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Prom and Party Etiquette
Steven Salerno, Peggy Post, Cindy P Senning
Synopsis:

So, you've hit your teen years, and suddenly your social calendar is booked. There's homecoming, sweet sixteens, sports games, prom, graduation, and all the parties in between. You are so excited, but you have a lot of questions, too.

Who asks and who pays for a date?

Can you dance with someone other than the person you came with?

How do you throw a good party?

What should you wear to the prom?!

Relax and let Emily Post, the most trusted name in etiquette, be your guide. Prom and Party Etiquette will help you navigate your social life and be more confident at the parties you attend. Knowing what to do makes it easier to enjoy all your celebrations to the fullest—and having fun is what a party is really about!

Publication Date: 01/26/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Educational
Incarceron
Catherine Fisher
Synopsis: A thrilling, high-concept fantasy for fans of Garth Nix and Nancy Farmer.

Incarceron is a prison so vast that it contains not only cells, but also metal forests, dilapidated cities, and vast wilderness. Finn, a seventeen-year-old prisoner, has no memory of his childhood and is sure that he came from Outside Incarceron. Very few prisoners believe that there is an Outside, however, which makes escape seems impossible.

And then Finn finds a crystal key that allows him to communicate with a girl named Claudia. She claims to live Outside- she is the daughter of the Warden of Incarceron, and doomed to an arranged marriage. Finn is determined to escape the prison, and Claudia believes she can help him. But they don't realize that there is more to Incarceron than meets the eye. Escape will take their greatest courage and cost more than they know.
Publication Date: 01/26/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
Shadow Blade
Seressia Glass
Synopsis: Kira Solomon is unable to touch another living being—she draws off the energy of animate objects, “downloading” thoughts, emotions, memories...and, dangerously, draining the spirit. An antiquities specialist by day, she catalogs and defuses ancient magical artifacts; by night, she’s a Shadowchaser—a bounty hunter in the eternal struggle against the Shadow of Chaos. When Kira comes across an ancient dagger that belongs to Khefar, a 4,000 year-old Nubian warrior, the sexual tension between the two builds, and a sinister evil sets its sights on them both.
Publication Date: 01/26/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Romance
Spider's Bite
Jennifer Estep
Synopsis: Follow Gin Blanco, a kick-butt female assassin who moonlights at a BBQ joint in Tennessee, as she searches for the person who double-crossed her in this heart-pounding and fresh paranormal romance series.

After Gin’s family was murdered by a Fire elemental when she was thirteen, she lived on the streets and eventually became an assassin to survive. Now, Gin is assigned to rub out an Ashland businessman, but it turns out to be a trap. After Gin’s handler is brutally murdered, she teams up with the sexy detective investigating the case to figure out who double-crossed her and why. Only one thing is for sure—Gin has no qualms about killing her way to the top of the conspiracy.
Publication Date: 01/26/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fantasy
I Kissed A Zombie,and I Liked It
Synopsis: Algonquin “Ali” Rhodes, the high school newspaper’s music critic, meets an intriguing singer, Doug, while reviewing a gig. He’s a weird-looking guy—goth, but he seems sincere about it, like maybe he was into it back before it was cool. She introduces herself after the set, asking if he lives in Cornersville, and he replies, in his slow, quiet murmur, “Well, I don’t really live there, exactly. . . .”

When Ali and Doug start dating, Ali is falling so hard she doesn’t notice a few odd signs: he never changes clothes, his head is a funny shape, and he says practically nothing out loud. Finally Marie, the school paper’s fashion editor, points out the obvious: Doug isn’t just a really sincere goth. He’s a zombie. Horrified that her feelings could have allowed her to overlook such a flaw, Ali breaks up with Doug, but learns that zombies are awfully hard to get rid of—at the same time she learns that vampires, a group as tightly-knit as the mafia, don’t think much of music critics who make fun of vampires in reviews. . . .
Publication Date: 01/26/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Calendar Mysteries: March Mischief
John Steven Gurney, Ron Roy
Synopsis:

It's a mystery every month from popular A to Z Mysteries author Ron Roy! With the younger siblings of the A to Z Mysteries kids!

March is for Madness...

