New books for October ~ Part 7

Show and Prove by Sofia Quintero

Historical Fiction 

Friends Smiles and Nike spend the summer of 1983 in the South Bronx working a job at a summer camp, chasing girls, and breakdancing.

Silver in the Blood by Jessica Day George

Paranormal 

In 1897, seventeen-year-olds Dacia and Lou, New York socialites and cousins, visit their maternal homeland of Romania and learn the family secret--that they are shapeshifters, expected to take their rightful places and marry proper husbands.

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Fantasy 

Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price--and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can't pull it off alone... A convict with a thirst for revenge. A sharpshooter who can't walk away from a wager. A runaway with a privileged past. A spy known as the Wraith. A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums. A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes. Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist. Kaz's crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction--if they don't kill each other first.

Stand Off by Andrew Smith

Contemporary Fiction 

Now a senior at Pine Mountain Academy, fifteen-year-old Ryan Dean West becomes captain of the rugby team, shares his dormitory room with a twelve-year-old prodigy, Sam Abernathy, and through the course of the year learns to appreciate things he has tried to resist, including change.

State of Grace by Hilary Badger

Science Fiction 

Ever since she was created, Wren has lived with her friends in an Eden created by Dot--but lately she has been troubled by visions of a very different world, and when she meets Dennis who comes from outside, she begins to confront the ugly truth at the heart of paradise.

April Books bring May...more books! (April new books part 1)

The Alex Crow by Andrew Smith

Contemporary Fiction

The story of Ariel, a Middle Eastern refugee who lives with an adoptive family in Sunday, West Virginia, is juxtaposed against those of a schizophrenic bomber, the diaries of a failed arctic expedition from the late nineteenth century, and a depressed, bionic reincarnated crow.

All New Ultimates vol 1: Power for Power by Michael Fiffe

Graphic Novel

The next generation of Ultimates is here! Spider-Man, Black Widow, Kitt y Pryde, Bombshell, Cloak and Dagger unite to tackle the vicious, rampant crime wave overtaking Hell's Kitchen! But the young Ultimates are put to the test as they try to survive their first mission: going head to head with the city's most ruthless gang, the Serpent Skulls, led by Diamondback! Meanwhile, detective Brigid O'Reilly and her anti-gang unit are on the hunt for a serial mask killer called Scourge! As Jessica Drew adjusts to the mantle of Black Widow, Spider-Man falls for a villainess and Bombshell's life is changed by tragedy, Crossbones joins the fray! These young heroes have fought Galactus, but can they survive super-powered street gangs and psychopaths?

All Star by Jesse Lonergan

Graphic Novel

As the summer of 1998 nears, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa are racing each other to break the home-run record, Bill Clinton is being questioned about a certain Monica Lewinsky, Semisonic's "Closing Time" is top of the charts, and Carl Carter is leading the Elizabeth Monarchs of rural Vermont to the state championship his senior year. The world is Carl's oyster: a full scholarship to the University of Maine awaits, going pro after college isn't out of the question, and he's so good he can do whatever he wants--until, that is, he makes one very arrogant mistake. 

All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

Contemporary Fiction

Told in alternating voices, when Theodore Finch and Violet Markey meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school--both teetering on the edge--it's the beginning of an unlikely relationship, a journey to discover the "natural wonders" of the state of Indiana, and two teens' desperate desire to heal and save one another.

Beastkeeper by Cat Hellisen

Paranormal

Deep in the forest, in a crumbling ruin of a castle, Sarah begins to untangle the layers of curses affecting her family, until she discovers that the curse has carried over to her, too. The day she falls in love for the first time, Sarah will transform into a beast . . . unless she can figure out a way to break the curse forever.

New Books for a New School Year - September books part 8

Sekret by Lindsay Smith

Follows a group of psychic teenagers in 1960s Soviet Russia who are forced to use their powers to spy for the KGB.

Satan's Prep by Gabe Guarente
Seventeen-year-old Trevor Loomis's high school is literally Hell. In an unfortunate theological snafu, Trevor finds himself at Satan's Prep in the bowels of Hell after he dies choking on a Cheesy Crisp. At Satan's Prep, Trevor is forced through Nine Class Periods of Hell, a take on the classic Circles of Hell. From First Period (homeroom, where students' names are mispronounced a billion ways) to Ninth Period (an assembly, where students stand under spotlights and make speeches in their underwear), Trevor just wants to pass the semester with a 61 percent humanity level and transfer to Purgatory. But when Persephone Plumm shows up at Satan's Prep, Trevor starts to think that maybe Hell isn't so bad after all. But could Trevor's best friend Steve be right could Persephone be a succubus? Will Trevor ever be able to transfer out of Satan's Prep and now that Persephone has arrived, will he even want to?

100 Sideways Miles by Andrew Smith
Finn Easton, sixteen and epileptic, struggles to feel like more than just a character in his father's cult-classic novels with the help of his best friend, Cade Hernandez, and first love, Julia, until Julia moves away.

Tease by Amanda Maciel
A teenage girl faces criminal charges for bullying after a classmate commits suicide.

The Murder Complex by Lindsay Cummings
In a world where the murder rate is higher than the birth rate, fifteen-year-old Meadow, trained by her father to kill and survive in any situation, falls in love with Zephyr, a government assassin.

