Curl Up With One of February's New Books (part 1)

1 Year, 100 Pounds: My Journey to a Better, Happier Life by Whitney Holcombe

Nonfiction 

At age 14, Whitney Holcombe bravely stepped onto her bathroom scale, coming face to face with a hard fact: She weighed 230 pounds. That number controlled every aspect of her life until one day she chose to take charge and go from being the fat girl to a healthy, confident young woman who's dedicated to helping others make positive life choices. Part cheerleader, part drill sergeant, Whitney challenges and helps transform teens battling obesity and embarrassment, to become self-assured, healthy young adults. With 1 Year, 100 pounds, Whitney not only shares her incredible story in inspiring and intimate detail, but she outlines the practical tips, exercises, and habits you need to truly change yourself. No expensive gym memberships, trainers, surgeries, or crash diets are required Simply follow Whitney's incredible guide and take the first steps to learning how to love your body and yourself.

250 Hours by Colleen Nelson

Contemporary Fiction 

Jess is an angry loner trying to escape a troubled past, Sara Jean is a dutiful granddaughter trying to escape a strait-jacketed future. They come together over a 250-hour community service sentence to clean out a garage full of secrets that has implications for them both.

All the Major Constellations by Pratima Cranse

Contemporary Fiction 

Andrew is leaving high school behind and looking ahead to a fresh start at college and distance from his not-so-secret infatuation: Laura Lettel. But when a terrible accident leaves him without the companionship of his two best friends, Andrew is cast adrift and alone--until Laura unexpectedly offers him comfort, friendship, and the support of a youth group of true believers, fundamentalist Christians with problems and secrets of their own. Andrew is curiously drawn to their consuming beliefs, but why? Is it only to get closer to Laura? And is Laura genuinely interested in Andrew, or is she just trying to convert him?

Assassination Classroom vol 7 by Yusei Matsui

Graphic Novel (Manga) 

The 3-E students hope to kill on their final exams to win not only respect but a special reward.  Over summer break, Nagisa, Sugino and Maehara play amateur entomologist with ... a girl?  After rigorous training with the greatest assassin of all, the class launches their best assassination plan yet!  Now who will save our would-be assassins from a mysterious biological weapon?!

Attack on Titan vol 8 by Hajime Isayama

Graphic Novel (manga) 

Blood on his hands!

The expedition outside the wall was Eren’s chance to prove himself. But it failed, and the female Titan is free once more!

With his squad dead, Eren faces a royal summons. Will Mikasa and Armin have to betray their king to save their friend? And can they discover the female Titan’s identity before she kills again?

The Borden Murders: Lizzie Borden & The Trial of the Century by Sarah Miller

Nonfiction 

With murder, court battles, and sensational newspaper headlines, the story of Lizzie Borden is compulsively readable and perfect for the Common Core. Lizzie Borden took an axe, gave her mother forty whacks. When she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one. In a compelling, linear narrative, Miller takes readers along as she investigates a brutal crime: the August 4, 1892, murders of wealthy and prominent Andrew and Abby Borden. The accused? Mild-mannered and highly respected Lizzie Borden, daughter of Andrew and stepdaughter of Abby. Most of what is known about Lizzie's arrest and subsequent trial (and acquittal) comes from sensationalized newspaper reports; as Miller sorts fact from fiction, and as a legal battle gets under way, a gripping portrait of a woman and a town emerges. With inserts featuring period photos and newspaper clippings--and, yes, images from the murder scene--readers will devour this nonfiction book that reads like fiction. "Sure to be a hit with true crime fans everywhere."

Thanks for the New Books! ~ November New Books Part 8

Percy Jackson's Greek Gods by Rick Riordan

A publisher in New York asked me to write down what I know about the Greek gods, and I was like, Can we do this anonymously? Because I don't need the Olympians mad at me again. But if it helps you to know your Greek gods, and survive an encounter with them if they ever show up in your face, then I guess writing all this down will be my good deed for the week. So begins Percy Jackson's Greek Gods, in which the son of Poseidon adds his own magic--and sarcastic asides--to the classics. He explains how theworld was created, then gives readers his personal take on a who's who of ancients, from Apollo to Zeus. Percy does not hold back. 

