Thursday, August 28, 2008

New Recorded Books

Neptune's Children by Bonnie Dobkin (YA Fic Dob) and (YA CDBK Fic Dob)A day at the fabled amusement park Isles of Wonder turns deadly when a world-wide biological attack kills every adult, leaving behind only the kids to fend for themselves. Isolated from the world, unsure of what lies ahead, the young survivors assemble under the statue of King Neptune, the mythical ruler of the Isles, to form a new society. Led by the children of the park workers, they choose to remain closed off from the outside world living relatively comfortably inside the self-contained park. But when violence from the infested outside world appears to infiltrate their safe zone, one small group discovers a secret society and a hidden system of underground tunnels, and the stage is set for a war that will determine the future of everyone on the Isles.
Faerie Lord by Herbie Brennan (YA Fic Bre) and (YA CDBK Fic Bre)
It has been two years since Henry left the Faerie Realm and he has still not adjusted to life back in the Analogue World. But when Henry finds a middle aged Pyrgus in Mr. Fogarty's backyard, he is compelled to return to the world he left so suddenly. A mysterious plague is spreading throughout the Realm causing faeries to age rapidly. No one knows what is causing it or how to cure it. Pyrgus has a plan that Henry must be a part of but can't include his sister, the Faerie Queen, no matter how much she persists. However, almost immiediately upon Henry's return, an unlikely person transports him away from the Realm and he is forced to fend for himself in a hostile land.
Elsewhere, Lord Hairstreak, Brimstone and Chalkhill are putting their own plan into motion that may be the undoing of the entire Realm without their even realizing it. The final installment of the Faerie Wars Chronicles is riveting presents and exciting and riveting conclusion to the adventures of Henry Atherton and the Faerie Realm.

Ways to Live Forever by Sally Nicholls (YA Fic Nic) and (YA CDBK Fic Nic)
1. My name is Sam.
2. I am eleven years old.
3. I collect stories and fantastic facts.
4. I have leukemia.
5. By the time you read this, I will probably be dead.
Living through the final stages of leukemia, Sam collects stories, questions, lists, and pictures that create a profoundly moving portrait of how a boy lives when he knows his time is almost up.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

New YA Books for September...

Don't You Forget About Me continues the #1 New York Times bestselling series about the provocative lives of New York City's most prestigious private school young adults. Sharp wit, intriguing characters, and high stakes melodrama drive the action of this addictive series that have made Gossip Girl the lit world's coveted "it" girl.








Fourteen challenging and compassionate stories about "outsider" teens.











Daisy, otherwise known as Daze, keeps hearing her dead mother's voice. Sometimes it's because of her dad, who likes to watch old home movies when he can't sleep. Sometimes it's because of her brother, who was too young to remember Mom, and needs to be reminded by looking at photographs and watching videos. Sometimes it might just be her mind trying to work out what her therapist would call "issues." But this time, it is none of those things. It's something much more wonderful and much more terrifying, something Daze never thought possible. And it might allow Daze to do what she couldn't years ago: save her mother's life.

Rune Michaels, the visionary author of Genesis Alpha, plunges headfirst into the waters where science, family, and memory meet, and emerges with a powerful and fascinating story about loss and survival that challenges everything we think we know about the people we love.



Michael and his friend Francis share a secret passion for Evgard, the fantasy world they have created together. But then Michael finds a note in his locker, revealing that their secret is out. He immediately suspects Francis, and tries to get revenge by telling the school bully-known affectionately as Shitley-that Francis is gay, which guarantees Francis is in for a pounding. But did Francis really betray his friend? Or is Michael really the traitor?

This gripping account of a troubled friendship unfolds both as a contemporary story and as a compelling glimpse into the world of Evgard. The Traitor Game tackles difficult issues without hesitation and will surely draw in gamer and fantasy fans as well as contemporary fiction readers.



Unbeknownst to mortals, a power struggle is unfolding in a world of shadows and danger. After centuries of stability, the balance among the Faery Courts has altered, and Irial, ruler of the Dark Court, is battling to hold his rebellious and newly vulnerable fey together. If he fails, bloodshed and brutality will follow.

Seventeen-year-old Leslie knows nothing of faeries or their intrigues. When she is attracted to an eerily beautiful tattoo of eyes and wings, all she knows is that she has to have it, convinced it is a tangible symbol of changes she desperately craves for her own life.

The tattoo does bring changes-not the kind Leslie has dreamed of, but sinister, compelling changes that are more than symbolic. Those changes will bind Leslie and Irial together, drawing Leslie deeper and deeper into the faery world, unable to resist its allures, and helpless to withstand its perils. . .





A paranormal thriller from Carnegie Medal-winner Tim Bowler!