Otherbound by Corinne Duyvis
A seventeen-year-old boy finds that every time he closes his eyes, he is drawn into the body of a mute servant girl from another world--a world that is growing increasingly more dangerous, and where many things are not as they seem.

New books to read during those April showers! (Part 2)

Song of the Quarkbeast by Jasper Fforde

In an alternate United Kingdom, King Snodd aims to control the world by controlling magic, and only sixteen-year-old Jennifer Strange, acting manager of an employment agency for sorcerers, stands between Snodd and his plans.

Maximum Ride vol 5 by James Patterson

Escaping ITEX in Florida, the Flock head west, with Max more burdened than ever by the knowledge that she's meant to save the world. But while their leader is keen to stay on the path leading to her destiny, Fang and the others are more interested in settling down and letting the chips fall where they may. With the Erasers eerily absent from their lives of late, has the Flock finally earned a bit of peace...or is this all just the calm before the storm?

Maximum Ride vol 6 by James Patterson

The time has come for Max and her winged "Flock" to face their ultimate enemy and discover their original purpose: to defeat the takeover of "Re-evolution," a sinister experiment to re-engineer a select population into a scientifically superior master race...and to terminate the rest. Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gasman, and Angel have always worked together to defeat the forces working against them-but can they save the world when they are torn apart, living in hiding and captivity, halfway across the globe from one another?

All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill

Narrator Em and her boyfriend, Finn, escape from their totalitarian future, time traveling back four years to commit a heart-wrenching assassination of a loved one in order to prevent time travel from being invented and the future from turning so wrong. The future's hinted-at horrors are threatening but expertly backgrounded, avoiding dystopia-fatigue. The clever, accessible time-space treatment isn't weighed down by jargon. Em and Finn's proactive mission means the characters are the hunters instead of the frequently seen on-the-run teen protagonists. The other side of the storyline, taking place in the past that Em and Finn travel to and starring their past selves, is narrated by Marina (Em, in this timeline) and involves her brilliant yet interpersonally challenged best friend (and crush) James and his friend Finn, who annoys Marina, as they deal with a tragedy in James's family. 

Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith

Simmering within Ealing, Iowa, is a deadly genetically engineered plague capable of unleashing unstoppable soldiers—six-foot-tall praying mantises with insatiable appetites for food and sex. No one knows it, of course, until Austin and his best friend Robby accidentally release it on the world. An ever-growing plague of giant, flesh-hungry insects is bad enough, but Austin is also up to his eyeballs in sexual confusion—is he in love with Robby or his girlfriend, Shann? Both of them make him horny, but most things do. In an admittedly futile attempt to capture the truth of his history, painfully honest Austin narrates the events of the apocalypse intermingled with a detailed account of the “connections that spiderweb through time and place,” leading from his great-great-great-grandfather Andrzej in Poland to Shann’s lucky discovery of an apocalypse-proof bunker in her new backyard. 

In November I am Thankful for...New Books! (part 5)

Divided We Fall, United We Stand by Marvel

Washington lies in ruins. The president is dead. Sentinels rule the Southwest. But in America's darkest hour, its ultimate hero returns to lead its people back toward the light! Captain America answers his country's call to become its new president! But while Steve Rogers battles to reunite America, another leader embraces her destiny to defeat the Sentinels and save her own kind: Kitty Pryde! And with the nation crying out for heroes, Miles Morales is determined to prove he has what it takes to join the Ultimates!

 Unsouled by Neal Shusterman

After the destruction of the Graveyard, Connor and Lev are on the run, seeking a woman who may be the key to bringing down unwinding forever while Cam, the rewound boy, tries to prove his love for Risa by bringing Proactive Citizenry to its knees.

War Brothers by Sharon E. McKay

Jacob is a 14-year-old Ugandan who is sent away to a boys' school. Once there, he assures his friend Tony that they need not be afraid -- they will be safe. But not long after, in the shadow of the night, the boys are abducted. Marched into the jungle, they are brought to an encampment of the feared rebel soldiers. They are told they must kill or be killed, and their world turns into a terrifying struggle to endure and survive. In time, the boys escape. Hunted by the rebels, stalked by a lion, and even pursued by river crocs, they miraculously succeed in reaching safety. However, it is no longer enough. Jacob wrestles with the question of whether we are all really beasts inside. He decides the way through the pain is to record his story. 

Winger by Andrew Smith

Two years younger than his classmates at a prestigious boarding school, fourteen-year-old Ryan Dean West grapples with living in the dorm for troublemakers, falling for his female best friend who thinks of him as just a kid, and playing wing on the Varsity rugby team with some of his frightening new dorm-mates.

 Arson by Estevan Vega
Arson Gable feels like a freak. He can create fire. He never asked for it. He never wanted it. But he can't shut it off. Before now, three things were true: he both loved and despised his grandmother; his life was going nowhere; and he was alone. But when a strange girl-who feels more normal behind a mask than inside her own skin-moves in next door, Arson hopes to find something he's never had: purpose. Using what he fears most about himself, Arson must face his consuming past and confront the nightmare that is his present as he walks the fine line between boy and monster.