In the third book of the Calendar Mysteries - an early chapter book mystery series - it's St. Patrick's Day in Green Lawn. Bradley, Brian, Nate, and Lucy dress up a leprechaun statue for the town's yearly contest. They leave it out on the porch overnight, but the next morning, it's missing! And theirs isn't the only one. All over town, leprechauns are disappearing. Who is behind the mischief? It will take four kids and the luck of the Irish to find out.

Parents, teachers, and librarians agree that these highly collectible chapter books are perfect for emerging readers and any kid who loves mysteries!

Publication Date: 01/26/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Mystery
The Enchanted Quest
Frewin Jones
Synopsis:

Far from the Realm of Faerie, a quest to save immortality . . .

A deadly plague is sweeping through Faerie, and no one is immune to its bite. Now, withthe guidance of the Dream Weaver, Tania, Rathina, and a mortal ally, Connor, musthead off to find the Divine Harper—the only one who can help Tania renew the FaerieCovenant of Immortality. Their quest will soon take them outside the borders of Faerie,to hostile and unwelcoming lands beyond.

On their travels, Tania and her companions encounter danger at every turn as they battle pirates, contend with mysterious and mystical beings, and try to outwit those under the sinister grip of the Dark Arts. But when Tania's beloved Edric appears, it looks as if they have help at last. Or do they? As tensions and dangers rise, Tania is forced to question everything and everyone around her in order to decide if she is prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice to save her loved ones.

Publication Date: 01/26/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fantasy
My One Hundred Adventures
Synopsis: THE WINNER OF a National Book Award, a Newbery Honor, and countless other awards has written her richest, most spirited book yet, filled with characters that readers will love, and never forget.

Jane is 12 years old, and she is ready for adventures, to move beyond the world of her siblings and single mother and their house by the sea, and step into the “know-not what.” And, over the summer, adventures do seem to find Jane, whether it’s a thrilling ride in a hot-air balloon, the appearances of a slew of possible fathers, or a weird new friendship with a preacher and psychic wannabe. Most important, there’s Jane’s discovery of what lies at the heart of all great adventures: that it’s not what happens to you that matters, but what you learn about yourself.

And don't miss Polly Horvath's Northward to the Moon, the sequel to My One Hundred Adventures.


From the Hardcover edition.
Publication Date: 01/26/10
Age Level: 8 - 12
Genre: Adventure
No Longer Daddy's Little Girl
Aarica J. Blackett
Synopsis: No Longer Daddy's Little Girl strips away the feeling of being the only young girl to go through this struggle of growing up in a fatherless household. The author redirected her negative energy towards excelling in her goals, academically, athletically, and spiritually. This book emphasizes the importance of young women shifting the blame and responsibility from the absent fathers to themselves, so they can take control of their own future and their own destiny. Through personal journal entries, stories, and lessons learned along the way, Aarica Blackett uses her experiences, as well as those from other young women, to help young girls become the exception and not another negative statistic.
Publication Date: 01/19/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Boys Without Names
Kashmira Sheth
Synopsis:

For eleven-year-old Gopal and his family, life in their rural Indian village is over: We stay, we starve, his baba has warned. With the darkness of night as cover, they flee to the big city of Mumbai in hopes of finding work and a brighter future. Gopal is eager to help support his struggling family until school starts, so when a stranger approaches him with the promise of a factory job, he jumps at the offer.

But Gopal has been deceived. There is no factory, just a small, stuffy sweatshop where he and five other boys are forced to make beaded frames for no money and little food. The boys are forbidden to talk or even to call one another by their real names. In this atmosphere of distrust and isolation, locked in a rundown building in an unknown part of the city, Gopal despairs of ever seeing his family again.

But late one night, when Gopal decides to share kahanis, or stories, he realizes that storytelling might be the boys' key to holding on to their sense of self and their hope for any kind of future. If he can make them feel more like brothers than enemies, their lives will be more bearable in the shop—and they might even find a way to escape.

Publication Date: 01/19/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
King of RPGS 1
Victor Hao, Jason Thompson
Synopsis: Jason Thompson, Level 14 Shaman/Oozemaster and author of Manga: The Complete Guide, joins forces with Victor Hao to deliver a wickedly funny send-up of manga and gamer culture. Roll up your character and get ready!
 
