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Urban Falcon
Jennifer Caloyeras
Synopsis: This is not how it was supposed be. Evan was all set to finish his high school years at Elbow Creek High, pursuing his passion for photography in the small town where he grew up. But mid-junior year, his Dad's job forced the family to move to Lincoln Heights, a booming metropolis - a city one could get lost in. Now his best friend Denny won't even talk to him and something suspicious is going on with his Mom. When Evan's worst fears are confirmed, he starts acting out in ways he never thought possible. Caught between who he used to be and the possibility of who he could become, he's thrown into a world of dating, out of control parties and family drama. Evan Falcon learns more about himself than he ever though possible.
Publication Date: 09/01/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Arizona: Book One
Tanja Bauerle, Lisa M. Cottrell-Bentley
Synopsis: Announcing Book #1 in the first series about a homeschooling family. The Wrights travel the USA in an RV. Each month brings them to a new state with a new educational theme to explore and play with. They prove that learning can happen all the time, anywhere, and that being with family is fun! Meet Aidan, age 7: Boisterous and joking all the time, this sporty boy knows how to have fun! Meet Nadia, age 11: Curious and fiery, this intellectual girl can always find out answers to even the most difficult questions. Meet their parents: Harrison, a writer and linguist expert, and Stephanie, a telecommuting computer expert; ready to adventure with their children. Meet Prince Pumpkin III, turtle extraordinaire: This 50 year old little guy is holding on tight, as the family RV and a mysterious device take him on an adventure no turtle has ever gone on before. Explore an Arizona desert cave with the Wrights as they begin their trip. What will Aidan and Nadia discover? This series is Wright on Time.
Publication Date: 08/27/09
Age Level: 8 - 12
Genre: Series
Qualities Of Light
Mary Carroll Moore
Synopsis: "Explores the budding of unexpected romance in the face of family tragedy, the forging of a new relationship between a daughter and her gifted, difficult parents, and an adolescent girl's confrontation with her own qualities of light and darkness." -- taken from back cover.
Publication Date: 08/25/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Ninja Girls
Hosana Tanaka
Synopsis: NINJA LOVE!

The horn growing from Raizo’s forehead is proof that he’s the lost illegitimate son of the once-mighty Katana family. Now a band of loyal and lovely female ninjas devises a scheme to elevate their newfound master to greatness. But does this shy outcast have what it takes to rule the kingdom and deal with a bevy of beautiful ninja girls?

Includes special extras after the story!
Publication Date: 08/25/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fantasy
Four-Eyed Prince
Wataru Mizukami
Synopsis: SECRET CRUSH

Sachiko is wildly attracted to the quiet, cool Akihiko, the “Four-Eyed Prince.” But now they’ve become siblings by marriage–and must live under the same roof, as brother and sister! And if that isn’t bad enough, it turns out that Akihiko is hiding a surprise behind those nerdy glasses.

Includes special extras after the story!
Publication Date: 08/25/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Manga/Graphic Novel
The Secret Saturdays
Cartoon Network
Synopsis: Monster Hunt!


Zak Saturday and the first family of cryptozoology–the Secret Saturdays–are about to set off on an action-packed adventure! Zak and his parents, Doc and Drew, must rely on their powers and their knowledge of cryptids to stop the nefarious V. V. Argost from recovering the dreadful Kur stone. But can they stop him before he unleashes an ancient evil on the world?
Publication Date: 08/25/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Manga/Graphic Novel
Beating Heart
A. M. Jenkins
Synopsis:

She haunts his dreams.

She is a momentary chill in warm sunlight, a shadow, and a memory of secret kisses and hidden passion. He is seventeen, and ever since he moved into this house he has dreamt of her . . . hot, wordless dreams that turn darker and more intense every night. Ghost and boy fascinate each other—until her memories and his desire collide in a moment that changes them both forever.

