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Kurt Cobain
Jeff Burlingame
Synopsis: New York Public Library's 2007 Books for the Teen Age winner
Publication Date: 11/01/06
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Nonfiction
Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life
Synopsis: In one month Jeremy Fink will turn thirteen. But does he have what it takes to be a teenager? He collects mutant candy, he won't venture more than four blocks from his apartment if he can help it, and he definitely doesn't like surprises. On the other hand, his best friend, Lizzy, isn't afraid of anything, even if that might get her into trouble now and then.


Jeremy's summer takes an unexpected turn when a mysterious wooden box arrives in the mail. According to the writing on the box, it holds the meaning of life! Jeremy is supposed to open it on his thirteenth birthday. The problem is, the keys are missing, and the box is made so that only the keys will open it without destroying what's inside. Jeremy and Lizzy set off to find the keys, but when one of their efforts goes very wrong, Jeremy starts to lose hope that he'll ever be able to open the box. But he soon discovers that when you're meeting people named Oswald Oswald and using a private limo to deliver unusual objects to strangers all over the city, there might be other ways of finding out the meaning of life.


Lively characters, surprising twists, and thought-provoking ideas make Wendy Mass's latest novel an unforgettable read.
Publication Date: 11/01/06
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
What Happened to Cass McBride?
Synopsis: "The setting is claustrophobic, the characters are complex and the story will keep readers on the edge of their seats," KLIATT raved of this vivid, fast-paced psychological thriller in a starred review. Kyle Kirby has planned a cruel and unusual revenge on Cass McBride, the most popular girl in school, for the death of his brother David. He digs a hole. Kidnaps Cass. Puts her in a box--underground. He buries her alive. But lying in the deepest dark, Cass finds a weapon: she uses the power of words to keep her nemesis talking--and herself breathing--during the most harrowing 48 hours of her life.
Publication Date: 11/01/06
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Case of the Silk King
Shannon Gilligan
Synopsis: The Case of the Silk King by Shannon Gilligan takes YOU on a detective-style adventure as you explore Asia for the missing "Silk King," Jim Thompson. 9-12 year old readers will journey to Bangkok, Thailand, following a lead received in a mysterious package containing $2,000, a plane ticket, and a strange newspaper clipping.

Choose Your Own Adventure The Case of the Silk King is an interactive adventure book in which YOU decide what happens next.

In 1967, Jim Thompson, a famous businessman with connections to the CIA, went missing in Malaysia. You are a detective with an eye for a good case, so hopping a plane to Asia isn't out of the ordinary. When you land, will you find that you're not the only one on the case? Who kidnapped Jim Thompson? Will you be next?

For readers who enjoyed other titles from the Choose Your Own Adventure series including: The Lost Jewels of Nabooti by R. A. Montgomery, Cup Of Death by Shannon Gilligan, and Mystery of the Maya by R. A. Montgomery.

Publication Date: 11/01/06
Age Level: 8 - 12
Genre: Series
The Odyssey
Robert Fagles, Bernard Knox, Bernard Knox, Homer
Synopsis: Robert Fagles's stunning modern-verse translation-available at last in our black-spine classics line

The Odyssey is literature's grandest evocation of everyman's journey through life. In the myths and legends that are retold here, renowned translator Robert Fagles has captured the energy and poetry of Homer's original in a bold, contemporary idiom and given us an Odyssey to read aloud, to savor, and to treasure for its sheer lyrical mastery. This is an Odyssey to delight both the classicist and the general reader, and to captivate a new generation of Homer's students.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
Publication Date: 10/31/06
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Classic
The Big Shuffle
Laura Pedersen
Synopsis: “We’re approaching Cat in the Hat level chaos and no one’s even had breakfast yet.”

When the death of her father leaves her mother bereft and incapacitated, card shark Hallie Palmer returns home from college to raise Hallie’s eight younger siblings. Hallie’s older brother has a scholarship and a sensible major–which translates to free tuition and desperately needed future income for the family. So it’s up to Hallie to deal herself in as head of the chaotic household.

