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The Hunt for the Missing Spy
Synopsis: Cody, Queen, Luke, and M.E. are the Code Busters—clever clue hunters with a passion for puzzles. They can't wait for their school trip to Washington, D.C., where they'll get to visit the International Spy Museum. But it seems as if someone is spying on them—or at least leaving coded messages that even the Code Busters can't crack. And once they arrive at the museum, they notice they're being followed by a mysterious stranger. Then a classmate goes missing. Could the unknown spy be responsible? It's up to the Code Busters to find out!



Can you crack the code? Test your brain with the Code Busters to see if you have the right stuff to be an ace detective. Answers are in the back, if you ever get stuck.
Publication Date: 04/01/16
Age Level: 8 - 12
Genre: Mystery
Friend or Foe
Patrick Jones
Synopsis: Do the crime, do the time behind bars. But once you've been in, it can be tough to stay out.



Ian's band is finally taking off. But the band's front man and Ian's best friend, Orlando, can't catch a break as a black kid in their white town. Tension with a security guard lands both Ian and Orlando in jail, and when Orlando is held indefinitely, someone will need to take over the band until he gets out. When Orlando chooses Chase, the band's bassist, to step in, Ian is slighted. As Ian's resentment builds, he plots his revenge. One by one, he turns his bandmates against one another, with tragic results. As Ian holds his friends close and his enemies closer, no one can tell which is which until it's too late.
Publication Date: 04/01/16
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Mystery
Tripping Back Blue
Kara Storti
Synopsis: Finn is a 17-year-old full of paradoxes. He's a drug dealer, but he's scoring money to send his twin sister to Harvard. He's desperate to shoot up even though he's the most popular kid in Dammertown. He's a philosopher and orator who's failing all his classes. The only time he finds peace is when he's bird-watching. Finn's life begins to spiral out of control, until he discovers a miracle drug called indigo. Finn is convinced that the drug is the way out of everything broken in his life. But is it really as magical as it seems?
Publication Date: 04/01/16
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
The Island of Beyond
Elizabeth Atkinson
Synopsis: Eleven-year-old Martin can hardly imagine a worse summer. Martin's dad wants him to like "normal" boy things playing sports and exploring the outdoors so he sends Martin to his great-aunt Lenore, who lives on a tiny island called Beyond. Nothing about Beyond is what Martin expects, certainly not the strange, local boy who unexpectedly befriends Martin. Solo can canoe and climb trees and survive on his own in the wilderness, and Martin's drawn to him in a way he doesn't quite understand. But he's not sure he can trust Solo. In fact, can he trust anything about this strange island, where everyone seems to be keeping secrets?
Publication Date: 04/01/16
Age Level: 8 - 12
Genre: Mystery
Tea and Dark Chocolate
Debbie Manber Kupfer
Synopsis: Meet a cat called Cecilia, a disgruntled android named Doris, and a weasel called Popgoes and discover that with enough Tea and Dark Chocolate you can achieve anything. A Collection of Flash Fiction and Poetry from the author of P.A.W.S.
Publication Date: 03/26/16
Age Level: Any Age
Genre: Humor
THE UGLY TEAPOT
Mr Fred Louis Holmes
Synopsis: Fourteen-year-old Hannah Bradbury loved her father so much that she worried about him constantly. After all, he was a photographer who traveled to the most dangerous places in the world. To allay her fears, each time he came home he brought her silly gifts, each one with supposed magical powers: the Seal of Solomon, the Ring of Gyges, even Aladdin’s Lamp. It was that lamp that Hannah found most unbelievable, for it looked like an ugly teapot. Nevertheless, her father assured her it was real, and made her promise to save her three wishes for something very special. Then . . . six months later . . . the unthinkable happened. Her father was killed while on assignment to Baghdad. And so on the day of his funeral Hannah did something she never thought she would ever do. She took out that teapot and gave it a rub . . . The Ugly Teapot by Fred Holmes is a timeless tale, filled with magic and adventure. More importantly, it will make you believe in the overwhelming power of love.
Publication Date: 03/25/16
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fantasy
Faceless (The Anonymous Chronicles Book 2)
Synopsis: Twelve months is a lifetime. Especially when each day is a land mine of panic attacks and fear. Josie’s father, the Maj, is headed to a war zone. To combat her loneliness, Josie (a.k.a. Rooster) accepts 12 challenges left by the Maj in a yearlong geocache hunt. When one of the challenges tests Rooster, she is confronted with the issue of homelessness. Her friend Bronwyn is battling another war. Surviving life on the streets. Suddenly homelessness has a face. And sometimes fighting the enemy isn’t the only battle in war. Do Bronwyn and her sister finally escape life on the run? Will the Maj survive combat and return home?
Publication Date: 03/24/16
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Pono Finds His Flippers
Chelsea Sachiko McKeown, Pattie McCann Tracy
Synopsis: In a tropical paradise far, far away, a delightful little boy named Pono enjoys every sun-filled day with his best friend, Lani, a Hawaiian monk seal. While they share a true friendship of aloha – one of love, fun and adventure – they can only explore together on land. Not having flippers of his own, Pono longs to join Lani each time she heads out to sea. Learning of her son’s unhappiness, Pono’s mother helps him find his own flippers by teaching him to swim in the island’s blue waters. With his best friend Lani cheering by his side, triumphantly Pono learns to swim, and their lives are forever changed. Now the world is their oyster, and their adventures as wide as the ocean is deep.
Publication Date: 03/23/16
Age Level: 5 - 8
Genre: Adventure
I Woke Up Dead At The Mall
Synopsis: When Sarah wakes up dead at the Mall of America, she learns that not only was she murdered, her killer is still on the loose. A contemporary YA novel with a hauntingly supernatural twist that tackles some of life’s – and the afterlife’s – biggest questions.
  
