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Empty Seats
Wanda Adams Fischer
Synopsis:

They were all stars in their hometowns. Then they were drafted to play minor league ball, thinking it would be an easy ride to playing in the big time. Little did they know that they’d be vying for a spot with every other talented kid who aspired to play professional baseball. Young, inexperienced, immature, and without the support of their families and friends, they’re often faced with split-second decisions. Not always on the baseball diamond.

Publication Date: 10/23/17
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Sports
Pukey Poetry: Tale Ticklers by Mz Millipede
Synopsis:

Discover the magical world of Mz Millipede! Her hilarious poems and illustrations open the hearts of children everywhere when they meet up with the likes of Toe-Jam Sam, Skink the Skouse, Gaggleburps and many more outrageously fun-filled characters.

Mz Milli is not your average millipede! Whether changing color at will, growing super tall or shrinking very small--she will surprise you on every page.

Look out for the Froogley Man who loves to nibble on kid's feet after dark--or Lollipop Preeta who will finish off more than her lollipop if you dare to ask for a bite!

This beautifully illustrated children's picture book is perfect for kids and grown-up kids. She invites you to enter her exciting world of magic... on a millipede's dare!

Publication Date: 10/21/17
Age Level: 5 - 8
Genre: Poetry
The Player King
Synopsis: “Swiftly moving and utterly engrossing.” —Shelf Awareness

Parents’ Choice Recommended

From Newbery Award–winning author Avi comes the gripping and amazingly true tale of a boy plucked from the gutter to become the King of England.

England, 1486. King Henry VII has recently snatched the English Crown and now sits on the throne, while young Prince Edward, who has a truer claim, has apparently disappeared. Meanwhile, a penniless kitchen boy named Lambert Simnel is slaving away at a tavern in Oxford—until a mysterious friar, Brother Simonds, buys Lambert from the tavern keeper and whisks him away in the dead of night. But this is nothing compared to the secret that the friar reveals: You, Lambert, are actually Prince Edward, the true King of England!

With the aid of the deceitful Earl of Lincoln, Brother Simonds sets out to teach the boy how to become the rightful English king. Lambert has everything to gain and nothing to lose, or so he thinks. Yet in this dangerous battle for the throne, Lambert is not prepared for what’s to come—or for what it really means to play at being a king.
Publication Date: 10/17/17
Age Level: 8 - 12
Genre: Historical Fiction
A Bridge in the Forest - FeyTerrah Series Book 1
Synopsis:

When impish college freshman Lily Kingman finds a secret gateway to the fairy world, her seemingly unremarkable life changes virtually overnight. In less than a week, she encounters life-threatening dangers and magical beings, discovers a family secret, and learns she is prisoner to a spell. Oh, one more thing. The fairy king commands her to lead a group of elves and fairies back to her world to bring back his missing daughter. Burdened with the knowledge that could endanger the fairy world and faced with a painful choice, Lily must accept the truth of who she is and embrace her new diplomatic role or face heartbreaking consequences.

Publication Date: 10/17/17
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Series
Tunnel of Time
Jeannie Chambers
Synopsis:

Do you think it's possible to be one place one minute, and then a completely different place the next? I'm talking a REALLY different place. My name is Gracie Hitt, and I did just that along with my sisters, Lizzie and Reba Dee. A normal Saturday at the County Fair turned out to be the most extraordinary time of our lives.

Publication Date: 10/13/17
Age Level: 8 - 12
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Josie and the Trouble with Trash
Antonia Bruno, Kenny Bruno, Beth Handman
Synopsis:

Will Josie Win the War on Waste?

Trash is piling up all over Brooklyn. Where does all this trash come from? And where does it all go? Josie and the gang become trash detectives. But this time, they have to organize their teachers too. And just as they are making progress, Josie’s brother Damien, who has been acting strangely, disappears! That leads to the biggest surprise yet in the Josie Goes Green series.

