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Manolito Four-Eyes
Emilio Urberuaga, Elvira Lindo
Synopsis: The unforgettable Manolito Four-Eyes is back. So are his equally unforgettable family and friends, including the Bozo (his favorite and only little brother), Big Ears (his best friend, even though he’s a dog traitor), Ozzy (the biggest bully in the worldwide world), and his grandfather (Manolito’s unconditional ally).
Publication Date: 04/01/09
Age Level: 8 - 12
Genre: Fiction
The Unknowns
Benedict Carey
Synopsis: In a trailer park called Adjacent, next to the Folsom Energy Plant, people have started to vanish, and no one seems to care. At first Lady Di and her best friend, Tom Jones, barely notice the disappearances―until their beloved math tutor, Mrs. Clarke, is abducted, too. Mrs. Clarke has left them clues in the form of math equations that lead them all over the trailer park, through hidden tunnels under “Mount Trashmore,” and into the Folsom Energy Plant itself, where Lady Di and Tom Jones and a gang of other misfits uncover the sordid truth about what’s really happening there. F&P level: Y
Publication Date: 04/01/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Mystery
The Girls
Tucker Shaw
Synopsis: Meet Mary: She’s beautiful, and her ski-star boyfriend is cheating on her.
 
Meet Crystal: She’s a townie, and she’s cheating with Mary’s boyfriend.
 
Meet Sylvia: She’s nasty, and she’s got something up her Prada-designed sleeve.
 
Meet Amber: She’s a flake, she’s the barista at the hottest coffee shop in Aspen, and she serves up gossip even hotter than grande skim lattes.
 
Meet Peggy: She’s Mary’s best friend, and she has no idea how to cope with all these girls.
 
A modern retelling of the classic play The Women (which featured not one male in the cast), The Girls is a quick-witted, stylish comedy about friendship, love, and most important, gossip! An elite Aspen prep school sets the stage for jealousy and intrigue as the lives of many girls tangle into a wickedly fun mess (in which no boys ever appear).

F&P level: Z+
Publication Date: 04/01/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Chick Lit
Watersmeet
Ellen Jensen Abbott
Synopsis: From her birth, Abisina has been outcast--for the color of her eyes and skin, and for her lack of a father. Only her mother's status as the village healer has kept her safe. But when a mythic leader arrives, Abisina's life is ripped apart. She escapes alone to try to find the father and the home she has never known. In a world of extremes, from the deepest prejudice to the greatest bonds of duty and loyalty, Abisina must find her own way and decide where her true hope lies.
Publication Date: 04/01/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Emma Dilemma and the Camping Nanny
Abby Carter, Patricia Hermes
Synopsis: Instead of spending free time with Emma and her family, Annie the nanny chooses to spend it with Bo. They have signed up for Irish dance class on Sunday nights, and Bo seems to show up whenever Annie has an evening off. To make matters worse, Emma’s mother has invited "The boyfriend" to come along on a family camping trip. Emma has another problem, too. Her best friend, Luisa, has been spending time with her worst friend, Kate. No wonder Emma is feeling a bit lonely. Betrayed, even.

How is Emma going to solve both dilemmas? Will she come out on top and a little wiser, as she always has before?
Publication Date: 04/01/09
Age Level: 8 - 12
Genre: Fiction
Lost
Jacqueline Davies
Synopsis: Essie can tell from the moment she lays eyes on Harriet Abbott: this is a woman who has taken a wrong turn in life. Why else would an educated, well-dressed, clearly upper-crust girl end up in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory setting sleeves for six dollars a day? But Harriet isn’t the only one who is lost. Essie wanders between the opposing emotions of her love for the young would-be lawyer who lives next door and her hatred for her mother who seems determined to take away every bit of happiness that Essie hopes to find. As the unlikely friendship between Essie and Harriet grows, so does the weight of the question hanging between them: Who is lost? And who will be found?

This is a powerful novel about friendship, loss, and the resiliency of the human spirit, set against the backdrop of the teeming crowds and scrappy landscape of the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the early 1900s.
Publication Date: 04/01/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Creature of the Night
Kate Thompson
Synopsis:

A HOUSE WITH A SECRET

An unanswered question: Who is the Creature in the Night?

