The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp
Rick Yancey
339 pages
Alfred Kropp is trying to survive high school when his guardian uncle ropes him into a suspicious get-rich-scheme: stealing Excalibur, the legendary sword of King Arthur. But having successfully retrieved it our unlikely hero, Alfred, unwittingly delivers the all-powerful weapon into the wrong hands. Events unfurl and, with his only surviving relative brutally murdered before his very eyes, Alfred not only has a very important mission to complete but also a certain score to settle. So with an ancient order of knights in hot cars, thugs on motorcycles and a mysterious international organization following his every lumbering step, Alfred undertakes a modern-day quest to save the world from imminent destruction.
(Book jacket)

The Electric Telepath
Jan Mark
181 pages
Elijah longs to be a scientist, to follow in the footsteps of his heroes. But for a member of a strict Christian community such dreams will never be possible.

Instructed by his father and his chapel to listen for the still, small voice that will direct his life, Elijah finds himself trapped between a world of modern technology and an ancient belief system; until the discovery of his hidden scientific apparatus brings these two worlds together with unexpected results ...
(Book jacket)

Homebird
Terence Blacker
134 pages
Bottle Boy

Beneath the headline is a picture of a wild-eyed kid, a broken bottle in his hand - crazy, violent, the stuff of parents' nightmares.

You guessed it. The Bottle Boy is me.

Nicky Morrison's parents have big plans for him. Wanting him to be successful and conventional, they send him away to boarding school. But a few weeks later, Nicky is on the run.

Trying to make sense of the world, he joins a group of squatters. The freedom they offer seems just what he needs. But their leader, Scag, has sinister plans for Nicky. Soon his life is slipping dangerously out of control, and so is his chance of ever going home again ...
(Book jacket)

Perfect
D. M. Quintano
307 pages
What happens when the perfect future meets the imperfect past ..?

Pursuit of perfection has destroyed several planets and brought the human species to the brink of extinction. Now the only hope for the future lies in the past. Will time-travellers from the twentieth century be able to save the people of the third millenium? Will they want to?
(Book jacket)

The Drowning Pond
Catherine Forde
307 pages
Hey, guess what? You're no one. Invisible.

You're the middle of the class, ordinary at sports, and your friends are those silent gerbil types who do their homework on time.

But what if one day the glossy people notice you. Took you out clubbing. Made you their friend ...

and then changed their minds.

Say you could get back in by picking on the weirdo new girl. You would.

Wouldn't you?
(Book jacket)

Lobster Boy
Rodman Philbrick
178 pages
Skiff Beaman has a problem. A big problem.

He needs to fix up his family's fishing boat but to do that he needs money. A whole heap of money. His father isn't going to help - he can't see further than the next can of beer since Skiff's mother died - and nor is his classmate, Tyler, inventor of the name "Lobster Boy".

But Skiff can still hear his mother's voice telling him "Never give up". So he comes up with a plan. It's crazy, it's dangerous, and it's going to take all Skiff's grit and strength to win a battle against the sea.
(Book Jacket)

Girls Dinner Club
Jessie Elliot
246 pages
The love of Junie's life for the past year is suddenly acting like a crazed puppy.

Celia's dad has found the most ridiculous woman in all of Manhattan - and decided, after fifteen years of being single, to date her.

Danielle's hot-guy-in-a-band ex-boyfriend is trying to convince her that he's "changed."

Sometimes living life is a recipe for disaster.

Sometimes, girls just have to make their own recipes.
(Book jacket)

Small Steps
Louis Sachar
257 pages
Two years after being released from Camp Green Lake, Armpit is home in Austin, Texas, trying to turn his life around. But it's hard when you have a record and everyone expects the worst from you. The only person who believes in Armpit is Ginny, his ten-year-old disabled neighbour. Together they're learning to take small steps.

Armpit seems to be on the right path until X-Ray, a buddy from Camp Green Lake, comes up with a get-rich-quick scheme. X-Ray's moneymaking plan leads Armpit to a chance encounter withe teen pop sensation Kaira DeLeon, and suddenly Armpit's life spins out of control. Only one thing is certain: he'll never be the same again.
(Book jacket)

Black Storm Comin'
Diane Lee Wilson
295 pages

When Colton Westcott sees this sign for the Pony Express, he things he has the solution to his problems. He's stuck with his ma and two younger sisters on the wrong side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, with no way to get across. They were on a wagon train heading to California when Pa accidentally shot Colton and then galloped away. Ma is sick, and Colton needs money to pay the doctor. He's make good money as a Pony rider.

Colton also needs to get to California - urgently - to deliver freedom papers to Ma's sister, a runaway slave ...
(Book jacket)

Back in Black: An A-list Novel (#5)
Zoey Dean
294 pages
Anna and her friends decide to blow off the senior class trip to Washington, D.C., and head to Vegas for a glamorous three-day vacation. They check into the ultra-luxe Palms Hotel and the wildness begins before they have a chance to unpack their Tuff Betty carpetbags. The girls have a tacky Vegas fashion contest, and Cammie pulls a stunt that's outrageous even by Cammie standards. Then everyon visits a hyptonist-to-the-stars. While they are spellbound, the gang reveals their deepest, darkest secrets and learns firsthand why Vegas is called Sin City!
(Book jacket)

Prom
Laurie Halse Anderson
233 pages
Everyone's excited about the prom except Ashley, who couldn't care less. She's too busy worrying about her crazy family and TJ, her flaky boyfriend, who wants them to move in together after graduation but just doesn't seem to be around when she needs him.