It starts with a phone call. "I'm dying," a voice tells Dusty. Who is he and how has he gotten her cell number? Dusty wants no part of this strange boy . . . until he begins saying things that only someone who knows her intimately could say-things that lead her to think he knows the whereabouts of her brother, who disappeared over a year ago. Suddenly drawn in, Dusty very much wants to save this boy. Trouble is, she cannot find him. Part human, part spirit, he won't let himself be found. He is too dangerous, he says. There are mobs of people who agree and who want to see this boy dead . . . and who will hurt anyone who stands in their way.

A gripping, hair-raising mystery about a boy not of this world, and a girl determined to protect him.


Bridget Flannery and Maureen O'Malley have been BFFs since forever. Then a brief moment of inattention on an icy road leaves one girl dead and the other in a coma, battered beyond recognition. Family and friends mourn one friend's loss and pray for the other's recovery. Then the doctors discover they have made a terrible mistake. The girl who lived is the one who everyone thought had died.

Based on a true case of mistaken identity, All We Know of Heaven is a universal story that no one can read unmoved: a drama of ordinary people caught up in an unimaginable tragedy and of the healing power of hope and love.



Tania has brought the long-lost Queen Titania back to Faerie from the Mortal World of modern London. But when they cross between the worlds, they find only devastation.

The Sorcerer King of Lyonesse-ancient enemy of the Faerie Court-has been released from his amber prison. As the wicked sorcerer regains his power, King Oberon, Tania's father, is imprisoned and the Faerie Court is being destroyed.

Tania and her true love, Edric, must travel the Realm to try to find and rescue King Oberon, who is their only hope for defeating the evil Sorcerer King. And Tania must prepare for battle . . . and to fight a war that she may not survive.




Think with your heart and prepare to die for you have been Chosen.

The land of the Forest Dwellers has been decimated by the Horde under the watchful eye of the vilest of all creatures, Teeleh. Thomas Hunter, supreme commander of the Forest Guard, is forced to lower the recruitment age of his army from 18 to 16. From among thousands, four new recruits are chosen to lead-and perhaps die-for the greater good.

The chosen four are sent on a quest to prove their character, but their mission takes a dramatic turn when they are intercepted, sworn to secrecy, and redirected to a different endgame. Now they must find the seven lost Books of History. Books that have power over the past, present, and future. Books whose words are alive. Books sought by the Dark One that control not only the destiny of their world . . . but that of ours as well.


Twenty-one year old Fenfang Wang has traveled one thousand eight hundred miles to seek her fortune in contemporary urban Beijing, and has no desire to return to the drudgery of the sweet potato fields back home. However, Fenfang is ill-prepared for what greets her: a Communist regime that has outworn its welcome, a city under rampant destruction and slap-dash development, and a sexist attitude seemingly more in keeping with her peasant upbringing than the country's progressive capital. Yet Fenfang is determined to live a modern life. With courage and purpose, she forges ahead, and soon lands a job as a film extra. While playing roles like woman-walking-over-the bridge and waitress-wiping-a-table help her eke out a meager living, Fenfang comes under the spell of two unsuitable young men, keeps her cupboard stocked with UFO noodles, and after mastering the fever and tumult of the city, ultimately finds her true independence in the one place she never expected.




Life as an O'Donnell is all twelve-year-old Addy knows, and life as an O'Donnell means trouble.
Tucked away in a gray patch of woods called No-Bob, the O'Donnell clan has nothing but a bad reputation. So when Addy's mama abandons her on the afternoon of Mr. Frank Russell's wedding celebration, nobody is very surprised. A reluctant Mr. Frank and his new wife take Addy in, and Addy does everything she can to prove that at least one O'Donnell has promise. But one day, Addy witnesses a terrible event that brings her old world crashing into the new.
As she finds herself being pulled back into No-Bob and the grips of her O'Donnell kin, Addy is faced with the biggest decision of her life. Can she somehow find the courage to do what's right, even if it means betraying one of her own?



DANICA SHARDAE IS an avian shapeshifter, and the golden hawkss form in which she takes to the sky is as natural to her as the human one that graces her on land. The only thing more familiar to her is war: It has raged between her people and the serpiente for so long, no one can remember how the fighting began. As heir to the avian throne, she'll do anything in her power to stop this war even accept Zane Cobriana, the terrifying leader of her kind's greatest enemy, as her pair bond and make the two royal families one.

Trust. It is all Zane asks of Danica and all they ask of their people but it may be more than she can give.





HAI HAS ALWAYS been an outsider. With a falcon mother and a deceased cobra father, she is considered a mongrel by most, an ally by some, and a friend by few. Hai's broken falcon wings are a painful reminder of the life she once led on the island of Ahnmik. And here in Wyvern's Court, the avian and serpiente royal family keep their distance, refusing to acknowledge her cobra bloodline. They know that Hai's magic is so volatile, she can barely control it, and images of the past and future threaten to overwhelm her.

