Here Come the New Books for May 2016! (part 6)

My Kind of Crazy by Robin Reul

Contemporary Fiction 

Despite the best of intentions, seventeen-year old, wisecracking Hank Kirby can’t quite seem to catch a break. It’s not that he means to screw things up all the time, it just happens. A lot. Case in point: his attempt to ask out the girl he likes literally goes up in flames when he spells “Prom” in sparklers on her lawn…and nearly burns down her house. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Peyton Breedlove, a brooding loner and budding pyromaniac, witnesses the whole thing. Much to Hank’s dismay, Peyton takes an interest in him—and his “work.” The two are thrust into an unusual friendship, but their boundaries are tested when Hank learns that Peyton is hiding some dark secrets, secrets that may change everything he thought he knew about Peyton.

Nora & Kettle by Lauren Nicolle Taylor

Historical Fiction 

 Seventeen-year-old Kettle has had his share of adversity. As an orphaned Japanese American struggling to make a life in the aftermath of an event in history not often referred to--the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and the removal of children from orphanages for having "one drop of Japanese blood in them"--things are finally looking up. He has his hideout in an abandoned subway tunnel, a job, and his gang of Lost Boys. Desperate to run away, the world outside her oppressive brownstone calls to naïve, eighteen-year-old Nora--the privileged daughter of a controlling and violent civil rights lawyer who is building a compensation case for the interned Japanese Americans. But she is trapped, enduring abuse to protect her younger sister Frankie and wishing on the stars every night for things to change. For months, they've lived side by side, their paths crossing yet never meeting. But when Nora is nearly killed and her sister taken away, their worlds collide as Kettle, grief stricken at the loss of a friend, angrily pulls Nora from her window. In her honeyed eyes, Kettle sees sadness and suffering. In his, Nora sees the chance to take to the window and fly away. 

 Ouran High School Host Club vol 3 by Bisco Hatori

Manga (Japanese Graphic Novel) 

It's summer break, and the Host Club crew head to the beach, dragging our reluctant heroine with them.  When Haruhi stands up to some local bullies and gets tossed into the ocean, Tamaki, the Host Club King, rescues her.  But afterward, he's so mad that he won't speak to her until she apologizes.  Trouble is, Haruhi can't figure out what she should be sorry for!

Railhead by Philip Reeve

Science Fiction 

In a world of drones and androids Zen Starling is a human thief, but mostly he just likes to ride the Interstellar Express, the sentient trains that travel through the K gates from planet to planet, something only the Guardians understand--but now the mysterious Raven wants him to steal the Pyxis, an object that could either open up a new gate, challenging the Guardians, or put the entire gate system, and the universe itself in danger.

 

 The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater

Paranormal 

Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love's death. She doesn't believe in true love and never thought this would be a problem, but as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she's not so sure anymore.

 

 

My gift to you...New Books for December! (part 2)

Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater

Blue Sargent has found things. For the first time in her life, she has friends she can trust, a group to which she can belong. The Raven Boys have taken her in as one of their own. Their problems have become hers, and her problems have become theirs. The trick with found things though, is how easily they can be lost.

Confessions: The Paris Mysteries by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro

Sixteen-year-old Tandy Angel moves to Paris for a fresh start with her siblings and to be reunited with James, her lost love, but her detective work soon uncovers long-buried family secrets that threaten to destroy her life.

Dead Boy Detectives, vol 1 by Toby Litt & others

From the pages of THE SANDMAN, Neil Gaiman's intrepid dead schoolboys head back to the horror that is St. Hilarions School; the place where they both were murdered.   While trying to protect their new acquaintance, techno-savvy sleuth Crystal, from suffering the same fate at the hands of familiar bullies, Charles and Edwin begin to unravel the mysteries surrounding their own untimely demise.

Collects DEAD BOY DETECTIVES #1-7

Dear Nobody: The True Diary of Mary Rose edited by Gillian McCain & Legs McNeil

Fans of Go Ask Alice will devour Dear Nobody , a real teen's diary, so raw and so edgy that it's authenticity rings off every page. They say that high school is supposed to be the best time of your life. But what if that's just not true? More than anything, Mary Rose wants to fit in. To be loved. And she'll do whatever it takes to make that happen. Even if it costsher her life. Told through the raw and unflinching diary entries of a real teen, Mary Rose struggles with addiction, bullying, and a deadly secret. Her compelling story will inspire readers-and remind them that they are not alone.

