New in November

Sign Language
By Amy Ackley

Teenaged Abby must deal with her feelings about her father's cancer and its aftermath while simultaneously navigating the difficult problems of growing up.







Mini Weapons of Mass Destruction 2: Build a Secret Agent Arsenal
By John Austin

This hilarious book provides instructions for building 30 miniature spy gear, such as a toothpaste periscope and a bionic ear. Also includes tips for how to conceal your gear.







Following Christopher Creed
By Carol Plum-Ucci

Legally-blind college reporter Mike Mavic hopes to get a story about a body found in Steepleton, believed to be that of long-missing teen Christopher Creed, but finds something odd about the town, including Justin Creed's obsessive drive to learn what really happened to his older brother.






Battle Fatigue
By Mark Kurlansky

Joel Bloom chronicles his life experiences during the 1960's which eventually lead him to oppose the war in Vietnam and to flee to Canada rather than be forced to kill Vietnamese.







The Siren's Cry
By Jennifer Anne Kogler

During a trouble-filled school field trip to Washington, D.C., twelve-year-old Fern finds and tries to rescue fellow Unusual Miles Zapo, who is imprisoned at the National Zoological Park, using her abilities with teleportation and telekinesis.






The Name of the Star
By Maureen Johnson

Rory, of Boueuxlieu, Louisiana, is spending a year at a London boarding school when she witnesses a murder by a Jack the Ripper copycat and becomes involved with the very unusual investigation.







Ghosts in the Fog
By Samantha Seiple

Tells the story of the Japanese invasion of Alaska's Aleutian Islands during WWII from the point of view of American civilians, and American and Japanese soldiers.







Fostergirls
By Liane Shaw

Sadie has been in thirteen group homes, and wants to get out of the system. But it isn't easy to be invisible in a small town.








Frost
By Wendy Delsol

After her boyfriend Jack conjures up a record-breaking snow storm, sixteen-year-old Kat LeBlanc finds herself facing an unusual rival in the form of an environmental researcher from Greenland who is drawn to their small town of Norse Falls, Minnesota, by the storm.






Stuff That Scares Your Pants Off!
By Glenn Murphy

Presents useful information and facts on some of the most common fears, from poisonous spiders and shark bites in the ocean to the probability of being struck by lightning or killed by a flesh-eating bacteria.






Crush Control
By Jennifer Jabaley

When Willow Grey was nine years old she hypnotized her best friend Max to ensure that they would remain best friends forever, but finds that she feels something different for Max now that she is seventeen.

New in October

A Plague Year
By Edward Bloor

A ninth-grader who works with his father in the local supermarket describes the plague of meth addiction that consumes many people in his Pennsylvania coal mining town from 9/11 and the nearby crash of United Flight 93 in Shanksville to the Quecreek Mine disaster in Somerset the following summer.





All These Things I've Done
By Gabrielle Zevin

In a dystopian future where chocolate and caffeine are contraband, teenage cellphone use is illegal, and water and paper are carefully rationed, sixteen-year-old Anya Balanchine finds herself thrust unwillingly into the spotlight as heir apparent to an important New York City crime family.





Top Secret: Shady Tales of Spies and Spying
By Dorling Kindersley

This entertaining look at spying throughout history covers gadgets and tools, techniques, famous spies, tips for aspiring secret agents, and more.







The Poisoned House
By Michael Ford

As the widowed master of an elegant house in Victorian-era London slips slowly into madness and his tyrannical housekeeper takes on more power, a ghostly presence distracts a teenaged maidservant with clues to a deadly secret.






Dark of the Moon
By Tracy Barrett

Retells the story of the minotaur through the eyes of his fifteen-year-old sister, Ariadne, a lonely girl destined to become a goddess of the moon, and her new friend, Theseus, the son of Athens' king who was sent to Crete as a sacrifice to her misshapen brother.






Every Thing on It
By Shel Silverstein

This poetry collection includes more than 130 never-before-seen poems and drawings selected by Silverstein's family from his archives.







The Only Ones
By Aaron Starmer

After setting off from the island where he has been leading a solitary existence, thirteen-year-old Martin discovers a village with other children who have been living similarly without any adults, since the grown-ups have all been spirited away.






Silhouetted by the Blue
By Traci L. Jones

After the death of her mother in an automobile accident, seventh-grader Serena, who has gotten the ead in her middle school play, is left to handle the day-to-day challenges of caring for herself and her younger brother when their father cannot pull himself out of his depression.






First Kill
By Heather Brewer

The summer before ninth grade, when Joss sets off to meet his uncle and hunt down the beast that murdered his younger sister three years earlier, he learns he is destined to join the Slayer Society.







Alice in Time
By Penelope Bush

As her self-centered behavior spirals out of control, fourteen-year-old Alice gets an unusual chance to fix her whole disastrous life when she is mysteriously spirited back in time.







Children's Book of Mythical Beasts & Magical Monsters
By Dorling Kindersley

Shares tales of adventure, quests, magical creatures from around the world.








The Day Before
By Lisa Schroeder

Sixteen-year-old Amber, hoping to spend one perfect day alone at the beach before her world is turned upside down, meets and feels a strong connection to Cade, who is looking for his own escape, for a very different reason.






Wolf Mark
By Joseph Bruchac

When Lucas King's covert-ops father is kidnapped and his best friend Meena is put in danger, Luke's only chance to save them--a skin that will let him walk as a wolf--is hidden away in an abandoned mansion guarded by monsters.

New in September

The Lost Crown
By Sarah Miller

In alternating chapters, Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia tell how their privileged lives as the daughters of the tsar in early twentieth-century Russia are transformed by world war and revolution.