Publication Date: 10/13/17
Age Level: 8 - 12
Genre: Series
I Am Alfonso Jones
John Jennings, Stacey Robinson, Tony Medina
Synopsis: Named to the 2018 Top Ten Great Graphic Novels for Teens list (Young Adult Library Services Association) and the New York Public Library's list of Best Books for Teens.

Alfonso Jones can't wait to play the role of Hamlet in his school's hip-hop rendition of the classic Shakespearean play. He also wants to let his best friend, Danetta, know how he really feels about her. But as he is buying his first suit, an off-duty police officer mistakes a clothes hanger for a gun, and he shoots Alfonso.

When Alfonso wakes up in the afterlife, he's on a ghost train guided by well-known victims of police shootings, who teach him what he needs to know about this subterranean spiritual world. Meanwhile, Alfonso's family and friends struggle with their grief and seek justice for Alfonso in the streets. As they confront their new realities, both Alfonso and those he loves realize the work that lies ahead in the fight for justice.

In the first graphic novel for young readers to focus on police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement, as in Hamlet, the dead shall speak--and the living yield even more surprises.

Featuring a foreword by Bryan Stevenson, Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative and author of Just Mercy.
Publication Date: 10/12/17
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Paranormal
The Breathless
Tara Goedjen
Synopsis: For fans of the dark family secrets of We Were Liars and the page-turning suspense of The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, The Breathless is a haunting tale of deeply buried secrets, forbidden love, and how far some will go to bring back what’s long dead.
 
    No one knows what really happened on the beach where Roxanne Cole’s body was found, but her boyfriend, Cage, took off that night and hasn’t been seen since. Until now. One year—almost to the day—from Ro’s death, when he knocks on the door of Blue Gate Manor and asks where she is.
   Cage has no memory of the past twelve months. According to him, Ro was alive only the day before. Ro’s sister Mae wouldn’t believe him, except that something’s not right. Nothing’s been right in the house since Ro died.
    And then Mae finds the little green book. The one hidden in Ro’s room. It’s filled with secrets—dangerous secrets—about her family, and about Ro. And if what it says is true, then maybe, just maybe, Ro isn’t lost forever.
   And maybe there are secrets so dark, they should never see the light of day.

“[The Breathless] is full of secrets, dark magic, and satisfying twists and turns.”—Booklist

“Bringing together horror, romance, and tragedy in one creepy old house,…[The Breathless] will leave readers heartbroken and haunted.”—The Bulletin

“An absorbing and romantic Gothic mystery that will haunt you long after the final page.”—Kara Thomas, author of The Darkest Corners and Little Monsters
 
“Evocative and mysterious; The Breathless is rich with layered secrets and intertwined stories of love and loss.”—Sarah Tomp, author of My Best Everything.
 
“The Breathless is part magic-tinged mystery, part Southern Gothic, and part romance that chills and thrills you all at once. I couldn't put it down!”—Tara Hudson, author of the Hereafter trilogy
 
“This sultry Southern tale is drenched in atmosphere! A world of secrets, mysterious family heirlooms, and forbidden love. Get ready to be bewitched by a story where not only does the past live on . . . the dead do, too!”—Adriana Mather, New York Times bestselling author of How to Hang a Witch
Publication Date: 10/10/17
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Mystery
The Nowhere Girls
Synopsis: “A call-to-action to everyone out there who wants to fight back.” —Bustle

“Subversive anti-sexism—just try to put it down.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Cuts straight to the core of rape culture—masterfully fierce, stirring, and deeply empowering.” —Amber Smith, New York Times bestselling author of The Way I Used to Be

Three misfits come together to avenge the rape of a fellow classmate and in the process trigger a change in the misogynist culture at their high school transforming the lives of everyone around them in this searing and timely story.

Who are the Nowhere Girls?

They’re everygirl. But they start with just three:

Grace Salter is the new girl in town, whose family was run out of their former community after her southern Baptist preacher mom turned into a radical liberal after falling off a horse and bumping her head.