But when disaster strikes the prom committee, somehow Ashley gets roped into helping save the evening. And Ashley finds herself learning quite a lot about organising a prom - as well as learning a little more about herself.
(Book jacket)

Special Agents: Meltdown
Sam Hutton
223 pages
A hidden enemy with a deadly game ... PIC trainee Maddie Cooper finds herself falsely accused of drug dealing and suspended from duty. Her team mates, Danny and Alex, are horrified and get to work investigating who set Maddie up - and why ...

Meanwhile, a vicious computer virus is unleashed at headquarters and all the computer files are erased. Someone is out to destroy PIC - and especially Maddie - at any cost. The Special Agents have got a serious fight on their hands.
(Book jacket)

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
John Boyne
216 pages
The story of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is very difficult to describe. Usually we give some clues about the book on the jacket, but in this case we think that would spoil the reading of the book. We think it is important that you start to read without knowing what it is about.

If you do start to read this book, you will go on a journey with a nine-year-old boy called Bruno. (Though this isn't a book for nine-year-olds.) And sooner or later you will arrive with Bruno at a fence.

Fences like this exist all over the world. We hope you never have to encounter such a fence.
(Book jacket)

Boy Girl Boy
Ron Koertge
164 pages
Larry, Teresa, and Elliot are so tight, there's no room in their circle for any more than three: boy, girl, boy. That's just how it is. And when they graduate in a few months, they're moving to California to begin their real lives - together.

Or that's the plan, anyway. But who are they fooling? Larry is still trying to come to terms with his sexuality. Teresa is tired of hanging out with two boys she loves who aren't interested in being her boyfriend. And Elliot - sweet, handsome, but not the brightest - is beginning to see that he may in fact like himself more when he's not in the shadow of his two best friends.
(Book jacket)

Where The Kissing Never Stops
Ron Koertge
250 pages
Life has not been easy for lately for Walker. His father has died, his girlfriend has moved away, the family finances are in shambles, and all those times he has drowned his sorrow in chocolate are beginning to catch up with him. Finally, though, it seems things are getting better: Walker has a date with Rachel, the beautiful new girl in his class, and his mother has announced she is getting a job. Only it's not your average, run-of-the-mill mom's job. Walker's mother is going to work as a stripper. What if his friends find out? What if Rachel finds out?

Coincidentally , Walker's father left him a piece of land on which Rachel's father is planning to build a mall. After seeing the property, Walker goes about the hard work of farming the land - and of being in love for the first time.
(Book jacket)

A Really Nice Prom Dress
Brian Sloan
366 pages
High school senior Cameron Hayes gets coerced into going to the prom with a girl, even thogh he'd rather be with his boyfriend. The evening goes from bad to worse when his fake date gets sloshed, his boyfriend slugs him when he sees Cam kissing his fake date, and Cam flees the prom in disguise with a drug dealer. The things really spin out of control. Over the course of one harrowing and hysterical night, Cameron's life comes undone, leading to accidental revelations, criminal adventures, and an unlikely romance.
(Book jacket)

Bloodsong
Melvin Burgess
322 pages
A compelling story of love and destruction, based loosely on the pagan Volsunga Saga. The tale is transposed to the apocalyptic, industrially-ruined landscape of a future Britain, where power and wealth are up for grabs, and the young hero, Sigurd, is trapped with the destiny of his country. The political corruption and lust for power is instantly recognisable whether you are familiar with Norse legend or modern politics.

A work of mind-bending imagination and power in which Burgess mixes myth, magic and science fiction with the basest of human - and inhuman - emotions. Read and be warned!
(Book jacket)

Airborn
Kenneth Oppal
433 pages
Matt Cruse is cabin boy on board the Aurora, the luxury airship he has called home for the past three years. He has high hopes for promotion to junior sailmaker - until Kate de Vries arrives, fired with her own mysterious quest. She may be rich, but she's spirited and brave and won't let social distinctions prevent their friendship.

The one night, over the middle of the ocian, deadly air pirates board the Aurora. Far from any hope of rescue, Kate and Matt are flung into adventures beyond all imagining ...
(Book jacket)

The Au Pairs - Skinny-Dipping
Melissa de la Cruz
289 pages
Your favourite bikini-clad au pairs - good-girl-turned-It-Girl Mara, spoiled Eliza, and Brazilian bombshell Jacqui - are back for another season of skinny-dipping in Georgica Pond, tanning on Main Beach, and oh, yeah, babysitting for the Perry kids too. The au pairs think they're ready for another summer of outrageous fun, but a lot of things have changed since last year ...
(Book jacket)

Balefire: Book One - A Chalice of Winds
Cate Tiernan
250 pages
Thais Allard has just lost her father in a tragic accident, and now she must leave the only home she's ever known to live with a total stranger in New Orleans. In this new place she will discover secrets that will shatter everything she's ever believed ...

Clio Martin has lived in New Orleans her entire life - which is as long as she's know that she's a witch, born with magick in her blood. But the truth of her heritage and power run far deeper than she ever realised ...

Sharing a bond they never imagined, Thais and Clio are about to cross paths for the first time - and nothing will be the same.
(Book jacket)

See also: Balefire: Book Two - A Circle of Ashes, and Balefire: Book Three - A Feather of Stone.

The It Girl
Cecily von Ziegesar
264 pages
Popular Gossip Girl character Jenny Humphrey is leaving Constance Billard to attend Waverly Academy, an elite boarding school in New York horse country where glamorous rich kids don't let the rules get in the way of an excellent time.

Determined to leave her Manhatten past behind her, Jenny sets off to Waverly with big plans of reinventing herself. She'll be a goddess - she's a sophisticated city girl, after all! - and will find a boy who can properly worship her. But that's going to be a little tricky since her self-absorbed new roomates, Callie Vernon and Brett Messerschmidt, aren't exactly there to help - unless there's something in it for them.