The Perilous Sea by Sherry Thomas

After spending the summer away from each other, Titus and Iolanthe (still disguised as Archer Fairfax) are eager to return to Eton College to resume their training to fight the Bane. Although no longer bound to Titus by blood oath, Iolanthe is more committed than ever to fulfilling her destiny--especially with the agents of Atlantis quickly closing in. Soon after arriving at school, though, Titus makes a shocking discovery, one that throws into question everything he believed about their mission. Faced with this revelation, Iolanthe struggles to come to terms with her new role, while Titus must choose between following his mother's prophecies--or forging a divergent path to an unknowable future. 

Playing for the Commandant by Suzy Zail

A young Jewish pianist at Auschwitz, desperate to save her family, is chosen to play at the camp commandant's house. How could she know she would fall in love with the wrong boy? "Look after each other . . . and get home safe. And when you do, tell everyone what you saw and what they did to us." These are Hanna's father's parting words to her and her sister when their family is separated at the gates of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Her father's words -- and a black C-sharp piano key hidden away in the folds of her dress -- are all that she has left to remind her of life before. Before, Hanna was going to be a famous concert pianist. She was going to wear her yellow dress to a dance. And she was going to dance with a boy. But then the Nazis came. Now it is up to Hanna to do all she can to keep her mother and sister alive, even if that means playing piano for the commandant and his guests. Staying alive isn't supposed to include falling in love with the commandant's son. But Karl Jager is beautiful, and his aloofness belies a secret. And war makes you do dangerous things.

Press Play by Eric Devine

Does the truth really set you free? Pound by sweaty pound, Greg Dunsmore's plan is working. Greg is steadily losing weight while gaining the material he needs to make the documentary that will get him into film school and away from the constant jeers of "Dun the Tun." But when Greg captures footage of brutal and bloody hazing by his town's championship-winning lacrosse team, he knows he has evidence that could damage as much as it could save. And if the harm is to himself and his future, is revealing the truth worth the cost?

Romeo & Juliet adapted & illustrated by Gareth Hinds

She’s a Capulet. He’s a Montague. But when Romeo and Juliet first meet, they don’t know they’re from rival families — and when they find out, they don’t care. Their love is honest and raw and all consuming.But it’s also dangerous. How much will they have to sacrifice before they can be together?In a masterful adaptation faithful to Shakespeare’s original text, Gareth Hinds transports readers to the sun-washed streets and market squares of Shakespeare’s Verona, vividly bringing the classic play to life on the printed page.

New School Year...New Books for September! (part 3)

45 Pounds (more or less) by K. A. Barson

When Ann decides that she is going to lose 45 pounds in time for her aunt's wedding, she discovers that what she looks like is not all that matters.

 Somebody, Please Tell Me Who I Am by Harry Mazer

Wounded in Iraq while his Army unit is on convoy and treated for many months for traumatic brain injury, the first person Ben remembers from his earlier life is his autistic brother.

 Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant by Tony Cliff

Join troublemaker Delilah Dirk for a headlong plunge into adventure!Lovable ne'er-do-well Delilah Dirk is an Indiana Jones for the 19th century. She has traveled to Japan, Indonesia, France, and even the New World. Using the skills she's picked up on the way, Delilah's adventures continue as she plots to rob a rich and corrupt Sultan in Constantinople. With the aid of her flying boat and her newfound friend, Selim, she evades the Sultan's guards, leaves angry pirates in the dust, and fights her way through the countryside. 

The How-To Handbook by Martin Oliver

Whether you plan on spending your life playing sports, serving clients, running businesses, or flying to the moon, there are certain things that everyone just has to know how to do: unjamming a jar, for instance, fixing a flat tire, and removing a particularly embarrassing stain. They may seem simple in retrospect, but you don’t have to turn all your laundry pink more than once before you learn that it’s best just to get things right the first time. The How-To Handbook packs over 50 essential life skills into one handy reference book.

Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys

Josie, the seventeen-year-old daughter of a French Quarter prostitute, is striving to escape 1950 New Orleans and enroll at prestigious Smith College when she becomes entangled in a murder investigation.

New School Year...New Books for September! (part 2)

Natural Born Angel by Scott Speer

Half-angel Maddy Montgomery is offered the chance to become a Guardian at a time when the Angels' relationship with humans is heading for war.

