Stand-Alone Titles

BIRD
Rita Murphy
Delacorte Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 9780385730181
Ages 12-up
160 pages

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Miranda has no recollection of where she came from --- only that years ago, a gust of wind deposited her outside Bourne Manor. The Manor’s sole inhabitant, Wysteria Barrows, took Miranda in and promptly outfitted her with special boots --- boots weighted with steel bars to keep her anchored to the ground. But aside from shelter and clothing, Miranda receives little warmth from the aging widow. The Manor is also a cold place, full of drafts and locked doors, menace and secrets.

Then one day a boy named Farley appears. Farley helps Miranda embrace her destiny with the wind…and uncover the Manor’s hidden past.

THE BLIND FAITH HOTEL
Pamela Todd
Margaret K. McElderry Books/Simon & Schuster
ISBN: 9781416954941
Ages 12-up
320 pages

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When her family falls apart, 14-year-old Zoe feels like her whole world is going to pieces. Zoe's mother takes her kids away from their father, a fisherman who ships out to Alaska, and moves them to a run-down farmhouse she's inherited in the Midwest. Zoe is stuck -- in more ways than one.

Surrounded by strangers and a sea of prairie grass, she loses her bearings. A brush with the law lands Zoe in a work program at a local nature preserve. But the work starts to ground and steady her. When she meets a wild boy who shares her love of untamed places, it seems he might help Zoe find her way. Or is he too lost, too damaged himself?

CHAINS
Laurie Halse Anderson
Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
ISBN: 9781416905851
Ages 10-up
320 pages

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As the Revolutionary War begins, 13-year-old Isabel wages her own fight...for freedom. Promised freedom upon the death of their owner, she and her sister, Ruth, in a cruel twist of fate become the property of a malicious New York City couple, the Locktons, who have no sympathy for the American Revolution and even less for Ruth and Isabel. When Isabel meets Curzon, a slave with ties to the Patriots, he encourages her to spy on her owners, who know details of British plans for invasion. She is reluctant at first, but when the unthinkable happens to Ruth, Isabel realizes her loyalty is available to the bidder who can provide her with freedom.

DEADVILLE
Ron Koertge
Candlewick Press
ISBN: 9780763635800
Ages 14-up
224 pages

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Basically, Ryan has been sleepwalking through life since his younger sister died of cancer two years ago. But when Charlotte Silano --- a gorgeous, popular senior way out of his league --- has a riding accident and falls into a coma, Ryan finds himself drawn to her hospital room almost every day, long after her friends stop coming around. And oddly enough, Ryan seems to be slowly snapping out of his own brand of coma --- working out at the gym, adopting a cool vintage hat, even easing into a relationship with Betty, a classmate who has her own reasons for visiting Charlotte.

DEAR JULIA
Amy Bronwen Zemser
Greenwillow Books
ISBN: 9780060294588
Ages 12-up
336 pages

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Elaine Hamilton has never wanted to be the center of attention. She'd like nothing more than to cook quietly in her kitchen, mastering French cooking with the recipes of the great Julia Child. So how did she end up with cameras zooming in on her and a crowd cheering her on? Well, it involves an eccentric best friend named after a font, five lively brothers constantly asking, “What's for dinner?” a rotten fig and a weakness, a feminist congresswoman mother, a yoga-practicing father, a chest full of unsent letters, and many, many roast ducks.

THE GHOST'S CHILD
Sonya Hartnett
Candlewick Press
ISBN: 9780763639648
Ages 14-up
192 pages

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Maddy, an old lady now, arrives home one day to find a peculiar boy waiting for her. Over tea, she tells him the story of her life long ago, when she wished for her days to be as romantic and mysterious as a fairy tale. It was then that she fell painfully in love with a free spirit named Feather, who put aside his wild ways to live with her in a little cottage, conceived with her a child never to be born, and disappeared --- leaving an inconsolable Maddy to follow after him on a fantastical journey across the sea.