Death Coming Up the Hill by Chris Crowe

Douglas Ashe keeps a weekly record of historical and personal events in 1968, the year he turns seventeen, including the escalating war in Vietnam, assassinations, rampant racism, and rioting; his first girlfriend, his parents' separation, and a longed-for sister.

New Books ~ August 2014 ~ Part 4

Sinner by Maggie Stiefvater

Sinner follows Cole St. Clair, a pivotal character from the #1 New York Times bestselling Shiver Trilogy. Everybody thinks they know Cole's story. Stardom. Addiction. Downfall. Disappearance. But only a few people know Cole's darkest secret -- his ability to shift into a wolf. One of these people is Isabel. At one point, they may have even loved each other. But that feels like a lifetime ago. Now Cole is back. Back in the spotlight. Back in the danger zone. Back in Isabel's life. Can this sinner be saved?

Kewl Bites: 100 Nutritious, Delicious, and Family-Friendly Dishes by Reed Alexander

As a busy teen star, Reed Alexander's life is a balancing act. Several years ago, as he juggled career commitments and school, he lost sight of how to eat right, became overweight, and as a result, was exhausted and lethargic. Too tired to keep up with his hectic schedule, he decided to reclaim his health by changing his diet. A can-do guy, his first step was to learn how to cook for himself. Unable to find any recipes suited to a teenager's tastes, he rolled up his sleeves and set to work in his kitchen, developing healthy versions of the foods he loves. Along the way, he became a dedicated cook, sharing his culinary discoveries with his fans and friends on his Web site, KewlBites.com.

Graffiti Knight by Karen Bass

After a childhood cut short by war and the harsh strictures of Nazi Germany, sixteen-year-old Wilm is finally tasting freedom. In spite of the scars World War II has left on his hometown, Leipzig, and in spite of the oppressive new Soviet regime, Wilm is finding his own voice. It's dangerous, of course, to be sneaking out at night to leave messages on police buildings. But it's exciting, too, and Wilm feels justified, considering his family's suffering. Until one mission goes too far, and Wilm finds he's endangered the very people he most wants to protect.

The Falconer by Elizabeth May

In 1844 Edinburgh eighteen-year-old Lady Aileana Kameron is neither an ordinary debutante, nor a murderess--she is a Falconer, a female warrior born with the gift for hunting and killing the faeries who prey on mankind and who killed her mother.

Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science by Marc Aronson & Marina Budhos

When this award-winning husband-and-wife team discovered that they each had sugar in their family history, they were inspired to trace the globe-spanning story of the sweet substance and to seek out the voices of those who led bitter sugar lives. The trail ran like a bright band from religious ceremonies in India to Europe's Middle Ages, then on to Columbus, who brought the first cane cuttings to the Americas. Sugar was the substance that drove the bloody slave trade and caused the loss of countless lives but it also planted the seeds of revolution that led to freedom in the American colonies, Haiti, and France. With songs, oral histories, maps, and over 80 archival illustrations, here is the story of how one product allows us to see the grand currents of world history in new ways.

First New Books of 2014~ Part 5

Theodore Boone: The Accused by John Grisham

Thirteen-year-old aspiring lawyer Theodore Boone is falsely accused in a robbery and must fight to clear his name.

 The Burning Sky by Sherry Thomas

A young elemental mage named Iaolanthe Seabourne discovers her shocking power and destiny when she is thrown together with a deposed prince to lead a rebellion against a tyrant.

The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

Now that the ley lines around Cabeswater are awake, magic is swirling around Blue and The Raven boys and Ronan Lynch's ability to pull objects from his dreams is almost out of control but worst of all, the mysterious Gray Man is stalking the Lynch family, looking for something called the Greywaren.

Movie Monday: Shiver

Hey YAs, it's Movie Monday!

THE BOOK:

In all the years she has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house, Grace has been particularly drawn to an unusual yellow-eyed wolf who, in his turn, has been watching her with increasing intensity.

I read this one, it was pretty good.  Didn't blow me away for sure, but maybe when I get around to reading the other two books in the series I will be!  I liked the story thou and I thought it had some good, unique elements.  (don't want to give away too much for those of you who haven't read it!)

THE MOVIE:

Shiver WAS optioned for a movie, but the producers and Maggie Stiefvater had some creative differences, so Maggie decided to let it go for now.  Ok, kind of a let down, I guess this is a very deceiving Movie Monday post, but OH WELL.  Maggie still says it might happen someday, the time just wasn't right now. 

