12 and up
Not a Happy Camper
Mindy Schneider
Remember those long sultry summer days at camp, the sun setting over the lake as you sang Kumbaya”? Well, Mindy Schneider remembers her summer at Camp Kin-A-Hurra in 1974 just a wee bit differently. Not a Happy Camper chronicles a young girl’s adventures at a camp where the sun never shines, the breakfast cereal dates back to the summer of 1922, and many of the counselors speak no English. For eight eye-opening and unforgettable weeks, Mindy and her eccentric band of friends--including Autumn Evening Schwartz, the daughter of hippies, who communicates with the dead, and the sleep-dancing, bibliophile Betty Gilbert--keep busy feuding in color wars, failing at sports, and uncovering the camp’s hidden past. As she focuses on landing the perfect boyfriend and longs for her first kiss, Mindy unexpectedly stumbles across something infinitely grander: herself. Hilarious, charming, and glowing with nostalgia, Mindy Schneider’s memoir is a must-read for anyone who’s ever been to summer camp, or wishes they had.
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Girls That Growl
Mari Mancusi
Rayne McDonald thought getting into the Blood Coven was the hard part. But now there's a new breed of trouble in town...and the former slayer and her vampire boyfriend may be the only ones who can stop it. Now that she's an official vampire and full-fledged member of The Blood Coven, Rayne assumes her vampire slaying days are over. Sure, she doesn't have any vampire powers, thanks to a mutated blood virus, but she and Jareth can go out in the sun, which is a pretty good trade-off. But just when Rayne's starting to enjoy her afterlife, she's contacted by Slayer Inc once again. It seems that a member of her high school's football team has disappeared--and the powers-that-be think the cheerleaders had something to do with it. Now Rayne has to infiltrate the squad before the cheerleaders have a chance to sink their teeth into someone else...
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The Case Against My Brother
Libby Sternberg
Orphaned and penniless in 1922 Baltimore, Maryland, fifteen-year-old Carl and seventeen-year-old Adam Matuski are forced to move across the continent to live with their Uncle Pete in Portland, Oregon. Almost from the beginning, homesick Carl desperately wants to return east with his brother, but his plans fall apart when Adam is sought by police for the theft of expensive jewels from his wealthy girlfriend’s home. Carl is convinced that Adam is being fingered unfairly. He and his brother are Polish Catholics, and Portland is awash in anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant sentiment. Voters, in fact, are being asked to decide whether Catholic schools, indeed all non-public schools, should be outlawed entirely. Carl works at one such Catholic school. Fueled by the Ku Klux Klan and other unsavory groups, the campaign touches Carl personally as he strives to clear his brother’s name and solve the mystery: Who really took the family jewels, and why?
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Beings in a Dream---Friends and Enemies Part II
David Field
Fresh from their adventures in 1599, which ended in Toulouse Cathedral with the public exposure of the murderous Drogo and his brother the Bishop, fifteen-year-old Tommy and Eloise de Narbonne, a countess from the sixteenth century, find their way back to
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Big Slick
Eric Luper
All in all, sixteen-year-old Andrew Lang has been dealt a pretty good hand in life. Sure, he has to spend his afternoons slaving away in the hellhole that is his dad's dry-cleaning business, but even that's not so bad with Jasmine, the seriously hot Goth-chick senior, working right beside him. So what if she's got a boyfriend? Plus, Andrew's got an ace up his sleeve - he's good at poker. Very good. Unfortunately, all it takes is one bad beat at Shushie's illegal poker club to turn Andrew's bankroll from huge to nonexistent. And Andrew's pretty sure that sooner or later his dad's going to notice that $600 he "borrowed" from the register. Andrew thinks he may know how to get the money back, but it's a little bit crazy, and a little bit dangerous . . . In this breakneck-paced novel about gambling and growing up, the stakes are high, and Andrew must ask himself: What does going all in really mean?
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Bad Idea
Jedd Hafer, Todd Hafer
Griffin Smith is making a long road trip--but it's not a simple case of getting from point A to point B. Along the way, Griffin learns a lot about life from his unlikely band of travel companions and begins to questions his own attitudes and beliefs.
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Grains Of Sand: The Fall Of Neve Dekalim
Shifra Shomron
Grains Of Sand: The Fall Of Neve Dekalim puts a human face to the people of Gush Katif as it closely follows the story of an Israeli family from pre-Intifada II until the Disengagement, which was the expulsion of Israeli citizens from Gush Katif in the Gaza Strip in 2005. The reader is given a rare opportunity to look into the hearts and souls of Gush Katif residents. This novel is historic fiction based upon the author's life and experiences in Gush Katif, as well as those of friends and neighbors. It vividly reflects the thoughts and feelings of the people who lived there during those difficult times. The author, a teen at the time she wrote this book, was herself an expellee.
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Ratha's Creature
Clare Bell
Twenty-five million years ago, Ratha and her kind, the Named--a band of intelligent cats--are being pushed toward extinction by the UnNamed, until Ratha discovers, and masters, the terrifying power of fire
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The Secret Life of Josephine: Napoleon's Bird of Paradise
Carolly Erickson
The bestselling author of The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette and The Last Wife of Henry VIII returns with an enchanting novel about the ambitious, amoral, vulnerable woman who became the first wife of Napoleon Bonaparte.Fashion icon, leader of France's society in the turbulent years of the guillotine and the bloody Napoleonic Wars, the alluring Josephine was a tough survivor―yet she also had a gentle, haunting quality that made her irresistible to her contemporaries, especially to the mysterious, compelling stranger from Martinique who captured her heart.
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Last year, Shelby Chapelle and her friend Becca founded the Queen Geek Social Club, and set out to find others of their kind. This year, Becca has even bigger plans for the Queen Geeks. She thinks working on the club's website and planning Geekfest (a talent show of geek-tastic proportions) should be Shelby's number one priority. Guys have always been strictly secondary to the goal of spreading geekiness to every corner of Green Pines High School...and then the world! But sophomore year heats up when Shelby is swept off her feet by the karaoke stylings of a guy named Fletcher. And then Becca and another Queen Geek fall for the same guy, which results in a cursed love triangle-or a doomed love rhombus, if you count Shelby and Fletcher. The going can get tough when Queek Geeks fall in love, but Shelby knows that being true to your inner geek is the most important thing.
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