Stand-Alone Fiction

BECOMING CHLOE
Catherine Ryan Hyde
Knopf
ISBN-10: 0375832580
ISBN-13: 9780375832581
Ages 14-up
240 pages

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Jordy has been living on his own in New York City, and it's been working out just fine. That is, until he meets an 18-year-old girl named Chloe. Despite her gorgeous looks and apparent innocence, Chloe has seen things that no one should ever see in their entire life --- the kind of things that break a person. The one thing she knows for sure is that the world is an ugly place; now her life may depend on Jordy proving her wrong. So they hit the road to discover the truth --- and there's no going back from what they find out.

THE DREAMWALKER'S CHILD
Steve Voake
Bloomsbury USA Children's Books
ISBN-10: 1582346615
ISBN-13: 9781582346618
Ages 12-18
320 pages

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Fifteen-year-old Sam Palmer's life is dull --- until a bizarre bicycle accident leaves him in a coma. Sam awakens in Aurobon, a world eerily similar to his own, only to discover that his "accident" was part of an elaborate abduction by a ruler with a deadly agenda. Now Sam must team up with a fearless girl pilot to outwit the enemy. Otherwise, dark forces will invade his own world on insects the size of fighter jets. But that's if the terrifying marsh dogs don't kill him first.

FRESHMAN
Michael Gerber
Hyperion Books for Children
ISBN: 0786838507
Ages 14-up
336 pages

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Hart Fox's acceptance at Stutts, a prestigious New England Ivy League college, is hijacked by Burlington Darlington III, a wealthy alum running for governor who's so desperate to get his son, Trip, into Stutts that he funds a new chemistry building. Darlington also offers to get Hart a spot in the freshman class and pay his way, if Hart will "manage" Trip and take all his classes for him. Despite this deal with the devil, a jubilant Hart walks onto the Stutts campus in September. But what awaits him is a strange parallel universe of secret societies, class hierarchies, and inexplicable traditions.

HEAT
Mike Lupica
Philomel Books
ISBN: 0399243011
Ages 10-up
324 pages

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Michael Arroyo can throw some serious heat, and he dreams of pitching in the Little League World Series. But unfortunately he must deal with the reality of his day-to-day life. Newly orphaned after his father led the family's escape from Cuba, Michael can only rely on his older brother Carlos, who's 17. If Social Services hears of the boys' situation, they either will be separated in the foster care system or sent back to Cuba. Michael and Carlos do their best to carry on alone --- until someone questions how a 12-year-old boy could possibly throw with as much power as Michael Arroyo throws. Michael has no way to prove his age, no birth certificate, and no parent to fight for his cause.

IT'S KIND OF A FUNNY STORY
Ned Vizzini
Miramax/Hyperion Books for Children
ISBN: 0786851961
Ages 13-up
448 pages

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Smart, ambitious Craig Gilner seeks entry into Manhattan's most prestigious school, Executive Pre-Professional High School. He works night and day to ace the entrance exam and gets in. Once Craig starts his new school, though, he realizes he's just one of many brilliant kids. So-so grades and feelings of inferiority cause Craig to become depressed, and one night he seriously considers suicide. But instead, he calls a hotline and checks himself into a psychiatric hospital. Can this troubled young man find the strength to live?

JUST LISTEN
Sarah Dessen
Viking Children's Books
ISBN: 0670061050
Ages 12-16
384 pages

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Last year, Annabel was "the girl who has everything" --- at least that's the part she played in the television commercial for a department store. This year, she's the girl who has nothing: no best friend because mean (but exciting) Sophie dropped her, no peace at home since her older sister became anorexic, and no one to sit with at lunch. Until she meets Owen Armstrong. Tall, dark and music-obsessed, Owen is a reformed bad boy with a commitment to truth-telling. With Owen's help, maybe Annabel can face what happened the night she and Sophie stopped being friends.

KING DORK
Frank Portman
Delacorte Press
ISBN-10: 0385732910
ISBN-13: 9780385732918
Ages 14-up
352 pages

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When high schooler Tom Henderson (a.k.a. King Dork) discovers his late father's copy of THE CATCHER IN THE RYE, he finds himself in the middle of several interlocking conspiracies and at least half a dozen mysteries involving dead people, naked people, fake people, ESP, blood, a secret code, guitars, monks, witchcraft, the Bible, girls, the Crusades, a devil head, and rock-and-roll. And it all looks like it's just the tip of a very odd iceberg of clues that may unravel the puzzle of his father's death and --- oddly --- reveal the secret to attracting semi-hot girls.

THE LOVE CURSE OF THE RUMBAUGHS
Jack Gantos
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN-10: 0374336903
ISBN-13: 9780374336905
Ages 14-up
192 pages

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On an unseasonably warm Easter Sunday, a young girl named Ivy discovers a chilling secret in the basement of the Rumbaugh pharmacy. The discovery reveals a disturbing side to the eccentric lives of family friends Abner and Adolph Rumbaugh, known throughout their small western Pennsylvania town simply as the Twins. It seems that they have been compelled by a powerful mutual love for their deceased mother to do something extraordinary, something that in its own twisted way bridges the gap between the living and the dead. Immediately, Ivy's discovery provokes the revelation of a Rumbaugh family curse that holds a strange power over herself and her own mother.