Life on Mars: Tales from the New Frontier
Edited by Jonathan Strahan

Presents thirteen short stories by various science fiction authors which center around the theme of life on the planet Mars.








Requiem: Poems of the Terezin Ghetto
By Paul B. Janeczko

Janeczko's powerful poems, accented with historic illustrations by actual inmates, convey the horrors of the Czech concentration camp Terezín.








How I Stole Johnny Depp's Alien Girlfriend
By Gary Ghislain

Fourteen-year-old David, the son of a famous French psychologist, falls in love with Zelda, a new patient who believes she is from outer space, and soon they are tearing through Paris in search of her chosen one, Johnny Depp, so that she can take him to her home planet, Vahalal.






The Rites and Wrongs of Janice Wills
By Joanna Pearson

Aspiring anthropologist Janice Wills reports on the socio-cultural ordeals of being an almost-seventeen-year-old in Melva, North Carolina, including "Beautiful Rich Girls," parties, and the Miss Livermush pageant.







87 Ways to Throw a Killer Party
By Melissa Daly

Offers party planning advice with themes and suggestions for games, movies, and activities.








Daughter of Xanadu
By Dori Jones Yang

Emmajin, the sixteen-year-old eldest granddaughter of Khublai Khan, becomes a warrior and falls in love with explorer Marco Polo in thirteenth-century China.







Sidekicks
By Jack D. Ferraiolo

Scott Hutchinson has an alternate identity as Bright Boy, the sidekick of Phantom Justice, but with the help of his rival sidekick, Monkeywrench, Scott begins to question whether Phantom Justice is really a hero, which leads to a dangerous confrontation.






Corsets and Clockwork
Edited by Trisha Telep

Collects thirteen original stories set during the Victorian era, including tales of steam-powered machines, family secrets, and love.








Science: The Incredible Visual Guide
By Clive Gifford

Introducing the key aspects of science, this book covers all the crucial topics from atoms and evolution to explosive chemical reactions.







Putting Makeup on Dead People
By Jen Violi

Donna's discovery, that she wants to be a mortician, helps her come into her own and finally understand that moving forward doesn't mean forgetting someone you love.







The Absolute Value of Mike
By Kathryn Erskine

Fourteen-year-old Mike, whose father is a brilliant mathematician but who has no math aptitude himself, spends the summer in rural Pennsylvania with his elderly and eccentric relatives Moo and Poppy, helping the townspeople raise money to adopt a Romanian orphan.






Displacement
By Thalia Chaltas

After tragedy strikes her family, Vera runs away to a small desert town where she tries unsuccessfully to forget her grief and sorrow.

New in August

The Summer I Learned to Fly
By Dana Reinhardt

Thirteen-year-old Drew starts the summer of 1986 helping in her mother's cheese shop and dreaming about co-worker Nick, but when her widowed mother begins dating, Drew's father's book of lists, her pet rat, and Emmett, a boy on a quest, help her cope.






This Thing Called the Future
By J. L. Powers

Fourteen-year-old Khosi's mother wants her to get an education to break out of their South African shantytown, although she herself is wasting away from an untreated illness, while Khosi's grandmother, Gogo, seeks help from a traditional Zulu healer.






Americapedia
By Andisheh Nouraee, Daniel Ehrenhaft, & Jodi Lyn Anderson

This is a crash course in history, government, and more, with a satirical spin on what readers might normally find in a textbook.








Department 19
By Will Hill

After watching his father's brutal murder, sixteen-year-old Jamie Carpenter joins Department 19, a secret government agency, where he learns of the existence of vampires and the history that ties him to the team destined to stop them.






Akata Witch
By Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu

Twelve-year-old Sunny Nwazue, an American-born albino child of Nigerian parents, moves with her family back to Nigeria, where she learns that she has latent magical powers which she and three similarly gifted friends use to catch a serial killer.






Withering Tights
By Louise Rennison

Self-conscious about her knobby knees but confident in her acting ability, fourteen-year-old Tallulah spends the summer at a Yorkshire performing arts camp that, she is surprised to learn, is for girls only.







What It's Like
By Jeff Belanger

Twelve ordinary people share their extraordinary experiences, from surviving a shark attack to exploring the North Pole to climbing Mt. Everest with no legs.







Will Work for Prom Dress
By Aimee Ferris

Seventeen-year-old Quigley and her best friend Anne have big plans to prepare for prom, including working to earn money for dresses, but both girls seem to have chosen their prospective dates badly as Anne's family crisis affects them all.






Illegal
By Bettina Restrepo

Nora, a fifteen-year-old Mexican girl, faces the challenges of being an illegal immigrant in Texas when she and her mother cross the border in search of Nora's father.







The Grumpy Girl's Guide to Good Manners
By Rachel Aboukhair

The author describes proper behavior for girls, as learned during her stay at an "etiquette camp".








Voice of the Undead
By Jason Henderson

After a fire damages his boarding school in Switzerland, fourteen-year-old Alex and his friends move to the girls' school across the lake, where supernatural happenings are disturbing the peace, and in the meantime, more Van Helsing family secrets are revealed.






When the Stars Go Blue
By Caridad Ferrer

Soledad Reyes decides to dance Carmen as part of a drum and bugle corps competition, not knowing if it will help or harm her chance of becoming a professional ballet dancer but eager to pursue new options, including a romance with the boy who invited her to audition.






White Crow
By Marcus Sedgwick

Sixteen-year-old Rebecca moves with her father from London to a small, seaside village, where she befriends another motherless girl and they spend the summer together exploring the village's sinister history.