JOSEPH
Shelia P. Moses
Margaret K. McElderry Books/Simon & Schuster
ISBN: 9781416917526
Ages 12-up
176 pages

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For Joseph Flood, life is tough. Tough because of Mama's addiction to drugs and alcohol. Tough because Daddy is away with the army fighting in Iraq. Tough because it looks like there's no way out once you're living in a homeless shelter in a North Carolina ghetto neighborhood. And tough because Joseph is enrolled in yet another new school where he doesn't know anyone and has to keep what's going on in his life a secret. Joseph struggles to keep Mama clean and to hold their broken family together while trying to make new friends and join the school tennis team. Can a boy who's only 15 years old win his daily battle to survive?

KENDRA
Coe Booth
PUSH/Scholastic
ISBN: 9780439925365
Ages 15-up
320 pages

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Kendra's mom, Renee, had her when she was only 14 years old. Renee and her mom made a deal --- Renee could get an education, and Kendra would live with her grandmother. But now Renee is out of grad school and Kendra is in high school…and getting into some trouble herself. Kendra's grandmother lays down the law: It's time for Renee to take care of her daughter. Kendra wants this badly --- even though Renee keeps disappointing her. Being a mother isn't easy, but being a daughter can be just as hard. Now it's up to Kendra and Renee to make it work.

LET IT SNOW: Three Holiday Stories
John Green, Maureen Johnson and Lauren Myracle
Speak/Penguin Young Readers Group
ISBN: 9780142412145
Ages 12-up
400 pages

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Sparkling white snowdrifts, beautiful presents wrapped in ribbons, and multicolored lights glittering in the night through the falling snow. A Christmas Eve snowstorm transforms one small town into a romantic haven, the kind you see only in movies. Well, kinda. After all, a cold and wet hike from a stranded train through the middle of nowhere would not normally end with a delicious kiss from a charming stranger. And no one would think that a trip to the Waffle House through four feet of snow would lead to love with an old friend. Or that the way back to true love begins with a painfully early morning shift at Starbucks.

PAPER TOWNS
John Green
Dutton Juvenile
ISBN: 9780525478188
Ages 14-up
352 pages

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When Margo Roth Spiegelman beckons Quentin Jacobsen in the middle of the night --- dressed like a ninja and plotting an ingenious campaign of revenge --- he follows her. Margo has always planned extravagantly, and, until now, she has always planned solo. After a lifetime of loving Margo from afar, things are finally looking up for Q…until day breaks and she has vanished. Always an enigma, Margo has now become a mystery. But there are clues. And they’re for Q.

THE SMILE
Donna Jo Napoli
Dutton Juvenile
ISBN: 9780525479994
Ages 12-up
240 pages

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Mona Lisa’s tale is a story of passion, intrigue, loss and, most of all, love. Elisabetta longs for romance, though she thinks she is too plain. Then, on a fateful visit to glittering Florence, she catches the eye of the great Leonardo da Vinci, and falls for a boy named Giuliano de’ Medici. It is a dangerous time to be --- or be involved with --- a Medici. As tragedy and chaos threaten their happiness, Elisabetta faces the bittersweet truth of love.

TWO GIRLS OF GETTYSBURG
Lisa Klein
Bloomsbury USA Children's Books
ISBN: 9781599901053
Ages 12-up
400 pages

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Lizzie and Rosanna are cousins. But when the Civil War breaks out, 15-year-old Lizzie finds herself committed to the cause of the Union, while Rosanna is swept up in the passions of the old south --- and in her love for a young Confederate officer. Torn in their alliances, yet as devoted as sisters, each girl finds herself grappling with the senseless brutality of war and the sacrifices that must be made in order to survive. It will take one of the war’s bloodiest battles --- fought on the farmlands of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania --- to bring them together again.

