By Rosemary Graham Viking Juvenile, $16.99, 296 pages When does intrigue cross the line into obsession? When does obsession become stalking? Rosemary Graham looks at first love in Stalker Girl. When Carly’s mom moves upstate to direct a summer camp, Carly spends her vacation working in the camp kitchen. She meets Brian, who divides his [...]
By Karen Benke Trumpeter, $14.95, 237 pages Rip the Page! inspires creativity to flow, sparkle, whoosh, and claim a child’s imagination. Author Karen Benke, creative writing coach and poet-teacher, uses playful, inviting, inspiring language to form “hooks” to snag the interest and “reel in” the imagination of children to write. Leaving behind grammar, spelling, sentence [...]
By Kirsten Boie Scholastic Books, $17.99, 404 pages The Princess Trap, sequel to The Princess Plot, is girl’s territory. This is the second in a series of books by Kirsten Boie, noticeable for trademark swirls, doo-dad emblems, and bright pastel covers. The story begins at the island nation of Scandia, which is at peace after [...]
By Heidi R. Kling Putnam Juvenile, $17.99, 336 pages Sienna is a 15-year-old girl still trying to recover from her mother’s disappearance over the Indian Ocean three years ago while on a relief mission. Her father convinces her to join him on a volunteer team working with orphans from tsunami-ravaged Indonesia. There she meets Deni, [...]
By Alexander Lagos, Joseph Lagos Random House Books for Young Readers, $12.99, 176 pages These aren’t the Sons of Liberty you think you’ve heard about. Instead this book revolves around Brody and Graham, two runaway slaves who’ve acquired superhuman powers after a mysterious experiment gone wrong. With the guidance of Benjamin Franklin, the boys and [...]
By Adele Griffin G.P. Putnam’s Sons, $16.99, 208 pages Bored one afternoon, Raye Archer and her friend, Natalya, decide to create a Facebook profile for “Elizabeth.” Elizabeth is everything Raye wants to be: She is popular at the new school, where Raye finds it hard to fit into the social hierarchy. Things start to get [...]
By Cath Crowley Knopf Books for Young Readers, $16.99, 265 pages A Little Wanting Song is exactly what it sounds like, a soft, melodic story about aching for more than we have and loving what we don’t expect ourselves to. Set in dusty Australia this unique young adult novel revels in the timeless angst of [...]
By Carlos Ruiz Zafon Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, $17.99, 214 pages The Prince of Mist, by Carlos Ruiz Zafron, is the extraordinary story of a watchmaker and his family who, during wartime, decide to move out of the city to a quiet, small town on a coastal beach. The whole family quickly discovers [...]
By Chris Bradford Hyperion Children’s, $16.99, 410 pages Author Chris Bradford knows how to hold a reader with riveting action from the first page to the last. In this five-star book, he sets up his story introducing Dealthstalkers, poisonous scorpions, and culminates it with 180 pages of death-defying action where you wonder how the hero, [...]
By Lesley Livingston Harper Teen, $16.99, 312 pages In Wondrous Strange, Kelley Winslow found out that, rather than being an orphaned mortal, she really is a Faerie princess, daughter of the powerful winter king Auberon and the dangerous autumn queen Mabh. After saving New York City’s human population from the terrifying Wild Hunt by making [...]
By Megan Whalen Turner Greenwillow Books, $16.99, 316 pages A Conspiracy of Kings is the fourth book in Megan Whalen Turner’s series centering on the inhabitants of the fictional kingdoms of Eddis, Attolia, and Sounis. Eddis and Attolia have made a treaty but the king of Sounis continues to wage war on the other two. [...]
By Lauren Baratz-Logsted Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, $16.00, 192 pages Will and Bet have been friends since they were little even though Will is the son of a wealthy family and Bet the daughter of one of the house maids. After Will is sent down from yet another school Bet comes up with a [...]
By Mike Lupica Philomel, $17.99, 246 pages Brian Dudley grew up around baseball. His dad, Cole, was a major league pitcher and they had season tickets for the Detroit Tigers games. Even though Cole walked out on Brian and his mom, Brian’s love for the game isn’t deterred. He lands a job as a batboy [...]
By Ted Michael Delacorte Books for Young Readers, $8.99, 335 pages High school senior Henry Arlington follows a set of rules, the Crasher Code, he created with pals Duke and Nigel. The trio crashes social events on Long Island; the code defines their goal: casual hookups. The list includes never tell a girl your real [...]
By Margi Preus Amulet Books, $15.95, 282 pages This captivating novel is based on the true story of John Manjiro, a poor Japanese fisherman’s son, who one day (impossibly) becomes a samurai. Caught in a storm and stranded on an island, Manjiro is rescued by an American ship. But in 1841, Japan is isolated from [...]
By Alyson Noel Griffin, $17.99, 336 pages In this fourth book in Alyson Noel’s The Immortals series, 17-year-old Ever is pretty much in the same predicament as always: She and Damen would like to consummate their love of many lifetimes. However, “rogue immortals” keep getting in their way. In the case of Dark Flame, villain [...]
