12 and up

My Life in Pink and Green
Lisa Greenwald
Twelve-year-old Lucy Desberg is a natural problem solver. After the local homecoming queen shows up at her family’s struggling drugstore with a beauty disaster that Lucy helps to fix, Lucy has a long line of makeover customers for every school dance and bat mitzvah. But all the makeup tips in the world won’t help save the pharmacy. If only she could find a way to make the pharmacy the center of town again—a place where people want to spend time, like in the old days. Lucy dreams up a solution that could resuscitate the family business and help the environment, too. But will Lucy’s family stop fighting long enough to listen to a seventh-grader? This book is a funny and sweet debut featuring an unforgettable narrator who knows what she wants, whether it’s great makeup, a killer business plan, or a better world.F&P level: T F&P genre: RF
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The Girls
Tucker Shaw
Meet Mary: She’s beautiful, and her ski-star boyfriend is cheating on her. Meet Crystal: She’s a townie, and she’s cheating with Mary’s boyfriend. Meet Sylvia: She’s nasty, and she’s got something up her Prada-designed sleeve. Meet Amber: She’s a flake, she’s the barista at the hottest coffee shop in Aspen, and she serves up gossip even hotter than grande skim lattes. Meet Peggy: She’s Mary’s best friend, and she has no idea how to cope with all these girls. A modern retelling of the classic play The Women (which featured not one male in the cast), The Girls is a quick-witted, stylish comedy about friendship, love, and most important, gossip! An elite Aspen prep school sets the stage for jealousy and intrigue as the lives of many girls tangle into a wickedly fun mess (in which no boys ever appear).F&P level: Z+
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Write What You See
Hank Kellner
A terrific resource for ELA and creative-writing teachers.--School Library Journal
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Yellow Star
Jennifer Roy
"In 1945 the war ended. The Germans surrendered, and the ghetto was liberated. Out of over a quarter of a million people, about 800 walked out of the ghetto. Of those who survived, only twelve were children. I was one of the twelve." For more than fifty years after the war, Syvia, like many Holocaust survivors, did not talk about her experiences in the Lodz ghetto in Poland. She buried her past in order to move forward. But finally she decided it was time to share her story, and so she told it to her niece, who has re-told it here using free verse inspired by her aunt. This is the true story of Syvia Perlmutter—a story of courage, heartbreak, and finally survival despite the terrible circumstances in which she grew up. A timeline, historical notes, and an author's note are included.
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Ravenheart
K. A. Thomas

The power of the Creator God is dead. His pendant lies dormant, forgotten inside the altar of a temple dedicated to worshiping statues and demons. Few know of a prophecy and a girl who might not only awaken the blessed pendant, but also a power so evil and deadly it could destroy the world. Ayla, a human child raised by dwarfs, must solve the mystery of the pendant before a spoiled prince and devious priestess crush a kingdom's hopes forever.
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Scat
Carl Hiaasen
From Newbery Honoree Carl Hiaasen comes this New York Times bestseller set in Florida's Everglades in which an eccentric eco-avenger, a stuffed rat named Chelsea, a wannabe Texas oilman, a singing substitute teacher, and a ticked-off panther can’t stop two kids on a mission to find their missing teacher! Bunny Starch, the most feared biology teacher ever, is missing. She disappeared after a school field trip to Black Vine Swamp. And, to be honest, the kids in her class are relieved. But when the principal tries to tell the students that Mrs. Starch has been called away on a "family emergency," Nick and Marta just don't buy it. No, they figure the class delinquent, Smoke, has something to do with her disappearance. And he does! But not in the way they think. There's a lot more going on in Black Vine Swamp than any one player in this twisted tale can see. It’s all about to hit the fan, and when it does, the bad guys better scat. “Ingenious . . . Scat won’t disappoint Hiaasenphiles of any age.” —The New York Times “Woohoo! It’s time for another trip to Florida—screwy, gorgeous Florida, with its swamps and scammers and strange creatures (two- and four-legged). Our guide, of course, is Carl Hiaasen.” —DenverPost.com
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Just Another Judgement Day
Simon R. Green
Just another success from the New York Times bestselling author God's own enforcer, the righteous engine of destruction known as the Walking Man, has come to the Nightside. His sole purpose is the elimination of the wicked and the guilty, which means no one will be left in the Nightside once he gets started. So the Authorities have hired P.I. John Taylor to stop him. Legend has it that he can't be killed. Taylor is very much hoping that the legend isn't true.
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Regenesis
C. J. Cherryh
In the long-anticipated sequel to the Hugo Award-winning Cyteen, Ariane Emory PR, the genetic clone of scientist Ariane Emory, launches a personal investigation into the murder of her progenitor, searching for a killer against the backdrop of a turbulent interstellar society in which she struggles to avoid the same fate as the original Ariane.
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The Vacant Throne
Joshua Palmatier
The final book in the gripping and gritty fantasy Throne of Amenkor trilogy, the story of an unlikely heroine in a city devastated and altered by the mysterious White FireThe city of Amenkor has stood for well over a thousand years as a premier trading center. Ruled by the Mistress of the Skewed Throne, Amenkor has weathered attacks by invaders and the madness, drought, famine, and disease brought by the mysterious White Fire. But now―betrayed from within and barely surviving a devastating attack by the mysterious Chorl―Amenkor reels on the brink of ruin. In Amenkor's time of greatest need, Varis―raised in the slums of the city, and trained not only to survive but to kill at need―has unwillingly become the ruler of the city―the new Mistress of the Skewed Throne. Untrained, unprepared, and not certain who she can trust, Varis takes the Throne at one of the most perilous points in Amenkor's long history, and is forced to draw on all of Amenkor's limited resources, both ordinary and magical, when the Chorl invade. And perhaps the price Varis pays is too high, as the very heart and soul of Amenkor's power―the Skewed Throne―is destroyed during the final desperate confrontation with the invaders.Now, with the threat of the Chorl's return still hanging over them, Varis has no choice but to turn to Amenkor's sometime ally, the city of Venitte, home to the only other throne that is a repository of magical power. Yet Varis and the people of Amenkor are not the only ones looking toward Venitte. The Chorl invaders are on the march, and whether Venitte will fare any better against the Chorl than Amenkor remains to be seen.
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The Ghost and the Haunted Mansion
Cleo Coyle, Alice Kimberly
When the local mailman inherits a haunted house and demands an exorcism, Pen must act fast to save her favorite ghost in this Haunted Bookshop mystery from New York Times bestselling author Cleo Coyle, writing as Alice Kimberly.Bookshop owner Penelope Thornton-McClure didn’t believe in ghosts—until she met the spirit of hard-boiled 1940s detective Jack Shepard. And when Pen’s friend and mailman, Seymour Tarnish, gets into deep trouble, Pen not only believes in her ghost—she also thinks he can help... An elderly lady of leisure has been found dead on posh Larchmont Avenue, her will recently, and suspiciously, revised to name Seymour as heir to her mansion. Just as eyes turn to him as the murderer—and Seymour gets busy settling into his ritzy digs—the mansion’s ghosts begin plaguing him. So he hires a team of parapsychologists to exorcise all the spirits from the town of Quindicott—and that includes Jack Shepard. Now Pen must act fast—because losing Jack scares Pen more than rattling chains and cold spots...