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12 and up | Page 156 | LitPick Book Reviews
12 and up
Speaking Out: LGBTQ Youth Stand Up
Speaking Out: LGBTQ Youth Stand Up
Steve Berman
Speaking Out features stories for and about LGBT and Q teens by fresh voices and noted authors in the field of young adult literature. These are inspiring stories of overcoming adversity (against intolerance and homophobia) and experiencing life after "coming out." Queer teens need tales of what might happen next in their lives, and editor Steve Berman showcases a diversity of events, challenges, and, especially, triumphs.

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Gamadin, Book IV: Gazz
Gamadin: Gazz [Book IV]
Tom Kirkbride
Finally, the Boys have a series the Girls love to read! In this fourth installment, Harlowe is surfing in the South Pacific with his little brother, Dodger, when Riverstone calls in a panic from the Omini Prime quadrant. All life on the planet Gazz is about to be wiped out by a lethal gamma ray burst in 11 days. According to Wiz, saving the planet with Millawanda's force field is a slam dunk. The plan was going smoothly until hostile forces dropped out of hyperspace, moments before the deadly rays struck. Battling two forces at once, Millie still saves the planet, but at a cost: her power is sucked dry! Unable to maintain orbit, Millawanda plunges into the planet's ocean. Adding to their peril, Riverstone, Lu and Sizzle have vanished and a second gamma ray burst will hit the planet in 37 days! There is a source of thermo-grym to bring back Millie, but Gazz is a 16th century planet of wind-powered ships and slithering beasts called Traas. In a race against time, Harlowe must borrow and commandeer a pirate ship to find the yellow crystals that will power Millawanda back to life before the crew, his girl, the planet and his own life are lost...

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Departures: Two Rediscovered Stories of Christy Miller and Sierra Jensen (The Christy Miller Collection)
Departures
Robin Jones Gunn
Christy Miller and Sierra Jensen cross paths on their way to summer vacations that reveal what a gift it is to have a true Forever Friend.Now Boarding at Gate 10After her high school graduation, still aching from Todd’s departure, Christy joins her family on a trip to Wisconsin to visit relatives. While there, she reunites with Matthew, an old friend from junior high. When Matthew starts to show a romantic interest in Christy, she realizes this summer vacation could change everything she thought her future would be. In the Event of a Water LandingFifteen-year-old Sierra Jensen can’t wait to spend her summer vacation with her friend Jana at a pristine lake in Montana. But when they arrive, it becomes clear that Jana’s only interest is acquiring a boyfriend. Sierra just wants to hang out with the guys as friends, but Jana turns every encounter into a possible romantic relationship. As their friendship begins to suffer, Sierra wonders if it’s possible to find a Forever Friend who will listen to you, laugh with you, and keep your confidences.

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Desperate Measures
Desperate Measures
Laura Summers
Vicky has always felt responsible for her mentally disabled twin sister, Rhianna, and their feisty little brother, Jamie. So when the foster care system threatens to split them up, they all run away together, heading for a distant relative's home. After a difficult journey, they arrive-only to find strangers living there. With nowhere else to go, they hide in a cave, and must survive by their wits. By the end of their adventure, Vicky is surprised to find that the sister she thought she was protecting is the one who saves her. This touching, funny, fast-paced novel was short listed for the Waterstone's Children's Book Prize. Vicky and Rhianna's engaging dual-perspective narration offers a refreshing view of people with disabilities, and their wild adventure and fierce family bond will resonate with readers.

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Lunch-Box Dream
Lunch-Box Dream
Tony Abbott
Bobby and his family are visiting Civil War battlefields on the eve of the war's centenary, while inside their car, quiet battles rage. When an accident cuts their trip short, they return home on a bus and witness an incident that threatens to deny a black family seats. What they don't know is the reason for the family's desperation to be on that bus: a few towns away, their child is missing.Lunch-Box Dream presents Jim Crow, racism, and segregation from multiple perspectives. In this story of witnessing without understanding, a naïvely prejudiced boy, in brief flashes of insight, starts to identify and question his assumptions about race.