Hot guys, new intrigue, and delicious gossip add up to more trouble than ever for Jenny ...
(Book jacket)

The Will of the Empress
Tamora Pierce
545 pages
For years thye Empress of Namorn has pressed her young cousin Lady Sandilene fa Toren, to visit her vast lands within the Empire's borders. Sandry has avoided the invitation for as long as it was possible. Now, listening to her guilty conscience, Sandry has agreed to pay that overdue visit.

Sandry's uncle promises guards to accompany her. But they're hardly a group of warriors! They're her old friends from Winding Circle: Daja, Tris, and Briar. Sandry hardly knows them now ...

When they arrive at the palace, it slowly dawns on Sandry why the Empress has really brought her to Namorn. She's set a cunning trap to keep Sandry in thye brutal Empire forever, a simpering lady in her cousin's court and the miserable wife of a noble.

The Empress has wily and powerful mages on her side. But so, of course, does Sandry ... if she can get them to work together.
(Book jacket)

Demon Thief
Darren Shan
275 pages
A huge,jagged patch of light forms at the foot of my bed. Then a shape presses through. I'm too horrified to scream. It's a monster from my very worst nightmare. Pale red skin. Dark red eyes. No nose. Sharp, grey teeth. As it leans further forward I see a hole in the left side of its chest, and inside - dozens of tiny, hissing snakes. The monster frowns and stretchs a hand towards me ...

When Kernel Fleck's brother is stolen by demons, he must enter their universe in search of him. It is a place of magic, chaos and incredible danger. Kernel has three aims:

• learn to use magic
• find his brother
• stay alive.

Under the Persimmon Tree
Suzanne Fisher Staples
275 pages
Najmah, a young Afghan girl whose name means "star," suddenly finds herself alone when her father and older brother are conscripted by the Taliban and her mother and newborn brother are killed in an air raid. Elaine, whose Islamic name is Nusrat, is also on her own. An American, she has come to Pakistan with her Afghan doctor husband so that he might run a clinic in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan. She waits out the war, and awaits her husband's safe return, while teaching refugee children is Peshawar in her garden under the Persimmon tree. As the young girl and the woman look to the skies for answers, their fates entwine ...
(Book jacket)

Yankee Girl
Mary Ann Rodman
277 pages
Valerie's voice is as sweet as honey. She's the obvious choice to star in the Nativity. But this is Mississippi, 1964. Things are far from simple. There is an uproar when Valerie is picked to play the angel ... because she's black. As one of the first black children to attend Parnell School, she has to face violent protestors outside and vicious bullies inside the classroom.

Alice is torn between standing up for Valerie, and being popular with the in-crowd. Nicknamed "Yankee Girl" because of her accent and attitute, Alice has found it hard to make friends since moving to the Deep South. Struggling between guilt and fear, it takes a tragedy for Alice to find the courage to act.

Yankee Girl is a truly resonant story about racism and doing the right thing, based on the author's own experience.
(Book jacket)

Odin's Voice
Susan Price
313 pages
Downtrodden bonder, Kylie, and pampered teen, Affroditey, are thrown together as their roles in society change. Kylie becomes the mouthpiece of the god, Odin, and gains political advantage and freedom as a result, while Affie finds herself reduced to penury after her father's suicide, and is sold off as a bonder by her uncaring stepmother.

Brought together by Kylie's young son, who has been 'adopted' by Affroditey's employers, the two girls decide to escape society's restrictions and travel to Mars as pioneers. This is the first part of their journey.
(Book jacket)

Boy Proof
Cecil Castellucci
207 pages
Her name is Egg. She's named herself after the kick-ass heroine of her favourite sci-fi movie, Terminal Earth.

She always knows the right answers, she's always in control, and she can't be bothered with friends - much less members of her own sex.

As far as she's concerned, she's boy-proof. And she likes it that way.
(Book cover)

Chloe
Cesca Adey
201 pages
Moving to the country away from all her friends has done nothing to improve Chloe's six-month-long bad mood. And neither has her parents' latest news. Why do they want to adopt a two-year-old boy? Are they trying to replace her? Where's her probably-very-glamorous real mother when she needs her?

Determined to have nothing to do with this new addition to the family, Chloe makes herself as unpleasant as possible. But then she meets Ollie ...
(Book cover)

Spy High Series 2: Agent Orange
A. J. Butcher
246 pages
Rebecca 'Bex' Deveraux is a graduate of the Deveraux College, the highly secret school for teenage spies. It was a rough ride, proving that she wasn't just at Spy High becuase her father was in charge, but Bex is now a fully-fledged secret agent, responsible for Region Orange. But things are not going well. Why are loyal employees of the Deveraux organisation being retired? Why can't she contact any of her fellow agents? Why are the people around he acting like zombies? And who is The Deliverer, who seems to be behind all this? A new enemy? Or someone Bex knows very well indeed ..?
(Book cover)

Spy High Series 2: Calista Green
A. J. Butcher
250 pages
Orphaned computer expert, Calista Cross, is a graduate of the Deveraux College, the highly secret school for teenage spies. And at the moments she's not coping. Recent events have hit Cally hard and she's so unfocused that she's in danger of being mind-wiped and expelled by the Deveraux organisation. What Cally needs is some action, and a new case involving the suspicious deaths of several nanotech specialists seem just the thing, But an anonymous email hinting that Cally could be close to finding out about her parents turns the case from profession to very, very personal. And more than one surprise is waiting for her.
(Book cover)

Smoke and Mirrors
Lesley Choyce
218 pages
Sixteen-year-old Simon has always been considered odd. Three years ago, a skateboarding accident caused some minor brain damage and made him a little stranger. His career-driven parents mostly leave him alone, and he spends much of his time living in his imagination.

