24 GIRLS IN 7 DAYS
Alex Bradley
Dutton
ISBN: 0525473696
Ages 14-up
256 pages

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Jack Grammar thinks he has no date to the prom. But Percy and Natalie, Jack's so-called best friends, post an ad in the classified section of the online version of the school newspaper. Soon they assemble a list of girls eager to go to the prom with Jack, including one mysterious young lady known only as FancyPants. Jack has just seven days to meet and date them before he will ask one special girl to the big dance.

CRYPTID HUNTERS
Roland Smith
Hyperion
ISBN: 0786851619
Ages 10-up
352 pages

After their parents are lost in an accident, thirteen-year-old twins Grace and Marty are whisked away to live with their Uncle Wolfe --- an uncle they didn't even know they had! The intimidating Uncle Wolfe is an anthropologist who has dedicated his life to finding cryptids, mysterious creatures believed to be long extinct. Disturbing news about Wolfe's nemesis, Dr. Blakemoor, lead to perilous adventures, and Grace and Marty uncover long-buried secrets about their identity and that of their uncle.

DANCING IN RED SHOES WILL KILL YOU
Dorian Cirrone
HarperCollins
ISBN: 006055701X
Ages 12-up
224 pages

When red pointe shoes with threatening messages start popping up mysteriously all over Kayla's school, this teenage ballerina must figure out if she herself is in danger. At the same time, Kayla is in desperate need of an answer to this all-important question: How can she make her decidedly un-ballerina-like proportions fit her dream of becoming a professional dancer?

I AM THE MESSENGER
Markus Zusak
Knopf
ISBN: 0375830995
Ages 12-up
368 pages

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Ed Kennedy, an underage cab driver and a pathetic card player, lives in a shack with his coffee-addicted dog and is hopelessly in love with his best friend, Audrey. His life is one of peaceful routine and incompetence, until he inadvertently stops a bank robbery. That's when the first Ace arrives --- and Ed becomes the messenger. Chosen to care, he makes his way through town helping and hurting (when necessary), but one question still remains: Who is behind Ed's mission?

LAST SHOT: A Final Four Mystery
John Feinstein
Knopf
ISBN: 0375831681
Ages 10-up
256 pages

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Stevie Thomas and Susan Carol Anderson are the two lucky winners of the U.S. Basketball Writers Association's contest for aspiring journalists. Their reward? A trip to New Orleans and a press pass for the Final Four! But it turns out that the behind-the-scenes action involving coaches, the players, the media, and the fans is more fiercely competitive than anything that transpires on the court. Stevie and Susan Carol overhear what sounds like a threat to throw the championship game. They have just 48 hours to figure out who is blackmailing one of Michigan State's star players --- and why.

NINE DAYS A QUEEN: The Short Life and Reign of Lady Jane Grey
Ann Rinaldi
HarperCollins
ISBN: 0060549238
Ages 12-up
192 pages

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Lady Jane Grey was crowned Queen of England against her wishes at the age of sixteen before being overthrown nine days later.

In this unforgettable novel, author Ann Rinaldi unfolds the story of how Jane is made a pawn for the political ambitions of her parents in the frighteningly volatile Tudor court. A number of historical figures appear in this tragic tale: King Henry VIII, young King Edward VI, Sir Thomas Seymour, Katharine Parr, Mary I, and Elizabeth I. As Jane's story moves from her late childhood toward her elaborate, arranged marriage, coronation and premature death, readers will experience history in the making.

REFUGEES
Catherine Stine
Delacorte Press
ISBN: 0385731795
Ages 12-up
288 pages

Sixteen-year-old Dawn runs away from her unhappy foster home in California and travels to New York City. Johar, an Afghani teenager, flees his war-ravaged village and the Taliban, and makes a dangerous trek to a refugee camp in Pakistan. Thanks to his knowledge of English, Johar finds a job at the camp assisting Louise, the Red Cross doctor who happens to be Dawn's foster mother. Through emails and phone calls, Dawn and Johar begin to share and protect each other's secrets, fears and dreams, and a remarkable bond forms that gives them the hope and courage to find a path home.

STRIPES OF THE SIDESTEP WOLF
Sonya Hartnett
Candlewick Press
ISBN: 0763626449
Ages 12-up
208 pages

Ever since Dad decided he didn't need to work anymore --- insisting that the Lord would provide --- Satchel O'Rye has felt like a prisoner in his dying country town. A high school dropout drifting from one small carpentry job to the next, Satchel tries to support his family all on his own. But things start to change when he discovers a strange doglike animal at a nearby mountain and mentions it to Chelsea Piper, an awkward young woman who's considered to be the local pariah. Could this animal be a Tasmanian tiger, a marsupial thought to be extinct? And if they found it again, could it give both of them a new chance at life?

Series Books

The Party Room Trilogy

GET IT STARTED: Book One
Morgan Burke
Simon Pulse
ISBN: 0689872259
Ages 16-up
272 pages

The Party Room is where the prep school crowd goes to drink and hook up. One night Samantha Byrne leaves with a guy no one has seen before ... and ends up dead in Central Park, brutally murdered. Now a killer walks among Manhattan's most privileged -- and indulged --- teens.

Charmed

MYSTIC KNOLL
Diana G. Gallagher
Simon Spotlight Entertainment
ISBN: 0689868545
Ages 12-up
224 pages

The Charmed Ones desperately are in need of a vacation. So they plan to spend a day or two in Salem (to explore their witch heritage) and the rest of their time on the beautiful Massachusetts coast. It seems that the girls have gotten a break from evil --- but late flights and wrong directions conspire to sidetrack the travelers, and they find themselves hungry, exhausted, and nowhere near Salem. They happen upon a bed-and-breakfast run by a crotchety old woman and her strange, shy granddaughter. They're not your typical innkeepers, and soon Piper, Phoebe and Paige find that nothing in this small town is typical.

Mates, Dates Series

MATES, DATES, AND TEMPTING TROUBLE
Cathy Hopkins
Simon Pulse
ISBN: 0689870620
Ages 12-up
256 pages

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Friendships are threatened in this eighth book of the "Mates, Dates" series when Luke, a boy who Nesta has been dating, declares passionate love for T.J. T.J. is caught off-guard and does her best to keep out of the way. But then she and Luke are chosen to work together on a project, so she can't avoid him.

Misunderstandings and miscommunications endanger the girls' friendship and split them into two camps: Lucy and Nesta vs. Izzie and T.J. Will their friendship survive? And how will T.J.'s steady boyfriend, Steve, react to all of this?