Stand-Alone Titles

BEASTLY
Alex Flinn
HarperTeen
ISBN: 9780060874162
Ages 14-up
320 pages

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Kyle Kingsbury may be the most popular guy in school, but he is also the meanest and most self-absorbed. When his monstrous behavior goes a step too far, a witch turns him into a beast. Only true love will break the spell, but that’s a tall order in today’s cynical world. Will Kyle remain a beast forever?
 
Full of surprising twists and turns, Alex Flinn’s urban fairy tale shakes up what you think you know about BEAUTY AND THE BEAST.

BETWIXT
Tara Bray Smith
Little, Brown for Young Readers
ISBN: 9780316060332
Ages 15-up
496 pages

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For three teenagers, dark mystery has always lurked at the corner of the eyes and the edge of sleep. Beautiful Morgan D'Amici wakes in her trailer park home with dirt and blood under her fingernails. Paintings come alive under Ondine Mason's violet-eyed gaze. Haunted runaway Nix Saint-Michael sees halos of light around people about to die. At a secret summer rave, these young people learn of their true, changeling nature and their uncertain, intertwined destinies.

CLICK
Nick Hornby, Roddy Doyle, Gregory Maguire, Linda Sue Park, David Almond, Tim Wynne-Jones, Ruth Ozeki, Deborah Ellis, Margo Lanagan and Eoin Colfer
Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic
ISBN: 9780439411387
Ages 10-18
256 pages

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A video message from a dead person. A larcenous teenager. A man who can stick his left toe behind his head and in his ear. An epileptic girl seeking answers in a fairy tale. A boy who loses everything in World War II, and his brother who loses even more. And a family with a secret so big that it changes everything.
 
Ten of the world's most beloved and bestselling authors each contribute a chapter in the life of the mysterious George "Gee" Keane --- photographer, soldier, adventurer and enigma. Under different pens, a startling portrait emerges of a man, his family and the glorious tangle that is his life. 

THE DECLARATION
Gemma Malley
Bloomsbury USA Children’s Books
ISBN: 9781599901190
Ages 10-14
320 pages

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It’s the year 2140 and Longevity drugs have made old age a thing of the past. But a never-aging society can’t sustain population growth, which means that Anna --- and the children she lives with at Grange Hall --- should never have been born. The facility is full of boys and girls whose parents chose to have kids (called surpluses) despite a law forbidding them from doing so. These children are raised as servants and brought up to believe they must atone for their very existence. Then one day a boy named Peter appears at the Hall, bringing with him news of the world outside, a place where people are starting to say that Longevity is bad and that maybe people shouldn’t live forever. Peter begs Anna to escape with him, but Anna is not sure who to trust.

HUSH: An Irish Princess’ Tale
Donna Jo Napoli
Atheneum/Simon & Schuster
ISBN: 9780689861765
Ages 12-up
320 pages

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Melkorka is a princess, the first daughter of a magnificent kingdom in medieval Ireland --- but all of this is lost the day she is kidnapped and taken aboard a marauding slave ship. Thrown into a world she has never known, alongside people who her former country's laws regarded as less than human, Melkorka is forced to learn quickly how to survive. Taking a vow of silence, however, she finds herself an object of fascination to her captors and masters --- and soon realizes that any power, no matter how little, can make a difference.

LOOKING FOR JJ
Anne Cassidy
Harcourt Children’s Books
ISBN: 9780152061906
Ages 14-up
336 pages

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Three children walked away from the cottages on the edge of town toward Berwick Waters. Later that day, only two of them came back. Alice Tully knows exactly what happened that spring day six years ago, though it's still hard for her to believe it. She'll never be able to forget, even though she's trying to lead a normal life --- she has a job, friends and a boyfriend whom she adores. But Alice's past is dangerous,  violent and sad…and it's about to rip her new life apart.

MY SWORDHAND IS SINGING
Marcus Sedgwick
Wendy Lamb Books/Random House
ISBN: 9780375846892
Ages 12-up
224 pages

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When Tomas and his son, Peter, settle in Chust as woodcutters, Tomas digs a channel of fast-flowing waters around their hut, so they have their own little island kingdom. Peter doesn't understand why his father has done this, nor why his father carries a long, battered box, whose mysterious contents he is forbidden to know. But Tomas is a man with a past: a past that is tracking him with deadly intent, and when the dead of Chust begin to rise from their graves, both father and son must face a soulless enemy and a terrifying destiny.

