12 and up

The Sledding Hill
Chris Crutcher
Billy Bartholomew has an audacious soul, and he knows it. Why? Because it's all he has left. He's dead.Eddie Proffit has an equally audacious soul, but he doesn't know it. He's still alive.These days, Billy and Eddie meet on the sledding hill, where they used to spend countless hours -- until Billy kicked a stack of Sheetrock over on himself, breaking his neck and effectively hitting tilt on his Earthgame. The two were inseparable friends. They still are. And Billy is not about to let a little thing like death stop him from hanging in there with Eddie in his epic struggle to get his life back on track.
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Cubanita
Gaby Triana
Summer just started, and already I can't wait to get out of here to begin my mother-free life at the University of Michigan in August. But until that happens, I'll be teaching art at Camp Anhinga, same as last year. I start tomorrow, and Mom is anything but thrilled. Surprise, surprise. If it weren't for my father, I'd never get to experience college away from home. I'd be stuck, taking classes locally, learning to cook and sew the holes in my brother's underwear on the side, cultivating my domestic skills as a back-up career. Because that's what a good cubanita does, you know, thinks of nothing but home. Yeah. Okay.This is the story of Isabel Díaz, a Cuban-American who would rather just be an American, period. A funny and romantic summer read, as well as a touching story about discovering your roots, cubanita proves we all have room in us to become more than who we think we are.
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Autobiography of my Dead Brother
Christopher Myers, Walter Dean Myers
The thing was that me and Rise were blood brothers, but sometimes I really didn't know him. . . . And so Jesse fills his sketchbook with drawings and portraits of his blood brother, Rise, and his comic strip, Spodi Roti and Wise, as he makes sense of the complexities of friendship, loyalty, and loss in a neighborhood where drive–bys, vicious gangs, and abusive cops are everyday realities. Printz Award winner Walter Dean Myers delivers an unforgettable novel about life's hardest lessons, illustrated by Caldecott Honor artist Christopher Myers.
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Moccasin Thunder:American Indian Stories for Today
Lori Marie Carlson
The ten stories that make up this collection are raw, original, and fresh. Although they are all about American Indians, they are as different from one another as they are from anything you've read before.A supermarket checkout line, a rowboat on a freezing lake at dawn, a drunken dance in the gym, an ice hockey game on public-access TV. These are some of the backgrounds against which ten outstanding authors have created their memorable characters. Their work -- both poignant and funny, sarcastic and serious -- reminds us that the American Indian story is far from over -- it's being written every day.
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The World of Eldaterra: The Dragon Conspiracy
P. R. Moredun
They've been kicked out of their world. Now they want ours. In 1895 . . . a policeman follows a trail of murders that leads to a discovery too incredible to believe. In 1990 . . . fourteen-year-old James Kinghorn finds an entrance to Eldaterra, the Old World, where magic forces -- good and evil -- struggle for domination. With the help of some unexpected friends, including two dwarf brothers, a beguiling elf, parlanimals, and a wizard with many secrets. James uncovers a deadly conspiracy that began fifteen years before. IF the enemy's plans are not stopped, both worlds will plunge into unthinkable chaos. . . . The first book of the World of Eldaterra series weaves mystery and fantasy into an extraordinary, heart-stopping adventure.
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Nice Girls Don't Get Rich : 75 Avoidable Mistakes
Lois P. Frankel
If you have outstanding balances on your credit cards...don't have assets in your own name...are saving instead of investing, then chances are you're not rich and not living the life you want. Without your awareness, behaviors learned as a girl are preventing you from becoming a woman who is financially independent and free to follow her dreams. Now, with the same frank advice and empowering information that made Nice Girls Don't Get the Comer Office a bestseller, Lois Frankel tackles the 75 financial mistakes that keep women from having the wealth they deserve. She isolates the messages about money given to little girls that little boys never hear. Then she helps you discover the financial thinking that is keeping you stuck in old patterns, dependent relationships, and jobs where you earn less than you deserve. Once you get to the root of the problem, Frankel helps you solve it-with fabulous results. Her coaching tips help you take control of your finances and make more money than you ever thought possible. Do you make these "nice girl" mistakes? * Mistake #4: Not playing to win. Being polite, quiet, and fair to a fault is playing the financial game "like a girl." * Mistake #10: Choosing to remain financially illiterate. Knowledge is power. Learn to manage your major purchases, investments, and banking. * Mistake #20: Spending as an emotional crutch. Understand your emotions; don't make purchases just to lift your spirits. * Mistake #45: Saving instead of investing. Fear can keep your funds in low-interest accounts. Get educated about investing. Get wealthy. Frankel gives you the financial savvy to change negative behaviors, make smart money choices, and embrace the life you want sooner than you think.
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Small Eternities (Withern Rise)
Michael Lawrence
Four months ago in the snowy depths of winter, Alaric and Naia, two teenagers who'd never met, discovered they were living almost identical lives in different versions of Withern Rise, their riverside Victorian mansion. One day, they accidentally stranded themselves in the wrong realities. Now it's summer, and heavy rains have caused the river to overflow. Withern Rise's grounds are under water when Alaric and Naia find their separate ways into an earlier reality -- a small eternity -- and meet a boy called Aldous. Aldous Underwood. But who is this Aldous? Is he the old vagrant Naia has met in the present day, or an Aldous destined to die very soon, under mysterious circumstances? And will their meeting change Underwood history?
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Dragon's Hoard
Chris Riddell, Chris Riddell, Paul Stewart
Unsure of the tales he is being told about a destructive dragon living in the forest, Free Lance goes to work to protect a wealthy merchant and discovers the truth that leads him into a head-to-head battle with the elusive and dangerous creature on his own turf.
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The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs
Betty G. Birney
When Eben McAllister reads about the Seven Wonders of the World, he longs to escape the small farming community of Sassafras Springs and do some exploring f his own. No one else ever seems to want to leave Sassafras however -- not even his best pal, Jeb -- and so, for now, Eben figures he's stuck on the farm with Pa and Aunt Pretty until he grows up. All that changes when his pa, tired of Eben's moping, challenges him to find Seven Wonders in Sassafras Springs that can stang up to the real Seven Wonders of the World. And if he does? Then Eben will get the adventure he's been craving for -- a trip out West. Eben doesn't reckon he'll have any luck -- he can't think of even one thing that would be called "interesting," let along wonderous, in Sassafras, but he figures he'll give it a try; there's nothing else to do in Sassafras anyway. While his mission puzzles and annoys some of his friends and neighbors, Eben perseveres, little knowing that he is in for a big surprise. For what with a singing saw, a floating table, and a truth-telling loom (just to name a few), the Wonders Eben will discover among his neighbors, friends, and family will give him the adventure of a lifetime...without his ever leaving home. Told in a down-home narrative with glimmers of magical realism woven throughout, and illustrated with sumptuous drawings by Matt Phelan, Betty G. Birney's tale about a boy's journey of discovery reminds us all that extraordinary things can happen in the most ordinary of places...even in Sassafras Springs.
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Alice On Her Way
Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Excited about her sixteenth birthday, finally being able to drive, and kissing her boyfriend without braces, Alice feels like she will be practically an adult in a matter of months, yet when she is forced to attend a class on sexuality at the local church by her father, Alice comes to realize that being an adult isn’t actually based on a driver’s license.