Rosina Suarez is the queer punk girl in a conservative Mexican immigrant family, who dreams of a life playing music instead of babysitting her gaggle of cousins and waitressing at her uncle’s restaurant.

Erin Delillo is obsessed with two things: marine biology and Star Trek: The Next Generation, but they aren’t enough to distract her from her suspicion that she may in fact be an android.

When Grace learns that Lucy Moynihan, the former occupant of her new home, was run out of town for having accused the popular guys at school of gang rape, she’s incensed that Lucy never had justice. For their own personal reasons, Rosina and Erin feel equally deeply about Lucy’s tragedy, so they form an anonymous group of girls at Prescott High to resist the sexist culture at their school, which includes boycotting sex of any kind with the male students.

Told in alternating perspectives, this groundbreaking novel is an indictment of rape culture and explores with bold honesty the deepest questions about teen girls and sexuality.
Publication Date: 10/10/17
Age Level: Adult
Genre: Fiction
Mr. Lemoncello's Great Library Race
Synopsis: #1 New York Times bestselling author Chris Grabenstein is back with the third fantastically fun, puzzle-packed MR. LEMONCELLO adventure!
 
On your marks. Get set. Lemon, cello, GO!
 
Everyone’s favorite game maker, Mr. Lemoncello, is testing out his new FABULOUS FACT-FINDING FRENZY game! If Kyle can make it through the first round, he and the other lucky finalists will go on a great race—by bicycle, bookmobile, and even Mr. Lemoncello’s corporate banana jet!—to find fascinating facts about famous Americans. The first to bring their facts back to the library will win spectacular prizes! But when a few surprising “facts” surface about Mr. Lemoncello, it might be GO TO JAIL and LOSE A TURN all at once! Could Kyle’s hero be a fraud? It’s winner take all, so Kyle and the other kids will have to dig deep to find out the truth before the GAME is OVER for Mr. Lemoncello and his entire fantastic empire!
 
Filled with brand-new puzzles and games (including a hidden bonus puzzle!), this fast-paced read will have gamers and readers alike racing to the finish line because, like Mr. Lemoncello’s commercials say, IS IT FUN? . . . HELLO! IT’S A LEMONCELLO!
 
* “An ode to libraries and literature that is a worthy successor to the original madman puzzle-master himself, Willy Wonka.” —Booklist, Starred, on Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library
 
“Just as much of an adventure as the first.” —The Washington Post, on Mr. Lemoncello’s Library Olympics
Publication Date: 10/10/17
Age Level: 8 - 12
Genre: Mystery
More Girls Who Rocked the World
David Hahn, Michelle Roehm McCann
Synopsis: From the inspiring author of Girls Who Rocked the World comes another comprehensive collection of true, inspiring profiles of successful young women throughout history who made their mark on the world before turning twenty.

Young women today crave strong, independent role models to look to for motivation. In the follow-up to the bestseller Girls Who Rocked the World, More Girls Who Rocked the World offers a fun and uplifting collection of influential stories with forty-five more movers and shakers who made a difference before turning twenty.

From Annie Oakley and Queen Victoria to Malala Yousafzai and Adele—each with her own incredible story of how she created life-changing opportunities for herself and the world—you’ll get to know these capable queens of empires and courageous icons of entertainment. Also included are profiles of gutsy teenagers who are out there rocking the world right now and personal aspirations from today’s young women.
Publication Date: 10/03/17
Age Level: 8 - 12
Genre: Historical Nonfiction
Ahimsa
Supriya Kelkar
Synopsis:

In 1942, when Mahatma Gandhi asks Indians to give one family member to the freedom movement, ten-year-old Anjali is devastated to think of her father risking his life for the freedom struggle.

