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Cool New Books for October
October's roundup of Cool New Books is chock-full of fabulous additions to some of your favorite series titles. In NOTHING CAN KEEP US TOGETHER --- Cecily von Ziegesar's eighth Gossip Girl novel --- the winds of change can be felt at the Constance Billard School for Girls, and LIVE BAIT is a continuation of Francine Pascal's Fearless FBI series. This month also marks the debut of LORD LOSS, the first book in The Demonata horror series by Darren Shan, who has written the bestselling Cirque du Freak books. Stand-alone fiction includes Julie Hearn's SIGN OF THE RAVEN, an intriguing mystery from the author of THE MINISTER'S DAUGHTER, and TWILIGHT, a love story with a vampire twist from debut novelist Stephenie Meyer.
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CHICKS WITH STICKS (It's a purl thing)
Elizabeth Lenhard
Dutton Children's Books
ISBN: 0525476229
Ages 12-up
256 pages
Scottie, Amanda, Bella and Tay are fast becoming knitting chums. These "chicks with sticks" couldn't be farther apart on their elite high school's social spectrum, so it's difficult to say which is a more surprising development: their new friendship or their sudden yen for yarn. CHICKS WITH STICKS weaves together knitting terms and lore, cool projects and patterns, and timeless themes of friendship and self-discovery.
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FULL SERVICE
Will Weaver
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 0374324859
Ages 12-up
240 pages
When Paul turns sixteen, his mother pushes him to take a summer job in town instead of just working on the family farm. As a result, Paul encounters a lot of new people: Kirk, the angry gas station manager; Harry, a reclusive and kindly gangster; and a family of hippies passing in a yellow peace van to San Francisco. He also meets beautiful Peggy, a high school sensation, and dark-haired Dale, her on-the-side boyfriend who is headed to Vietnam. As the summer progresses, Paul learns the secrets of his small Minnesota town and discovers that he's ready to have a few secrets of his own.
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PLANET JANET IN ORBIT
Dyan Sheldon
Candlewick Press
ISBN: 0763627550
Ages 14-up
304 pages
In this diary-style sequel to PLANET JANET, Janet Bandry is leaving the Dark Phase to enter the Work Force as a waitress at a local Mexican restaurant. There, she meets a dreamy waiter named Ethan who just happens to be falling for Disha, Janet's best friend. Janet, of course, is mature enough to get over it --- except for the fact that Disha now won't hang out with anyone but her possessive new boyfriend.
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PRINCE WILLIAM, MAXIMILIAN MINSKY & ME
Holly-Jane Rahlens
Candlewick Press
ISBN: 0763627046
Ages 12-15
256 pages
Nelly Sue Edelmeister knows exactly who she is: a skinny thirteen-year-old schoolgirl with thick glasses, a brain the size of the ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA, and a brilliant career ahead in astronomy. But that's before she develops a hopeless crush on the handsome Price William, future king of Great Britain. And it's definitely before she meets the odd but oddly attractive Maximilian Minsky --- former New Yorker, full-out goth, and basketball ace --- who is Nelly's last hope for making the school team before it heads off to Eton, England, and virtually into Prince William's arms.
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SIGN OF THE RAVEN
Julie Hearn
Atheneum
ISBN: 0689857349
Ages 12-up
336 pages
Something odd is going on in the basement of an old house in London. An inexplicable gap has formed in time that links the present to the past. And twelve-year-old Tom, who discovers the gap while visiting his grandmother, is torn between both worlds.
Lured by a mysterious voice, Tom leaps into the early eighteenth century, to a time when circus "freaks" like the Bendy Man and the Gorilla Woman appeared at Bartholomew Fair. The voice he hears belongs to Astra, a tiny child whose limbs are no bigger than a man's thumb. She has called him into the past, because she is convinced that Tom is the only one who can help her and her friends from danger. But Tom is dealing with difficulties of his own...
