Stand-Alone Titles

ABSOLUTELY MAYBE
Lisa Yee
Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic
ISBN: 9780439838443
Ages 12-up
288 pages

• Read a Review & Excerpt
• Buy from Amazon.com

Meet Maybelline Mary Katherine Mary Ann Chestnut, named for two Miss Americas and her mother Chessy's favorite brand of mascara. Chessy teaches the students in her charm school her Seven Select Rules for Young Ladies, but she won't tell Maybe who her real father is --- or protect her from her latest scuzzball boyfriend. So Maybe hitches a ride to California with her friends Hollywood and Thammasat Tantipinichwong Schneider (aka Ted) --- and what she finds there is funny, sad, true and inspiring.

AMIRI & ODETTE: A Love Story
written by Walter Dean Myers
illustrated by Javaka Steptoe
Scholastic Press
ISBN: 9780590680417
Ages 12-up
40 pages

• Read a Review
• Buy from Amazon.com

A boy searches for his newfound love among the city streets, to find that, unwarily, she's been caught in the arms of an evil street lord who means her harm. It is only through perseverance and undying love that the girl is returned to the safety of her one true love. Lyrical text and stunning mixed media artwork make for a powerful recasting of the classic ballet “Swan Lake.” Set among the asphalt of a housing project and the concrete of a basketball court, Walter Dean Myers's compelling work is delivered with rhythms that twist, hover, pounce and inspire.

BONES OF FAERIE
Janni Lee Simner
Random House Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 9780375845635
Ages 12-16
256 pages

• Read a Review
• Buy from Amazon.com

The war between humanity and Faerie devastated both sides. Or so 15-year-old Liza has been told. Nothing has been seen or heard from Faerie since, and Liza’s world bears the scars of its encounter with magic. Trees move with sinister intention, and the town Liza calls home is surrounded by a forest that threatens to harm all those who wander into it. Then Liza discovers she has the Faerie ability to see --- into the past, into the future --- and she has no choice but to flee her town. Liza’s quest will take her into Faerie and back again, and what she finds along the way may be the key to healing both worlds.

CHASING LINCOLN’S KILLER
James Swanson
Scholastic Press
ISBN: 9780439903547
Ages 12-up
208 pages

• Read a Review & Excerpt
• Buy from Amazon.com

Based on rare archival material, obscure trial manuscripts, and interviews with relatives of the conspirators and the manhunters, CHASING LINCOLN'S KILLER is a fast-paced thriller about the pursuit and capture of John Wilkes Booth: a wild 12-day chase through the streets of Washington, D.C., across the swamps of Maryland, and into the forests of Virginia. Based on James Swanson's bestselling adult book MANHUNT: THE 12-DAY CHASE FOR LINCOLN'S KILLER, this young adult version is an accessible look at the assassination of a president, and shows readers Abraham Lincoln the man, the father, the husband, the friend, and how his death impacted those closest to him.

FLYGIRL
Sherri L. Smith
Putnam Juvenile
ISBN: 9780399247095
Ages 12-up
256 pages

• Read a Review
• Buy from Amazon.com

Ida Mae Jones dreams of flight. Her daddy was a pilot and being black didn’t stop him from fulfilling his dreams. But her daddy is gone now, and being a woman, and being black, are two strikes against her.

When America enters the war with Germany and Japan, the Army creates the WASP, the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots --- and Ida suddenly sees a way to fly as well as do something significant to help her brother stationed in the Pacific. But even the WASP won’t accept her as a black woman, forcing Ida Mae to make a difficult choice of “passing,” of pretending to be white to be accepted into the program. While Ida Mae chases her dream, she must also decide who it is she really wants to be.

SCAT
Carl Hiaasen
Knopf Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 9780375834868
Ages 10-up
384 pages

• Read a Review & Excerpt
• Buy from Amazon.com

Mrs. Bunny Starch, the most feared biology teacher ever, was last seen during a field trip to Black Vine Swamp. The school’s headmaster and the police seem to have accepted the sketchy, unsigned note explaining that her absence is due to a “family emergency.” There’s no real evidence of foul play. But still, Nick and Marta don’t buy it. Something weird is definitely going on.