When Hai's cousin, Oliza Shardae Cobriana, abdicates the throne of Wyvern's Court, Hai has visions only of destruction: the serpiente king Salem, dying in her arms; the dutiful guard, Nicias, unable to save a generation of children; and Wyvern's Court engulfed in flames.

Now Hai will do anything to protect her new home even if it means betraying the very people who need her most?





Mick Salisbury wonders how he got where he is. For as long as he can remember, people have been saying the same thing about life being a series of choices. The problem is, he's never been particularly good at making the right ones especially since he was born and raised in Flint, Michigan, where most people are cheated out of all the better options in life.

So when a normal night spent hanging out, drinking with his two best friends, ends in a deadly mistake, individual decisions suddenly seem more important than Mick ever realized. And when he's sitting in the police interrogation room, it will all come down to one choice. But once he heads down one road, will it ever be possible to turn back?

Sunday, August 03, 2008

New on the Young Adult shelf

The Disappeared by Gloria Whelan - YA Fic Whe

Teenaged Silvia tries to save her Brother, Eduardo, after he is captured by the military government in the 1970's Argentina. This book is a quick read with only 136 pages. In chapters alternating between Silvia's and Eduardo's perspectives, acclaimed author Gloria Whelan gives voice to the families who struggled to survive and to the many who still, today, remain Disappeared.

Afrika by Colleen Craig YA Fic Cra

For thirteen-year-old Kim, travel to South Africa with her journalist mom marks the end of her childhood and the beginning of a remarkable journey. Layered and complex, Afrika raises questions, challenges beliefs and paints a vivid picture of a remarkable country.


Streams of Babel by Carol Plum-Ucci YA Fic Ucc

In a New Jersey suburb, two women die of brain aneurysms within twenty-four hours--events that cause the government to suspect that a terrorist cell has unleashed a deadly biochemical agent. With each glass of water they drink, the people of Trinity Falls are poisoning themselves.

A world away in Pakistan, a sixteen-year-old computer genius working as a virtual spy for the United States sees an influx of chatter from extremists about a substance they call Red Vinegar that will lead to many deaths in Colony One. Can he warn the victims before it's too late?

A Printz Honor Award winner and two-time Edgar Allan Poe Award finalist, Carol Plum-Ucci explores disturbing new terrain in this riveting novel that examines the heroes and victims involved in a terrifying act of bioterrorism.


Artemis Fowl The Time Paradox by Eoin Colfer YA Fic Col
After disappearing for three years, Artemis Fowl has returned to a life different from the one he had. Now he’s a big brother, and spends his days teaching his twin siblings the important things in life, such as how to properly summon a waiter at a French restaurant.

But when Artemis’s mother contracts a life-threatening illness, his world is turned upside down. The only hope for a cure lies in the brain fluid of the silky sifaka lemur. Unfortunately, the animal is extinct, due to a heartless bargain Artemis himself made as a younger boy.

Though the odds are stacked against him, Artemis is not willing to give up. With the help of his fairy friends, the young genius travels back in time to rescue the lemur and bring it to the present. But to do so, Artemis will have to defeat a maniacal poacher who has set his sights on new prey: Holly Short.

The rules of time travel are far from simple, but to save his mother, Artemis will have to break them all . . . and outsmart his most cunning adversary yet: Artemis Fowl, age ten.



The Dangerous Days of Daniel X by James Patterson and Michael Ledwidge
YA Fic Pat
At first glance, Lee might seem like an average fifteen year old, shooting the breeze with his friends around a campfire, crushing on his friend Dana, sassing the assistant principal at school. But Lee has a little bit more responsibility than your average kid: he's the next Alien Hunter, bequeathed with the List of hidden alien outlaws living and lurking on Earth in disguise. All must be destroyed in order to protect the human race from eventual takeover. It's a big job for one teenager. His father had the title of Alien Hunter until #1 on the List, The Prayer, killed him and Lee's mother in cold blood. Lee was just 3. Ever since then, his supreme abilities--like being able to change shape and conjure up his long-dead parents out of thin-air--have gotten him through life, not to mention countless battles with aliens that roam the earth, hunting humans as part of an inter-planetary game.

Next on the list is #6, Ergent Seth, alternately a horribly crude, grotesque horse-headed creature and a pretentious Hollywood film director/producer. Lee's quest to search and destroy #6 leads him right into the arms of super-cute Sarah Wilson--and a deadly trap that takes him to Ergent Seth's spacecraft. It's heading for a place beyond Lee's comprehension: His home planet. For Lee is an alien too, after all. And it turns out the earth, his adopted home, isn't the only planet that needs to be saved.

James Patterson's exciting new series is full of high wish-fulfillment fantasy, humor, and of course, all of the suspense that Patterson fans have come to expect--only this time, it's literally out of this world.