New books for October ~ Part 3

Dragonball 3-in-1 vol 19, 20, 21 by Akira Toriyama

Manga (Japanese graphic novel) 

Back cover: Goku vs. Vegeta!  Goku and Vegeta face off at last, and both are determined to emerge victorious in this epic fight.  And if battling the ruthless Vegeta weren't enough, Son Goku and friends must obtain the wish-granting Dragon Balls in order to resurrect their fallen allies!  Their search will take them all the way to the plant Namek, where evil Freeza and his minions are slaughtering the Namekians to fulfill Freeza's wish for immortality.

Emmy & Oliver by Robin Benway

Contemporary Fiction 

Sheltered seventeen-year-old Emmy's childhood best friend Oliver reappears after disappearing with his father ten years ago.

Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

Contemporary Fiction 

The story of a teenage girl who's literally allergic to the outside world. When a new family moves in next door, she begins a complicated romance that challenges everything she's ever known. The narrative unfolds via vignettes, diary entries, texts, charts, lists, illustrations, and more.

The Fate of Ten by Pittacus Lore

Science Fiction 

In order to thwart the Mogadorian invasion, a group of the Garde head to a pyramid in Mexico in order to awaken a power that can save the world.

Friends for Life by Andrew Norriss

Paranormal 

Francis Meredith is a boy who is interested in fashion and costuming, which has made him a target at school, but when he meets Jessica and Andi his life begins to change--Andi is an athletic girl with a reputation for fighting and family in the fashion business, and Jessica is a ghost who has no idea how she died.

September is...

... Childhood Cancer Awareness Month

A memoir told through the journals, letters, and stories of young cancer patient Esther Earl.

Regine Stokke began to blog about her day-to-day life shortly after she was diagnosed with leukemia in 2008. Regine's stated purpose with her posts was to give people a sense of "what it's like to live with" such a serious illness, and her blog became an almost instant classic. It was first adapted into book form in 2010, and became a best seller in Norway. Regine was also a very gifted photographer, and had her photos exhibited at both the 2009 and the 2010 Nordic Light photography festivals in Kristiansund

Life threatening cancer brings Francis and Amber together. But Francis's recovery is taking a different path from Amber's. He's actually getting better. And although he knew who he was before cancer, before Amber, now he has no idea how to live--or how to let go.

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.

Everything changes for Isabelle, not quite fifteen, when she is diagnosed with lymphoma--but eventually she survives and even thrives.

Alice is ready to go out in a blaze of glory, but then she discovers she's in remission from cancer and she must deal with all of the mistakes she's made and the people she's hurt

Although Jeff and Tad, encouraged by a new friend, Lindsey, make a deal to help one another overcome aftereffects of their cancer treatments in preparation for eighth-grade graduation, Jeff still craves advice from his older brother Stephen, who is studying drums in Africa.

New School Year, New Books! September New Books (part 6)

Mechanica by Betsy Cornwell

Fantasy 

A retelling of Cinderella about an indomitable inventor-mechanic who finds her prince but realizes she doesn't want a fairy tale happy ending after all.

Ms. Marvel vol 3: Crushed by Willow Wilson

Graphic Novel 

Love is in the air in Jersey City as Valentine’s Day arrives! Kamala Khan may not be allowed to go to the school dance, but Ms. Marvel is! Well sort of — by crashing it in an attempt to capture Asgard’s most annoying trickster! Yup, it’s a special Valentine’s Day story featuring Marvel’s favorite charlatan, Loki! 

My Heart and Other Black Holes by Jasmine Wanga

Contemporary Fiction 

Seventeen-year-old Aysel's hobby--planning her own death--take a new path when she meets a boy who has similar plan of his own.

Never Always Sometimes by Adi Alsaid

Contemporary Fiction 

Never date your best friend 

Always be original 

Sometimes rules are meant to be broken...

 Best friends Dave and Julia were determined to never be cliché high school kids-the ones who sit at the same lunch table every day, dissecting the drama from homeroom and plotting their campaigns for prom king and queen. They even wrote their own Never List of everything they vowed they'd never, ever do in high school. Some of the rules have been easy to follow, like #5, never die your hair a color of the rainbow , or #7, never hook up with a teacher . But Dave has a secret: he's broken rule #8, never pine silently after someone for the entirety of high school . It's either that or break rule #10, never date your best friend . Dave has loved Julia for as long as he can remember. Julia is beautiful, wild and impetuous. So when she suggests they do every Never on the list, Dave is happy to play along. He even dyes his hair an unfortunate shade of green. It starts as a joke, but then a funny thing happens: Dave and Julia discover that by skipping the clichés, they've actually been missing out on high school. And maybe even on love.

