Stand-Alone Titles

ABSOLUTE BRIGHTNESS
James Lecesne
Laura Geringer Books/HarperTeen
ISBN: 9780061256271
Ages 12-up
480 pages

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Phoebe Hertle is trying her best to get by; but with an absent father and a moody sister, she runs into hurdles wherever she turns. When Leonard Pelkey, Phoebe’s colorfully gay cousin, moves in, matters get worse. He is pushy, wears unusual clothes, and by association makes Phoebe’s life even more difficult. However, he refuses to be discouraged by prejudice or judgment. When Leonard goes missing --- only to be discovered bound tightly at the bottom of a lake --- unraveling the mystery behind his murder becomes Phoebe’s and the town’s obsession.

THE BOY WHO DARED
Susan Campbell Bartoletti
Scholastic Press
ISBN: 9780439680134
Ages 9-18
192 pages

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Susan Campbell Bartoletti has taken one episode from her Newbery Honor Book HITLER YOUTH and fleshed it out into a thought-provoking novel. When 16-year-old Helmuth Hubner listens to the BBC news on an illegal short-wave radio, he quickly discovers that Germany is lying to the people. But when he tries to expose the truth with leaflets, he is tried for treason. Sentenced to death and waiting in a jail cell, Helmuth's story emerges in a series of flashbacks that show his growth from a naive child caught up in the patriotism of the times, to a sensitive and mature young man who thinks for himself.

CHEATER
Michael Laser
Dutton Children’s Books
ISBN: 9780525478263
Ages 12-up
224 pages

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Karl Petrofsky has spent his years in school trying to hide the A’s on his papers. He sees himself more as a shy maverick than a geek. When the smoothest guy in high school asks him to aid and abet a ring of high-tech cheaters, Karl flatly refuses. But then the tyrannical assistant principal makes an example of a hapless student --- and threatens anyone caught cheating with expulsion and an indelible stain on their permanent records. This means war!

CINDY ELLA
Robin Palmer
Speak/Penguin Young Readers Group
ISBN: 9780142403921
Ages 12-up
304 pages

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Prom fever has infected LA --- especially Cindy’s two annoying stepsisters, and her overly Botoxed stepmother. Cindy seems to be the only one immune to it all. But her anti-prom letter in the school newspaper does more to turn Cindy into Queen of the Freaks than close the gap between the popular kids and the rest of the students. One of her unlikely supporters is Adam Silver, the most popular senior at Castle Heights High and Cindy’s crush. Suddenly Cindy starts to think that maybe her social life could have a happily ever after. But there’s still the rest of the school to deal with. With a little bit of help from an unexpected source and a fabulous pair of heels, Cindy realizes that she still has a chance at a happy ending.

HURRICANE
Terry Trueman
HarperCollins Children’s Books
ISBN: 9780060000189
Ages 12-up
144 pages

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Outside, the wind is howling, and the rain is a sold wall of water. After hours of cowering in the dark with no lights and no warmth, Jose finally steps outside --- and into total disaster. Everything in his small village in Honduras has been destroyed. Jose’s nightmare has only begun as he and the few who remain in his town start to pull their lives back together. Surviving the hurricane was a miracle, but it will take more than that to survive the destruction it left behind.

THE KING’S ARROW
Michael Cadnum
Viking Children’s Books
ISBN: 9780670063314
Ages 12-up
224 pages

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When 18-year-old Simon --- the half-English, half-Norman son of a noble family living in Norman-occupied England in 1100 --- is offered the chance to accompany the king’s friend Walter Tirel on a royal hunt, he is flattered by the honor. He hopes his association with Tirel will help him advance in a country where being English means being subject to the whims of the Norman upper class. But when the king is killed by Tirel’s arrow during the course of the hunt, Simon must join Tirel in fleeing for their lives.

THE MISSING GIRL
Norma Fox Mazer
HarperTeen
ISBN: 9780066237763
Ages 12-up
288 pages

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Unaware that they are being observed by a strange, middle-aged man, the five Herbert sisters go on with their ordinary, everyday lives --- planning, arguing, laughing and crying --- as if nothing bad could ever breach the safety of their family. In alternating points of view, Norma Fox Mazer manages to interweave the lives of predator and prey in this unforgettable psychological thriller.

THE OTHER BOOK
Philip Womack
Bloomsbury USA Children’s Books
ISBN: 9781599902012
Ages 12-up
272 pages

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Edward Pollock lives an ordinary life at his ordinary boarding school, where the food is bad and the teachers are way too serious. But one day he is inexplicably drawn to a strange and powerful book, and suddenly the boarding school isn’t quite so ordinary anymore. Capable of boosting men to heroism or destroying them in malice and evil, THE OTHER BOOK has laid dormant for 400 years, waiting for someone to restore it to its original glory. While Edward must do his best to keep the Book safe, a mysterious new teacher at the school becomes determined to get a hold of the Book for her own sinister purposes.