When you’re sixteen, you have your whole life ahead of you. Unless you’re Sarah. Not to give anything away, but . . . she’s dead. Murdered, in fact. Sarah’s murder is shocking because she couldn’t be any more average. No enemies. No risky behavior. She’s just the girl on the sidelines.

It looks like her afterlife, on the other hand, will be pretty exciting. Sarah has woken up dead at the Mall of America—where the universe sends teens who are murdered—and with the help of her death coach, she must learn to move on or she could meet a fate totally worse than death: becoming a mall walker.

As she tries to finish her unfinished business alongside her fellow dead teens, Sarah falls hard for a cute boy named Nick. And she discovers an uncanny ability to haunt the living. While she has no idea who killed her, or why, someone she loves is in grave danger. Sarah can’t lose focus or she’ll be doomed to relive her final moments again and again forever. But can she live with herself if she doesn’t make her death matter?
Publication Date: 03/22/16
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Humor
Hamster Princess: Of Mice and Magic
Synopsis: Princess Harriet is nobody’s hamster damsel in distress! Book two of this series for Babymouse and Princess in Black fans is filled with even more action and twisted fairy tale fun

Princess Harriet has absolutely no interest in brushing her hair, singing duets with woodland animals, or any other typical princess activities. So when a fairy tells a very bored Harriet about twelve mice princesses who are cursed to dance all night long, she happily accepts the quest and sets off with a poncho of invisibility and her trusty battle quail. But when she arrives at the Mouse Kingdom, she discovers there's more to the curse than meets the eye, and trying to help is dangerous business . . . even for a tough princess like Harriet.

From the creator of Dragonbreath, comes a laugh-out-loud funny new comic-hybrid series, bursting with girl power and furry fairy tale retellings.
Publication Date: 03/15/16
Age Level: 5 - 8
Genre: For Reluctant Readers
A Dragon's Guide to Making Your Human Smarter
Mary GrandPre, Joanne Ryder, Laurence Yep
Synopsis: For fans of How to Train Your Dragon comes a new tale about dragon Miss Drake and her human pet Winnie, by a two-time Newbery Honor winner, featuring illustrations by Caldecott Honor winner Mary GrandPré.
 
Three-thousand-year-old Miss Drake has arranged to send her dear pet Winnie to The Spriggs Academy, an extraordinary school for humans and magicals alike. Winnie is particularly excited about magic class and having Sir Isaac Newton for science. She’s also making new friends—and frenemies. . . .
 
When a plot to snatch Winnie from her San Francisco home is uncovered, Miss Drake is ready to use all her cunning and magic to thwart it. Not that feisty Winnie needs the help. . . . As a team, the intrepid duo you first met in A Dragon’s Guide to the Care and Feeding of Humans is unstoppable!
 