THE GREATEST GAMER ON EARTH
 
At the University of California, Escondido, no one would guess that freshman Shesh Maccabee is a hard-core gamer—and in recovery to boot, following a court order, a wireless ban, and months of therapy (all because of one little seven-day Internet café episode). His friend Mike—who personally prefers Japanese-console RPGs—is tasked with keeping Shesh far away from any computer with access to World of Warfare.  

    Everything's going according to plan—until a Ren Faire fangirl introduces them to the campus gaming club, where they meet Theodore, a fanatical tabletop game master whose single goal in life is to run the greatest Mages & Monsters game in the world. And there just happens to be room for two more players. Soon Shesh and Mike are dragged into the dungeon of hard-core gaming—and cops, baboon men, Sri Lankan cave roaches, and Gothémon card collectors converge in the zaniest adventure that ever involved twenty-sided dice!
Publication Date: 01/19/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Rebels and Traitors
Lindsey Davis
Synopsis: An epic novel of the turbulent English Civil War seen through the lives of those that fought for peace and struggled for love

Set against the terrible struggle of the English Civil War, Rebels and Traitors is the story of how this turbulent era effected everyone, from rich to poor, and the hopes and dreams that carried them through years of deprivation, bloodshed and terror.

When Gideon Jukes and Juliana Lovell, who are on opposites sides of the struggle, meet during one of the era’s most crucial events, their mutual attraction brings the comfort and companionship for which they both have yearned. But the flowering of radical thought collapses; its failure leads to endless plots and strange alliances. And shadows from the past threaten them individually and together in their hard-won peace.

Like Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind and John Jakes’ North and South, Lindsey Davis brings to life a turbulent time through the stories of those who struggled, fought, lived and loved on all sides of a defining and devastating time.

Publication Date: 01/19/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Historical Fiction
Freefall
Ariela Anhalt
Synopsis:

Luke was not eager to accompany his best friend, Hayden, and the cocky new kid, Russell, up to the cliff that night. The plan was to watch Russell jump off the cliff into the lake--his initiation to the Briar Academy fencing team. But instead, after an angry confrontation with Hayden, Russell falls to his death.     

     Now Hayden is in jail and the pressure is on Luke to report what he saw. But what did he see? An accident--or a murder? Luke has always followed Hayden's lead, but this is one decision he'll be forced to make on his own. And to do it, he must face the truth about his friendship with Hayden and his own painful past.

     This suspenseful and scandalous tale of rivalry, peer pressure, and finding the courage to take responsibility will have an impact on readers long after the last page.

Publication Date: 01/18/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Counterfeit Son
Elaine Marie Alphin
Synopsis: Cameron Miller is pretending to be someone he isn't. When he began presenting himself as Neil Lacey, it was the only way he could think of to distance himself from what Pop had done, to finally climb out of his nightmarish existence. He thought it would be easy--playing the rich kid, sailing his boat--but he didn't count on Cougar. Now Cougar, his father's old accomplice, has tracked Cameron down and presented an ultimatum: Share the wealth or be exposed. Will Cameron give up his new identity to protect Neil's family? Or will he let his search for a new life destroy those around him?
Publication Date: 01/18/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Juliet's Moon
Ann Rinaldi
Synopsis: War is turning Juliet Bradshaw's world upside down. Her brother, Seth, rides with William Quantrill's renegade Confederate army, but he's helpless when the Yankees arrest Juliet along with the wives and sisters of Quantrill's soldiers as spies. Imprisoned in a dilapidated old house in Kansas City, Juliet is one of a handful of survivors after the building collapses, killing most of the young girls inside. When she's reunited with her brother, Juliet finds the life she had previously known is gone. Surrounded by secrets, lies, murder, and chaos, she must determine just how far she will go to protect the people and things she holds dear.
Publication Date: 01/18/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Historical Fiction
The Ever-After Bird
Ann Rinaldi
Synopsis: Now that her father is dead, CeCe McGill is left to wonder why he risked his life for the ragged slaves who came to their door in the dead of night. When her uncle, an ornithologist, insists she accompany him to Georgia on an expedition in search of the rare scarlet ibis, CeCe is surprised to learn there's a second reason for their journey: Along the way, Uncle Alex secretly points slaves north in the direction of the Underground Railroad.
    
Set against the backdrop of the tumultuous pre-Civil War South, The Ever-After Bird is the story of a young woman's education about the horrors of slavery and the realization about the kind of person she wants to become.
Publication Date: 01/18/10
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Historical Fiction

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