When Andrea, whom no one else can see, appears to Simon in class, he is fascinated by her and strikes up a friendship, even though he knows she may be pure hallucination - he's had imaginary friends before. Andrea says she is there to "help" him, but before the story ends, Simon discover that it is he who needs to help Andrea ...
(Book cover)

Mutants & Masterminds (Roleplaying Game)
Steve Kenson et. al.
189 pages

The Mutants & Masterminds RPG propels you and your friends into a high-octane world of four-colour comic book action and adventure! Take on the role of brave superheroes with fantastic powers and protect the innocent from the evil plans of super-criminals!

This book contains everything you need to create your own superheroes and heroic adventures.
(Book cover)

Ars Magica: The Art of Magic (Roleplaying game)
Jonathan Tweet & Mark Rein-Hagen
235 pages
Imagine a world where myth is real. Faeries dance in forest glades, angels protect the Church, demons corrupt the weak, and wizards wield magic beyond the ken of other mortals. You play these magi, gathered in covenants with your allies and servants, unlocking secret powers and creating wonders. When adventures draw you out into the medieval world, your stories are the stuff of legend.
(Book jacket)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Roleplaying Game: Core Rulebook
C. J. Carella
249 pages
Get ready for action and adventure - Buffy-style. Now you can joing the Slayer's world! Inside these lustrous covers, you will find:

- An introduction to role-playing and the Buffyverse.
- A guide to character creation, including pre-constructed Heroes and White Hats, as well as the entire Original Cast, for your quick-play pleasure.
- A primer on magic mojo, for those who dare.
- The monsters of mayhem, all stat-ed out and ready-to-slay, and the skinny on the first five Big Bads.
And more!
(Book jacket)

Peter Raven: Under Fire
Michael Molloy
462 pages
Peter Raven is the new midshipman on board HMS Torren, a Royal Navy ship battling with the French, led by General Napleon Bonaparte. From the outset, the thirteen-year-old finds himself bound to Commodore Beaumont, an intrepid British spy.

When unexpected events at sea lead the pair into a dangerous intrigue on shore, they discover an extraordinary plot by the French: to creat a vast empire by taking control of the newly-created United States of America ...

Soon it's a race against time to the pirate-filled waters of the Caribbean to save an entire nation - and the spirited American girl who has captured their hearts!

Set against the real-life history of the time, Peter Raven Under Fire is the first in a series of the young midshipman's rip-roaring adventures.
(Book jacket)

Tev: On Home Turf
Brendan Murray
173 pages
It's the school holidays and for Tev that means partying, the beach and a real chance for hot romance. Becky's got wheels and a place, and she's also pretty keen.

But a surprise phone call from Tev's Tongan girlfriend, Siale, ruins everything. Or does it? Siale is coming to visit and Tev must make some big decisions.

Throw in some beach biffo, a wild girls' night out, tricky family politics, aggro on the cricket patch and a bit of a tongue tango, and life sure is warming up on Tev's home turf.
(Book cover)

Fallen Star
Joan O'Neill
256 pages
In Ireland, in 1959, fifteen-year-old Stella is growing up in the small coastal town of Knocknacree, spending her Saturdays working at the seafront café, daydreaming about a better future. Then charasmatic young Charles Thornton walks into the café and sweeps Stella off her feet. Giddy with happiness, Stella is having fun - and taking risks. Nothing could possibly spoil her happiness now ... could it?
(Book cover)

Diamond Geezers
Echo Freer
245 pages
Modesty de Mise is dead set on saving the local cemetary from developers. It's right next to where she lives, above her parents' business - a funeral parlour! And as if that isn't bad enough, things start to look grave when teen-mobster Harley 'halitosis' Spinks turns up to arrange some gangster funerals after a failed diamond robbery. And she's also in cahoots with the developers!

When hunky Oz Appleby turns up again after four years away, Modesty thinks she's found an ally at last - but why would anyone want to date an undertaker's daughter? Modesty's got to act fast, or her plans to beat the gangsters will go six feet under. But if her parents discover any of this, she'll be dead meat ...
(Book jacket)

The Convicts
Iain Lawrence
198 pages
After seeing his father hauled off to deptors' prison, fourteen-year-old Tom Tin sets out to take revenge on Mr Goodfellow, the man responsible for his family's misfortunes. But the fog-filled London streets are teeming with sinister characters. Tom encounters a blind man who scavenges the riverbed for treasure - and wants what Tom digs up; Worms, a body snatcher who reveals a shocking surprise; and a nasty gang of young pickpockets who mistake Tom for someone ominously known as the Smasher. And, ultimately, Tom comes up against the cruel hand of the law.

Accused of muder, Tom is given a seven-year sentence. He is to be transported to Van Diemen's Land with other juvenile convicts. But Tom can't abide life on the hulk, the old ship where the boys are temporarily help. He decided to escape ...
(Book jacket)

Tersias
G. P. Taylor
320 pages
London is living through dark times and Magnus Malachi, a magician, is closely guarding his latest moneyspinner - Tersias, a blind boy who can see into the future. But as Tersias's powers become known, others who seek to use them are drawn from the shadows: Jonah, a teenage highwayman, and his companion in crime Tara; Solomon, a crazed zealot who has bred a new species of giant flesh-eating locusts; and Lord Malpas, a keeper of mysterious powers.

Ther all seek Tersias - but is he a force for good or eveil? And can he ever rid himself of the dark spirit that torments his soul?
(Book jacket)

Quiver
Stephanie Spinner
177 pages
It was Artemis, goddess of the hunt and mistress of the wild, who rescued the abandoned baby Atalanta, sending a she-bear to nurse her and a band of hunters to raise her in safety. Now sixteen, Atalanta, famed archer and swiftest mortal alive, has devoted her life to the goddess.