But it turns out he isn't the one joining. Anjali's mother is. And with this change comes many more adjustments designed to improve their country and use "ahimsa"--non-violent resistance--to stand up to the British government. First the family must trade in their fine foreign-made clothes for homespun cotton, so Anjali has to give up her prettiest belongings. Then her mother decides to reach out to the Dalit community, the "untouchables" of society. Anjali is forced to get over her past prejudices as her family becomes increasingly involved in the movement.

When Anjali's mother is jailed, Anjali must step out of her comfort zone to take over her mother's work, ensuring that her little part of the independence movement is completed.

Inspired by her great-grandmother's experience working with Gandhi, New Visions Award winner Supriya Kelkar shines a light on the Indian freedom movement in this poignant debut.

Publication Date: 10/02/17
Age Level: 8 - 12
Genre: Historical Fiction
On The Free
Coert Voorhees
Synopsis: Santi agreed to join the Bear Canyon Wilderness Therapy Program for one reason: less time in juvie. Amelia signed up to prove a point. Victor--well, no one can figure out why Victor's on the trip, but he's definitely not out to make friends. After a mudslide sweeps away other campers, the trio is left stranded in the Colorado wilderness and short on supplies. They'll have to band together to survive the elements, their demons, and each other.
Publication Date: 10/01/17
Age Level: Mature Young Adult
Genre: Fiction
Paper Butterflies
Lisa Heathfield
Synopsis: June's life at home with her stepmother and stepsister is a dark one—and a secret one. Not even her dad knows the truth, and she can't find the words to tell anyone else. She's trapped like a butterfly in a net. Then June meets Blister, a boy from a large, loving, chaotic family. In him, she finds a glimmer of hope that perhaps she can find a way to fly far, far away. Because she deserves her freedom. Doesn't she?
Publication Date: 10/01/17
Age Level: Mature Young Adult
Genre: Fiction
The Shanghai Incident (Master Diplexito and Mr. Scant)
Synopsis: The pursuit of an international crime syndicate sends British vigilante butler Mr. Scant and his protégé Oliver Diplexito on a globe-hopping trip. After defeating a sinister secret society in Oliver's home country of England, the unlikely pair has arrived in Paris, searching for Mr. Scant's missing niece. What they discover are hints of a conspiracy that leads them all the way to Shanghai, China. Each clue they find only leads to more questions. That is, until Mr. Scant, Oliver, and their allies realize they're the only hope of stopping a plot against China's child emperor.
Publication Date: 10/01/17
Age Level: 8 - 12
Genre: Mystery
Black Dragons Attack: A Nick Grant Adventure - Book Four
Synopsis:

Book IV. The Black Dragons are back! After their last run in, Nick Grant believes his nemesis, Toshio Miyazaki, is dead. Determined to leave the spy games behind, Nick starts a new life as a Naval Aviation Cadet. During training, famous aviator and movie producer, Howard Hughes, lures Midshipman Grant into a mock dogfight. Afterwards Hughes offers Nick a pilot job. Nick’s college dreams stand in the way, and he turns Hughes down. However, their paths cross again in an unexpected way.

In 1936 the Black Dragons, working for the Japanese Intelligence Service, remain active in California and have a new partner, the Third Reich! Agents from both countries team up in their most audacious plan yet—steal the Hughes H-1 racer. Their plan—use the cutting edge technology to develop the world’s most advanced fighter aircraft.

The Japanese plan goes awry when US Naval Counterintelligence becomes aware of their activities. Commander Boltz assigns Nick and Senior Chief Ellis to guard the airfield until the FBI can take over. Together, they foil the Black Dragons’ attempt to steal the H-1 plans but the Japanese regroup with an even more sinister plan. They grab a hostage and demand that Nick deliver the H-1 technical plans and the Navy’s Top Secret Pacific War Plans.

When the Black Dragons attack, it’s up to Nick and friends to turn the tables, retrieve the stolen goods and a fabled katana. Join Nick Grant, Nancy Tanaka, and Leilani Porta in their latest adventure, Black Dragons Attack!

Publication Date: 09/30/17
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Historical Fiction

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