THE SCHOOL FOR DANGEROUS GIRLS
Eliot Schrefer
Scholastic Press
ISBN: 9780545035286
Ages 15-up
256 pages

• Read a Review
• Buy from Amazon.com

Angela's parents think she's on the road to ruin because she's dating a "bad boy." After her behavior gets too much for them, they ship her off to Hidden Oak. Isolated and isolating, Hidden Oak promises to rehabilitate "dangerous girls." But as Angela gets drawn in further and further, she discovers that recovery is only on the agenda for the "better" girls. The other girls --- designated as "the purple thread" --- will instead be manipulated to become more and more dangerous…and more and more reliant on Hidden Oak's care.

SECRET KEEPER
Mitali Perkins
Delacorte Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 9780385733403
Ages 12-up
240 pages

• Read a Review
• Buy from Amazon.com

When her father loses his job and leaves India to look for work in America, Asha Gupta, her older sister, Reet, and their mother must wait with Baba’s brother and his family, as well as their grandmother, in Calcutta. Uncle is welcoming, but in a country steeped in tradition, the three women must abide by his decisions. Asha knows this is temporary --- just until Baba sends for them. But with scant savings and time passing, the tension builds: Ma, prone to spells of sadness, finds it hard to submit to her mother- and sister-in-law; Reet’s beauty attracts unwanted marriage proposals; and Asha's promise to take care of Ma and Reet leads to impulsive behavior. What follows is a firestorm of rebuke --- and secrets revealed!

TALES FROM OUTER SUBURBIA
Shaun Tan
Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic
ISBN: 9780545055871
Ages 12-up
96 pages

• Read a Review & Excerpt
• Buy from Amazon.com

An exchange student who's really an alien, a secret room that becomes the perfect place for a quick escape, a typical tale of grandfatherly exaggeration that is actually even more bizarre than he says... These are the odd details of everyday life that grow and take on an incredible life of their own in tales and illustrations that Shaun Tan's many fans will love.

TEN THINGS I HATE ABOUT ME
Randa Abdel-Fattah
Orchard Books/Scholastic
ISBN: 9780545050555
Ages 12-up
304 pages

• Read a Review
• Buy from Amazon.com

Jamie just wants to fit in. She doesn't want to be seen as a stereotypical Muslim girl, so she does everything possible to hide that part of herself. Even if it means pushing her friends away because she's afraid to let them know her dad forbids her from hanging out with boys or that she secretly loves to play the darabuka (Arabic drums). But when the cutest boy in school asks her out and her friends start to wonder about Jamie's life outside of school, her secrets threaten to explode. Can Jamie figure out how to be both Jamie and Jamilah before she loses everything?

THE TRUE ADVENTURES OF CHARLEY DARWIN
Carolyn Meyer
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780152061944
Ages 12-up
272 pages

• Read a Review
• Buy from Amazon.com

Young Charley Darwin hated school --- he much preferred to be outside studying birds' eggs, feathers and insects. And so, at the age of 21, he boarded a ship called HMS Beagle and spent five thrilling but dangerous years sailing around the world, studying plant and animal life that was beyond anything he could have imagined. Here, just in time for Darwin's 200th birthday and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his groundbreaking ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES, historical novelist Carolyn Meyer tells the story of his unconventional adventures.

Series Books

3 Willows

3 WILLOWS: The Sisterhood Grows
Ann Brashares
Delacorte Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 9780385736763
Ages 12-up
336 pages

• Read a Review & Excerpt
• Buy from Amazon.com

summer is a time to grow

seeds
Polly has an idea that she can't stop thinking about, one that involves changing a few things about herself. She's setting her sights on a more glamorous life, but it's going to take all of her focus. At least that way she won't have to watch her friends moving so far ahead.

roots
Jo is spending the summer at her family's beach house, working as a busgirl and bonding with the older, cooler girls she'll see at high school come September. She didn't count on a brief fling with a cute boy changing her entire summer. Or feeling embarrassed by her middle school friends. And she didn't count on her family at all.

leaves
Ama is not an outdoorsy girl. She wanted to be at an academic camp, doing research in an air-conditioned library, earning A's. Instead her summer scholarship lands her on a wilderness trip full of flirting teenagers, blisters, impossible hiking trails, and a sad lack of hair products.

