47
Walter Mosley
Little, Brown and Company
ISBN: 0316110353
Ages 12-up
240 pages

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In his first book for young adults, Walter Mosley writes about 47, a young slave boy who lives under the watchful eye of a brutal slave master. His life seems doomed until he meets a mysterious runaway slave named Tall John. 47 then finds himself swept up in a struggle for his own liberation.

BLACK AND WHITE
Paul Volponi
Viking Books
ISBN: 0670060062
Ages 12-up
160 pages

Best friends Marcus and Eddie are stars on the basketball court, where they're known as Black and White. Race never has been an issue: Marcus is black and Eddie is white, and it doesn't matter --- until the gun they're using for stickups goes off. Now Marcus is going to jail and Eddie is off to college, even though Eddie is the one who fired the weapon.

A GATHERING OF SHADES
David Stahler Jr.
HarperTempest
ISBN: 0060522941
Teen Fiction
304 pages

Sixteen-year-old Aidan's grandmother feeds ghosts. Her nightly ritual keeps the local lost souls lingering, caught between life and death. Grief-stricken in the wake of his own father's death, Aidan becomes drawn into the strange and wondrous world of the dead, coming dangerously close to losing his grip on life and being separated from all the living people who love him.

HELP WANTED: Stories
Gary Soto
Harcourt Children's Books
ISBN: 0152052011
Ages 12-up
224 pages

Carolina writes to Miss Manners for help not just with etiquette but with bigger problems in her life; Ronnie and Joey feel so alienated from their world that they spend their days as "Teenage Chimps"; Javier knows the stories his friend Veronica tells him are lies, but he can't find a way to prove it; and Adan watches in shame and horror as his dad becomes a victim of the "Raiders Nation." In Gary Soto's new collection of short stories, these kids, and many others, are caught up in the difficulties of figuring out what it means to be alive.

IF WE KISS
Rachel Vail
HarperCollins
ISBN: 006056914X
Ages 12-up
272 pages

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IF WE KISS is the story of Charlotte (Charlie to her friends), who finds herself falling for a boy who is off-limits. Her best friend is in love with him, and her mother and his father are dating. Still, Charlie can't help but wonder, what would happen if we kiss?

JUST LIKE THAT
Marsha Qualey
Dial Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 0803728409
Ages 12-up
240 pages

Things change so suddenly. One day Hanna has a long-term boyfriend; the next, she realizes she doesn't have strong feelings for him and breaks up. One day Hanna trusts her two best friends completely; the next, all of that trust is toppled. One day she feels rooted in a family and a community; the next, she begins to question everything, including herself. And when Hanna meets a guy named Will, things are suddenly more complicated than ever. Just like that.

THE LIGHT OF THE ORACLE
Victoria Hanley
David Fickling Books
ISBN: 0385750862
Ages 12-up
320 pages

Bryn is the daughter of a humble stone-cutter. So it's a major surprise to her when the Master Priest seeks her out to become a student at the famous Temple of the Oracle, a training school for future priests and priestesses. But her innately gifted nature proves a threat to the evil embedded within the Temple, and Bryn encounters unimaginable danger. Will she be able to struggle with the unknown and save the world from untold misery? Or will the powers of darkness succeed?

THE RIDDLES OF EPSILON
Christine Morton-Shaw
Katherine Tegen Books/HarperCollins
ISBN: 0060728191
Ages 12-up
384 pages

When Jess and her family move to Lume, a remote island off the coast of England, strange things start to happen. Jess discovers an abandoned cottage on their property and an eerie presence within --- a spirit named Epsilon who leads her to three locked boxes. Inside, she finds antique papers that set her on a path to unravel a series of riddles and codes that will somehow help her uncover the secrets of Lume and save her mother from a dark and ancient threat.

RUNNER
Carl Deuker
Houghton Mifflin
ISBN: 0618542981
Ages 12-up
224 pages

The weather-beaten sailboat Chance Taylor and his father call home is thirty years old and hasn't sailed in years. On the verge of both homelessness and hunger, Chance worries about things that other young people his age never give a thought. So when a new job comes his way, he jumps at the opportunity. He knows how much he will earn, but what he doesn't know is how much he will pay.

THE SLEDDING HILL
Chris Crutcher
Greenwillow Books
ISBN: 0060502436
Ages 12-up
240 pages

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Fourteen-year-old Billy Bartholomew is dead. His best friend, Eddie Proffit, is alive. These days, Billy and Eddie meet on the sledding hill, where they used to spend countless hours until Billy's tragic accident. The two were inseparable, and still are. Now, Eddie must deal with the sudden death of his father and a reverend who wants to ban one of Eddie's favorite books from his school. Eddie needs Billy's support now more than ever during this very confusing time.

SOPHIE PITT-TURNBULL DISCOVERS AMERICA
Dyan Sheldon
Candlewick Press
ISBN: 0763627402
Ages 12-up
192 pages

Sixteen-year-old Sophie Pitt-Turnbull is shocked and devastated to learn from her mother that they won't be taking their traditional holiday in France this summer. How can she possibly stay in London when all her friends are going away? So when Jacqueline Salamance, Mummy's old art-school chum in New York, suggests they trade daughters for the summer, Sophie --- with visions of a loft in SoHo, weekends in the Hamptons, and shopping on Fifth Avenue --- feels her prayers have been answered. Unfortunately, there are a few small details that Mummy has neglected to tell her.

Series Books

Gossip Girl

NOBODY DOES IT BETTER: A Gossip Girl Novel
Cecily von Ziegesar
Little, Brown and Company
ISBN: 0316735124
Ages 15-up
224 pages

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The uptown girls are headed downtown as Serena and Jenny take on their new fabulous roles as rock-star model girlfriends of New York's hottest band, The Raves. Meanwhile, Dan is too busy drinking to notice a mysterious French beauty who is fond of Jim Morrison-wannabe lead singers. And Blair takes residence at the Plaza to think about her future. Will she become a gun-toting international spy, or Manhattan's snobbiest society hostess? It sounds like everyone needs a day off at the spa. Senior Spa Day promises to accomplish that, and a whole lot more!

Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Stake Your Destiny

KEEP ME IN MIND
Nancy Holder
Simon Spotlight Entertainment
ISBN: 0689869568
Ages 16-up
256 pages

Ethan Rayne returns to Sunnydale and unleashes a long-trapped evil sorcerer from Middle Ages Bavaria. As if that and Ethan's true motivation weren't enough to keep Buffy from her chemistry homework, she soon finds herself encountering a seemingly random parade of old adversaries out to settle the score.

KEEP ME IN MIND is the second book in the Stake Your Destiny series, where the reader controls the action and accepts the full responsibility of being the Slayer. Interactive storylines advance by the choices the reader makes, leading to more than a dozen possible endings.

Everwood

WORLDS APART (Everwood #6)
Laura J. Burns and Melinda Metz
Simon Spotlight Entertainment
ISBN: 0689878540
Ages 12-up
208 pages

Ephram finds out he has been accepted to Julliard the very same day that Amy gets a rejection letter from Princeton. Ephram and Bright accompany Amy to Los Angeles so Amy can interview at UCLA, even though things between Amy and Ephram haven't been great lately. Amy hates the city at first, but after spending some time on campus she changes her mind. By the end of the trip it appears that Ephram and Amy are going to spend the next four years on opposite ends of the country, which leaves Ephram to wonder if his dream school is worth being three thousand miles away from Amy.