Bobby lives a reckless life smoking, drinking, and stealing cars in Dublin. So his mother moves thefamily to the country. But Bobby suspects their cottage might not be as quaint as it seems. Teens will be captivated by this spooky novel about the darkness that lurks in forgotten corners and tough teenagers.

Publication Date: 03/31/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Paranormal
Magic Strikes
Ilona Andrews
Synopsis: When magic strikes and Atlanta goes to pieces, it’s a job for mercenary Kate Daniels in this thrilling novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling series.

Drafted into working for the Order of Merciful Aid, mercenary Kate Daniels has more paranormal problems than she knows what to do with these days. And in Atlanta, where magic comes and goes like the tide, that’s saying a lot.

But when Kate's werewolf friend Derek is discovered nearly dead, she must confront her greatest challenge yet. As her investigation leads her to the Midnight Games—an invitation only, no holds barred, ultimate preternatural fighting tournament—she and Curran, the Lord of the Beasts, uncover a dark plot that may forever alter the face of Atlanta's shapeshifting community...
Publication Date: 03/31/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fantasy
Darling Jim
Christian Moerk
Synopsis:

A modern gothic novel of suspense that reveals, through their diaries, the story of sisters who fall in love with a beguiling stranger, and of the town that turns a blind eye to his murderous ways

When two sisters and their aunt are found dead in their suburban Dublin home, it seems that the secret behind their untimely demise will never be known. But then Niall, a young mailman, finds a mysterious diary in the post office’s dead-letter bin. From beyond the grave, Fiona Walsh shares the most tragic love story he’s ever heard—and her tale has only just begun.

Niall soon becomes enveloped by the mystery surrounding itinerant storyteller Jim, who traveled through Ireland enrapturing audiences and wooing women with his macabre mythic narratives. Captivated by Jim, townspeople across Ireland thought it must be a sad coincidence that horrific murders trailed him wherever he went—and they failed to connect that the young female victims, who were smitten by the newest bad boy in town, bore an all too frightening similarity to the victims in Jim’s own fictional plots.

The Walsh sisters, fiercely loyal to one another, were not immune to “darling” Jim’s powers of seduction, but found themselves in harm’s way when they began to uncover his treacherous past. Niall must now continue his dangerous hunt for the truth—and for the vanished third sister—while there’s still time. And in the woods, the wolves from Jim’s stories begin to gather.

Publication Date: 03/31/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Mystery
Cold Hands, Warm Heart
Jill Wolfson
Synopsis:

Dani was born with her heart on the wrong side of her body. In her fifteen years of life, she's had more doctor's appointments, X-rays, and tests, and eaten more green hospital Jell-O than she cares to think about. Fourteen-year-old Amanda is a competitive gymnast, her body a small package of sleek muscles, in perfect health. The two girls don't know each other, don't go to the same school, don't have any friends in common. But their lives are about to collide.

Acclaimed author Jill Wolfson tackles this fascinating story with her trademark honesty and wit.

Publication Date: 03/31/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Smoke
Mavis Jukes
Synopsis: When Colton’s mom tells him that they’re moving from Idaho Falls to northern California, Colt is sad, but he takes it like a man. At least he’ll have one friend to keep him company – Smoke, the twenty-pound black Maine coon cat that Colt’s dad gave him when he was little. With his dad gone most of the year riding bulls on the rodeo circuit, sometimes it feels like Smoke is their only connection. So when Smoke doesn’t come home after Colt lets him out in the middle of the night, nothing else in Colt’s world seems to matter anymore. But on the dark and stormy evening when Colt sets off alone to find his missing cat, he’s in for more danger than even the son of a fearless bull rider could have dreamed of.