With equal doses of whimsy and humor, Laurence Yep and Joanne Ryder have crafted an enchanting story about true friendship.

Praise for A Dragon’s Guide to Making Your Human Smarter
•  "Yep and Ryder keep the magic coming with their whimsical fantasy, enhanced by Grandpré's sweet drawings. The story positively vibrates with fun." —Kirkus Reviews
•  " Lighthearted episodes of unusual school lessons and field trips, illustrated by GrandPré’s winsome spot art, are grounded by Miss Drake’s more serious encounters with the goons...a gratifying development as this buoyant, fantastical series continues."—The Horn Book Review 

Praise for A Dragon’s Guide to the Care and Feeding of Humans
•  *“Warm humor, magical mishaps, and the main characters’ budding mutual respect and affection combine to give this opener for a planned series a special shine that will draw readers and leave them impatient for sequels.” —Booklist, Starred
•  “The tale is alternately comical, suspenseful and sometimes sweetly emotional.” —Kirkus Reviews
•  “Miss Drake’s arch narration and the sharp back-and-forth between the characters create an enchanting story, accented by GrandPré’s whimsical black-and-white spot illustrations.” —Publishers Weekly
•  “With a black-and-white spot illustration opening most chapters, an engaging narrator, and a consistently fluid writing style, this title makes a fine dragon choice for readers.” —School Library Journal
Publication Date: 03/15/16
Age Level: 8 - 12
Genre: Fantasy
Friends of the Wigwam: A Civil War Story
Synopsis: "A consistently compelling read from beginning to end, Friends of the Wigwam: A Civil War Story is a deftly written work of fiction that is quite accurately factual in background details...very highly recommended for community library General Fiction collections and for the personal reading lists of Civil War Enthusiasts."    - Midwest Book Review

FRIENDS OF THE WIGWAM is a historical novel and love story about six young friends whose innocence is stripped from them seemingly overnight in the brutal setting of the American Civil War. 

Meticulously researched and based on real-life people and true events, FRIENDS OF THE WIGWAM spans 1857-1865 and introduces you to the courageous men and women from Illinois who staged one of the first contested national conventions, were responsible for getting Abraham Lincoln elected and made the ultimate sacrifice during the American Civil War. 

From the true story of a young woman who successfully masqueraded as a man during the Civil War and was buried with full military honors to the often heart-wrenching letters home to wives and families and actual military correspondence between military leaders, author John William Huelskamp brings to life a volatile nation at war.

Celebrate each friend's successes and struggles on the battlefields, learn the story of those who led the battles, and meet a magnificent war-horse that is a steadfast survivor in the face of many tragedies.

Without at doubt, FRIENDS OF THE WIGWAM is one of the most moving Civil War novels you will ever read.

*** A WGN Emmy Award nominee news video on this fascinating Civil War novel can be viewed at friendsofthewigwam.com***
Publication Date: 03/15/16
Age Level: Adult
Genre: Historical Fiction
Will Wilder: The Relic of Perilous Falls
Synopsis: Fans of Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians and Peter Lerangis’s Seven Wonders series will embrace this epic adventure in a rollicking new series by a New York Times bestselling author.
 
Will Wilder didn’t mean to unlock his otherworldly gift. But that is exactly what happens when Will “borrows” a sacred relic believed to protect the town of Perilous Falls for nearly a century. Even though his intentions are good, the impulsive twelve-year-old unwittingly awakens an ancient evil endangering all of Perilous Falls.
 
As boats sink and hideous creatures crawl from the rising waters, it is up to Will to confront a nightmarish enemy and set things right before it is too late. Along with his sweet—if lethal—great-aunt Lucille, the curator of a museum of supernatural artifacts, Will proves that the actions of one twelve-year-old boy can change the world.
Publication Date: 03/08/16
Age Level: 8 - 12
Genre: Humor
The Secrets of Solace
Jaleigh Johnson
Synopsis: From Jaleigh Johnson, the acclaimed author of the New York Times bestseller The Mark of the Dragonfly, comes another thrilling adventure in the magical world of Solace.
    Lina Winterbock lives in the mountain strongholds of Solace. She’s an apprentice to the archivists, the wise men and women whose lives are dedicated to cataloging, studying, and preserving the objects that mysteriously fall from the sky in the scrap towns.
    Lina should be spending her days with books, but the Iron War has changed everything. The strongholds are now a refuge, and the people Lina once counted on no longer have time for her, so she spends her days exploring the hidden tunnels and passages of her home. The strongholds are vast and old, with twisting paths, forgotten rooms, and collapsed chambers, some of them containing objects that have been lost and forgotten even by the archivists.
    And in one of the forgotten chambers, Lina discovers a secret.
    Hidden deep in a cavern is a half-buried airship like nothing she has ever seen before. She’s determined to dig it out and restore it. But Lina needs help, and she doesn’t know anyone she can trust with her secret.
    Then she meets Ozben, a mysterious boy who has a secret of his own—a secret that’s so dangerous it could change the course of the Iron War and the world of Solace forever.