When strangers appear in Atalanta's village one day, they bring shattering news. The father who forsook her is a king. And he has summoned his daughter with a simple, chilling command: marry and produce an heir. Fleet-footed Atalanta, determined not to betray Artemis, counters with a grim proposal. She will marry the first man to outrun her in a footrace, and those she defeats must die. It is Atalanta's desperate hope that no man will be foolish enough to meet her challenge.
(Book cover)

The Truth About Forever
Sarah Dessen
374 pages
A long dull summer stretches ahead of Macy while her boyfriend Jason is away at Brain Camp. Days will be spent at a boring job in the library, evenings will be filled with vocabulary drills for the SATs, and spare time will be passed with her mother, the two of them sharing a silent grief at the traumatic loss of her father.

But sometimes unexpected things can happen - things like the catering job at Wish, with its fun-loving, chaotic crew. Or her sister's project of renovating the neglected beach house, awakening long-buried memories. Things like meeting Wes, a boy with a past, a taste for Truth-telling, and an amazing artistic talent, the kind of boy who could turn any girl's world upside down. As Macy ventures out of her shell, she begins to wonder if it really is better to be safe than sorry.
(Book jacket)

South Beach
Aimee Friedman
318 pages
Hot sand. Hot clubs. Hot guys. What more could two girls want? Try the same guy.

Holly - Dream date of bad fate? She wants true love - and a break from her strict parents. Perhaps a spring fling will do?

Alexa - Flirting with destiny or flirting with disaster? The guy of her dreams turns out to be the once boy she can't have. How far is she willing to go?

In a place where anything can happen - and does - two former friends are about to discover that a chance encounter can lead to the chance of a lifetime.
(Book jacket)

Olive's Ocean
Kevin Henkes
217 pages
Summer is Martha's favourite time. Every year she goes to stay in her grandmother's beautiful beachside house, where everything is perfect.

But this year is different. There are the Manning boys, for a start - Jimmy, Tate, Todd, Luke and Leo. And then there's Olive - a girl Martha barely knew. A girl who suddenly died.

A summer of what-ifs and might-have-beens. A summer of secrets and confusion. A summer Martha will never forget.
(Book cover)

Sweet Guy
Jared Thomas
233 pages
'So who's this girl you've got a crush on?'
'What girl?'
'Steve said that you've got the hots for a barmaid.'
I almost choked on a chicken bone.
'Nah, she's just a mate,' I said, when the coughing fit had stopped.

If Michael Sweet thought his early teens were difficult, he's in for a shock now he's eighteen and ready to start uni. The pressures of study, making new friends and moving into a co-ed college are only the beginning. When Michael sets out to woo the girl of his dreams, in makes dealing with his drop-kick father and the antics of his madcap surfer mate Angus seem a breeze. But life is about to dish up surprises that help Michael meet the challenges head on.
(Book jacket)

Valiant: A Modern Tale of Faerie
Holly Black
313 pages
When seventeen-year-old Valerie Russell runs away to New York City, she's trying to escape a life that has utterly betrayed her. Sporting a new identity, she takes up with a gang of squatters who live in the city's labyrinthine subway system.

But there's something eerily beguiling about Val's new friends ...
(Book jacket)

Runner
Carl Deuker
216 pages
... the weather-beaten sailboat Chance Taylor and his father call home is thirty years old and hasn't sailed in years. One step from both homelessness and hunger, Chance worries about things other kids his age never give a thought: Where will the money come for the electricity bill, grocery bill, and moorage fees? So when a new job falls his way, he jumps at the opportunity. He knows how much he will earn; what he doesn't know is how much he will pay.

Suspenseful, fast-paced, and timely, this novel avoids easy answers as it examines issues of terrorism and patriotism, fear and courage, and lives of privilege and lives at the edge of poverty.
(Book jacket)

The Serpent Gift
Lene Kaaberbol
419 pages
In front of us, less than three oars' lengths from the boat, rose a scaly grey head. It kept rising, on a neck like a ... a tree. Or something bigger still. A cloud column. The neck of a tornado. Something too big to be alive.

But it was alive. The Wyrm.

Davin is in desperate danger. In order to save her brother's life, Dina must use her Shamer's Gift: the ability to shame even the most hardened wrong-doers, simply by looking into their eyes.

With her family forced into reckless flight, Dina finds that she has to make a pact with the very man they flee from: a Blackmaster, a dreaded wielder of the Serpent Gift of lie and illusion. Who also happens to be her father ...
(Book cover)

Merrow
Louise Cooper
182 pages
A sinister tale of surfing, shattered friendships, sexual awakening...and ghosts. Kiran, Jay and Robyn have been best mates for years, hanging out together in their idyllic hometown on the Cornish coast. Now that they've turned sixteen, they have one last summer before they have to get serious about the rest of their lives. But their lives change for ever when Kiran attempts to save a stranger from drowning and fails. From that moment on he is obsessed with the girl whose body is never found. Imagining that he can see her everywhere, shunning the company of Robyn, his devoted girlfriend, and testing his friendship with Jay, whose loyalty is shadowed by his growing feelings for the vulnerable Robyn. Robyn is blindly determined to help Kiran over his apparent 'breakdown', but soon both she and Jay are having their doubts as to whether the ghost girl, the Merrow, as they call her, exists after all, and all three are drawn into a sinister and nightmarish search for the truth ...
(Book jacket)

Swimming in the Monsoon Sea
Shyam Selvadurai
274 pages
It is 1980 abd the season of the monsoons in Sri Lanka. Fourteen-year-0old Amrith faces and uneventful summer in the cheerful, well-to-do household in which he is being raised by his vibrant Aunty Bundle and kindly Uncle Lucky. He tries not to think of his life "before," when his loving mother was still alive. Amrith's holiday plans seem unpromising until, like an unexpected monsoon, his cousin arrives from Canada. Amrith's ordered life becomes storm-tossed as he falls in love with the boy. Shakespeare's Othello, with its powerful theme of disastrous jealousy, is the backdrop to the drama in which Amrith finds himself immersed.
(Book jacket)

The Rise and Fall of a 10th Grade Social Climber
Laura Mechling & Laura Moser
290 pages
After the collapse of her parents' marriage, Mimi Schulman leaves her mother in Houston to look after her befuddled photographer father in New York. But her first hour at the Baldwin School - where teachers offer psychoanalysis instead of grades and students hold cocktail parties in the bathroom between classes - leaves Mimi spinning ...