A captivating look at cowboys, courage, and community, this is a tender tale about family and friends pulling together, and what it really means to be a man.
Publication Date: 03/31/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
Skunk Girl
Sheba Karim
Synopsis:

If Nina Khan were to rate herself on the unofficial Pakistani prestige point system – the one she's sure all the aunties and uncles use to determine the most attractive marriage prospects for their children – her scoring might go something like this:

+2 points for getting excellent grades
–3 points for failing to live up to expectations set by genius older sister
+4 points for dutifully obeying parents and never, ever going to parties, no matter how antisocial that makes her seem to everyone at Deer Hook High
–1 point for harboring secret jealousy of her best friends, who are allowed to date like normal teenagers
+2 points for never drinking an alcoholic beverage
–10 points for obsessing about Asher Richelli, who talks to Nina like she's not a freak at all, even though he knows that she has a disturbing line of hair running down her back

In this wryly funny debut novel, the smart, sassy, and utterly lovable Nina Khan tackles friends, family, and love, and learns that it's possible to embrace two very different cultures – even if things can get a little bit, well, hairy.

Publication Date: 03/31/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Ink Exchange
Melissa Marr
Synopsis:

The second installment in Melissa Marr’s #1 New York Times bestselling Wicked Lovely series brings readers back to the land of faerie and delivers another stunning, high-stakes romance.

Unbeknownst to mortals, a power struggle is unfolding in a world of shadows and danger. After centuries of stability, the balance among the Faery Courts has altered, and Irial, ruler of the Dark Court, is battling to hold his rebellious and newly vulnerable fey together. If he fails, bloodshed and brutality will follow.

Seventeen-year-old Leslie knows nothing of faeries or their intrigues. When she is attracted to an eerily beautiful tattoo of eyes and wings, all she knows is that she has to have it, convinced it is a tangible symbol of changes she desperately craves for her own life.

The tattoo does bring changes—not the kind Leslie has dreamed of, but sinister, compelling changes that are more than symbolic. Those changes will bind Leslie and Irial together, drawing Leslie deeper and deeper into the faery world, unable to resist its allures, and helpless to withstand its perils. . .

Publication Date: 03/31/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fantasy
Leaving Glorytown
Eduardo F. Calcines
Synopsis:

Eduardo F. Calcines was a child of Fidel Castro's Cuba; he was just three years old when Castro came to power in January 1959. After that, everything changed for his family and his country. When he was ten, his family applied for an exit visa to emigrate to America and he was ridiculed by his schoolmates and even his teachers for being a traitor to his country. But even worse, his father was sent to an agricultural reform camp to do hard labor as punishment for daring to want to leave Cuba. During the years to come, as he grew up in Glorytown, a neighborhood in the city of Cienfuegos, Eduardo hoped with all his might that their exit visa would be granted before he turned fifteen, the age at which he would be drafted into the army.

In this absorbing memoir, by turns humorous and heartbreaking, Eduardo Calcines recounts his boyhood and chronicles the conditions that led him to wish above all else to leave behind his beloved extended family and his home for a chance at a better future.

Publication Date: 03/31/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Biography
Soldier Mom
Alice Mead
Synopsis:

Jasmyn Williams is shocked and angry when her mother, a member of the Army Reserve, is called up for service during the Persian Gulf War. While Jas comes to understand that her mother has to do her job, she wonders, should a mother have a job that might require abandoning her children?

"Jasmyn's ready for her big seventh-grade season in basketball . . . when her home life bounces out of control . . . There's an emotional impact here that will resound with other youngsters making sacrifices." – The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

Publication Date: 03/31/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Color of Earth
Dong Hwa Kim, Dong Hwa Kim
Synopsis:

First love is never easy.

Ehwa grows up helping her widowed mother run the local tavern, watching as their customers – both neighbors and strangers – look down on her mother for her single lifestyle. Their social status isolates Ehwa and her mother from the rest of the people in their quiet country village. But as she gets older and sees her mother fall in love again, Ehwa slowly begins to open up to the possibility of love in her life.

In the tradition of My Antonia and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, from the pen of the renowned Korean manwha creator Kim Dong Hwa, comes a trilogy about a girl coming of age, set in the vibrant, beautiful landscape of pastoral Korea.

Publication Date: 03/31/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction

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