12 and up

Ten Explorers Who Changed the World
David Cousens, Clive Gifford
Everyone knows who Marco Polo and Christopher Columbus were. But do they know that Christopher Columbus owned a copy of Polo's book The Travels of Marco Polo, full of Columbus's own handwritten notes that served as inspiration and research for his famous journey? This amazing link and nine more are the basis for this highly original look at great explorers. By drawing a line from Polo and Magellan to Lewis and Clark and right down to Jacques Yves-Cousteau, readers will never think about history the same way again.
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Ten Leaders Who Changed the World
David Cousens, Clive Gifford
10 Leaders Who Changed the World by Clive Gifford and illustrated by David Cousens proves that the concept of "six degrees of separation" has never been more vivid than during the tumultuous events of the 20th century. From Mohandas Gandhi to Joseph Stalin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Fidel Castro, and Nelson Mandela, modern history is woven together in a tapestry of the interrelated stories of these leaders and the events they witnessed. Contemporary readers will understand as never before that history is built of subtle intersections that have great consequences.
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Balancing Act
Donna King
Thirteen-year-old Carli lives on her family's guest ranch in Colorado. She's a talented gymnast, but her parents are too busy running their business to give her much support. Carli develops a strong bond with her new coach, who believes that he can help her achieve her goal of Olympic glory. Carli dedicates herself to the vault, uneven bars, and balance beam, but just as she starts to excel, her parents decide that she needs to help out more on the ranch--putting her gold medal dreams in jeopardy.
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Zodiac Girls: Star Child
Cathy Hopkins
In this newest addition to the astrology-inspired Zodiac Girls series, 13-year-old Thebe Battye is struggling against powers beyond her control. As a Virgo, she is all about order and neatness, but this is a problem when you have parents as disorganized as hers are. To top it all off, her self-centered cousin Yasmin has come to stay―in her room! Tired of being the stable and dependable one, Thebe takes matters into her own hands, but will she be able to change her life? And will she get any help as the newest Zodiac Girl?
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The Comet's Curse
Dom Testa
In the gripping start to this young adult science fiction adventure series by popular Colorado radio host Dom Testa, the teenage crew of the starship Galahad must find a new home for humanity among the stars--if they fail, it will be the end of the human race....When the tail of the comet Bhaktul flicks through the Earth's atmosphere, deadly particles are left in its wake. Suddenly, mankind is confronted with a virus that devastates the adult population. Only those under the age of eighteen seem to be immune. Desperate to save humanity, a renowned scientist proposes a bold plan: to create a ship that will carry a crew of 251 teenagers to a home in a distant solar system. Two years later, the Galahad and its crew―none over the age of sixteen―is launched.Two years of training have prepared the crew for the challenges of space travel. But soon after departing Earth, they discover that a saboteur is hiding on the Galahad! Faced with escalating acts of vandalism and terrorized by threatening messages, sixteen-year-old Triana Martell and her council soon realize that the stowaway will do anything to ensure that the Galahad never reaches its destination. The teens must find a way to neutralize their enemy. For if their mission fails, it will mean the end of the human race….
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The Knight of the Red Beard
Andre Norton, Sasha Miller
Having rebuilt the NordornLand from rubble, Ashen and Gaurin rule justly and fairly over a reinvigorated land. Beloved by their kingdom, they now turn their attention to the next generation of Nordorn royalty.Responsible Bjaudin, heir to the throne, focuses on his studies and Hegrin, Queen of Rendel, rears her own growing brood. But the youngest siblings, Elin and Mikkel, seem destined to alter the future of the NordornLand—for better or for worse.Thirteen-year-old Elin craves power, and believes her new alliance with the evil Ysa may help her achieve it.Eleven-year-old Mikkel stows away on a Sea-Rover ship, hoping for a brief adventure. But when the ship is attacked, Mikkel is taken prisoner, and soon his bonds to the NordornLand are the last thing on his mind.Through births and deaths, celebration and wars, Ashen and Gaurin have worked tirelessly to bring peace and prosperity to their kingdom. But it appears that this era of peace may be at its end. This final installment of the Cycle of Oak, Yew, Ash, and Rowan brings the series to a thrilling climax worthy of these fascinating characters.
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Blitzed
Robert Swindells
George is fascinated by World War II—even evacuation and rationing has got to be more exciting than living in dreary old Witchfield! He is looking forward to his school trip to Eden Camp, a World War II museum, but he never could have imagined how authentic this visit to wartime Britain will be. A hand reaching out of the fake rubble, a slip in time, and George has to survive something much worse than boredom. The rubble is now real—he has slipped through time into 1940s London. Imagine being alive before your parents were even born!
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Abomination
Robert Swindells
Martha is 12 and very different from other kids—no TV, no computer, no cool clothes, and especially no friends. It's all because of her parents, who are strict members of a religious group called the Brethren. Their rules dominate Martha's life, and one rule is the most important of all: she must never ever invite anyone home. If she does, their terrible secret—Abomination—could be revealed. But as Martha makes her first real friend in Scott, a new boy at school, she begins to wonder, Is she doing the right thing by helping to keep Abomination a secret? And just how far will her parents go to prevent the truth from being known?
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I Am Apache
Tanya Landman
A young woman seeks to avenge her brother's death by becoming an Apache warrior — and learns a startling truth about her own identity.After watching helplessly as Mexican raiders brutally murder her little brother, fourteen-year-old Siki is filled with a desire for vengeance and chooses to turn away from a woman's path to become a warrior of her Apache tribe. Though some men, like envious Keste, wish to see Siki fail, she passes test after test, and her skills grow under the guidance of her tribe's greatest warrior, Golahka. But Keste begins to whisper about Siki's father's dishonorable death, and even as Siki earns her place among the warriors, she senses a dark secret in her past — one that will throw into doubt everything she knows. Taking readers on a sweeping and suspenseful journey through the nineteenth-century American Southwest, Tanya Landman draws on historical accounts to imagine the Black Mountain Apache as a tribe in a fight for survival against the devastating progress of nations.
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The Ghosts of Kerfol
Deborah Noyes
In an enthralling work of Gothic suspense, an Edith Wharton story inspires five connected tales set in the same haunted manor over the centuries.In her classic ghost story "Kerfol," Edith Wharton tells the tale of Anne de Barrigan, a young Frenchwoman convicted of murdering her husband, the jealous Yves de Cornault. The elderly lord was found dead on the stairs, apparently savaged by a pack of dogs, though there were no dogs — no live dogs — at Kerfol that day. In this remarkable collection of intertwining short stories, Deborah Noyes takes us back to the haunted manor and tells us Anne de Barrigan's story through the sympathetic eyes of her servant girl. Four more tales slip forward in time, peering in on a young artist, a hard-drinking party girl, a young American couple, and a deaf gardener who now tends the Kerfol estate. All these souls are haunted by the ghosts of Kerfol — the dead dogs, the sensual yet uneasy relationships, and the bitter taste of revenge.