ALLIGATOR BAYOU
Donna Jo Napoli
Wendy Lamb Books/Random House
ISBN: 9780385746540
Ages 12-up
288 pages

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Talullah, Louisiana. 1899.

Calogero, his uncles and cousins are six Sicilian men living in the small town of Tallulah, Louisiana. They work hard, growing vegetables and selling them at their stand and in their grocery store.

To 14-year-old Calogero, newly arrived from Sicily, Tallulah is a lush world full of contradictions, hidden rules and tension between the Negro and white communities. He is startled and thrilled by the danger of a ’gator hunt in the midnight bayou, and by his powerful feelings for Patricia, a sharp-witted, sweet-natured Negro girl. Some people welcome the Sicilians, but most do not. Calogero’s family is caught in the middle: the whites don’t see them as equal, but befriending Negroes is dangerous. Every day brings Calogero and his family closer to a terrifying, violent confrontation.

ANYTHING BUT TYPICAL
Nora Raleigh Baskin
Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
ISBN: 9781416963783
Ages 10-14
208 pages

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Jason Blake is an autistic 12-year-old living in a neurotypical world. Most days it's just a matter of time before something goes wrong. But Jason finds a glimmer of understanding when he comes across PhoenixBird, who posts stories to the same online site as he does.
 
Jason can be himself when he writes and he thinks that PhoenixBird --- her name is Rebecca --- could be his first real friend. But as desperate as Jason is to meet her, he's terrified that if they do meet, Rebecca will only see his autism and not who Jason really is.

BROKEN SOUP
Jenny Valentine
HarperTeen
ISBN: 9780060850715
Ages 14-up
224 pages

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Someone shoves a photo negative into Rowan's hands. She is distracted, but frankly, she has more serious problems to worry about. Her brother is dead. Her father has left. Her mother won't get out of bed. She has to take care of her younger sister. And keep it all together. But Rowan is curious about the mysterious boy and the negative. Who is he? Why did he give it to her? The mystery only deepens when the photo is developed and the inconceivable appears.

EVERYTHING IS FINE.
Ann Dee Ellis
Little, Brown for Young Readers
ISBN: 9780316013642
Ages 12-up
160 pages

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Stuck at home caring for her severely depressed mother and abandoned by her father, Mazzy has only the day-to-day dramas of her neighborhood to keep her busy. But between flirting with the boy next door and worrying about the fact that she's flat-chested, Mazzy has to face the fact that her mom is emotionally paralyzed by a family tragedy. As readers delve into the story, they'll eventually discover what it was that tore Mazzy's family apart, and they'll see what it takes to put it back together.

THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH
Carrie Ryan
Delacorte Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 9780385736817
Ages 14-up
320 pages

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In Mary's world there are simple truths. The Sisterhood always knows best. The Guardians will protect and serve. The Unconsecrated will never relent. And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village --- the fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth. But, slowly, Mary’s truths are failing her. She’s learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power, and about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness. When the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, she must choose between her village and her future --- between the one she loves and the one who loves her. And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded in so much death?

JUST ONE WISH
Janette Rallison
Putnam Juvenile
ISBN: 9780399246180
Ages 12-up
272 pages

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Seventeen-year-old Annika Truman knows about the power of positive thinking. With a little brother who has cancer, it’s all she ever hears about. And in order to help Jeremy, she will go to the ends of the earth (or at least as far as Hollywood) to help him believe he can survive his upcoming surgery.
 
But Annika’s plan to convince Jeremy that a magic genie will grant him any wish throws her a curveball when he unexpectedly wishes that his television idol would visit him. Annika suddenly finds herself in the desperate predicament of getting access to a hunky star actor and convincing him to come home with her.

LIFTING THE SKY
Mackie D’Arge
Bloomsbury USA Children’s Books
ISBN: 9781599901862
Ages 10-14
320 pages

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Blue’s wandering mother has always told her, “Just bloom where you’re planted.” And it’s been a pretty good motto, considering how Mam never stays put in one place for very long. Then Mam gets hired as a hand at a tumble-down ranch, and for the first time, Blue sees a place she longs to call home for good. There she makes a friend in an enigmatic Shoshone boy whose search for an ancient petroglyph intrigues her. And it’s there that the faint lights Blue has always been able to see around people begin to shine with new energy. But Mam begins to show signs of getting restless once again, and when the father who abandoned Blue years ago suddenly shows up at the ranch, the family she always thought she wanted may not be the one her heart is craving after all.

PURGE
Sarah Darer Littman
Scholastic Press
ISBN: 9780545052351
Ages 12-up
240 pages

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Janie Ryman hates throwing up. So why does she binge eat and then stick her fingers down her throat several times a day? That’s what the doctors and psychiatrists at Golden Slopes hope to help her discover. But first Janie must survive everyday conflicts between the Barfers and the Starvers, attempts by the head psychiatrist to fish painful memories out of her emotional waters, and shifting friendships and alliances among the kids in the ward.

SOMETHING, MAYBE
Elizabeth Scott
Simon Pulse
ISBN: 9781416978657
Ages 14-up
224 pages

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Hannah's got her hands full with her embarrassing parents, and after getting the wrong kind of attention for far too long, she's learned to stay out of sight.
 