MISSING IN TOKYO
Graham Marks
Bloomsbury USA Children's Books
ISBN-10: 158234907X
ISBN-13: 9781582349077
Ages 12-up
256 pages

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When his older sister Charlie vanishes while traveling through Asia, 17-year-old Adam decides he can do more to find her than the police and his distraught parents. Without telling his family, he boards a plane for Tokyo. He suspects Charlie may have been involved in the twilight world of bar "hostessing" --- or worse. With help from new friends, especially the intriguing and beautiful Aiko, Adam's search ultimately leads him to Tokyo's underbelly of gangsters and drug dealers. Will he learn the truth about his sister's disappearance before it's too late?

NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH (AND A FEW WHITE LIES)
Justina Chen Headley
Little, Brown and Company
ISBN: 0316011282
Ages 12-up
256 pages

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Patty Ho is a Hapa, which means she's half Asian and half white. Life at her house is tough enough between her ultra-strict Taiwanese mother and her Harvard-bound big brother. But things get worse when a Chinese fortuneteller prophesies that Patty will endure a terrible accident and fall in love with a white guy. Her mom freaks out and ships her off to math camp at Stanford. Just as Patty surrenders to this summer of woe, life starts glimmering with all kinds of probabilities.

TIME'S MEMORY
Julius Lester
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN-10: 0374371784
ISBN-13: 9780374371784
Ages 14-up
240 pages

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Amma --- the creator god, the master of life and death --- is worried. His people have always known how to take care of the spirits of the dead (the nyam) so that they don't become destructive forces among the living. But amid the chaos of the African slave trade and the brutality of American slavery, too many of his people are dying and their souls are being ignored in this new land. Amma sends a young man, Ekundayo, to a plantation in Virginia where he becomes a slave on the eve of the Civil War. Amma hopes that Ekundayo will be able to find a way to bring peace to the nyama before it's too late.

Series Books

The Princess Diaries

PARTY PRINCESS: The Princess Diaries, Volume VII
Meg Cabot
HarperCollins
ISBN-10: 0060724536
ISBN-13: 9780060724535
Ages 12-up
304 pages

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This spring, Mia is determined to have a good time, despite the fact that the student government over which she presides is suddenly broke. But never fear! Grandmère has an elaborate scheme to simultaneously raise money, catapult Mia to theatrical fame, and link her romantically with an eligible teen bachelor who isn't her boyfriend. It's no wonder that Michael, the love of her life, seems to think she's a psycho, or worse: not much fun. Is it possible that Mia, soon-to-be star of the stage, president of the student body, and future ruler of Genovia doesn't know how to party?

The A-List

SOME LIKE IT HOT: The A-List, #6
Zoey Dean
Little, Brown and Company
ISBN: 0316010936
Ages 15-up
320 pages

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Ben is back for the summer --- just in time to be Anna's prom date. But his family has a houseguest who's bound to spoil their perfect plans. Adam learns a scandalous secret that threatens to tear Cammie's world to pieces. Sam agrees to take Parker to the prom and they end up doing a lot more than dancing. What happens when Sam's romance-obsessed boyfriend Eduardo flies in from Paris to surprise Sam? This prom is sure to be glamorous, scandalous, and occasionally downright shocking! It's just the kind of night the A-List crew will never forget.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

CARNIVAL OF SOULS
Nancy Holder
Simon Spotlight Entertainment
ISBN-10: 1416911820
ISBN-13: 9781416911821
Ages 16-up
320 pages

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There's something troubling about Professor Caligari's Traveling Carnival. Perhaps it's that no one can recall the arrival of its hard-to-miss caravan of old-style wagons, countless performers, and horse-drawn carts. Maybe it's the creepy calliope music that attracts visitors. After a visit to the carnival's Hall of Mirrors, a once-shy pair of sophomore twins parades the halls of Sunnydale High like diva supermodels on a runway. Buffy --- joined by Angel, Giles, and the rest of the Scoobies --- decides to investigate the suspicious carnival firsthand. But soon it's apparent that the price of admission is higher than she imagined.

Charmed

AS PUCK WOULD HAVE IT
Paul Ruditis
Simon Spotlight Entertainment
ISBN-10: 1416914684
ISBN-13: 9781416914686
Ages 16-up
240 pages

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The mythological and literary troublemaker Puck shows up and wreaks havoc on the Charmed Ones. As curious as he is mischievous, Puck devises a plan that will let him see the Power of Three in action: The circus has come to town, and he knows of an Innocent in need of protection. At the circus the three sisters must find the one in peril while a devilish, shape-shifting Puck leaves them second-guessing their every move. With an unknown Innocent in danger and time running out, will the Charmed Ones be able to outsmart Puck and defeat evil before it's too late?