Publication Date: 08/25/09
Age Level: Mature Young Adult
Genre: Romance
Cycler
Lauren McLaughlin
Synopsis: “It will keep pages turning.”—Chicago Tribune

As far as anyone at her high school knows, Jill McTeague is an average smart girl trying to get her dream date to ask her to the prom. But what no one knows, except for Jill’s mom and dad, is that for the four days Jill is out of school each month, she is not Jill at all. She is Jack, a genuine boy—complete with all the parts—who lives his four days of the cycle in the solitude of Jill’s room. But Jack’s personality has been building over the years since the cycling began. He is growing less and less content with his confinement and his cycles are more frequent. Now Jill’s question about prom isn’t about who she will go with, but who will she be when the big night arrives?

“The narrative toggles back and forth between Jill’s and Jack’s points of view, comically detailing the problems you can get into when you’re half boy and half girl, including what happens when the boy falls for the girl’s best friend.”—The New York Times
Publication Date: 08/25/09
Age Level: Mature Young Adult
Genre: Fiction
The Stone Child
Dan Poblocki
Synopsis: What if the monsters from your favorite horror books were real?

Eddie Fennicks has always been a loner, content to lose himself in a mystery novel by his favorite author, Nathaniel Olmstead. That’s why moving to the small town of Gatesweed becomes a dream come true when Eddie discovers that Olmstead lived there before mysteriously disappearing thirteen years ago. Even better, Eddie finds a handwritten, never-before-seen Nathaniel Olmstead book printed in code and befriends Harris, who’s as much an Olmsteady as he is. But then the frightening creatures of Olmstead’s books begin to show up in real life, and Eddie’s dream turns into a nightmare. Eddie, Harris, and their new friend, Maggie, must break Olmstead’s code, banish all gremlins and monster lake-dogs from the town of Gatesweed, and solve the mystery of the missing author, all before Eddie’s mom finishes
writing her own tale of terror and brings to life the scariest creature of all.
Publication Date: 08/25/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
Gone From These Woods
Donny Bailey Seagraves
Synopsis: I didn't want to go hunting with Uncle Clay that morning. Now I have to live with what happened for the rest of my life. It was just an accident. The rabbit ran away. Clay fell.

Nothing has been the same for Daniel since that morning in the woods when Uncle Clay went down. Mom tries to hold the family together. Mrs. Hardy, Daniel’s guidance counselor, tries to help Daniel after he loses his role model and best friend. Daniel’s alcoholic father just makes the situation worse. The memory of that cold morning will stay with Daniel forever. But somehow, he must find a way to go on . . . for Uncle Clay . . . and most of all, for himself.
Publication Date: 08/25/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Love is the Higher Law
David Levithan
Synopsis: Bestselling author David Levithan (Every Day; Boy Meets Boy; Will Grayson, Will Grayson with John Green) treats the tragic events of September 11th with care and compassion in this novel of loss and grief, but also of hope and redemption.
 
First there is a Before, and then there is an After. . . .

The lives of three teens—Claire, Jasper, and Peter—are altered forever on September 11, 2001. Claire, a high school junior, has to get to her younger brother in his classroom. Jasper, a college sophomore from Brooklyn, wakes to his parents’ frantic calls from Korea, wondering if he’s okay. Peter, a classmate of Claire’s, has to make his way back to school as everything happens around him.

Here are three teens whose intertwining lives are reshaped by this catastrophic event. As each gets to know the other, their moments become wound around each other’s in a way that leads to new understandings, new friendships, and new levels of awareness for the world around them and the people close by.

David Levithan has written a novel of loss and grief, but also one of hope and redemption aAs histhe characters slowly learn to move forward in their lives, despite being changed forever, one rule remains: love is indeed the higher law.
 
A MARGARET A. EDWARDS AWARD WINNER
Publication Date: 08/25/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Star Trek: The Never-ending Sacrifice
Synopsis:
Continuing the post-television Deep Space Nine saga, this original novel shows the fall of the Cardassian empire as seen through the eyes of a young man with a foot in two worlds.