But we can still think about it!  Who would you cast as Sam and Grace?

It's ya birthday Maggie!

Happy birthday to Maggie Stiefvater~

New Books: Oct. 2012 (Part 3)

Outpost by Ann Aguirre

Check the Catalog

Deuce struggles for respect in a new topside town where she is treated like a child and avoided by Fade, a situation that compels her to volunteer for patrol duty and protect topside citizens from an unexpected upsurge in Freak activity.

 Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

Check the Catalog

Though she is from a family of clairvoyants, Blue Sargent's only gift seems to be that she makes other people's talents stronger, and when she meets Gansey, one of the Raven Boys from the expensive Aglionby Academy, she discovers that he has talents of his own--and that together their talents are a dangerous mix.

Shadows by Ilsa Bick

Check the Catalog

The Apocalypse does not end. The Changed will grow in numbers. The Spared may not survive. Even before the EMPs brought down the world, Alex was on the run from the demons of her past and the monster living in her head. After the world was gone, she believed Rule could be a sanctuary for her and those she'd come to love. But she was wrong. Now Alex is in the fight of her life against the adults, who would use her, the survivors, who don't trust her, and the Changed, who would eat her alive.

Edge of Nowhere by Elizabeth George

Check the Catalog

When her mother abandons her on Whidbey Island, Washington, a fourteen-year-old girl with psychic abilities meets a Ugandan orphan with a secret.

For What It's Worth by Janet Tashjian

Check the Catalog

Living in Los Angeles' Laurel Canyon neighborhood, fourteen-year-old Quinn's life has been consumed by music and the famous musicians who live nearby, but in 1971, his first girlfriend, a substitute teacher, and a draft dodger help open his eyes about the Vietnam War.

Voting for the Teens' Top Ten starts today!

Have you guys and girls heard of the Teens' Top Ten?  The Teens' Top Ten is like the teen's choice awards, for books! Teen book groups in sixteen school and public libraries around the country make lists of the books they really liked from last year and those nominations are posted online. Then, you guys read them and starting TODAY you can vote for your favorite online!  Anyone ages 12 to 18 can vote adn the winners will be announced in October.

You can VOTE HERE

Let's meet the books, shall we?  Here are the nominees for best teen books this year:

All Good Children by Catherine Austen

In the not-too-distant future, Max tries to maintain his identity in a world where the only way to survive is to conform and obey.

 (I just got this one, it will be on the shelf soon!)

 Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick

Alex, a resourceful seventeen-year-old running from her incurable brain tumor, Tom, who has left the war in Afghanistan, and Ellie, an angry eight-year-old, join forces after an electromagnetic pulse sweeps through the sky and kills most of the world's population, turning some of those who remain into zombies and giving the others superhuman senses.

(YA SFF BIC - I read this one and really liked it)

Abandon by Meg Cabot

A near-death experience, a horrible incident at school, and a move from Connecticut to Florida have turned seventeen-year-old Pierce's life upside-down, but when she needs him most John Hayden is always there, helping but reminding her of her visit to the Underworld.

(YA PAR CAB - haven't read this one, but Meg Cabot generally writes good stuff!)

 Tempest by Julie Cross

After his girlfriend Holly is fatally shot during a violent struggle, nineteen-year-old Jackson uses his supernatural abilities and travels back in time two years, where he falls in love with Holly all over again, learns that his father is a spy, and discovers powerful enemies of time who will stop at nothing to recruit him for their own purposes.

(YA SFF CRO - haven't read this one, like time travel thou - its on my to-read list!)

What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen

Following her parents' bitter divorce as she and her father move from town to town, seventeen-year-old Mclean reinvents herself at each school she attends until she is no longer sure she knows who she is or where she belongs.

(YA FIC DES)

Wither by Lauren DeStefano

After modern science turns every human into a genetic time bomb with men dying at age twenty-five and women dying at age twenty, girls are kidnapped and married off in order to repopulate the world.

(YA SFF DES - LOVED this one!   Read it!)

Where She Went by Gayle Forman

Adam, now a rising rock star, and Mia, a successful cellist, reunite in New York and reconnect after the horrific events that tore them apart when Mia almost died in a car accident three years earlier.

(YA FIC FOR)

 

Scarlet by A. C. Gaughen

Will Scarlet shadows Robin Hood, with an unerring eye for finding treasures to steal and throwing daggers with deadly accuracy, but when Gisbourne, a ruthless bounty hunter, is hired by the sheriff to capture Robin and his band of thieves, Robin must become Will's protector risking his own life in the process.