The New Order by Chris Weitz

Action/Adventure 

Old friends are separated when Jefferson tries to bring a cure for the mysterious Sickness back to the Washington Square tribe in New York City while Donna faces an unimaginable new world in England, but an even greater disaster than the Sickness looms.

New School Year, New Books! September New Books (part 4)

Devoted by Jennifer Mathieu

Contemporary Fiction 

Rachel Walker is devoted to God and her large family, but as her curiosity about the world her parents turned from grows and she finds that neither Calvary Christian Church nor her homeschool education has the answer she craves, she considers leaving her sheltered life, as an older sister did.

Fig by Sarah Elizabeth Schantz

Contemporary Fiction 

In 1994, Fig looks back on her life and relates her experiences, from age six to nineteen, as she desperately tries to save her mother from schizophrenia while her own mental health and relationships deteriorate.

The Heart of Betrayal by Mary Pearson

Fantasy 

Held captive in the barbarian kingdom of Venda, Princess Lia and Rafe have little chance of escape--and even less of being together--as the foundations of Lia's deeply-held beliefs crumble beneath her while she wrestles with her upbringing, her gift, and her very sense of self to make powerful choices that affect her country, her people, and her own destiny.

Hold Me Like a Breath by Tiffany Schmidt

Action/Adventure 

Penny Landlow, seventeen, the overprotected daughter of a powerful crime family, has rarely left the family estate due to a blood disorder but when tragedy strikes and she is left alone in New York City, she must prove she is not as fragile as everyone believes.

Icebreaker by Lian Tanner

Science Fiction 

 Petrel is an outcast on the ancient ship, an icebreaker, that has been following the same course for 300 years. In that time, the ship's crew has forgotten its original purpose and broken into three warring tribes. Everyone has a tribe except Petrol. Nicknamed the Nothing Girl, Petrel has been ostracized ever since her parents were thrown overboard as punishment for a terrible crime. But Petrel is a survivor. She lives in the ship's darkest corners, and trusts no one except two large gray rats - that is, until a mysterious boy is discovered barely alive on an iceberg, and brought onto the ship. He claims to have forgotten even his name. The tribes don't trust strangers, so Petrel hides the boy, hoping he will be her friend. What she doesn't know is that the ship guards a secret - a secret the boy has been sent to destroy.

The Rest of Your Summer Reading ~ August New Books (part 5)

Made You Up by Francesca Zappia

Contemporary Fiction 

Armed with her camera and a Magic 8-Ball and her only ally (her little sister), Alex wages a war against her schizophrenia, determined to stay sane long enough to get into college.

Magonia by Maria Dahvana Headley

Magonia #1

Paranormal 

Aza Ray Boyle's life has been defined by a unique lung disease and her evolving friendship with Jason, but just before her sixteenth birthday, she is swept up into the sky-bound world of Magonia and discovers her true identity.

Manga for the Beginner: Everything You Need to Start Drawing Right Away by Christopher Hart

Nonfiction 

With Manga for the Beginner, anyone who can hold a pencil can start drawing great manga characters right away. Using his signature step-by-step style, Hart shows how to draw the basic manga head and body, eyes, fashion, and more. Then he goes way beyond most beginner titles, exploring dynamic action poses, special effects, light and shading, perspective, popular manga types such as animals, anthros, and shoujo and shounen characters. By the end of this big book, the new artist is ready to draw dramatic story sequences full of movement and life.

Mortal Gods by Kendare Blake

The Goddess War #2

Paranormal 

The escalating war between the gods takes Athena and Cassandra across the globe, searching for lost gods, old enemies, and the great warrior, Achilles, and although their alliance is fragile, they must find a way to work together or all is lost.

Nearly Found by Elle Cosimano

Nearly Gone #2

Mystery 

High school senior and science whiz Nearly Boswell, called Leigh, is thrilled when she gets an internship in a forensic science lab, since it is a step toward college and a way out of the trailer park--but soon she finds herself the target of a serial killer, one who seems to know a lot about the residents of Sunny View Trailer Park as well as her absent father's secrets.

July New Books (Part 8)

Our Brothers at the Bottom of the Bottom of the Sea by Jonathan David Kranz

Contemporary Fiction 

Don't fall, Ethan scrawls in red permanent marker across the rides and signs of Sea Town. Since his brother Jason's death, Ethan can't let go of his big brother.

Don't fall, Rachel reads as she prepares to dump back into the ocean the shells her brother Curtis collected. Curtis had Down syndrome, but that isn't why he plummeted to his death from the Rock-It Roll-It Coaster.Together, Ethan and Rachel are about to discover just how far a man will go to protect his kingdom.