Rubbing shoulders with the offspring of diplomats and celebrities, all with secrets and dysfunctions that put her own domestic worries to shame, Mimi finds herself in one bizarre situation after another.

A coming-of-age story about friendship and betrayal, about brutal honesty and its consequences, The Rise and Fall of a 10th-Grade Social Climber is a novel with heart and a wicked sense of humour.
(Book jacket)

Curse of the Dark: A Retrievers Novel
Staying Dead: A Retrievers Novel
Laura Anne Gilman
344 & 346 pages
It starts as a simple job - but simple jobs, when you're dealing with the magical world, often end up anything but.

As a Retriever, Wren Valere specialises in finding things gone missing - and then bringing them back, no questions asked. Normally her job is stimulating, challenging and only a little bit dangerous. But every once in a while ...
(Book jacket)

Devil's Tango
Herve Jubert
328 pages
Welcome to the future. Welcome to Basle, where the winds can murder at will. For generations, technology has made the world a crime-free zone ...

Until now.

A new killer, boung to the will of the winds, is committing a series of terrible crimes. Not only this, but the rain is incessant and wter levels are rising. Soon the dams will be breached, and all Basle will be under water. Roberta Morgenstern and Clement Martineau must track the assassin, the mysterious Baron of the Mists, and save the city ...
(Book jacket)

Sons of Destiny
Darren Shan
208 pages
Dead if he loses - damned if he wins. The time has finally come for Darren to face his archenemy, Steve Leopard. One of them will die. The other will become the Lord of Shadows - and destroy the world.

Is the future written? Or can Darren trick destiny ..?

This is the climactic and final book of the bestselling Saga of Darren Shan.
(Book jacket)

Cruise Control
Terry Trueman
149 pages
It's hard to be a brother to someone who doesn't even know you're there. How can you talk to him when he can't understand a thing you say? How can you listen to him when he can't speak a word? How can you love him when he's so messed up, he can't love you back? And how can you have a life of your own when your father bailed on the family, leaving you to be the 'man of the house'?

Fueled by rage at what has happened to his family, Paul is ready to explode. And he is haunted by something even worse - something he can never tell anyone. It is something he will have to face if he is to have any hope of a future at all ...
(Book jacket)

Talk
Kathe Koja
134 pages
Kit Webster is hiding a secret. Carma, his best friend, has already figured it out, and pushes him to audition for the high school play, Talk. When he's cast as the male lead, he expects to escape his own life for a while and become a different person. What he gets instead is the role of a lifetime: Kit Webster.

In the play, Kit's thrown together with Lindsay Walsh, the female lead and the school's teen queen. Lindsay, tired of the shallow and selfish boys from her usual world, see something real in Kit - and wants it. But Kit's attention is focused on someone else.

The play is controversial, and the parents put pressure on the school to shut it down. When Kit and Lindsay rally to save Talk, they find themselves deep into a battle for the truth: onstage, and inside themselves ...
(Book jacket)

Kissing Vanessa
Simon Cheshire
136 pages
The instant Kevin Watts sees the new girl, he falls head over heels in love. Not only is Vanessa gorgeous, sophisticated and intelligent - but she's also into photography, just like Kevin. He's sure they'd be perfect for one another ... if it weren't for one major glitch. Kevin is Mr. Background, upstaged by nearly everyone else in school. How can an average guy like him ever hope to win over a girl like Vanessa?

Enter Kevin's friend Jack, self-professed babe magnet and relationship guru. All Kevin needs to do is follow Jack's easy tips and Vanessa will be his ...
(Book jacket)

Brooklyn Rose
Ann Rinaldi
219 pages
It's 1900 - the dawn of a new century - and never in her wildest dreams did fifteen-year-old Rose Frampton think she'd leave behind her family and home on the peaceful shores of her island plantation in South Carolina ... especially not to live with a new husband in the North.

Butg she is doing just that. Rose's new life with her handsome and wealthy husband in Brooklyn, New York, is both scary and exciting. As mistress of his large Victorian estate on Dorchester Road, she must learn to make decisions, establish her independence, and run an efficient household. These tasks are difficult enough without the added complication that she and her new husband have known each other only a brief time. As romance blossoms and Rose begings to find her place, she discovers that true happiness is built not on what others can do for her but on finding the inner strength and courage to do for herself.
(Book jacket)

The Kings Are Already Here
Garret Freyman-Weyr
149 pages
Phebe Knight is training to become a ballerina. But now, one year away from joining the Company, her mind begins to wander. To clear her head, she decides to spend the summer with her father in Switzerland. There, she meets Nikolai Kotalev, a teenage chess champion. Nikolai is looking for the legendary Stas Vlajnik, the teacher who will show him how to be a grandmaster capable of both grace and speed.

Phebe organizes a search to help Nikolai find the elusive Stas [...] hunting in all the places where chess's elegant patterns live. And all the while, Phebe and Nikolai study each other's obsessions to find the lives they want. What are the each willing to pay for perfection and beauty?

