KIRA-KIRA
Cynthia Kadohata
Atheneum
ISBN: 0689856393
Ages 11-up
256 pages

Glittering. That's how Katie Takeshima's sister, Lynn, makes everything seem. When Katie and her family move from a Japanese community in Iowa to Georgia, Lynn explains to her why people stop them on the street to stare, and she teaches Katie --- with her special way of viewing the world --- to look beyond tomorrow.

But it isn't long before their lives appear to be in shambles, as Lynn becomes desperately ill and the entire family begins to fall apart. It is now up to Katie to find a way to remind them that there is always something glittering --- kira-kira --- in the future.

THE LAST CHANCE TEXACO
Brent Hartinger
HarperTempest
ISBN: 0060509120
Teen Fiction
240 pages

Lucy Pitt, now fifteen years old, has spent the last eight years being transferred from one foster home to another. She's currently residing at Kindle Home, a group home for the foster care system's most difficult cases. The kids refer to this place as the Last Chance Texaco because it's the last stop before they get shipped off to a high-security juvenile detention center.

Although Lucy has some rivals at the home, she also has made a number of close friends: her roommate Yolanda, her counselor Leon, and Nate, who she shares garbage duty with after school. When a series of local arsons threatens to close Kindle Home permanently, Lucy must expose the real criminal or risk losing her last chance at happiness.

NEMESIS (Angel Series)
Scott and Denise Ciencin
Simon Spotlight
ISBN: 0689867026
Ages 16-up
400 pages

Angel has been called upon to solve a slew of murders at a monastery just outside of L.A., where a group of wizards has gathered to prevent an apocalyptic breech of the walls separating our reality from more deadly realms. While the gang goes undercover to get to the bottom of the mysterious killings, Fred takes a more scientific approach --- an approach that may get her killed.

PAGAN IN EXILE
Catherine Jinks

Candlewick Press
ISBN: 0763620203
Ages 12-up
336 pages

In Catherine Jinks's follow-up to PAGAN'S CRUSADE, the year is 1188 and Jerusalem is in the hands of the Infidel. Upstanding Crusaders and their squires --- like Lord Roland Roucy de Bram and Pagan Kidrouk --- are returning to Europe, hoping to rally more knights to their cause.

The young Pagan expects Lord Roland's family to be strong-minded and well-mannered people, but nothing could be further from the truth. The de Bram clan couldn't care less about the Crusades, or about anything outside their neighborhood in France. Meanwhile, Church authorities are duking it out with the de Brams over a group of "heretics" living nearby. And now Pagan and Roland, sworn to defend Christianity, must decide for themselves who to stand by --- and who to trust.

PLANET YUMTHING'S DIY: Create, Design, Reinvent and Make it Yours
Ela Jaynes and Darren Greenblatt
Bantam Books
ISBN: 0553375954
Ages 10-14
96 pages

Attention all you crafty (and craft-challenged) girls. These cool, easy and hip fashion accessory and home decor projects from best friends Ela Jaynes and Darren Greenblatt will give you the chance to show off your individuality --- and no sewing machine is required! Easy-to-follow steps will guide you through each project, and tons of illustrations make the process extra fun.

SEE YOU DOWN THE ROAD
Kim Ablon Whitney
Knopf
ISBN: 0375824677
Ages 12-up
192 pages

Bridget is leading a very uneasy life right now. She's engaged but her wedding is sooner than she would like; her family lives in a trailer, moving every so often; and her parents want her to quit high school so she can help more with the family business. The problem though is that Bridget is not sure the Traveler life is for her anymore. She feels guilty about pulling scams and she's very reluctant to marry.

But here's the dilemma Bridget faces --- she has always been the good girl who does what she is told, and there's no way that her parents will let her out of the wedding. And if she leaves the life, she's out of the family for good.

TRUESIGHT
David Stahler Jr.
Eos
ISBN: 0060522852
Ages 12-up
192 pages

Twelve-year-old Jacob lives on a distant planet in a community called Harmony, where the inhabitants embrace a philosophy called Truesight. Everyone who lives there has been genetically engineered to be blind, and everyone --- including Jacob --- is happy. But as Jacob nears his thirteenth birthday, he begins to suffer from terrible headaches and a searing pain that seems to come from his eyes. Jacob now has the opportunity to discover for himself just how much there is to see --- if only he is willing to look.

THE YEAR OF SECRET ASSIGNMENTS
Jaclyn Moriarty
Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic
ISBN: 0439498813
Ages 12-up
416 pages

The Ashbury-Brookfield pen pal program was designed to bring together the "lowlife Brooker kids" (as they're known to the Ashburyites) and the "rich Ashbury snobs" (as they're called by the Brookfielders). But things don't go quite as planned. Lydia and Sebastian trade challenges, like setting off the fire alarm at Brookfield. Emily tutors Charlie in How to Go On a Date with a Girl. But it's Cassie and Matthew who both reveal and conceal the most about themselves --- and it's their secrets and lies that set off a war between the two schools.