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Juvenile Fiction | Page 60 | LitPick Book Reviews
Juvenile Fiction
Bystander
Bystander
James Preller
Eric is the new kid in seventh grade. Griffin wants to be his friend. When you're new in town, it's hard to know who to hang out with―and who to avoid. Griffin seems cool, confident, and popular. But something isn't right about Griffin. He always seems to be in the middle of bad things. And if Griffin doesn't like you, you'd better watch your back. There might be a target on it. As Eric gets drawn deeper into Griffin's dark world, he begins to see the truth about Griffin: he's a liar, a bully, a thief. Eric wants to break away, do the right thing. But in one shocking moment, he goes from being a bystander . . . to the bully's next victim. This title has Common Core connections.

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Kitchen Princess: Search for the Angel Cake
Kitchen Princess
Natsumi Ando, Miyuki Kobayashi
For all the fans who can’t get enough of the smash hit manga Kitchen Princess–a thrilling new prose story of romance and adventure!Najika faces a new challenge, and it may be her toughest one yet. Before their tragic accident, her parents, both famous pastry chefs, made a promise to the grandmother of a classmate of Najika’s: to duplicate a white cake the elderly woman once tasted abroad as a teenager. Now Najika hopes to re-create the cake herself.With so few clues (it’s fluffy and heavenly) and so many possibilities, the trial and error might just go on forever. But Najika refuses to give up–for one reason: She knows that all great masterpieces contain a distinct magic: a secret ingredient called love. Najika will need lots of it to make the wishes of Anju’s grandmother–and certain other classmates–come true. And who knows? With so much amour in the air, Najika might just find a little left over for herself!

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Grk Smells a Rat (The Grk Books)
Grk Smells A Rat
Joshua Doder
A perfect middle-grade adventure for the same fans as Alex Rider readers.Tim Malt; his parents; his dog, Grk; and his friends Natascha and Max Raffifi have just arrived in India. They are all set to see the famous sights and watch Max compete in a tennis tournament. But after meeting a boy named Krishnan, they learn about the Blue Rat Gang, a group that enslaves children. Krishnan needs help to rescue his sister from a cruel life of forced labor, and Tim and Grk are up to the challenge. Racing against time, Tim and Grk are chased through dark alleys only to find themselves face-to-face with the infamous leader inside the Blue Rats’ headquarters. Can they foil his evil plans before it’s too late?Praise for the Grk books:“Pure adventure fun.”—Kirkus Reviews“Crackles with Doder’s crisp prose and absurdist sensibility . . . [a] wildly engaging story.”—Time Out NY Kids

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The Giant-Slayer
The Giant-Slayer
Iain Lawrence
A girl’s imagination transports polio-afflicted kids into a fantastic world.The spring of 1955 tests Laurie Valentine’s gifts as a storyteller. After her friend Dickie contracts polio and finds himself confined to an iron lung, Laurie visits him in the hospital. There she meets Carolyn and Chip, two other kids trapped inside the breathing machines. Laurie’s first impulse is to flee, but Dickie begs her to tell them a story. And so Laurie begins her tale of Collosso, a rampaging giant, and Jimmy, a tiny boy whose destiny is to become a slayer of giants.As Laurie embellishes her tale with gnomes, unicorns, gryphons, and other fanciful creatures, Dickie comes to believe that he is a character in her story. Little by little Carolyn, Chip, and other kids who come to listen, recognize counterparts as well. Laurie’s tale is so powerful that when she’s prevented from continuing it, Dickie, Carolyn, and Chip take turns as narrators. Each helps bring the story of Collosso and Jimmy to an end—changing the lives of those in the polio ward in startling ways.

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Dragonfly
Dragonfly
Julia Golding
Princess Taoshira of the Blue Crescent Islands is appalled when she is ordered to marry Prince Ramil of Gerfal in order to unite their lands. And he's not too pleased, either. They hate each other on sight. So, when Tashi and Ramil are kidnapped, they fear there's no escape - from their kidnappers or from each other. Can they put aside their differences long enough to survive ambush, unarmed combat, brainwashing, and imprisonment? And will the people they meet on their adventure help them or betray them to the enemy?

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Sistrsic92 (Meg) (Bloggrls)
Sistrsic92 (Meg)
Tyler Beauford, Cheryl Dellasega
Meg, a.k.a. sistrsic92, can’t help having a serious inferiority complex—you would, too, if you had a sister like T2P2 (The Totally Perfect Person), who can usually be found surrounded by a circle of her adoring friends and her ultra-popular boyfriend. But Meg soon learns that she has one thing T2P2 never had—blog pals who are the VBFs a girl could ever hope for. When Meg’s sister develops an eating disorder and reveals to Meg a huge secret, Meg will have to decide how far sisterhood goes and what secrets are worth keeping—before it’s too late.Chronicling the main events throughout are hand drawings by teen-illustrator Tyler Beauford.

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Love in Translation: A Novel
Love in Translation
Wendy Nelson Tokunaga
Stuck. That's how 33-year-old aspiring singer Celeste Duncan feels, with her deadbeat boyfriend and static career. But then Celeste receives a puzzling phone call and a box full of mysterious family heirlooms which just might be the first real clue to the identity of the father she never knew. Impulsively, Celeste flies to Japan to search for a long-lost relative who could be able to explain. She stumbles head first into a weird, wonderful world where nothing is quite as it seems―a land with an inexplicable fascination with foreigners, karaoke boxes, and unbearably perky TV stars. With little knowledge of Japanese, Celeste finds a friend in her English-speaking homestay brother, Takuya, and comes to depend on him for all variety of translation, travel and investigatory needs. As they cross the country following a trail after Celeste's family, she discovers she's developing "more-than-sisterly" feelings for him. But with a nosy homestay mom scheming to reunite Takuya with his old girlfriend, and her search growing dimmer, Celeste begins to wonder whether she's made a terrible mistake by coming to Japan. Can Celeste find her true self in this strange land, and discover that love can transcend culture?

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Freefall
Freefall
Ariela Anhalt
Luke was not eager to accompany his best friend, Hayden, and the cocky new kid, Russell, up to the cliff that night. The plan was to watch Russell jump off the cliff into the lake--his initiation to the Briar Academy fencing team. But instead, after an angry confrontation with Hayden, Russell falls to his death.           Now Hayden is in jail and the pressure is on Luke to report what he saw. But what did he see? An accident--or a murder? Luke has always followed Hayden's lead, but this is one decision he'll be forced to make on his own. And to do it, he must face the truth about his friendship with Hayden and his own painful past.      This suspenseful and scandalous tale of rivalry, peer pressure, and finding the courage to take responsibility will have an impact on readers long after the last page.

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Spells of the City
Spells of the City
Martin H. Greenberg, Jean Rabe
Venture into Spells of the City, where a troll may be your toll collector on the George Washington Bridge…Harry the Book will be happy to place your bets in a spellbinding alternative New York…a gargoyle finds himself left to a lonely rooftop existence when he’s forced to live by his creator’s rules…and leprechauns must become bank robbers to keep up with the demand for their gold.

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I Learned a New Word Today ... Genocide
I Learned A New Word Today....Genocide
Elizabeth Hankins
Javier Mendoza has learned a new word and he does not like it. As his fifth grade class explores the shocking history of countries ranging from Armenia to Sudan, Javier realizes that the past—and even the present—is telling him a story that he cannot ignore. Then he overhears a conversation that triggers a mysterious chain of events at his school. Now Javier is faced with the reality that no one is immune to the consequences of genocide. And perhaps everyone has a responsibility to help end it, even himself.

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