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Future Imperfect
Future Imperfect
K. Ryer Breese
When 17-year-old Ade Patience knocks himself unconscious, he can see the future.  However, he's also addicted to the high he gets when he breaks the laws of physics. And while he's seen things he's wanted to change, Ade knows The Rule: You can't change the future, no matter how hard you try.  His memory is failing, his grades are in a death spiral, and both Ade's best friend and his shrink are begging him to stop before he kills himself.  Luckily, the stunning Vauxhall Rodolfo recently transferred to his school and, just like Ade saw in a vision two years previously, they're destined to fall in love. It's just the motivation Ade needs to kick his habit. Only... things are a bit more complicated than that. Vauxhall has a powerful addiction of her own.  And after a vision in which Ade sees himself murdering someone, he realizes he must break the one rule he's been told he can't.  Ade and Vauxhall must overcome their addictions and embrace their love for each other in order to do the impossible: change the future.  Future Imperfect melds the excitement of a classic Marvel Comics hero with the modern romance of Twilight,and the result is a genre-bending Young Adult tour-de-force. 

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Almost Final Curtain: A Vampire Princess Novel (Vampire Princess of St. Paul)
Almost Final Curtain
Tate Hallaway
Craving the spotlight is in her blood. Ever since high school student Anastasija Parker discovered she was vampire royalty, her life has been sort of crazy. The half-vampire- half-witch just wants some normalcy, and trying out for the spring musical seems like the perfect fix. But when the ancient talisman that stands between vampire freedom and slavery to witches is stolen, Ana has to skip rehersal and track down the dangerous artifact before someone uses it to make this year's curtain call her last...

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The Last Apprentice: Rage of the Fallen (Book 8)
The Last Apprentice: Rage of the Fallen
Patrick Arrasmith, Joseph Delaney
A dangerous few months lie ahead—ones which some of us will be hard-pressed to survive.Thomas Ward has served as the Spook's apprentice for three years. He has battled boggarts, witches, demons, and even the devil himself. Tom has enemies: The Fiend stalks him, waiting for a moment of weakness. The terrifying Morrigan, goddess of witches, warned him never to step foot on her homeland, Ireland.But now war has consumed their own country, and Tom, his friend Alice, and the Spook must flee to Ireland. The dark rages strongly there. No one can be trusted. Can Tom defeat the creatures that hunt him most fiercely?

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May Magic (Calendar Mysteries, No. 5)
Calendar Mysteries: May Magic
John Steven Gurney, Ron Roy
From the author of the popular A to Z Mysteries comes a story of magical mayhem featuring the younger siblings of the A to Z Mysteries kids!May is for Magic...In the fifth book of the Calendar Mysteries - an early chapter book mystery series - twins Bradly and Brian are celebrating Mother's Day by treating their mom to a hypnotist's show. But when the Pinto family gets home from the show, the twins' mom starts acting strange. She splashes in the bathtub for hours, she leaves corn kernels all over - she even quacks! Bradley thinks his mom has been hypnotized into believing she's a duck! Can Bradley and Brian, with help from their friends Lucy and Nate, turn their mom back into their mom?Parents, teachers, and librarians agree that these highly collectible chapter books are perfect for emerging readers and any kid who loves mysteries!

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Diary of a Part-Time Ghost
Diary of a Part-Time Ghost
Vered Ehsani
Fifteen-year old Ash wants nothing more than to be a normal kid and avoid trouble. And then his birthday gift transforms him into a ghost and zaps him back in time to the beginning of the American Revolution. If he thought that was bad, it's about to get a whole lot worse. Armed only with an ancient history book and the quirky advice of an annoying mentor, Ash must rescue his ancestor from one danger after another, including an implacable enemy who controls the very shadows. What starts out as a brief experiment in time travel rapidly changes into a race for his very survival, and Ash is running out of time. Despite his efforts to stay out of trouble, Ash finds plenty of it as he must decide what his role will be in the shifting balance of forces. Humorous and action-packed, Diary of a Part-Time Ghost will hold readers in its grip from the first sentence to the last. Book 2, 'Where Shadows Dance', is out: amazon.com/Where-Shadows-Dance-Ghosts-Volume/dp/1470179857/ref=tmm_pap_title_0

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