Unexpected Development
Marelene Perez
163 pages
Megan knows twenty different words for "breasts," and she can recite them alphabetically - but she can't remember the last time a guy gazed into her eyes instead of her chest. Will Jake Darrow be different? Will Megan learn to trust him? It's a problem. Two big problems, actually.

In this funny, romantic, sardonic novel, developments take many unexpected turns.
(Book jacket)

24 Girls in 7 Days
Alex Bradley
265 pages
The list of things sadder than Jack Grammar's love life is short. In can only include such things like children lost in supermarkets and old ladies who lose their glasses on top of their heads. In his current sad state of affairs, Jack can't get a date to the prom. So his supposed best friends pull a whacked-out prank on him by posting a personal ad in the online version of the school paper. Jack's pretty sure he'll be a laughingstock, but the response is a shocker. Now there's a list of girls - 24 of them - Jack has to schedule dates with before the prom, which is just 7 days away ...
(Book jacket)

Surf Diva
Izzy Tihanyi & Coco Tihanyi
234 pages
Admit it! You've dreamed of jumping onto a surfboard and catching a killer wave. Every girl has. And now you can live that dream with profession instructors Izzy and Coco Tihanyi at your side. Izzy and Coco are the founders of the Surf Diva Surf School, the original surf school for women, and it is their aloha attitude, their supremely contagious sense of fun, and their incomparable style (both surfing and fashion, of course) that has helped make women's surfing one of the fastest growing sports in the United States.
(Book jacket)

Perfectly Secret: The Hidden Lives of Seven Teen Girls
Edited by Susan Musgrave
97 pages
These moving, honest, and deeply personal accounts present an unforgettable profile of the inner lives teen girls keep hidden from the world.

Nan Germaine remembers the loneliness of enduring her parents' secret confessions: her mother's unhappiness and her father's infidelity. For Anita Rau Badami, a mad aunt was her hidden shame. Meanwhile, an alcoholic father mean Lorna Crozier could never invite her friends home. When her best friend shared her intention to kill herself, Susan Musgrave had to choose between loyalty and her friend's survival.
(Book jacket)

When Life Stinks: How to deal with your bad moods, blues and depression
Michael Piquemal with Melissa Daly
111 pages
Inside this book you will find out about some of the causes of your black moods, blues, and depression, alond with ideas for battling all three. You will discover that you are not alone. In fact, almost everyone has gone through a time like the one you are living through - and survived.
(Book jacket)

Don't Be Shy: How to fit in, make friends, and have fun - even if you weren't born outgoing
Claude Clement with Melissa Daly
111 pages
People say you're the quiet type, introverted, shy. They make it sound like a disease. You're cool with who you are - not everyone wants to be the head cheerleader or the class clown - but you're tired of going solo. Inside this book you'll find ways to break out of your shell with tips for making friends, speaking your mind, and letting people get to know you. And you don't have to change your whole personality to do it!
(Book jacket)

The Girls' Guide to AD/HD
Beth Walker
168 pages
If you're a teen girl with AD/HD (or maybe you think you might have AD/HD), then this book is for you! Guaranteed not to be boring, The Girls' Guide to AD/HD is full of interactive quizzes, helpful tips, fun facts, whimsical illustrations, and more. Plus, throughout the book, you'll get to eavesdrop on the very interesting conversations of three friend - Maddy, Helen, and Bo - who have AD/HD.
(Book jacket)

Greater Gains
K. M. Peyton
326 pages
Recently widowed and pregnant with her first child, the hardships of life in the early nineteenth century cannot quash fifteen-year-old Clara Garland's indomitable spirit. Even when her brother is unfairly driven from the farm and her sister finds herself in trouble with the law, Clara continues to flourish. And it is not long before the heartless yet devastatingly attractive Nat Grover becomes intent on capturing her for himself ...

But what will become of Clara's true love, Proper Mayes, living far away in the exotic land of India? Should Clara wait for what might be a pipe dream, or must she accept her fate? (Book jacket)

A Thief in the House of Memory
Tim Wynne-Jones
210 pages
It's been six years since Dec's free-spirited mother, Lindy, disappeared. But sixteen-year-old Dec is so caught up in trying to escape the present that he's avoided examining the past. Then an intruder dies in Steeple Hall, the family home that Dec's father has preserved like a museum, and the man's death sends forth tremours that reawaken forgotten memories. Suddenly Dec is flooded with visions of his mother so tangible it's hard to believe they're not real: Lindy in her Wonder Woman costume, Lindy playing a strange game of hide-and-seek in his father's study; Lindy blowing a shrill whistle in his face and shouting, Get me out of here, Declan. Before it's too late!

In this masterful new novel, Tim Wynne-Jones explores the fictional territory he knows best - the prickly ties that bind families, the murky connections between imagination and real life, and the liberating, healing power of good friends. (Book jacket)

Helicopter Man
Elizabeth Fensham
160 pages
Peter Sinclair's father is being pursued by a secret organisation. That's why he and Pete are on the run, diving for cover whenever they hear a helicopter, careful never to stay out for very long. But after years of hiding out, estranged from family and friends and teetering on the brink of homelessness, Peter begins to suspect that something else is behind his father's strange behaviour. And when he is able to price together scraps of information, the shocking truth begins to emerge. There is no secret organisation chasing them, and there never has been. It's something worse.

Helicopter Man is a haunting and ultimately redemptive tale of illness, survival, and a boy's determinatino to protect the father he loves. (Book jacket)

The Destiny of Linus Hoppe
Anne-Laure Bondoux (Trans. Catherine Temerson)
149 pages
Linus Hoppe has always lived in Realm One, an ideal world. Now, at fourteen, he must be tested by the Great Processor to determine where he deserves to live from now on. If he achieves a high score, nothing in his life will change. But if he scores too low, he'll be relegated to an inferior realm, possibly far from his family and friends. There's really nothing for Linus to worry about - unless, of course, he chooses to alter his destiny. (Book jacket)

The Diary of Pelly D
L. J. Addington
282 pages
Toni V is a teenager working for the City Five demolition crew. While drilling through concrete he unearths a battered water can containing a parcel wrapped in faded brown paper. Though he's supposed to turn over anything he salvages, Toni V smuggles the package back to his room, unwraps it, and finds a notebook.

