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The Lost Fleet: Relentless
Synopsis: Captain John “Black Jack” Geary races to save a group of Alliance POWs from certain death in this gripping novel in New York Times bestselling author Jack Campbell's Lost Fleet series.
 
Alliance prisoners of war are being held at a labor camp in the Heradao star system, which also happens to be the location of the majority of the surviving Syndic warships. Determined not to leave any of his people behind, “Black Jack” Geary orders the fleet to strike hard and fast to rescue the POWs with minimal Alliance losses.
 
The raid is successful, but victory is short-lived. Geary discovers that the Syndics plan to ambush the fleet with their powerful reserve flotilla in an attempt to annihilate it once and for all—but he doesn’t know where the enemy is located. And as Geary has the fleet jump from one star system to the next, hoping to avoid the inevitable confrontation, saboteurs contribute to the chaos...
Publication Date: 04/28/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Science Fiction
The Magicians' Daughter
Synopsis:

In Reiffen’s Choice we learned how Reiffen chose magic.

In Queen Ferris, we learned what he did with his magic.

In The Magicians’ Daughter, we learn what his magic does to him.

Ten years have passed since Ferris, Reiffen, and Avender raised the siege of Rimwich and killed two of the three Wizards.  Ferris and Reiffen have married, and their daughter Hubley is approaching her tenth birthday.  Despite the years of peace, Reiffen believes the last of the Wizards, his old teacher and enemy Fornoch, wants to kidnap Hubley the same way he once kidnapped Reiffen.  As Reiffen’s fear grows increasingly irrational, Avender attempts to intervene.  But Avender's help simply drives Reiffen further into madness.  And what happens to Avender is almost worse.

Now, with the help of her mother and all her old friends, including Redburr the Shapeshifting Bear, Nolo the Dwarf, and the mysterious magician Mims, Hubley must do what she can to rescue her father from the consequences of his own madness.

And all the while the manderstone is growing in Issinlough . . . and no one knows what’s inside.

Publication Date: 04/27/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Duchessina
Carolyn Meyer
Synopsis: Young Catherine de' Medici is the sole heiress to the entire fortune of the wealthy Medici family. But her life is far from luxurious. After a childhood spent locked away behind the walls of a convent, she joins the household of the pope, where at last she can be united with her true love. But, all too soon, that love is replaced with an engagement to a boy who is cold and aloof. It soon becomes clear that Catherine will need all the cunning she can muster to command the respect she deserves as one of France's most powerful queens. Includes a family tree.
Publication Date: 04/27/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Deep in the Heart of High School
Synopsis: Vanna Reynolds was popular and happy back in Plano, Texas, but now she lives with her mother in a tiny apartment in San Antonio. How can she start her freshman year as a complete nobody? Fatima Garcia does well in school and helps out with her family’s construction business, but is worried about her weight. So she’s thrilled when a junior starts paying attention to her – but is he really interested in Fatima? Olivia Silverstein tries to make life easier for her mother. Ever since her father died two years ago, she’s been the perfect daughter. When will she get to have her own life? When Vanna, Fatima, and Olivia meet at band practice in August, they quickly become best friends. Together, they are ready to tackle the matters of the heart that await them, deep in the heart of high school.

Written with verve and touches of humor, the voices in this first novel ring with authenticity.
Publication Date: 04/27/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Camilla
Madeleine L'Engle
Synopsis: Fifteen-year-old Camilla Dickinson has led a sheltered life on the Upper East Side with her architect father and stunningly beautiful mother. But this winter the security she has always known has vanished, because her parents’ marriage is coming apart – and Camilla is caught in the middle. She finds a way to escape her troubles when she meets Frank, her best friend’s brother, who is someone she can really talk to about life, death, God, and her dream of becoming an astronomer. When Frank introduces her to the important people in his life, who are so different from anyone she has met before, he opens her eyes to worlds beyond her own, almost as if he were a telescope helping her to see the stars.

This novel, one of the author’s earliest, is the story of a girl who, with the help of her first love, leaves childhood behind and enters adulthood with a newfound sense of self and inner strength.
Publication Date: 04/27/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Under Siege!
Andrea Warren
Synopsis:

Meet Lucy McRae and two other young people, Willie Lord and Frederick Grant, all survivors of the Civil War's Battle for Vicksburg. In 1863, Union troops intend to silence the cannons guarding the Mississippi River at Vicksburg – even if they have to take the city by siege. To hasten surrender, they are shelling Vicksburg night and day. Terrified townspeople, including Lucy and Willie, take shelter in caves – enduring heat, snakes, and near suffocation. On the Union side, twelve-year-old Frederick Grant has come to visit his father, General Ulysses S. Grant, only to find himself in the midst of battle, experiencing firsthand the horrors of war.