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TRAITOR
Andy McNab and Robert Rigby
G. P. Putnam's Sons
ISBN: 0399244646
Ages 12-up
288 pages
Danny Watts dreams of becoming a soldier. But there's a problem: The grandfather he's never met, army hero Fergus Watts, was a notorious traitor, and now family history is keeping Danny out of Officer's Training school. Danny is determined to track Fergus down. But how can he find a man trained to avoid capture, an expert at surveillance and covert operations? As Danny makes his first move, so does someone else --- and this someone has been keeping a close eye on Danny.
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TWILIGHT
Stephenie Meyer
Megan Tingley Books/Little, Brown and Company
ISBN: 0316160172
Ages 12-up
512 pages
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Isabella Swan moves to Forks, a small, perpetually rainy town in Washington. No big deal, right? When she meets the mysterious and alluring Edward Cullen, however, Isabella's life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn. Up until now, Edward has managed to keep his vampire identity a secret in the small community he lives in. But now nobody is safe, especially Isabella, the person Edward cares about the most.
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Series Books
The Demonata
LORD LOSS: The Demonata, Book I
Darren Shan
Little, Brown and Company
ISBN: 0316114995
Ages 15-up
240 pages
Grubbs Grady hates history and loves bacon, rats, and playing tricks on his squeamish older sister. He's a little big for his age, which means he can get into R-rated movies. When Grubbs declines to join his family on a weekend trip, everything seems normal. He never guesses that he is about to take a terrifying journey into darkness. Hungry demons and howling werewolves haunt his waking nightmares --- and threaten his life.
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Gossip Girl
NOTHING CAN KEEP US TOGETHER: A Gossip Girl Nove
Cecily von Ziegesar
Little, Brown and Company
ISBN: 0316735094
Ages 15-up
224 pages
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It's almost graduation and the lives of the young women at Constance Billard are heating up. Will Blair and Nate's love affair continue? More importantly, will Blair finally get into Yale? Or will Nate and Serena hook up in New Haven and leave Blair alone in the city? And as for the juiciest scoop of all, is it really true that Jenny is leaving Constance Billard to go to boarding school?
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Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Stake Your Destiny
COLONY
Laura J. Burns and Melinda Metz
Simon Spotlight Entertainment
ISBN: 1416900578
Ages 16-up
256 pages
Because of the high incidence of death and violence, the Mayor of Sunnydale has invited a woman called Belakane to speak at Sunnydale High School. Her program supposedly builds self-esteem in teenagers. But Belakane is a demon antlike queen whose test --- and subsequent nurturing of the skills she discovers --- is simply part of her plot to enlist workers to build her colony, and to find mates to help her populate it. Soon Sunnydale High is full of kids with only one trait each --- and Belakane has only just begun....
The Stake Your Destiny series returns Buffy Summers and the Scoobies to the glory days of high school. But this time you control the action and accept the full responsibility of being the Slayer. Interactive story lines advance by the choices you make, leading toward more than a dozen possible endings.
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Charmed
PICTURE PERFECT
Cameron Dokey
Simon Spotlight Entertainment
ISBN: 141690025X
Ages 16-up
208 pages
Phoebe Halliwell and her sisters are attending the grand reopening of Mural House, a San Francisco landmark built in the 1920s. During construction, the building's architect, William Lancaster, fell in love with a young artist named Isabella Marshall. Their relationship eventually ended in tragedy --- and in William's disappearance. The love affair has become legendary, and their letters are being printed in Phoebe's column with the permission of Isabella's daughter, Lucile. At the gala reopening, a long-painted-over mural is unveiled. Lucile is visibly upset; in fact, she seems horrified. Before passing out from fear, she whispers, "The evil has been released..."
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Fearless FBI
LIVE BAIT
Francine Pascal
Simon Pulse
ISBN: 0689878222
Ages 16-up
208 pages
Late one night, in the middle of a rainstorm, Gaia Moore and her roommate stumble upon an actual killing. Since they were the only ones to catch a glimpse of the perpetrator, headquarters has granted Gaia and Catherine temporary FBI badges to solve the case. When the killer strikes again, Gaia tries to piece together some clues, but there's no real lead to go on. And without a profile, the next victim could be anyone. Anyone at all.
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--- Compiled and Written by Tom Donadio
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