It is a new summer. And a new sisterhood. Come grow with them.

Heroes of the Valley

HEROES OF THE VALLEY
Jonathan Stroud
Disney-Hyperion
ISBN: 9781423109662
Ages 10-up
496 pages

• Read a Review
• Buy from Amazon.com

Halli Sveinsson has grown up in the House of Svein, listening to the legends of the heroes as all his forefathers did. His is a peaceful society where the violence of the past has been outlawed and disputes are settled by the Council. But young Halli has never quite seemed to fit in with the others. For starters, he was not at all handsome or tall, like his attractive blond siblings. He's stumpy and swarthy, with a quick mind and aptitude for getting in trouble. Bored with the everyday chores and sheep herding, he can't help himself from playing practical jokes on everyone, from Eyjolf the old servant, to his brother and sister. But when he plays a trick on Ragnor of the House of Hakonsson, he goes too far, setting in motion a chain of events that will forever alter his destiny. Because of it, Halli will have to leave home and go on a hero's quest.

The Luxe

ENVY: A Luxe Novel
Anna Godbersen
HarperCollins Children’s Books
ISBN: 9780061345722
Ages 14-up
416 pages

• Read a Review & Excerpt
• Buy from Amazon.com

Two months after Elizabeth Holland's dramatic homecoming, Manhattan eagerly awaits her return to the pinnacle of society. When Elizabeth refuses to rejoin her sister Diana's side, however, those watching New York's favorite family begin to suspect that all is not as it seems behind the stately doors of No. 17 Gramercy Park South.

Farther uptown, Henry and Penelope Schoonmaker are the city's most celebrated couple. But despite the glittering diamond ring on Penelope's finger, the newlyweds share little more than scorn for each other. And while the newspapers call Penelope's social-climbing best friend, Carolina Broad, an heiress, her fortune --- and her fame --- are anything but secure, especially now that one of society's darlings is slipping tales to the eager press.

The Princess Diaries

FOREVER PRINCESS: The Princess Diaries, Volume X
Meg Cabot
HarperTeen
ISBN: 9780061232923
Ages 12-up
400 pages

• Read a Review & Excerpt
• Buy from Amazon.com

What's a Princess to do?

It's Mia's senior year, and things seem great. She aced her senior project, got accepted to her dream college(s), and has her birthday gala coming up…not to mention prom, graduation, and Genovia's first-ever elections.

What's not to love about her life?

Her senior project? It's a romance novel she secretly wrote, and no one wants to publish it.

Prince Phillipe's campaign in the Genovian elections isn't going well, thanks to her totally loathsome cousin René, who decided to run against him.

Her boyfriend, J.P., is so sweet and seemingly perfect. But is he the one?

And her first love, Michael, is back from Japan…and back in her life.

With Genovia's and her own future hanging in the balance, Mia has some decisions to make: Which college? Which guy? How can she choose? Especially when what she decides might determine not just the next four years, but…forever!

Warrior Princess

WARRIOR PRINCESS
Frewin Jones
HarperTeen
ISBN: 9780060871437
Ages 12-up
352 pages

• Read a Review
• Buy from Amazon.com

It takes just a moment for 15-year-old Branwen's life to change forever. In the blink of an eye the Saxons attack and her brother is killed. Almost as quickly, she is sent away from her home to a neighboring stronghold where she'll be safe from harm. Now Branwen lives as a princess should --- surrounded by exquisite things and lavish quarters. But deep down remains the soul of a warrior.

Just when Branwen is sure she has been pushed to her limits, a chance encounter with a mystical woman in white forces her to question everything --- and everyone --- around her. With no time to lose, Branwen must make a choice: continue in the path her parents intended for her, or step into the role of true Warrior Princess.