"Living in a cave under the ground for six weeks . . . I do not think a child could have passed through what I did and have forgotten it." – Lucy McRae, age 10, 1863

Period photographs, engravings, and maps extend this dramatic story as award-winning author Andrea Warren re-creates one of the most important Civil War battles through the eyes of ordinary townspeople, officers and enlisted men from both sides, and, above all, three brave children who were there.

Publication Date: 04/27/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Eternal Smile
Derek Kirk Kim, Gene Luen Yang
Synopsis:

Gene Luen Yang is the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature and is a MacArthur Fellow, a recipient of what's popularly known as the MacArthur "Genius" Grant.

A fantastical adventure through the worlds we live in and the worlds we create.

From two masters of the graphic novel--Gene Luen Yang (American Born Chinese) and Derek Kirk Kim (Same Difference and Other Stories)--come three magical tales.

The story of a prince who defeats his greatest enemy only to discover that maybe his world is not what it had seemed.

The story of a frog who finds that just being a frog might be the way to go.

The story of a women who receives an e-mail from Prince Henry of Nigeria asking for a loan to help save his family – and gives it to him.

With vivid artwork and moving writing, Derek Kirk Kim and Gene Luen Yang test the boundaries between fantasy and reality, exploring the ways that the world of the imagination can affect real life.
The Eternal Smile is the winner of the 2010 Eisner Award for Best Short Story.

Publication Date: 04/27/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
Phantom Island
Krissi Dallas
Synopsis: "One fateful summer night ...when one rule is broken ... five teenagers will discover an unexpected adventure full of magic, romance, and true friendship." Seventeen-year-old Whitnee has spent six years rebuilding her identity after her father's mysterious disappearance left her with more questions than answers. With her two best friends, she returns as an employee to the summer camp of her childhood. Nestled in the Texan hill country, Camp Fusion is everything Whitnee remembers ... except for the haunting visions that only she can see. One fateful night, Whitnee and her friends embark on a magical journey where unexpected adventure and heart-stopping romance collide - a journey that might unlock the dark, complicated mysteries of Whitnee's family history. But will she find the answers she is looking for before it is too late?
Publication Date: 04/23/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Romance
My Name Is Jason.  Mine Too.
Jason Griffin, Jason Griffin, Jason Reynolds
Synopsis:

Our story. Our way.

A poet

An artist

One black

One white

Two voices

One journey

Publication Date: 04/21/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Biography
Ghosts of War
Ryan Smithson
Synopsis:

In this extraordinary and harrowing memoir, follow one GI’s tour of duty as Ryan Smithson brings readers inside a world that few understand.

This is no ordinary teenager’s story. Instead of opting for college life, Ryan Smithson joined the Army Reserve when he was seventeen. Two years later, he was deployed to Iraq as an Army engineer.

His story—and the stories of thousands of other soldiers—is nothing like what you see on CNN or read about in the New York Times. This unforgettable story about combat, friendship, fear, and a soldier’s commitment to his country peels back the curtain on the realities of war in a story all Americans should read.

Publication Date: 04/21/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Historical Nonfiction
World of Warcraft
Christie Golden
Synopsis: Frostmourne.

It was caught in a hovering, jagged chunk of ice, the runes that ran the length of its blade glowing a cool blue. Below it was a dais of some sort, standing on a large gently raised mound that was covered in a dusting of snow. A soft light, coming from somewhere high above where the cavern was open to daylight, shone down on the runeblade. The icy prison hid some details of the sword's shape and form, exaggerated others. It was revealed and concealed at the same time, and all the more tempting, like a new lover imperfectly glimpsed through a gauzy curtain. Arthas knew the blade -- it was the selfsame sword he had seen in his dream when he first arrived. The sword that had not killed Invincible, but that had brought him back healed and healthy. He'd thought it a good omen then, but now he knew it was a true sign. This was what he had come to find. This sword would change everything. Arthas stared raptly at it, his hands almost physically aching to grasp it, his fingers to wrap themselves around the hilt, his arms to feel the weapon swinging smoothly in the blow that would end Mal'Ganis, end the torment he had visited upon the people of Lordaeron, end this lust for revenge. Drawn, he stepped forward.

