New Books for April 2016 (part 10)

Up From the Sea by Leza Lowitz

Historical Fiction 

A powerful novel-in-verse about how one teen boy survives the March 2011 tsunami that devastates his coastal Japanese village. On that fateful day, Kai loses nearly everyone and everything he cares about. When he's offered a trip to New York to meet kids whose lives were changed by 9/11, Kai realizes he also has a chance to look for his estranged American father. Visiting Ground Zero on its tenth anniversary, Kai learns that the only way to make something good come out of the disaster back home is to return there and help rebuild his town. Heartrending yet hopeful, Up from the Sea is a story about loss, survival, and starting anew.

Where You'll Find Me by Natasha Friend

Contemporary Fiction 

The first month of school, thirteen-year-old Anna Collette finds herself... DUMPED by her best friend Dani, who suddenly wants to spend eighth grade "hanging out with different people." DESERTED by her mom, who's in the hospital recovering from a suicide attempt. TRAPPED in a house with her dad, a new baby sister, and a stepmother young enough to wear her Delta Delta Delta sweatshirt with pride. STUCK at a lunch table with Shawna the Eyebrow Plucker and Sarabeth the Irish Stepper because she has no one else to sit with. But what if all isn't lost? What if Anna's mom didn't exactly mean to leave her? What if Anna's stepmother is cooler than she thought? What if the misfit lunch table isn't such a bad fit after all? With help from some unlikely sources, including a crazy girl-band talent show act, Anna just may find herself on the road to okay.

Wink Poppy Midnight by April Genevieve Tucholke

Mystery 

Wink, Poppy, and Midnight's three separate voices come together to reveal the secrets and mysteries hiding in the woods around their home.

The Winner's Kiss by Marie Rutkoski

Fantasy 

War has begun. Arin is in the thick of it with untrustworthy new allies and the empire as his enemy. Though he has convinced himself that he no longer loves Kestrel, Arin hasn't forgotten her, or how she became exactly the kind of person he has always despised. She cared more for the empire than she did for the lives of innocent people and certainly more than she did for him. At least, thats what he thinks. In the frozen north, Kestrel is a prisoner in a brutal work camp. As she searches desperately for a way to escape, she wishes Arin could know what she sacrificed for him. She wishes she could make the empire pay for what they've done to her. But no one gets what they want just by wishing. As the war intensifies, both Kestrel and Arin discover that the world is changing. The East is pitted against the West, and they are caught in between. With so much to lose, can anybody really win?

The Year We Fell Apart by Emily Martin

Contemporary Fiction 

A year ago Harper made the biggest mistake of her life by destroying her relationship with her best friend and first love Declan, so now that he is home from boarding school for the summer, Harper has three months to fix the year of miscommunications, secrets, and lies or finally let go altogether.

Double Author Birthday Today!

Happy Birthday to Lois Duncan!

When the old woman died, she left each of her grandchildren something very special. For Kirby, the gift of dance. For Brendon, the gift of music. And for Nancy, the most extraordinary gift of all . . . the gift of magic .

On July 16, 1989, Lois Duncan’s daughter was chased down and shot to death in Albuquerque, New Mexico. After the police abandoned all leads, Duncan refused to give up her search for the truth.

In this tragic memoir and investigation, Lois Duncan searches for clues to the murder of her youngest child, eighteen-year-old Kaitlyn Arquette. Duncan begins to suspect that the official police investigation of Kaitlyn’s murder is inadequate when detectives ignore her daughter’s accidental connection to organized crime in Albuquerque. When Duncan loses faith in the system, she reaches out to anyone that can help, including private investigators, journalists, and even a psychic. Written to inspire other families who have lost loved ones to unsolved crimes, Who Killed My Daughter? is a powerful testament to the tenacity of a mother’s love.

AND!

Happy Birthday to Natasha Friend!

Following the death of her father, a thirteen-year-old uses bulimia as a way to avoid her mother's and ten-year-old sister's grief, as well as her own.

Unable to cope with her father's alcoholism, thirteen-year-old Sam corresponds with an older student, sharing her family problems and asking for advice.

Alcohol Awareness Month

Hey YAs, April is (among other things) Alcohol Awareness Month.  To get you think about the effects alcohol can have on our lives, I'm putting together a booklist of books that deal with the issue of alcohol.  Maybe take some time this month to read at least one of them. :)

  What's the big deal about drinking, anyway? -- I just wanted to be drunk -- Drinking can't be a matter of life and death, right? -- If I don't drink, I might as well stay home -- I think I'm having a problem.

 Describes more than 150 safe, creative, and natural ways to find contentment, pleasure, excitement, insight, or peace without the use of alcohol or drugs.

A group of teens in a Seattle-area rehabilitation center form an unlikely friendship as they begin to focus less on their own problems with drugs and alcohol by reaching out to help a new member, who seems to have even deeper issues to resolve.

Seventeen-year-old Pattyn, the eldest daughter in a large Mormon family, is sent to her aunt's Nevada ranch for the summer, where she temporarily escapes her alcoholic, abusive father and finds love and acceptance, only to lose everything when she returns home.

  Unable to cope with her father's alcoholism, thirteen-year-old Sam corresponds with an older student, sharing her family problems and asking for advice.

Maine high school senior Katie Martin is set to win a field hockey scholarship until her life is derailed by drinking, a car accident, and an angry classmate.