Indelible by Dawn Metcalf

Some things are permanent. Indelible. And they cannot be changed back. Joy Malone learns this the night she sees a stranger with all-black eyes across a crowded room—right before the mystery boy tries to cut out her eye. Instead, the wound accidentally marks her as property of Indelible Ink, and this dangerous mistake thrusts Joy into an incomprehensible world—a world of monsters at the window, glowing girls on the doorstep and a life that will never be the same.  Now, Joy must pretend to be Ink's chosen one—his helper, his love, his something for the foreseeable future…and failure to be convincing means a painful death for them both.  Swept into a world of monsters, illusion, immortal honor and revenge, Joy discovers that sometimes, there are no mistakes. 

Boy Nobody by Allen Zadoff

Sixteen-year-old Boy Nobody, an assassin controlled by a shadowy government organization, The Program, considers sabotaging his latest mission because his target reminds him of the normal life he craves.

 Fat No More: A Teenager's Victory Over Obesity by Alberto Hidalgo-Robert

The first grandchild born into his family in El Salvador, Alberto was showered with attention. Soon, though, he became known as "El Gordito," the little fat boy. By the age of seven, he weighed 120 pounds and his pediatrician had started him on a diet. By age nine he had tried ten different diets. His life became a vicious cycle of eating to excess, sneaking food and lying to himself and his parents; teased by peers and strangers, he ultimately turned into a recluse, addicted to food and television. From this low point, Hidalgo-Robert chronicles how he was able to take hold of his life, reinvent himself and become a model for other teenagers who are battling weight issues. This book offers a roadmap for living a healthy life and regaining self-respect and social acceptance. Each chapter contains "battling" tools, examples of good and bad behavior and typical self-deceptions in the war to conquer oneself and live a healthier life.

 If I Ever Get Out of Here by Eric Gansworth

Seventh-grader Lewis "Shoe" Blake from the Tuscarora Reservation has a new friend, George Haddonfield from the local Air Force base, but in 1975 upstate New York there is a lot of tension and hatred between Native Americans and Whites--and Lewis is not sure that he can rely on friendship.

New November Books~ Part 3

Skinny by Donna Cooner

Check the Catalog

After undergoing gastric-bypass surgery, a self-loathing, obese teenaged girl loses weight and makes the brave decision to start participating in high school life, including pursuing her dream of becoming a singer and finding love.

Black Butler, vol 1 by Yana Toboso

Check the Catalog

Just a stone's throw from London lies the manor house of the illustrious Phantomhive earldom and its master, one Ciel Phantomhive. Earl Phantomhive is a giant in the world of commerce, Queen Victoria's faithful servant ... and a slip of a twelve-year-old boy. Fortunately, his loyal butler, Sebastian, is ever at his side, ready to carry out the young master's wishes. And whether Sebastian is called to save a dinner party gone awry or probe the dark secrets of London's underbelly, there apparently is nothing Sebastian cannot do. In fact, one might even say Sebastian is too good to be true .. or at least, too good to be human ...

Breathe by Sarah Crossan

Check the Catalog

In a barren land, a shimmering glass dome houses the survivors of the Switch, the period when oxygen levels plunged and the green world withered. A state lottery meant a lucky few won safety, while the rest suffocated in the thin air. And now Alina, Quinn, and Bea--an unlikely trio, each with their own agendas, their own longings and fears--walk straight into the heart of danger. With two days' worth of oxygen in their tanks, they leave the dome. What will happen on the third day?

 Marshmallow Madness: Dozens of Puffalicious Recipes by Shauna Sever

Check the Catalog

If you've never tasted a fresh, homemade marshmallow, are you in for a treat! Marshmallow Madness! shows how to whip up dozens of fluffy, puffy flavors--from Strawberry and Vanilla to Buttered Rum, Root Beer Float, Maple Bacon, and more. Author Shauna Sever also includes easy recipes for homemade graham crackers, drinks for mallow dunking, and a host of irresistible desserts, including Lemon Dream Whoopie Pies, Blonde Rocky Road, and S'mores Cupcakes.

Ashen Winter by Mike Mullin

Check the Catalog

More than six months after the eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano, Alex and Darla retrace their steps to Iowa hoping to find Alex's parents and bring them to the tenuous safety of Illinois, but the journey is ever more perilous as the remaining communities fight to the death for food and power.