The uncanny elemental spirit drew its icy sword. "Turn away, before it is too late," it intoned.

* * *

His evil is legend. Lord of the undead Scourge, wielder of the runeblade Frostmourne, and enemy of the free peoples of Azeroth. The Lich King is an entity of incalculable power and unparalleled malice -- his icy soul utterly consumed by his plans to destroy all life on the World of Warcraft.

But it was not always so. Long before his soul was fused with that of the orc shaman Ner'zhul, the Lich King was Arthas Menethil, crown prince of Lordaeron and faithful paladin of the Silver Hand.

When a plague of undeath threatened all that he loved, Arthas was driven to pursue an ill-fated quest for a runeblade powerful enough to save his homeland. Yet the object of his search would exact a heavy price from its new master, beginning a horrifying descent into damnation. Arthas's path would lead him through the arctic northern wastes toward the Frozen Throne, where he would face, at long last, the darkest of destinies.

Publication Date: 04/21/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fantasy
Fragile Eternity
Melissa Marr
Synopsis:

In the third mesmerizing tale in Melissa Marr’s #1 New York Times bestselling Wicked Lovely series, old friends become new enemies—and one wrong move could plunge the Earth into chaos.

Seth never expected he would want to settle down with anyone, but that was before Aislinn. She is everything he'd ever dreamed of, and he wants to be with her forever. Forever takes on new meaning, though, when your girlfriend is an immortal faery queen.

Aislinn never expected to rule the very creatures who'd always terrified her, but that was before Keenan. He stole her mortality to make her a monarch, and now she faces challenges and enticements beyond any she'd ever imagined.

Seth and Aislinn struggle to stay true to themselves and each other—all while navigating the shadowy rules and shifting allegiances of the Faery Courts.

Publication Date: 04/21/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fantasy
The Second Gateway
Sam Wilding
Synopsis: This, book two in the Denthan series, tests family-ties and friendships to the limit in a new and epic setting where the odds are stacked heavily against James and his wizard-goldfish, Mendel. One year on from their extraordinary adventure in Denthan, the zany villagers of Drumfintley are, yet again, all that stand between a peaceful world and certain disaster. When a whole new array of monsters and dark magic begins to emerge from the murky waters of Loch Echty all hell breaks loose. Beneath the Scottish loch, Mendel and James discover the submerged village of Fintley, a huge obelisk and a new crystal key. It is soon clear that they face a greater threat than ever before. In this, the second epic struggle to keep the Peck family together, some souls may be lost for good... Will James, Craig and Bero still be able to save us all? Will Mendel, the wizard-goldfish, continue to outwit his oldest and greatest adversary? Will the second gateway take the villagers of Drumfintley on a one-way trip to catastrophe?
Publication Date: 04/17/09
Age Level: 8 - 12
Genre: Fantasy
Heartbreak River
Tricia Mills
Synopsis: Spending the summer working their family's rafting business and trying to come to terms with the death of her father, Alex's life is thrown for a loop when Sean comes back into town and rekindles their romance that she thought was long over.
Publication Date: 04/16/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Because I Am Furniture
Thalia Chaltas
Synopsis:

Read Thalia Chaltas's posts on the Penguin Blog.



Anke’s father is abusive. But not to her. He attacks her brother and sister, but she’s just an invisible witness in a house of horrors, on the brink of disappearing altogether. Until she makes the volleyball team at school. At first just being exhausted after practice feels good, but as Anke becomes part of the team, her confidence builds. When she learns to yell “Mine!” to call a ball, she finds a voice she didn’t know existed. For the first time, Anke is seen and heard. Soon, she’s imagining a day that her voice will be loud enough to rescue everyone at home—including herself.

Publication Date: 04/16/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Sports
Boyology
Sarah O'Leary Burningham, Keri Smith
Synopsis: A crash course in understanding boys, Boyology delves into the many mysteries of teen guys, dissecting flirting tactics, offering dating suggestions, and providing tips on forming solid friendships. It's an up-close-and-personal look at boys in their natural habitats, with analyses by teen girlsand insight from the boys.
Publication Date: 04/15/09
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Chick Lit

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