Owning It: Stories About Teens with Disabilities by Donald Gallo

Contemporary Fiction

Presents ten stories of teenagers facing all of the usual challenges of school, parents, boyfriends and girlfriends, plus the additional complications that come with having a physical or psychological disability.

Painless by S. A. Harazin

Contemporary Fiction 

After eighteen years of dealing with CIPA, which allows him to feel no pain or temperature, David Hart sets out with new friend Luna to complete his "bucket list," starting with finding the parents who abandoned him.

The Prophecy by Lily Blake

Historical Fiction 

An original novel based on the hit television series, Reign.

Since Mary, Queen of Scotland was a child, the English have wanted her country and her crown. She is sent to France to wed its next king--to save herself and her people. It's a bond that should protect her, but there are forces that conspire...forces of darkness, forces of the heart. Mary's rule, and her life, has never been safe.

Find out what happens to Mary, Francis, Bash, and the rest of the French court after the season one finale.

Long may she reign.

The Secrets We Keep by Trisha Leaver

Contemporary Fiction 

When her identical twin sister, Maddy, is killed in a car accident, seventeen-year-old Ella assumes Maddy's life, only to discover that it was filled with dark secrets.

July New Books (Part 3)

Deadly Design by Debra Dockter

Action/Adventure 

Kyle McAdams races to find out what's killing kids conceived at the Genesis Innovations Laboratory, before he becomes yet another perfect, blue-eyed corpse.

The Devil You Know by Trish Doller

Action/Adventure 

Exhausted and rebellious after three years of working for her father and mothering her brother, eighteen-year-old Arcadia "Cadie" Wells joins two cousins who are camping their way through Florida, soon learning that one is a murderer.

Earth & Sky by Megan Crewe

Science Fiction 

Seventeen-year-old Skylar has been haunted for as long as she can remember by fleeting yet powerful sensations that something is horribly wrong. But despite the visions of disaster that torment her, nothing ever happens, and Sky's beginning to think she's crazy. Then she meets a mysterious, otherworldly boy named Win and discovers the shocking truth her premonitions have tapped into: that our world no longer belongs to us. For thousands of years, life on Earth has been at the mercy of alien scientists who care nothing for humans and are using us as the unwitting subjects of their time-manipulating experiments. Win belongs to a rebel faction seeking to put a stop to it, and he needs Skylar's help to save the world and keep the very fabric of reality together.

The Eternal City by Paula Morris

Paranormal 

Laura Martin is on a class trip to Rome when Mercury, a dark-eyed boy with wings on his heels, appears to give her a message, and Laura soon realizes that she is at the center of a brewing battle between the gods and goddesses--and only she and her friends can unravel the mystery behind what is happening.

Extraordinary Means by Robyn Schneider

Contemporary Fiction 

Up until his diagnosis, Lane lived a fairly predictable life. But when he finds himself at a tuberculosis sanatorium called Latham House, he discovers an insular world with paradoxical rules, med sensors, and an eccentric yet utterly compelling confidante named Sadie--and life as Lane knows it will never be the same. 

Fairy Tail vol 19 by Hiro Mashima

Graphic Novel (Manga) 

With Erza facing off against Midnight of the Oracion Seis, it seems that Fairy Tail and the allied guilds will finally be able to defeat the final Oracion Seis member and stop Nirvana! But he defeat of the sixth villain only means the coming of the ultra powerful master of the Oracion Seis Guild, Zero, who desires only destruction!

New Books for June...Finally! (Part 9)

P.S. I Still Love You by Jenny Han

Contemporary Fiction 

Lara Jean didn't expect to really fall for Peter. She and Peter were just pretending. Except suddenly they weren't. Now Lara Jean is more confused than ever. When another boy from her past returns to her life, Lara Jean's feelings for him return too. Can a girl be in love with two boys at once?

Relationship Skills 101 for Teens: Your Guide to Dealing with Daily Drama, Stress, and Difficult Emotions Using DBT by Sheri Van Dijk

Nonfiction 

In Relationship Skills 101 for Teens, Sheri Van Dijk offers tools based in dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) to help you regulate your emotions so you can build better relationships with your parents, friends, and peers.

The Rise and Fall of the Gallivanters by M. J. Beaufrand

Mystery 

In 1983, a band led by a David Bowie lookalike prepares to compete in a battle of the bands at a possibly evil brewery, and must also cope with the fact that bass player Evan is getting sicker and sicker, much like his best friend Noah's abusive father did before his death several years earlier.

