Juvenile Fiction

Horse Diaries: Koda
Ruth Sanderson, Patricia Hermes
For anyone who has ever dreamed of hearing a horse’s story . . .Independence, Missouri, 1846Koda is a bay quarter horse with a white blaze. He loves to explore the countryside and run free with his human friend Jasmine nearby. But after Koda sets out with Jasmine’s family on a long and dusty wagon train journey on the Oregon Trail, he finds out what is truly important to him. Here is Koda’s story . . . in his own words.With moving and knowledgeable text and lovely black-and-white art throughout—both by real horse people—this is the perfect fit for all lovers of horses and history!
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Explorer X-Alpha
LM. Preston
For most kids, a trip to space camp is the trip of a lifetime—for Aadi it was life altering. After receiving a camp immunization needed for travel to Mars, Aadi finds that the immunization is the catalyst of an insidious experiment. He realizes what is happening too late for a change of fate. The full experiment is set in motion when he and his co-pilot, Eirena, crash in a distant galaxy called Shrenas, where they change and realize the full extent of their power. This turn of events forces him to grow up quickly, accept his change, and to decide to save a world, or to do what he was trained to do—dominate it. His power is coveted by the warring leaders of Shrenas, and he is forced to choose sides—a decision that may prove just how much humanity he has left.
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Dear Big V
Ellen W. Leroe
Courtney Condon, a funny, off-beat junior, is caught smack in the middle of the war between the Lewds and the Prudes at Delaware-Valley High School. Court's the founder of an abstinence club at Dull-Val. But when she's assigned an Op Ed piece for the school paper that forces her to work with Lance, the major player and hottest guy at school, this up-close and personal contact with Lance throws her into a Whirlwind of Confusion over her chaste ideals. Meanwhile, Courtney's staunchly devout, strict-Catholic mom is pushing her own form of prudishness to the point of alienating the entire family, especially when Mom catches Court in a lip-lock with Lance in his car, right in her very own driveway! Laugh-out-loud funny, Dear Big V illuminates the conflict between hormones and values that teens face every day.
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Shattered
Kathi Baron
Teen violin prodigy Cassie has been tiptoeing around her father, whose moods have become increasingly explosive. After he destroys her beloved and valuable violin, Cassie, shocked, runs away, eventually seeking refuge in a homeless shelter. She later learns that her father, a former violinist, was physically beaten as a child by her grandfather, a painful secret he's kept hidden from his family, and the cause of his violent outbursts. With all of their lives shattered in some way, Cassie's family must struggle to repair their broken relationships. As Cassie moves forward, she ultimately finds a way to help others, having developed compassion through her own painful experiences. Written in lyrical prose, Shattered tells the moving story of how one girl finds inner strength through music.
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Boys Without Names
Kashmira Sheth
For eleven-year-old Gopal and his family, life in their rural Indian village is over: We stay, we starve, his baba has warned. With the darkness of night as cover, they flee to the big city of Mumbai in hopes of finding work and a brighter future. Gopal is eager to help support his struggling family until school starts, so when a stranger approaches him with the promise of a factory job, he jumps at the offer.But Gopal has been deceived. There is no factory, just a small, stuffy sweatshop where he and five other boys are forced to make beaded frames for no money and little food. The boys are forbidden to talk or even to call one another by their real names. In this atmosphere of distrust and isolation, locked in a rundown building in an unknown part of the city, Gopal despairs of ever seeing his family again.But late one night, when Gopal decides to share kahanis, or stories, he realizes that storytelling might be the boys' key to holding on to their sense of self and their hope for any kind of future. If he can make them feel more like brothers than enemies, their lives will be more bearable in the shop—and they might even find a way to escape.
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Claim To Fame
Lindsay Scott hit the big time at age five, when she became the star of the television show "Just Me and the Kids." It seemed like she was set for life--until she had a nervous breakdown when she was eleven, because Lindsay had suddenly developed a very dangerous sense of ESP--the ability to hear what anyone was thinking about here, at any time, anywhere in the world. Lindsay's father whisked her away to her long-gone mother's house in small town Springdale, and Lindsay was amazed to discover that within the four walls of the house, she can't hear anything out of the ordinary. And so Lindsay has stayed hidden in the house, safe from other people's thoughts, doing her best to stay out of sight and let the world forget her. When the tabloids print a "where are they now" story about her, claiming that Lindsay's maniacal father has kept her imprisoned in her house for the past five years, a couple of well-meaning teens attempt to "rescue" Lindsay. For the first time in five years, Lindsay is outside the protective quiet of her house. And that's when she hears the one voice she never expected to hear: her mother's. When she discovers that perhaps her mother didn't leave voluntarily, she has a choice to make: will she risk everything to find the truth about her past--and the source of her ability?
