Award will make you marvel at the beauty of human connection and the irrepressible nature of love.
 
Everyone has that one line they swear they’ll never cross, the one thing they say they’ll never do. We draw the line. Maybe we even believe it.
 
Sage Hendricks was my line.
 
Logan Witherspoon befriends Sage Hendricks at a time when he no longer trusts or believes in people. As time goes on, he finds himself drawn to Sage, pulled in by her deep, but sexy feminine voice and her constant smile. Eventually Logan’s feelings for Sage grow so strong that he can’t resist kissing her. Moments later, he wishes he never had. Sage finally discloses her big secret: she was born a boy. Enraged, frightened, and feeling betrayed, Logan lashes out at Sage. Once his anger has cooled, however, his regrets lead him to attempt to rekindle their friendship. But it’s hard to replace something that’s been broken—and it’s even harder to find your way back to friendship when you began with love.
 
***
 
“Tackles issues of homophobia, hate crimes and stereotyping with humor and grace in an accessible tone that will resonate with teens.” –Kirkus Reviews
 
“It is Sage's story that is truly important.” –SLJ
 
“Teens—both those familiar with transgender issues and those who are not—will welcome the honest take on a rarely explored subject.” –Booklist
 
“A sensitive examination of the seldom treated subject of transgender teens.” –VOYA
Publication Date: 10/13/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
The Shadow of Malabron
Thomas Wharton
Synopsis: A rich, absorbing fantasy follows a rebellious teen on his journey through the Perilous Realm, where dreams, fairy tales, and reality intersect.

When Will crashes his father’s motorcycle and stumbles into the Perilous Realm, all he wants is to find his way back to the world he knows. But he cannot get back the way he came, and as he soon discovers, his story is bound up with this mysterious land and with the very fabric of Story itself. Will is befriended by many strange people and creatures — including Rowen, a girl with a special destiny of her own, and Shade, an unusual wolf — but he is also pursued by dark forces under the control of Malabron, otherwise known as the Night King, the Master of Fetches, and the Storyeater. As Will’s path crosses those of the inhabitants — both innocent and malevolent — of this strange new world, his choices will determine not only his own fate, but that of his new friends in the Perilous Realm.
Publication Date: 10/13/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction

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