Synopsis: In a small river village where the water is cursed, a girl’s bravery could mean the difference between life and death in this magical story of “perseverance and hope” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) from the author of Parched and Audacity.

Along a lively river, in a village raised on stilts, lives a girl named Luna. All her life she has heard tales of the time before the dam appeared, when sprites danced in the currents and no one got the mysterious wasting illness from a mouthful of river water. These are just stories, though—no sensible person would believe in such things.

Beneath the waves is someone who might disagree. Perdita is a young water sprite, delighting in the wet splash and sparkle, and sad about the day her people will finally finish building their door to another world, in search of a place that humans have not yet discovered.

But when Luna’s little sister falls ill with the river sickness, everyone knows she has only three weeks to live. Luna is determined to find a cure for her beloved sister, no matter what it takes. Even if that means believing in magic…

Synopsis: Ginger must save her high-tech hometown from robots gone rogue in this “quirky, dryly funny” (Booklist) science fiction novel from National Book Award–winning author Pete Hautman.

Welcome to Flinkwater, Iowa, home of the largest manufacturer of Articulated Computerized Peripheral Devices in the world. If you own a robot, it probably came from Flinkwater.

Meet Ginger Crump, the plucky, precocious (and somewhat sarcastic) genius who finds herself in the middle of a national emergency when Flinkwater’s computers start turning people into vegetables. Mental vegetables, that is. In Ginger’s words, they’ve been “bonked.”

When Ginger’s father is bonked, she recruits her self-declared future husband, boy genius Billy George, to help her find the source of the bonkings. Soon they’re up against a talking dog, a sasquatch, and a zombie, while Flinkwater is invaded by an army of black SUVs led by the witless-but-dangerous Agent Ffelps from Homeland Security. Can Ginger get to the bottom of the bonkings, or will computer chaos reign forever?

Synopsis: When Jason and his friends form a garage band, they call it "No Frills" because they want to keep it real—even when they enter a band contest and pressures to alter their image mount. Then one day, due to a close encounter with lightning, Jason's life changes in a big way—but is he magically cooler or is it just his perception?

As he goes from blah to cool, his head swells as he takes his fifteen minutes of fame too seriously. His too-busy mother and fortune-telling grandmother don't get through to him. Even maybe-more-than-a-friend Layla is ready to give up on Jason, especially when he starts flirting with much-older Mindy. Only a rescued kitten keeps him even remotely grounded. It isn't until he loses the friendships with the band mates he once counted on that he realizes he has a major problem, and he worries it might be too late to fix it.

Synopsis: Everything has changed…

Six months after graduating from high school, nothing in Bennett Park is like it used to be. Zay and Chapel aren’t together. Timmy won’t speak to anyone. Erica is acting strange. Jackson is missing. The factions have been disbanded. And Todd Taylor is President of The Invisibles.

Then, when two of her former enemies combine forces, someone Chapel loves is put in grave danger once again.

On Chapel’s quest for justice, relationships are tested, allegiances are revealed, and the most shocking secret of all is exposed.

In the end, Chapel will have a choice to make – honor or love? Her decision will change the lives of those around her forever.

Synopsis: In 1750, Thomas Gunn, along with three friends, join the Hudson's Bay Company and sail from Stromness on the Orkney Islands of northern Scotland to York Factory fort on Hudson's Bay. They believe they are starting a new and exciting life in what is called Rupert's Land, but tragedy follows them, striking for the first time on the ship. At the fort Thomas finds his older brother, Edward, who had joined four years earlier. He also meets Little Bird, sister of Edward's wife, and her family.

During the first year Thomas takes part in the goose and duck hunts, the fishing, the woodcutting, Guy Fawkes Day, the Christmas celebrations, and the burial of a friend. He also deals with the snowfall, the cold, the boredom, and a suicide, and learns how to survive in the lonely and sometimes inhospitable land.

Five Star Review from Amazon Canada
I can't imagine many boys at fifteen years of age leaving their families to go work overseas in a foreign land on the other side of the world for five years. Yet they did in the 1700's. So begins Thomas Gunn's journey into manhood. Meanwhile native girl, Little Bird, is old enough to become married and must begin picking a husband soon and starting her family, only none of the native men appeal to her. So begins the love between these two, what we would call kids today, but back then were already adults in a harsh world that left no room for the weak. Joan does excellent at portraying the two very different worlds, both long gone and the bitter reality of the 1700's and even better at the blossoming love between Little Bird and Thomas. A must read for historical buffs, be prepared to be thrust into a past that created strong characters, where survival was never remotely guaranteed and where finding your true love even harder.

Synopsis: Arella is an outcast in her tribe, white skinned and silver haired, bright purple eyes and a strong will, while the others are dark skinned and passive. She longs to be free of the chains of society, but does not realize the dangers of this. Arella will soon come to find that the real world is not so easy to live with... When she starts finding animals in the forest poisoned by arrows, she knows she must do something, but what? Will she find who is doing it? And will she be able to stop them without losing her own life...?

'The auron cat stands in front of Arella, big yellow eyes looking up at her and huffs. She is within touching distance, yet Arella no longer fears her. Arella drops to her knees and the auron cat is now taller than her. She looks the great cat in the eyes, and the cat stares back at her. Arella extends her right hand towards to cat. She pulls back slightly, looking at the hand, the presses her face into it, closes her eyes and relaxes. A flood of feeling pass through Arella. Her first though is that this is amazing. The power this cat possess is immense, and Arella can feel all of her strength and power in that one touch, but she is saddened by the knowledge the she will need to end the life of the beautiful creature. The cat seems to know this fact, and her eyes fix of the hilt of the dagger in Arella’s boot, then looks Arella in the eyes again. “You know I don’t want to do this right?” Arella says to the great cat. She just stares at Arella and purrs. Her purr is broken and stuttered. Tears begin to form in Arella’s eyes. “But what about your kitten?” Arella asks. The auron cat presses her face into Arella’s hand and something strange happens. Arella closes her eyes and an image appears in the blackness. Arella is holding the kitten in her arms and walking back through the forest towards her tree house. The image then changes and Arella is walking through the woods with that same kitten, except now the kitten is not a kitten but a full grown auron. When Arella comes out of the semi-dream the cat inflicted on her, she is breathless and dizzy. “You want me to look after him? Help him grow up?” Arella is confused. “But why me?” The cat does not answer, she only looks at the dagger with intent. A tear falls from Arella’s eye, wetting her cheek and falling to the ground. “I don’t know how to do this.” Arella’s voice breaks as she talks. The great auron cat seems to answer this question for her. She lies herself on the ground on her side and purrs softly.
Arella takes the bloodglass dagger in her shaking hand, aims it at the auron cats chest and pauses. She takes one last look into the eyes of the cat and with tears clouding her vision, drives it into her heart. The cat winces with the pain, takes one last breath then passes away. Arella pulls the dagger from her dead body, drops it on the floor and weeps for the life she has just took.'

Synopsis: Sixteen-year-old Farris Barnett is a girl with a big heart and a mouth to match. Recently relocated to sunny North Carolina, she’s all too pleased to be leaving her old life—and the stigma of her troubled past—behind her. A new school, new friends, and not one but two hot guys vying for her attention, life certainly doesn’t suck. But just as things seem to finally be going her way, a series of computer hacks puts her newfound happiness—and the lives of the people she loves—in jeopardy.

Farris must put her amateur sleuthing skills to work and uncover the identity of the person behind it all before they graduate from harmless tampering to all out murder, even if it means risking her own life in the process. And unfortunately for Farris, the guy she’s falling for just happens to be the prime suspect.