Rocket Science for the Rest of Us: Cutting Edge Concepts Made Simple by Ben Gilliland

Nonfiction 

Presents a common-sense guide to astronomy and astrophysics that provides comprehensive explanations of such topics as black holes, antimatter, and space exploration.

Roadmap: The Get-It-Together Guide for Figuring Out What to Do with Your Life by Roadtrip Nation

Nonfiction 

This welcome antidote to the conventional career guide answers the old question—"So, what are you going to do with your life?"—in a groundbreaking way. From the team behind the campus and online resource and the inspirational TV series in its eleventh season, ROADMAP helps emerging careerists think deeply about how they can enter the workforce and thrive, using Roadtrip Nation's interest-based approach. Full-color charts and graphs offer a unique visually engaging reading experience and prompts for reflection are interspersed, making the reading process interactive and the discoveries personally impactful. Interviews and advice from over 130 leaders including Ahmir Questlove, Jad Abumrad and Soledad O'Brien show how they found their path and provide inspiration for every person to find your own.

New year, new books ~ Happy 2015! (part 7)

Signed Skye Harper by Carol Lynch Williams

In 1972, while her idol, Mark Spitz, is in Germany competing in the Olympics, fifteen-year-old Winston, her Nanny, and her crush, Steve, head to Las Vegas in Steve's parents' motorhome to reconnect with Winston's mother, who left ten years before to become a star.

Stranger by Rachel Manija Brown & Sherwood Smith

Many generations ago, a mysterious cataclysm struck the world. Governments collapsed and people scattered to rebuild where they could. A mutation called the Change arose, granting some people unique powers. Though the area once known as Los Angeles retains its cultural diversity, its technological marvels have faded into legend. "Las Anclas" now resembles a Wild West frontier town--where the Sheriff possesses superhuman strength, the doctor can warp time to heal his patients, and the distant ruins of an ancient city bristle with deadly crystalline trees that take their jewellike colors from the clothes of the people they killed. Teenage prospector Ross Juarez's best find ever--an ancient book he doesn't know how to read--nearly costs him his life when a bounty hunter is sent to kill him and steal the book. Ross barely makes it to Las Anclas, bringing with him a precious artifact, a power no one has ever had before, and a whole lot of trouble.

Storm Siren by Mary Weber

Seventeen-year-old slave girl, Nym, should not exist. In a world where Elementals are only born male, and always killed at birth, she is an anomaly at best. At worst, people around her die. When a court emissary identifies her weather-manipulating ability as a weapon, Nym is purchased and put to work honing her skills. With time running out for the kingdom of Faelen, Nym might be all that stands between it and the technologically-advanced horror racing down upon them--not to mention the rumored reemergence of the monstrous shapeshifter, Draewulf. But some elements even she can't control. Nym must decide whom to trust as she's unleashed into a world of assassins and political betrayal surrounding a young king fighting for his throne, a tired nation that has forgotten its calling, and her handsome tutor whose dark secrets could destroy both her people and her heart.

Swagger by Carl Deuker

High school senior point guard Jonas Dolan is on the fast track to a basketball career until an unthinkable choice puts his future on the line.

The Terminals by Royce Scott Buckingham

Nineteen-year-old Cam Cody takes the opportunity to join a covert unit of young spies who, like him, are terminally ill but have extraordinary abilities due to an experimental super-steroid, but he soon learns the program is not what it seems--and they may not even be ill.

New year, new books ~ Happy 2015! (part 6)

The Only Thing to Fear by Caroline Tung Richmond

It has been nearly seventy years since Hitler's armies won the war, and sixteen-year-old Zara St. James lives in the Shenandoah hills, part of the Eastern American Territories, under the rule of the Nazis--but a resistance movement is growing, and Zara, who dreams of freedom, may be the key to its success.

Pandemic by Yvonne Ventresca

Lil is left home alone when a deadly pandemic hits her small town in New Jersey. Will Lil survive the flu and brave her darkest fears?

Princess of Thorns by Stacey Jay

After ten years of exile among fairies who teach her to use her magically-enhanced strength and courage, Sleeping Beauty's daughter Aurora enlists the help of Niklaas, eleventh son of King Eldorio, in the fight to reclaim her throne.

The Rule of Thoughts by James Dashner

Michael and his friends, Sarah and Bryson, are still being chased by a cyber-terrorist. And now the government is after them, too.

Salt & Storm by Kendall Kulper

Sixteen-year-old Avery Roe wants to take her rightful place as the sea witch of Prince Island. When she foresees her own murder, a harpoon boy named Tane promises to help her change her fate and keep her island safe and prosperous, but salvation will require an unexpected sacrifice.