Stand-Alone Titles

THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS
John Boyne
David Fickling Books/Random House
ISBN-10: 0385751060
ISBN-13: 9780385751063
Ages 12-up
224 pages

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Berlin, 1942. When Bruno returns home from school one day, he discovers that his belongings are being packed in crates. His father has received a promotion and the family must move to a new house far away, where there is no one to play with and nothing to do. A tall fence running alongside cuts him off from the strange people he can see in the distance.

But Bruno longs to be an explorer and decides that there must be more to this desolate new place than meets the eye. While exploring his new environment, he meets another boy whose life and circumstances are very different from his own, and their meeting results in a friendship that has devastating consequences.

GOOD GIRLS
Laura Ruby
HarperTeen
ISBN-10: 0060882239
ISBN-13: 9780060882235
Ages 14-up
288 pages

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At the start of senior year, Audrey is a good girl: a good student, a good daughter and a good friend. But on the night she decides to call off her relationship with her boyfriend, someone takes her picture doing something that "good girls" don't do --- a humiliating, devastating picture that is distributed throughout the entire school and is even emailed to her parents. Over the course of a fateful year, Audrey must discover strength she never knew she had and find friends where she didn't think she would.

PARANOID PARK
Blake Nelson
Viking Children's Books
ISBN-10: 0670061182
ISBN-13: 9780670061181
Ages 12-up
176 pages

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It was an accident. He didn't mean to kill the security guard with his skateboard --- it was self-defense. But there's no one to back up his story. No one even knows he was at Paranoid Park. Should he confess, or can he get away with it? It's an ethical question no one should have to answer. This is a riveting look at one boy's fall into a world of crime, guilt and fear --- and his desperate attempt to get out again.

RUNAWAY
Wendelin Van Draanen
Knopf
ISBN-10: 0375835229
ISBN-13: 9780375835223
Ages 10-up
256 pages

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Holly is in her fifth foster home in two years and she has had enough. She has run away before and always been caught quickly. But at the age of 12, she's older and wiser --- and this time she makes a clean escape. Through tough, tender, angry and funny journal entries, Holly reveals her story. We travel with her across the country and witness her daily struggle for food, shelter and safety. And we also travel with her across the gaping holes in her heart, as she tries to come to terms with her mother's addiction and death.

SINS OF THE FATHERS
Chris Lynch
HarperTeen
ISBN-10: 006074037X
ISBN-13: 9780060740375
Ages 14-up
240 pages

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Skitz, Hector and Drew have been tight ever since they were snot-nosed little kids on their first day of Catholic school. But now the three priests who run the show with an iron hand --- angry Monsignor Blarney, hairy hippy Father Malarkey and sinister Father Shenanigan --- are pulling Drew and his friends apart. Can Drew hold his friends together as Hector spirals into a darkness of violence and shame…and Skitz is about to be cut loose altogether?

SOLD
Patricia McCormick
Hyperion Books for Children
ISBN-10: 0786851716
ISBN-13: 9780786851713
Ages 14-up
288 pages

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Lakshmi is a 13-year-old girl who lives in a small hut in the mountains of Nepal. Although her family is desperately poor, her life is full of simple pleasures. But when the harsh Himalayan monsoons wash away all that remains of the family's crops, Lakshmi's stepfather says she must leave home and take a job to support her family. He introduces her to someone who tells her she will find her a job as a maid working for a wealthy woman in the city. Glad to be able to help, Lakshmi undertakes the long journey to India and arrives at "Happiness House" full of hope. But she soon learns the unthinkable truth: she has been sold into prostitution.

THE TAKER
J. M. Steele
Hyperion Books for Children
ISBN-10: 0786849304
ISBN-13: 9780786849307
Ages 11-14
352 pages

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Carly Biel is an excellent student who's certain to get into Princeton. Although never great at standardized tests, she always figured she'd do well enough on the SATs to get by. But to her surprise, she receives very low scores. Carly only has one more opportunity to take the test and is sure she won't be able to improve her scores by much. That's why, when she gets a mysterious note from The Taker, she can't resist. Now she's hired someone to take the test for her --- but what if she gets caught? And what if she doesn't?