But even after the invasion of those well-meaning, casserole-carrying purveyors of comfort the local church ladies, Hallie’s in a downward spiral. Thank goodness for old friends like Bernard and Gil, now proud parents, who keep Hallie afloat with good humor, brilliant organizational skills, and Judy Garland’s most quotable quotes–not that life is entirely peaceful now that Bernard’s wise, willful, and delightfully outrageous mother, Olivia, is back from Europe with a big (and shockingly young) surprise.

Through it all, Hallie discovers that life can indeed turn on a dime, and that every coin has two sides plus an edge. Just because beginner’s luck doesn’t always last forever doesn’t mean you’re out of the game.
Publication Date: 10/31/06
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Lavender-Green Magic
Andre Norton
Synopsis: A mysterious maze
Eleven-year-old Holly Wade and her twin siblings, Judy and Crockett, are sent to live with their grandparents in the small town of Dimsdale, Massachusetts when their father is declared missing in action in Vietnam. Dimsdale is nothing like Boston; there are only two other African-American children in the entire school. Even worse, Grandpa and Grandma Wade live in an old junkyard! While exploring one day, Holly, Judy, and Crockett wander into an overgrown hedge maze--and find themselves transported back in time to Dimsdale's past. Can they right an ancient wrong and free the town of Dimsdale from a witch's curse?
Publication Date: 10/31/06
Age Level: 8 - 12
Genre: Fantasy
Jinx High
Mercedes Lackey
Synopsis:

Fay Harper looks like any other teenage girl--any other Queen Bee, that is. She's blond, and beautiful, and very, very popular--the kind of popular that attracts boys like honey. Fay and her gang take a lot of risks, but so far they've managed to get away with everything. It's as if they are magically protected.

Summoned to Tulsa by an old friend whose son has fallen in with Fay's crowd, Diana Tregarde, practicing witch and successful romance novelist, quickly finds herself in hot water. The new girl at school, Monica Carlin, has come under sorcerous attack, but Diana cannot identify, or stop, the power-wielder. To make matters worse, there is an ancient being sleeping under Tulsa, a being who might be woken by the magic battles taking place in the city. What will happen then, even Diana cannot predict... in Mercedes Lackey's Jinx High.

Publication Date: 10/31/06
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fantasy
Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea
Arthur Pober Ed.D, Scott McKowen, Jules Verne
Synopsis: Originally published in 1870, Verne’s amazing undersea adventure is one of the earliest science fiction novels ever written. Since that time, generations of readers have plunged below the ocean’s waves with Captain Nemo and his first-ever submarine, The Nautilus. It’s a voyage of exploration and the imagination.
Publication Date: 10/28/06
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
Operation Typhoon Shore
Ben Mowll, Julek Heller, Niroot Puttapipat, Joshua Mowll
Synopsis: Get ready for Book II of the thrilling, novelty-packed Guild of Specialists trilogy.

After being lashed by a typhoon on their uncle's ship, THE EXPEDIENT, intrepid siblings Becca and Doug MacKenzie want nothing more than to escape from the volcanic island on which they're stranded and resume the search for their parents. But their uncle, Captain MacKenzie, seems more concerned with the missing gyrolabe than their missing mother and father, and he refuses to discuss the role the mysterious Guild of Specialists played in their disappearance. As the formidable Kalaxx warriors close in on their hidden cove, Becca and Doug unearth a riddle linked to a 1533 painting, which may hold the key to the Guild's dark secrets and to finding their parents. But how can they possibly solve the puzzle and escape with their lives — before their enemies attack?
Publication Date: 10/24/06
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Hearts of Stone
Kathleen Ernst
Synopsis: When her father goes off to join the Yankee troops, fourteen-year-old Hannah fears her family will be torn apart by the Civil War. But nothing prepares her for her mother's sudden death. Hannah now finds herself responsible for keeping the young family together in a world where even her best friend, Ben, sympathizes with the Confederacy. On a long and dangerous journey from Cumberland Mountain to Nashville, Tennessee, in search of their only living relative, Hannah and her brother and sisters come to realize the true meaning of family and hope. This is a beautifully crafted novel about the tragedy of war and the power of love even in the toughest of times.
Publication Date: 10/19/06
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Great Tree of Avalon
Synopsis: Avalon, the great tree world connecting the earth and the heavens, is about to be destroyed. The warlord Rhita Gawr is bent on conquest—and using an army of deathless warriors, a corrupted crystal, and a plague of arrogance and greed to succeed.