Rugal is an orphaned Cardassian who has been raised by the people his race once conquered, the Bajorans. Reluctantly repatriated to Cardassia as a teenager, Rugal becomes the living witness to the downfall of the proud people to whom he was born, first by the invading Klingons, then during the Cardassians’ unholy pact with the Dominion—a partnership that culminated in a near-genocide. Through it all, Rugal’s singular perspective illuminates the choices that brought the Cardassians to their ruin...even as he learns that the Cardassian soul is not as easy to understand as he imagined.
Publication Date: 08/25/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Series
Diary of a Witness
Catherine Ryan Hyde
Synopsis: One day, something’s going to snap. . . .

Ernie doesn't have a lot of friends at school. Just Will. They have stuff in common—like fishing. But more important, they have common enemies: the school jocks, who seem to find bullying just another sport.

For the most part, Ernie and Will take life at high school in stride. Until Will has one very bad day. Now nothing is remotely funny. Ernie finds himself a witness—to loss, to humiliation, and to Will’s anger—an anger that’s building each and every moment.

Ernie doesn’t want to believe his best friend is changing, but he can’t deny the truth. Soon he has a choice: join or die. Or can he find another way?

Praise for The Day I Killed James:
“Teens who have experienced crushing rejection or who have laughed at the ardent feelings of a classmate will devour this original, gripping story.”—Kirkus Reviews
Publication Date: 08/25/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Recycler
Lauren McLaughlin
Synopsis: How do you grow up, if who you are keeps changing?

Jill McTeague is not your average high school graduate, she’s a scientific anomaly. Every month for four days she turns into Jack, a guy—complete with all the parts. Now everyone in her hometown knows that something very weird is up with her. So what’s a girl (and a guy) to do? Get the heck out of town, that’s what! With her kooky best friend, Ramie, Jill sets out for New York City. There both she and Jack will have to figure out everything from the usual (relationships) to the not so usual (career options for a “cycler,” anyone?).

As in Cycler, the first book featuring Jack and Jill, author Lauren McLaughlin deftly weaves the downright mundane with the outright bizarre in a story that, while defying classification, is peopled with characters that readers can fully relate to.

“The sort of book that makes your eyes widen and that you don’t want to put down.”—Bookavore
Publication Date: 08/25/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Series
Dark of the Moon
Rachel Hawthorne
Synopsis:

I've loved him forever, but he can never be mine.

brittany is determined to prove herself to the Dark Guardians. And yet she's been keeping a devastating secret: She hasn't experienced any of the intense, early signs of change that mark a Dark Guardian's transformation. The only intense feelings she has are for Connor—and she's kept that a secret, too. But she knows she'll never truly have Connor's love if she's not a Shifter like him.

At the first full moon after her birthday, her greatest fear is realized: She doesn't transform. Brittany is so desperate to become a wolf that she'll go to extremes she never thought possible . . . and put all the Dark Guardians in incredible danger.

Publication Date: 08/25/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Locust and the Bird: My Mother's Story
Synopsis: “One of the most daring female writers of the Middle East” (San Francisco Chronicle) gives us an extraordinary work of nonfiction: an account of her mother’s remarkable life, at the core of which is a tale of undying love.

In a masterly act of literary transformation, Hanan al-Shaykh re-creates the dramatic life of her mother, Kamila, in Kamila’s own voice. We enter 1930s Beirut through the eyes of the unschooled but irrepressibly spirited nine-year-old child who arrives there from a small village in southern Lebanon. We see her drawn to the excitements of the city, to the thrill of the cinema, and, most powerfully, to Mohammed, the young man who will be the love of her life.

Despite a forced marriage at the age of thirteen to a much older man, despite the two daughters she bears him (one of them the author), despite the scandal and embarrassment she brings to her family, Kamila continues to see Mohammed. Finally, after nearly a decade, her husband gives her a divorce, but she must leave her children behind

The Locust and the Bird is both a tribute to a strong-willed and independent woman and a heartfelt critique of a mother whose decision were unorthodox and often controversial. As the narrative unfolds through the years (Kamila died in 2001) we follow this passionate, strong, demanding, and captivating woman as she survives the tragedies and celebrates the triumphs of a life lived to the very fullest.
Publication Date: 08/25/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Biography

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