SLAM
Nick Hornby
G. P. Putnam's Sons
ISBN: 9780399250484
Ages 12-up
304 pages

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Just when everything is coming together for Sam, he learns that his girlfriend Alicia is pregnant. Sam, a teenager, does not want to be a father, so the two break up. There’s only one person Sam can turn to --- his hero, Tony Hawk. Sam believes that the answers to life’s biggest obstacles can be found in Hawk’s autobiography. But even the skating legend isn’t offering answers this time --- or is he? In bestselling author Nick Hornby’s first novel for young adults, it’s up to Sam to make the right decisions so the bad things that could happen don’t.

SURE FIRE
Jack Higgins with Justin Richards
G. P. Putnam’s Sons
ISBN: 9780399247842
Ages 12-up
256 pages

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For 15-year-old twins Rich and Jade, their lives have just been turned upside down. When their mother is tragically killed in a car crash, their long-lost father John Chance appears to collect them at the funeral. He's a bachelor who lives on his own, and it's clear that Rich and Jade aren't welcome. But when Chance suddenly disappears, Rich and Jade uncover the truth: He's a spy. And now, whoever kidnapped their father is also after them.

SURE FIRE is the first young adult novel from legendary New York Times bestselling author Jack Higgins.

SUSANNA SEES STARS
Mary Hogan
Delacorte Press
ISBN: 9780385735131
Ages 12-up
256 pages

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Susanna Barringer's internship at Scene magazine is a dream come true. She'll scoop the latest celebrity stories and be the youngest journalist to rub elbows with the stars. But her first real celebrity sighting is a disaster, as are her second and third ones. Her boss can't remember her name. And her co-workers are mocking her interview skills along with her fashion sense. Is Susanna out of her league? Or can she reach the stars to get the scoop of the summer?

TAKEN
Edward Bloor
Alfred A. Knopf
ISBN: 9780375836367
Ages 12-up
256 pages

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By 2035 the rich have gotten richer, the poor have gotten poorer and kidnapping has become a major growth industry in the United States. The children of privilege live in secure, gated communities and are escorted to and from school by armed guards. But the security around Charity Meyers has broken down. On New Year's morning, she wakes and finds herself alone, strapped to a stretcher, in an ambulance that isn’t moving. She is amazingly calm --- kids in her neighborhood have been well trained in kidnapping protocol. If this were a normal kidnapping, Charity would be fine. But as the hours of her imprisonment tick by, Charity realizes there is nothing normal about what's going on here. No training could prepare her for what her kidnappers really want…and worse, for who they turn out to be.

ZEN AND THE ART OF FAKING IT
Jordan Sonnenblick
Scholastic Press
ISBN: 9780439837071
Ages 12-18
272 pages

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When eighth-grader San Lee moves to a new town and a new school yet again, he doesn't try to make new friends or be a loner or play cool. Instead he sits back and devises a plan to be totally different. When he accidentally answers too many questions in World History on Zen (only because he just had Ancient Religions two schools ago), all heads turn and San has his answer: he's a Zen Master. And just when he thinks everyone (including the cute girl he can't stop thinking about) is on to him, everyone believes him…in a major Zen way.

Series Books

Gossip Girl

IT HAD TO BE YOU: The Gossip Girl Prequel
Cecily von Ziegesar
Poppy/Little, Brown for Young Readers
ISBN: 9780316017688
Ages 15-up
416 pages

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Taking place over their sophomore year, IT HAD TO BE YOU unveils the secrets behind the hot and sultry summer that Blair, Serena and Nate's love triangle begins --- and there's a lot more to this story than anyone realizes. Find out how Blair first snagged Nate, why Serena really left for boarding school and how the legendary Gossip Girl column began. This latest addition to the #1 bestselling series will thrill author Cecily von Ziegesar's fans and will undo some of the myths created in the 11 previous novels, so don't believe everything you've read so far. And keep your eye out for more Gossip Girl novels --- featuring a brand-new cast of characters --- coming in Spring 2008!

Uglies

EXTRAS
Scott Westerfeld
Simon Pulse
ISBN: 9781416951179
Ages 12-up
432 pages

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It's a few years after rebel Tally Youngblood took down the uglies/pretties/specials regime. Without those strict roles and rules, the world is in a complete cultural renaissance. "Tech-heads" flaunt their latest gadgets, "kickers" spread gossip and trends and "surge monkeys" are hooked on extreme plastic surgery. And it's all monitored on countless different cameras. Whoever is getting the most buzz receives the most votes. Popularity rules.

Fifteen-year-old Aya Fuse's rank of 451,369 is so low, she's a total nobody. An extra. Then Aya meets a clique of girls who pull crazy tricks yet are deeply secretive of it. Aya wants desperately to kick their story, to show everyone how intensely cool the Sly Girls are. But doing so would propel her out of extra-land and into the world of fame, celebrity...and extreme danger.