12 and up

Oddest of All
Bruce Coville
Fans of Bruce Coville’s wonderfully weird storytelling will be thrilled to know that the expert of odd is back with a new collection of nine curious and thought-provoking tales. From stories about a girl who learns the horrifying secrets about what’s really at the bottom of a murky, desolate pond, a strange chemical factory causing mutations in frogs, and a Halloween mask that becomes a gruesome clue in the disappearance of a child, the odd adventures in this new collection are filled with terrifying and ghoulish details. In the eerie, surreal tradition of Edgar Allan Poe, these reveries are sure to linger in the minds of readers.
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The Order of Odd Fish
James Kennedy
JO LAROUCHE HAS lived her 13 years in the California desert with her Aunt Lily, ever since she was dropped on Lily’s doorstep with this note: This is Jo. Please take care of her. But beware. This is a dangerous baby. At Lily’s annual Christmas costume party, a variety of strange events take place that lead Jo and Lily out of California forever—and into the mysterious, strange, fantastical world of Eldritch City. There, Jo learns the scandalous truth about who she is, and she and Lily join the Order of Odd-Fish, a collection of knights who research useless information. Glamorous cockroach butlers, pointless quests, obsolete weapons, and bizarre festivals fill their days, but two villains are controlling their fate. Jo is inching closer and closer to the day when her destiny is fulfilled, and no one in Eldritch City will ever be the same.
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Harmony
C. F. Bentley
Within a space opera landscape, H armony explores the spirituality of a different human culture bound by a rigid caste system. Laudae Sissy, the new H igh Priestess of the world called H armony, reaches across all seven castes of her society, seeking a new unity that will protect their isolation from the rest of the galaxy. But other cultures and races are testing their borders, searching for the most valuable commodity in civilized space. Sissy's quest leads her through a quagmire of human motivations in search of a new understanding of life upon H armony's Path.
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Enchantment Place
Denise Little
Seventeen original stories about a mall where anything you can imagine is for sale?but who will pay the price? The stores in Enchantment Place live up to the title, catering to a rather unique clientele ranging from vampires and werecreatures to wizards and witches, elves and unicorns?in short, anyone with shopping needs not likely to be met in the chain stores. Here are seventeen shopping trips you?ll never forget, from a store that sells the highest quality familiars?to the non-magical daughter of a magic-filled family who is left to mind the family jewelry store though she has no means to defeat an enchanting thief?to a woman running a Wiccan supply store who is suddenly faced with an IRS audit?
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Sandlot Summit
Rick Fishman
FUNNIEST SPORTS STORY EVERGet ready to "LOL" with the funniest, most entertaining youth sports story of all time.It's 1984 ¿ and the cold war between the United States and the Soviet Union is heating up to a fever pitch. With combat a near certainty, President Ronald Reagan and the infamous Russian General, Kostlitzo "BoneFace" Zolotov, make a secret pact to settle differences, not by fighting a war, but instead, by playing a kids' baseball game. Felix Farley, a dedicated, but often bumbling coach, is accidentally chosen to lead the American squad and quickly discovers he is in way over his head. But there's no turning back. He and his young ballplayers must find a way to save the free world from conquest by what President Reagan calls the "Evil Empire".
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Been There, Survived That
Karen Macklin
Everyone knows that the first year of high school can be daunting. But you will come out of it alive - and this book can help. Inside, four real teens fill you in on the stuff they wish they’d known. Among other things, there’s advice on how to assimilate into your new social kingdom, deal with failure, survive the lunchroom, create good excuses, and fake sick days.Divided into social, academic, and practical sections of advice, Been There, Survived That also includes humorous tips on what NOT to do, and funny freshman year horror stories. Sure, cafeteria food is always scary, but high school doesn’t have to be.
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97 Things To Do Before You Finish High School
Steven Jenkins, Erika Stalder
Being in high school is about a lot more than going to high school. It’s about discovering new places, new hobbies, and new people—and opening your eyes to the world. This book is about the stuff they don’t teach you in high school, like how to host a film festival, plan your first road trip, make a podcast, or write a manifesto. Want to make a time capsule? Spend a day in silence? Learn how to make beats like a DJ? Or shut down your house party before the police do? Whatever your creative, social, or academic inclinations, you’ll find 97 ways on these pages to amuse, educate, and interest yourself and your friends—helpfully organized into nine categories:For Your Personal DevelopmentWith/for FriendsWith/for FamilyFor Your BodyTo Get to Know the World Around YouTo Express YourselfTo Benefit Your Community and EnvironmentBecause You ShouldBecause You're Only Young Once Because your life doesn’t stop at 3 p.m. each day—it just gets started.
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The Last Patriot
Brad Thor
In Brad Thor's highest-voltage thriller to date, Scot Harvath must race to locate an ancient secret that has the power to stop militant Islam dead in its tracks. June 632 A.D.: Deep within the Uranah Valley of Mount Arafat in Mecca, the prophet Mohammed shares with his closest companions a final and startling revelation. Within days, he is assassinated. September 1789: U.S. minister to France Thomas Jefferson, charged with forging a truce with the violent Muslim pirates of the Barbary Coast, makes a shocking discovery - one that could forever impact the world's relationship with Islam. Present day: When a car bomb explodes outside a Parisian cafŽ, Navy Seal turned covert Homeland Security Operative Scot Harvath is thrust back into the life he has tried so desperately to leave behind. Saving the intended victim of the attack, Harvath becomes party to an amazing and perilous race to uncover a secret so powerful that militant Islam could be defeated once and for all without firing another shot, dropping another bomb, or launching another covert action. But there are powerful men who are determined that Mohammed's mysterious final revelation continue to remain hidden forever. Hailed by the Chicago Tribune as "quite possibly the next coming of Robert Ludlum," Brad Thor takes listeners across the globe on a heart-pounding chase where the stakes are higher than they have ever been before.
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Pirouette: Ballet Stories
Harriet Castor
Themes such as friendship, rivalry, disappointment, and success run through these tales about dance and dancers. There are autobiographical contributions from famous prima ballerinas such as Margot Fonteyn, as well as stories by popular writers such as Cynthia Voigt, Noel Streatfeild, and Michelle Magorian. This artfully chosen anthology will delight any dancer or fan of the ballet.
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Say You're One Of Them
Uwem Akpan
Uwem Akpan's stunning stories humanize the perils of poverty and violence so piercingly that few readers will feel they've ever encountered Africa so immediately. The eight-year-old narrator of "An Ex-Mas Feast" needs only enough money to buy books and pay fees in order to attend school. Even when his twelve-year-old sister takes to the streets to raise these meager funds, his dream can't be granted. Food comes first. His family lives in a street shanty in Nairobi, Kenya, but their way of both loving and taking advantage of each other strikes a universal chord. In the second of his stories published in a New Yorker special fiction issue, Akpan takes us far beyond what we thought we knew about the tribal conflict in Rwanda. The story is told by a young girl, who, with her little brother, witnesses the worst possible scenario between parents. They are asked to do the previously unimaginable in order to protect their children. This singular collection will also take the reader inside Nigeria, Benin, and Ethiopia, revealing in beautiful prose the harsh consequences for children of life in Africa.Akpan's voice is a literary miracle, rendering lives of almost unimaginable deprivation and terror into stories that are nothing short of transcendent.