Three unlikely heroes are Avalon's only hope. Tamwyn, the wilderness guide, must travel the secret pathway to the stars. Elli, the brave young priestess, must defeat a terrible sorcerer in a realm of utter darkness. And Scree, the eagleman, must lead his winged people to do what seems impossible . . .

This spectacular final volume of T. A. Barron's bestselling trilogy combines gripping adventure with profound ideas about the powerful connections between humanity and the world.

Publication Date: 10/19/06
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
Brave New World
Aldous Huxley
Synopsis:

Now more than ever: Aldous Huxley's enduring masterwork must be read and understood by anyone concerned with preserving the human spirit

"A masterpiece. ... One of the most prophetic dystopian works." —Wall Street Journal 

Aldous Huxley's profoundly important classic of world literature, Brave New World is a searching vision of an unequal, technologically-advanced future where humans are genetically bred, socially indoctrinated, and pharmaceutically anesthetized to passively uphold an authoritarian ruling order–all at the cost of our freedom, full humanity, and perhaps also our souls. “A genius [who] who spent his life decrying the onward march of the Machine” (The New Yorker), Huxley was a man of incomparable talents: equally an artist, a spiritual seeker, and one of history’s keenest observers of human nature and civilization. Brave New World, his masterpiece, has enthralled and terrified millions of readers, and retains its urgent relevance to this day as both a warning to be heeded as we head into tomorrow and as thought-provoking, satisfying work of literature. Written in the shadow of the rise of fascism during the 1930s, Brave New World likewise speaks to a 21st-century world dominated by mass-entertainment, technology, medicine and pharmaceuticals, the arts of persuasion, and the hidden influence of elites. 

"Aldous Huxley is the greatest 20th century writer in English." —Chicago Tribune

 

Publication Date: 10/18/06
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Sheer Bliss
Frances O'Brien
Synopsis: It's tougher than you might think to stay sane and normal when your mother is the most famous actress on the planet - but Bliss Drew is one Celebrity Spawn with a serious attitude. As she approaches her thirteenth birthday she's forced to face a peculiarly Hollywood-blend of family problems: her plastic surgery-obsessed Grandma Ellen is suddenly engaged to a gold-digging, boy-toy, and her super-famous actress mother, Angel, has decided that Bliss' new rebellious streak must be subdued with the help of Moyra, a celebrity "parent/teen consultant." Growing up beneath the watchful gaze of the ever-present paparazzi and seeing your Mom's tonsils sell for big bucks on eBay can leave a girl with some serious trust issues. Can Bliss navigate her way through her Mom's crazy fans, even crazier entourage and over-zealous caregivers to emerge sane and free of Moyra? "The writing is so good it gave me goosebumps." R.L. Stine, children's author
Publication Date: 10/12/06
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Beyond Basketball
Jamie K. Spatola, Mike Krzyzewski
Synopsis: This is a collection of short but extraordinarily powerful essays as to how Coach K of Duke inspires, motivates, and teaches his basketball players about the game of life, both on and off the court.
Publication Date: 10/10/06
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Nonfiction
The Choice
Gloria Skurzynski
Synopsis: Having fled aboard their spaceship to the Isles of Hiva after winning the virtual war, Corgan realizes that leaving Brigand roaming the universe was a bad decision and so, with Sharla and Cyborg, begins to plot an attack against his nemesis to finalize the issues between them for good.
Publication Date: 10/10/06
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Series

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