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Something Terrible Happened On Kenmore
Marci Stillerman
Set against the backdrop of a child murder in 1930s-era Chicago, three teenagers' lives are about to change dramatically. From different sides of the tracks, Zane and Fred forge a bond through their shared love of cartooning. But Fred quickly realizes that Zane has a dark undercurrent, especially when he violates Maizy, the sturdy but naive working class neighborhood girl whose lack of self-esteem and lifelong love for Zane overwhelm her judgment. Meanwhile, Zane's father harbors a shocking secret that only Maizy and Fred discover, and the events that follow lead all three teens to make difficult, life-changing decisions. Told with compassion and honesty from each teen's perspective, Something Terrible Happened on Kenmore unflinchingly examines love and loss, friendship and sexuality, all significant factors on the path to becoming an adult.
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Star in the Middle
Carol Larese Millward
At 16, Star's life has changed drastically now that she's become the mother of a baby boy. To learn what's best for him, Star's taking parenting classes at a center for teen moms. But she's having trouble keeping up with the baby's demands, and her grandmother is threatening to force her to put the baby up for adoption. To top it off, Wilson, a popular star athlete, is in denial about being the father. He doesn't know about Star's terrible, painful secrets. But as Wilson's friends and family push him to accept his responsibility, he learns the truth about Star's disturbing past, facts that change his life forever. Told from Star's and Wilson's points-of-view, Star in the Middle reveals a compelling snap-shot of the difficult lives of teenage parents.
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Syren
Mark Zug, Angie Sage
The fifth book in the internationally bestselling Septimus Heap series by Angie Sage, featuring the funny and fantastic adventures of a wizard apprentice and his quest to become an ExtraOrdinary Wizard.New York Times Bestselling Series“In Sage’s most thrilling book yet, a new host of characters appear, giving the complex plot even more sparkle.” —VOYA (starred review)“Once again, Sage’s tale combines humor, adventure, and inventive storytelling and is sure to please her many fans.”—ALA Booklist“Syren is Sage at her best; it’s full of fun, adventure, humor, irony, friendship, loyalty and nonstop action” —School Library JournalIn this epic Magykal installment, Septimus ends up on a captivatingly beautiful island, one of seven set in a sparkling sea. He's stranded there with his badly injured dragon, Spit Fyre, along with Jenna and Beetle. There are some strange things about the island, including a Magykal girl named Syrah, a cat-shaped lighthouse that has lost its Light, and an eerie presence that sings to Septimus—can he escape the persistent call? Trouble is also brewing for Lucy and Wolf Boy, who have become entangled with some nefarious sailors at sea, and for Milo Banda, Jenna's father, who is harboring a mysterious treasure chest in his ship's hold.Charismatic storyteller Angie Sage continues Septimus Heap's Magykal journey with more laugh-out-loud adventures, more enchanting charms and spells, and an ever-deepening understanding of the interior life of a young hero.
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Dweeb
Andy Rash, Aaron Starmer
A smart and funny tale of perseverance, teamwork, and the true meaning of success.Strange things are happening at Ho-Ho-Kus Junior High. The cafeteria is covered in a sea of burger wrappers. Bullies aren’t bullying anymore. And there’s an eerie growling coming from the walls. If anyone can get to the bottom of these mysteries, it’s Denton, Wendell, Eddie, Elijah, and Bijay. They may be misfits, but they’re also the smartest kids in the eighth grade. There’s just one problem. Vice Principal Snodgrass has framed them for a crime they didn’t commit and imprisoned them in a secret room in the bowels of the school. His terms: Ace the dreaded Idaho Tests and all will be forgiven. Their plan: figure out who—or what—is to blame for the changes at school. It will take the nerdiest of skills. It will be scarier than talking to girls. It will be a true test, one that can be passed only by a select few. And those five boys are known as DWEEB.