Praise for The Secrets of Solace:

★ “Highly recommended for those who have finished with Harry and are too young for Katniss.”—SLJ, Starred review

"An engaging world rich in detail, mayhem, and adventure...All aboard for fantasy lovers with a dual penchant for girl power and keeping up with the Indiana Joneses."—Kirkus Reviews

"With imaginative details...readers will be rewarded by exciting action scenes and a deeper knowledge of Solace."-Booklist

"The book nicely balances the firm structure of the archivists' orderly lives with the wild abandon of the protagonist."-Bulletin

Praise for The Mark of the Dragonfly:
 
★ “This magnetic middle-grade debut . . . [is] a page-turner that defies easy categorization and ought to have broad appeal.”—Publishers Weekly, Starred
 
★ “Heart, brains, and courage find a home in a steampunk fantasy worthy of a nod from Baum.”—Kirkus Reviews, Starred
 
★ “A fantastic and original tale of adventure and magic. . . . Piper is a heroine to fall in love with: smart, brave, kind, and mechanically inclined to boot.”—School Library Journal, Starred
 
“A complex and impeccably developed plot—there is plenty to recommend in this novel.”—The Bulletin
 
“Appealing characters and lots of action make it a good choice for young adventure readers.”—Booklist
Publication Date: 03/08/16
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fantasy
The Eye of Midnight
Andrew Brumbach
Synopsis: “Combining a 1920s New York setting with ancient Turkish and Arabian folklore and history, this novel reads like a young Indiana Jones adventure. . . . As smart as it is action-packed.” —The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
 
On a stormy May day in 1929, William and Maxine arrive on the doorstep of Battersea Manor to spend the summer with a grandfather they barely remember. Whatever the cousins expected, Colonel Battersea isn’t it. Soon after they settle in, Grandpa receives a cryptic telegram and promptly whisks the cousins off to New York City to meet an unknown courier and collect a very important package. Before he can do so, however, Grandpa vanishes without a trace. When the cousins stumble upon Nura, a tenacious girl from Turkey, she promises to help them track down the parcel and rescue Colonel Battersea. But with cold-blooded gangsters and a secret society of assassins all clamoring for the mysterious object, the children soon find themselves in a desperate struggle just to escape the city’s dark streets alive.

“A youthful mystery worthy of John Bellairs, with lyrical language reminiscent of Edith Nesbit; yet it stands on its own, creating a fully realized world with clearly defined lines of good and evil, and just a dash of magic.” —Booklist

“Readers of R. L. LaFevers’s Theodosia Throckmorton series as well as lovers of the Rick Riordan books will enjoy this. A well-crafted adventure with a dash of magic.” —School Library Journal 

“Brumbach’s vivid descriptions and terse, to-the-point dialogue keep the action moving and readers constantly engaged and surprised. . . . A fast-paced, action-packed adventure.” —Kirkus Reviews
Publication Date: 03/08/16
Age Level: 8 - 12
Genre: Adventure
The Midnight War of Mateo Martinez
Synopsis: Life is confusing for Mateo Martinez. He and Johnny Ramirez don't hang out anymore, even though they used to be best friends. He and his new friend Ashwin try to act like brave, old-time knights, but it only gets them in trouble. And last night, two skunks stole Mateo's old trike.

Wait two skunks stole his trike?

Mateo is too big for that rusty kid toy. He has a cool, shiny new bike anyway. But Mateo also has a neighborhood to protect. And he's about to begin a big, stinky quest to catch the thieves in the middle of the night!

As Mateo protects his neighborhood, he also learns a few things about growing up and letting go.
Publication Date: 03/01/16
Age Level: 8 - 12
Genre: Adventure

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