This is the diary of Pelly D. It's totally secret, so if you're reading it I hate you already.

Toni V figures there's no harm in paging through it since he doesn't even know this Pelly D.

I'm not being arrogant. That's just the way it is at school ... I'm Pelly D. It's pretty simple. I RULE!

The more Toni V reads, the more he thinks Pelly D is rich, stupid, and petty. Yet he can't help starting to care for her, especially as her words slowly reveal the chilling state of her world.

I know it doesn't matter what gene tag you have - Mum's made that clear again and again like a stuck CD. It's just ... How can I face everyone at school if ...

What happened to Pelly D? Toni V needs to know. And he has one clue.

Dig - dig everywhere.

(Book jacket)

My Brother's Keeper
Patricia McCormick
187 pages
Toby Malone adores his older brother, Jake. He's the cool one, the MVP of the baseball team, the one who can charm their mother into anything. Even Mr. Furry, the dignified family cat, puts up with Jake's clowning around. Toby, Jake, and their little brother, Eli, have always had an easy, joking friendship, where it's the three of them against the world.

But ever since Toby's father left, things have been off balance. His mother seems deflated. Eli has gone back to sucking his thumb. And Jake is becoming distant and secretive. As Toby struggles to keep his family together, Jake drifts further and further away. Only Toby knows why: Jakes is slipping into drug use, the way their father slipped into alcohol before he disappeared. To spare his mother yet more disappointment, Toby tries to cover up for Jake. But his efforts backfire, only adding to the growing tension between the two brothers - until Jake goes too far.

With great compassion and wry humour, Patricia McCormick explores the anguish of living with divided loyalties and the cost of keeping family secrets. (Book jacket)

The Riddles of Epsilon
Christine Morton-Shaw
375 pages
Jess has moved to a remote island called Lume off the coast of England. Her parents are restoring an old house, and Jess discovers an abandoned cottage on their property. Inside the cottage Jess encounters an eerie presence - something like a ghost but suffused with a comforting energy. She also finds three locked boxes. Inside each she finds antique papers that send her mind spinning.

As Jess unravels the mysteries of Lume, she finds the writings of Sebastian, a boy who lived one hundred years ago and whose life contains unsettling reflections of her own. To her horror, the dangers he unearthed in 1894 now begin to threaten Jess and her family. Something dark has awoken, and Jess doesn't have much time to do something about it ...

Christine Morton-Shaw has created a spectacular thriller about one girl's spine-chilling experience with the supernatural world. (Book jacket)

The Arizona Kid
Ron Koertge
283 pages
From the moment sixteen-year-old Billy steps off the train in Tuscon, he knows this will be a summer unlike any he's seen in small-town Bradleyvilee, Missouri. For starters, he's staying with his cool gay uncle, who has managed to get his nephew a job at the racetrack, caring for horses. Still, Billy doesn't expect the horseracing world to be quite a rough and tumble as this - toiling side by side with a mcho survivalist and falling hard for the fiesty, romance-shy "exercise girl" Cara Mae. With his trademark fast-paced dialogue filled with wit and compassion, Ron Koertge tells the tale of an insecure teen who discovers that gaining stature involves more than stetsons and boots - and that lessons on love and manhood can come from places you least expect. (Book jacket)

Eldest
Christopher Paolini
678 pages
Website: www.alagaesia.com
Eragon and his dragon, Saphira, have just saved the rebel state from destruction by the mighty forces of King Galbatorix, cruel ruler of the Empire. Now Eragon must travel to Elesmera, land of the elves, for further training in magic and swordsmanship, the vital skills of the Dragon Rider. It is the journey of a lifetime, filled with awe-inspiring new places and people, each day a fresh adventure. But chaos and betrayal plague him at every turn, and Eragon isn't sure whom he can trust.

Meanwhile, his cousin Roran must fight a new battle back home in Carvahall - one that puts Eragon in even graver danger.

Will the king's dark hand strangle all resistance? Eragon may not escape with even his life ... (Book jacket)

The Burn Journals
Brent Runyon
374 pages
Brent Runyon was fourteen years old when he set himself on fire.

This is a true story. In The Burn Journals, Runyon describes that devastating suicide attempt and his recovery over the following year. He takes us into the Burn Unit in a children's hospital and skin-grafting procedures. Then to a rehabilitation hospital , for intensive physical, occupational, and psychological therapy. And then finally back home, to the frightening prospect of entering high school.

But more importantly, Runyon takes us into his own mind. He shares with such unflinching honesty that we understand - with a terrible clarity - what it means to want to kill yourself and how it feels to struggle back toward normality ... (Book jacket)

Far From Xanadu
Julie Anne Peters
282 pages
Every day in Coalton is pretty much the same. Mike pumps iron in the morning, drives her truck to school, plays softball in the afternoon, and fixes the neighbours' pumbing at night. Maybe on a big day she stops by the Dairy Delite. But when an exotic new girl, Xanadu, arrives in the small Kansas town, Mike's world is turned upside down. Xanadu is everything Mike is not - cool, complicated, sexy, and ... straight.

Can a gay person love a straight person? And will the love be returned? Or are there physical and emotional distances that can never - and should never - be crossed?

This heartbreaking yet ultimately hopeful novel will speak to anyone who has ever fallen in love with someone just out of reach.(Book jacket)

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