Series Books

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation

THE ASTONISHING LIFE OF OCTAVIAN NOTHING, TRAITOR TO THE NATION, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves
M. T. Anderson
Candlewick Press
ISBN: 9780763629502
Ages 14-up
592 pages

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Fearing a death sentence, Octavian and his tutor, Dr. Trefusis, escape through rising tides and pouring rain to find shelter in British-occupied Boston. Sundered from all he knows --- the College of Lucidity, the rebel cause --- Octavian hopes to find safe harbor. Instead, he is soon to learn of Lord Dunmore's proclamation offering freedom to slaves who join the counterrevolutionary forces. In Volume II, M. T. Anderson recounts Octavian's experiences as the Revolutionary War explodes around him, thrusting him into intense battles and tantalizing him with elusive visions of liberty.

Circle of Magic

MELTING STONES
Tamora Pierce
Scholastic Press
ISBN: 9780545052641
Ages 12-up
320 pages

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Four years have passed since Evvy left the streets of Chammur to begin her training as a stone mage. At 14, she's unhappy to be on a new journey with her mentor, prickly green mage Rosethorn, who has been called to the Battle Islands to determine why the plants and animals there are dying. Evvy's job is to listen and learn, but she can't keep quiet and do nothing. With the help of Luvo, the living stone heart of a mountain, Evvy uncovers an important clue. Now, with the island on the brink of disaster, it's up to Evvy to avert the destruction that looms ahead.

Gossip Girl: The Carlyles

YOU JUST CAN’T GET ENOUGH: Gossip Girl: The Carlyles #2
created by Cecily von Ziegesar
Poppy/Little, Brown for Young Readers
ISBN: 9780316020657
Ages 12-up
240 pages

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After a whirlwind first week on the Upper East Side, the Carlyles have made their mark on Manhattan's Golden Mile. Owen is new BFFs with Rhys Sterling, but what will happen when they both fall for the same girl? Baby stole resident it girl Jack Laurent's boyfriend...and then Avery stole Jack's popularity. Now Jack is on the warpath, and she wants nothing more than to send the Carlyle girls packing their Louis Vuitton trunks. Is the UES big enough for all their drama?

Graceling

GRACELING
Kristin Cashore
Harcourt Children's Books
ISBN: 9780152063962
Ages 14-up
480 pages

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Katsa has been able to kill a man with her bare hands since she was eight --- she’s a Graceling, one of the rare people in her land born with an extreme skill. As niece of the king, she should be able to live a life of privilege, but Graced as she is with killing, she is forced to work as the king’s thug.

When she first meets Prince Po, Graced with combat skills, Katsa has no hint of how her life is about to change. She never expects to become Po’s friend. She never expects to learn a new truth about her own Grace --- or about a terrible secret that lies hidden far away…a secret that could destroy all seven kingdoms with words alone

Poseur

THE GOOD, THE FAB, AND THE UGLY: Poseur #2
Rachel Maude
Little, Brown for Young Readers
ISBN: 9780316065849
Ages 12-up
288 pages

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Halloween comes to Winston Prep, and the newly named teen fashion label POSEUR introduces this season's must-have accessory: a red-hot handbag called the Trick-or-Treater. But whose design is sweetest? Janie, Petra, Melissa and Charlotte all insist: Mine. You see the problem? Good thing, then, for the sweetness of revenge. Time to dust off that costume and put your best mask forward. 'Tis the season for candy, conflict and couture.

Sequel to SURE FIRE

DEATH RUN
Jack Higgins, with Justin Richards
Putnam Juvenile
ISBN: 9780399250811
Ages 12-up
272 pages

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Teen twins Rich and Jade Chance are finally on vacation in Venice with their father --- or so they think. In reality, the British government has sent master spy John Chance to keep tabs on a Swiss banker who is desperately trying to escape from the Tiger, a ruthless criminal mastermind. In no time, the Banker is captured by the Tiger’s thugs and taken to a remote Scottish castle --- along with Rich! Now it’s up to Jade and Chance to rescue them both. Will they be able to stop the Tiger before Rich’s time runs out?