(YA HIS GAU)

 

Eona: The Last Dragoneye by Alison Goodman

Facing the ultimate battle for control of the land she calls home, Eona finds herself waging an internal battle every bit as devastating as the war threatening to break out across the kingdom.

(Don't have this one YET - we do have the books that come before it.  Until we get it, you can always request it from another library)

 

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Sixteen-year-old Hazel, a stage IV thyroid cancer patient, has accepted her terminal diagnosis until a chance meeting with a boy at cancer support group forces her to reexamine her perspective on love, loss, and life.

(YA FIC GREE - haven't read this one but everyone else just RAVES about it)

Page by Paige by Laura Lee Gulledge

When Paige Turner and her family move to New York City from rural Virginia, she tries to make sense of her new life through her sketchbook, and it helps bring her true personality into the open, a process that is equal parts terrifying and rewarding.

(YA GN GUL - the only graphic novel on the list)

 

Legend by Marie Lu

In a dark future, when North America has split into two warring nations, fifteen-year-olds Day, a famous criminal, and prodigy June, the brilliant soldier hired to capture him, discover that they have a common enemy.

(YA SFF LU and YA BCD LU - I LOVEEEE Dystopia!)

Hourglass by Myra McEntire

Seventeen-year-old Emerson uses her power to manipulate time to help Michael, a consultant hired by her brother, to prevent a murder that happened six months ago while simultaneously navigating their undeniable attraction to one another.

(YA PAR MCE)

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

As plague ravages the overcrowded Earth, observed by a ruthless lunar people, Cinder, a gifted mechanic and cyborg, becomes involved with handsome Prince Kai and must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect the world in this futuristic take on the Cinderella story.

(YA SFF MEY and YA BCD MEY - This is without a doubt my favorite on this list - CYBORG CINDERELLA? NOTHING could be better!!)

 

Shine by Lauren Myracle

When her best friend falls victim to a vicious hate crime, sixteen-year-old Cat sets out to discover the culprits in her small North Carolina town.

(YA MYS MYR)

 

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

Thirteen-year-old Conor awakens one night to find a monster outside his bedroom window, but not the one from the recurring nightmare that began when his mother became ill--an ancient, wild creature that wants him to face truth and loss.

(YA SFF NES)

This Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppel

When his twin brother falls ill in the family's chateau in the independent republic of Geneva in the eighteenth century, sixteen-year-old Victor Frankenstein embarks on a dangerous and uncertain quest to create the forbidden Elixir of Life described in an ancient text in the family's secret Biblioteka Obscura.

(YA SFF OPP)

Across the Universe by Beth Revis

Teenaged Amy, a cryogenically frozen passenger on the spaceship Godspeed, wakes up to discover that someone may have tried to murder her.

(YA SFF REV)

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of very curious photographs. It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children , an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience.

(YA SFF RIG)

Divergent by Veronica Roth

  In a future Chicago, sixteen-year-old Beatrice Prior must choose among five predetermined factions to define her identity for the rest of her life, a decision made more difficult when she discovers that she is an anomaly who does not fit into any one group, and that the society she lives in is not perfect after all.

(YA SFF ROT - another great dystopian!)

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

In 1941, fifteen-year-old Lina, her mother, and brother are pulled from their home by Soviet guards and sent to Siberia, where her father is sentenced to death while she fights for her life, vowing to honor her family and the thousands like hers by burying her story in a jar on Lithuanian soil. Based on the author's family, includes a historical note.

(YA HIS SEP)

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

Nineteen-year-old returning champion Sean Kendrick competes against Puck Connolly, the first girl ever to ride in the annual Scorpio Races, both trying to keep hold of their dangerous water horses long enough to make it to the finish line.

(YA SFF STI and YA BCD STI)

 

How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr

Told from their own viewpoints, seventeen-year-old Jill, in grief over the loss of her father, and Mandy, nearly nineteen, are thrown together when Jill's mother agrees to adopt Mandy's unborn child but nothing turns out as they had anticipated.

(YA FIC ZAR)

All These Things I've Done by Gabrielle Zevin

In a future where chocolate and caffeine are contraband, teenage cellphone use is illegal, and water and paper are carefully rationed, sixteen-year-old Anya Balanchine finds herself thrust unwillingly into the spotlight as heir apparent to an important New York City crime family.

Now get reading and get voting!
VOTE HERE