OWNING IT: Stories About Teens with Disabilities
edited by Donald R. Gallo
Candlewick Press
ISBN: 9780763632557
Ages 12-up
224 pages

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Chris Crutcher takes us on a wild ride through the mind of a teen with ADD, while David Lubar’s protagonist gets a sobering lesson from his friends. In Gail Giles’s tale, Brad can’t help barking at his classmates but finds understanding when he gives a comical (and informative) presentation to his entire school. And Robert Lipsyte introduces us to an elite task force whose number-one enemy is cancer. Whether their disabilities are physical or psychological, the subjects of these powerful short stories --- written by 10 outstanding young adult authors --- meet every day with wit, intelligence and courage.

PREY
Lurlene McDaniel
Delacorte Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 9780385734530
Ages 12-up
208 pages

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A teacher is supposed to impart a love of learning and a thirst for knowledge. It’s a bit different with Ms. Lori Settles. All the kids are talking about how hot she is --- and she’s especially interested in Ryan Piccoli. When she starts giving Ryan extra attention, he’s feeling more than happy --- at first. He’s used to being the class clown, but in reality he’s a loner. One day after school, the friendship with Lori goes farther than he ever expected. Soon, Lori is making demands and Ryan begins to feel overwhelmed, but he refuses to even admit anything is going on. Something immoral is happening, and before too long the choices made will change lives forever.

RINGSIDE, 1925: Views from the Scopes Trial
Jen Bryant
Knopf Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 9780375840470
Ages 12-up
240 pages

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The year is 1925, and the students of Dayton, Tennessee, are ready for a summer of fishing, swimming, some working, and drinking root beer floats at Robinson’s Drugstore. But when their science teacher, J. T. Scopes, is arrested for having taught Darwin’s theory of evolution in class, it seems it won’t be just any ordinary summer in Dayton. As Scopes’s trial proceeds, the small town is faced with astonishing, nationwide publicity: reporters, lawyers, scientists, religious leaders and tourists. But amidst the circus-like atmosphere is a threatening sense of tension --- not only in the courtroom, but among even the strongest of friends.

UNLEASHED
Kristopher Reisz
Simon Pulse
ISBN: 9781416940012
Ages 14-up
352 pages

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Daniel Morning --- blue-eyed, handsome, charismatic, smart and athletic --- is destined for great things. But during his senior year, Daniel makes a mistake. Guilt overwhelms him, and he quickly falls in with a group of outcasts. The group’s leader, Misty, lets Daniel in on a secret: They’ve learned to shapeshift. At night the friends become a pack of wolves and roam the streets. They are not necessary evil, but their animal instincts kick in, making it dangerously easy to indulge in darker pleasures. Daniel is relieved to hide among the pack, especially since he and Misty have fallen in love. But is he also shifting away from his humanity?

THE UNSPOKEN
Thomas Fahy
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 9781416940074
Ages 12-up
176 pages

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Five years ago six children who lived with their families in Jacob Crawley's Divine Path religious cult escaped by burning the compound to the ground. They are reunited at the funeral of Jacob's son, Harold. Harold died of drowning --- his worst fear --- even though his body was found miles from any water. And it seems that each of the teens is marked for murder --- as Crawley had predicted years earlier. Can any of these teens save themselves?

Series Books

The Clique

BRATFEST AT TIFFANY’S: The Clique #9
Lisi Harrison
Poppy/Little, Brown for Young Readers
ISBN: 9780316006804
Ages 12-up
256 pages

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The Briarwood boys have invaded OCD and are taking over everything. Worse, the soccer boys have become so popular that the Pretty Committee's alpha status is in serious jeopardy. So Massie lays out a New Year-New Pretty Committee rule: Anyone caught crushing on a boy will be thrown out of the NPC --- forever. But will she be able to follow her own decree when she sees that Derrington has ditched his shorts-obsession in favor of ah-dorable jeans?

Companion to THE DIARY OF PELLY D

CHERRY HEAVEN
L. J. Adlington
Greenwillow Books
ISBN: 9780061431807
Ages 14-up
464 pages

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Ten years after the war ripped through City Five and killed their parents, Kat and Tanka J move to the New Frontier with their adopted family. They are the lucky ones. The leader of the New Frontier has taken the family under his wing and arranged for them to live in a house to die for, situated in the middle of a beautiful and renowned cherry orchard. Cherry Heaven. Heaven. Utopia. Or so it seems.