ANGEL'S GRACE
Tracey Baptiste
Simon & Schuster/A Paula Wiseman Book
ISBN: 0689867735
Ages 12-up
176 pages

Grace has wild red hair like no one else in her family and a birthmark on her shoulder that her mother told her was the mark of an angel. When visiting her grandmother in Trinidad, Grace looks through the family album and discovers a blurred photograph of a stranger with a birthmark --- her birthmark --- and she is full of questions. No one is able to identify the man in the photo, and Grace is left with no choice but to find out who he is and what he might mean to her. What Grace does not know is that her search will lead to a discovery about herself and her family that she never could have imagined.

CHINESE CINDERELLA AND THE SECRET DRAGON SOCIETY
Adeline Yen Mah
HarperCollins
ISBN: 0060567341
Ages 10-up
256 pages

Born into a family of wealth and privilege in 1940s Shanghai, Chinese Cinderella is sheltered from the harsh brutalities of the Japanese invasion in China. But after enduring abuse at the hands of her cruel stepmother, she seeks refuge at a martial-arts school and joins a secret dragon society. There, under the guidance of Grandma Wu, she trains with a trio of orphaned acrobats and is introduced to the gripping world of espionage as part of the Chinese Resistance movement against the Japanese army.

GIRLS IN PANTS: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood
Ann Brashares
Delacorte Press
ISBN: 0385729359
Ages 12-up
352 pages

Tibby, Carmen, Lena and Bridget are facing their last summer together before going to college in September --- four different colleges in four different cities, to be precise. This is the time when they need their cherished magical Pants the most.

Here's why:

Tibby learns that the Pants have always known what she hasn't about Brian, and so she clings to them tightly. Lena wishes the Pants could tell her whether or not she should go to art school. Meanwhile, Carmen needs all the Pants magic possible since she has agreed to watch Lena's cranky Greek grandmother for the entire summer. And Bridget is especially glad to have the Pants at soccer camp when she finds out who her fellow coach is.

LIGHT YEARS
Tammar Stein
Knopf
ISBN: 0375830235
Ages 14-up
272 pages

Maya leaves Israel to study astronomy at the University of Virginia, running from the violence, guilt and memories of her past. As the narrative switches between Virginia and Israel, we learn about Maya's life as a soldier, her ambiguous devotion to Israel, and her love for her boyfriend Dov, who is tragically killed in a suicide bombing. Amid the day-to-day pressures of classes, roommates and fraternity parties at the university, Maya attempts to reconcile her Israeli past with her American future.

THE SERIOUS KISS
Mary Hogan
HarperCollins
ISBN: 0060722061
Ages 12-up
256 pages

• Read a Review

One summer day, Libby and her best friend Nadine come up with a plan. They will each experience a serious kiss before their freshman year is over. And Libby already has her ideal boy picked out. But then Libby finds out that she and her family are moving --- to the middle of nowhere, away from all her friends --- and she is left to ponder some serious questions about what it means to be happy.

SING A SONG OF TUNA FISH: Hard-to-Swallow Stories from Fifth Grade
Esme Raji Codell
Hyperion Books for Children
ISBN: 0786855096
Ages 10-14
144 pages

Life as a fifth grader for Esmé Raji Codell was anything but dull, as these stories and anecdotes from her childhood prove. In this funny and engrossing memoir Esmé tells us about: the night she and her mother became "egg vigilantes" against an illegally parked car; her freewheeling first school, where kids could choose disco dancing instead of math; her dangerous neighborhood, which her father made seem friendly and wondrous; the Passover dinner when she stole a matzoh right out from under a rabbi; the awe-inspiring, life-threatening Chicago snowstorms; and lessons about love from tea-reading gypsies and Popeye cartoons.

SPIN CONTROL
Niki Burnham
Simon Pulse
ISBN: 0689866690
Ages 14-up
256 pages

In this sequel to ROYALLY JACKED, Valerie Winslow is dating the prince of Schwerinborg. Georg, a real prince, is also her first real boyfriend. Life is great for Valerie ... but then everything falls apart. Georg has decided that they need to cool off for a while and Valerie's dad is sending her back to Virginia to visit her mom. Valerie is quite disappointed --- until she decides to go out with her old crush, David Anderson. David may not be a prince, but perhaps he'll take her mind off of Georg.