Of course, that isn't helping her get gorgeous, confident Josh, who Hannah knows is her soul mate. Between figuring out a way to get Josh's attention, dealing with her parents, and wondering why she can't stop thinking about another guy, Finn, Hannah feels like she's going crazy. She's determined to get what she wants...only what she wants may not be what she needs.

SOPHOMORE SWITCH
Abby McDonald
Candlewick Press
ISBN: 9780763639365
Ages 14-up
304 pages

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Take an administrative snafu, a bad breakup and what shall heretofore be known as "The Hot-Tub Incident," and you have two unprepared sophomores on a semester abroad. For American party girl Tasha, an escape to Oxford may be a chance to ditch her fame as a tabloid temptress, but wading Uggs-deep in feminist theory is not her idea of a break. Meanwhile, the British half of the exchange, studious Emily, nurses an aching heart amid the bikinis and beer pong of U.C. Santa Barbara. Soon desperation has the girls texting each other tips --- on fitting in, finding love and figuring out who they really are.

SURFACE TENSION: A Novel in Four Summers
Brent Runyon
Knopf Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 9780375844461
Ages 14-up
208 pages

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Lucas at 13 is excited about everything --- swimming, fishing, skipping rocks and searching for lucky stones --- there’s so much to do in two weeks at the lake.

Lucas at 14 is a little more jaded. And more interested in looking at the hot girl next door than in looking for rocks.

Lucas at 15 is a little more angry. The friend he brings along makes him see his summer haven with new --- and less appreciative --- eyes.

Lucas at 16 is in love --- until he gets a break-up postcard from his girlfriend, and then he wants to die.

Brent Runyon has crafted a remarkable portrait of a boy at four distinct points in his life and literally shows us his coming-of-age. It’s a story about what is ever-changing and what is timeless, and how we are shaped by both the people and places we love.

TORCHED
April Henry
Putnam Juvenile
ISBN: 9780399246456
Ages 12-up
224 pages

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When Ellie’s parents are busted for possession of marijuana, the FBI gives her a choice: infiltrate the Mother Earth Defenders (MED), a radical environmental group, or her parents will go to jail. At first Ellie is more than willing to entrap the MEDics, but the more time she spends undercover --- particularly with Coyote, the green-eyed MEDic that she can’t stop thinking about --- the more she starts to believe in their cause. When talk turns to murder, Coyote backs out, but Ellie is willing to risk everything to save her family --- even if it means losing Coyote and putting her own life on the line.

WINTERGIRLS
Laurie Halse Anderson
Viking Juvenile
ISBN: 9780670011100
Ages 12-up
288 pages

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Lia and Cassie are best friends, wintergirls frozen in matchstick bodies, competitors in a deadly contest to see who can be the skinniest. But what comes after size zero and size double-zero? When Cassie succumbs to the demons within, Lia feels she is being haunted by her friend’s restless spirit.
 
In WINTERGIRLS, Laurie Halse Anderson explores Lia’s descent into the powerful vortex of anorexia and her painful path toward recovery.

MAXIMUM RIDE #5: MAX
James Patterson
Little, Brown for Young Readers
ISBN: 9780316002899
Ages 12-up
320 pages

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Maximum Ride and the other members of the Flock have barely recovered from their last arctic adventure, when they are confronted by the most frightening catastrophe yet. Millions of fish are dying off the coast of Hawaii and someone --- or something --- is destroying hundreds of ships. Unable to discover the cause, the government enlists the Flock to help them get to the bottom of the disaster before it is too late.

While Max and her team are exploring the depths of the ocean, their every move is being carefully tracked by Mr. Chu --- a criminal mastermind with his own plans for the Flock. Can they protect themselves from Mr. Chu's army of mercenaries and save the ocean from utter destruction?

CITY OF GLASS: The Mortal Instruments, Book Three
Cassandra Clare
Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
ISBN: 9781416914303
Ages 14-up
560 pages

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To save her mother's life, Clary must travel to the City of Glass, the ancestral home of the Shadowhunters --- never mind that entering the city without permission is against the Law, and breaking the Law could mean death. To make things worse, she learns that Jace does not want her there, and Simon has been thrown in prison by the Shadowhunters, who are deeply suspicious of a vampire who can withstand sunlight.
 
As Clary uncovers more about her family's past, she finds an ally in mysterious Shadowhunter Sebastian. With Valentine mustering the full force of his power to destroy all Shadowhunters forever, their only chance to defeat him is to fight alongside their eternal enemies. But can Downworlders and Shadowhunters put aside their hatred to work together? While Jace realizes exactly how much he's willing to risk for Clary, can she harness her newfound powers to help save the Glass City --- whatever the cost?

ZENITH
Julie Bertagna
Walker Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 9780802798039
Ages 12-up
352 pages

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In this compelling continuation of Julie Bertagna’s timely trilogy, the search for a future remains a terrifying fight for survival. Sixteen-year-old Mara and her ship of refugees are tracking the North Star in search of land in the mountains of Greenland to call home. A Gypsea boy named Tuck, orphaned when Mara’s ship plows through his floating city, becomes inextricably linked to their fate. Meanwhile, back in the drowned ruins at the feet of the towering sky city, Fox begins his battle with the cruel, corrupt rulers of the New World. Forced to make their own new beginnings in a savage world, three teens must struggle to make sense of the past, overcome the harsh dangers of the present and build a future worth living.