THINGS HOPED FOR
Andrew Clements
Philomel Books
Fiction
ISBN-10: 039924350X
ISBN-13: 9780399243509
Ages 10-up
176 pages

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When Gwen's grandfather disappears from their home in New York City, he leaves a message saying not to worry --- but it's hard when Gwen has upcoming violin auditions at Julliard. But then she meets Robert, a fellow musician, and things seem to look up. At the same time, there are other forces in motion, like the scary great uncle who keeps coming by and the strange man Gwen sees one day when shopping. Then the even stranger story Robert tells her about what she saw. And finally, the discovery that brings their worlds to a halt, uniting Gwen and Robert in ways neither of them could have foretold.

WIDE AWAKE
David Levithan
Knopf
ISBN-10: 0375834664
ISBN-13: 9780375834660
Ages 14-up
240 pages

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In the not-too-impossible-to-imagine future, a gay Jewish man has been elected president of the United States. However, the governor of one state decides that some election results in his state are invalid, awarding crucial votes to the other candidate and his fellow party member. Jimmy and Duncan, a gay couple, lend their support to their candidate by deciding to take part in rallies and protests. Along the way comes an exploration of their relationship, their politics and their country, and sometimes, as they learn, it's more about the journey than it is about reaching the destination.

Series Books/Sequels

The Annals of the Western Shore

VOICES
Ursula K. Le Guin
Harcourt Children's Books
ISBN-10: 0152056785
ISBN-13: 9780152056780
Ages 12-up
352 pages

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Ansul was once a peaceful town filled with libraries, schools and temples. But that was long ago, and the conquerors of this coastal city consider reading and writing to be acts punishable by death. And they believe the Oracle House, where the last few undestroyed books are hidden, is seething with demons. To 17-year-old Memer, however, the house is a refuge, a place of family and learning, ritual and memory. Then an Uplands poet named Orrec and his wife, Gry, arrive, and everything in Memer's life begins to change. Will she and the people of Ansul at last be brave enough to rebel against their oppressors?

The A-List

AMERICAN BEAUTY: A-List Novel #7
Zoey Dean
Little, Brown and Company
ISBN-10: 0316010944
ISBN-13: 9780316010948
Ages 15-up
288 pages

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AMERICAN BEAUTY is the seventh guilty pleasure in Zoey Dean's witty and risqué series that takes readers behind the scenes of the Hollywood glitterati. Soon to be a major motion picture from Universal Pictures, THE A-LIST and its bestselling sequels --- GIRLS ON FILM, BLONDE AMBITION, TALL COOL ONE, BACK IN BLACK and SOME LIKE IT HOT --- are full of unforgettable stories about the fast times of Beverly Hills' most beautiful and glamorous people.

The Companions of Bayern

RIVER SECRETS
Shannon Hale
Bloomsbury USA Children's Books
ISBN-10: 1582349010
ISBN-13: 9781582349015
Ages 12-up
304 pages

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Razo has always thought of himself as pretty much useless --- too short, too weak, too slow --- only good for catching with his sling the odd squirrel for his mother's cookpot. But when he is asked to join the king's soldiers on a peacekeeping mission and the peace they are sent to protect is being sabotaged, Razo finds that his squirrel-killing talents come in handy, and his way of noticing the unusual, thinking through to the truth, and befriending the unlikeliest of people will serve him better than anyone could have predicted.

The Kiesha'ra

WOLFCRY: The Kiesha'ra, Volume Four
Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
Delacorte Press
ISBN-10: 0385731957
ISBN-13: 9780385731959
Ages 12-up
208 pages

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Oliza Shardae Cobriana is heir to Wyvern's Court, home of the avians and serpiente, whose war with each other ended just before Oliza was born. But hatred is slow to die, and not everyone likes the expressive way in which Urban, a serpiente dancer, is courting Oliza --- especially not Marus, her reserved avian suitor. And when Urban is found beaten in avian land, Oliza is filled with despair. How can she be expected to lead a unified society if her people still cannot live peacefully together? Before Oliza can try to mend the rift in Wyvern's Court, she's kidnapped by mercenaries, who take her deep into wolves' territory.

Octavian Nothing

THE ASTONISHING LIFE OF OCTAVIAN NOTHING, TRAITOR TO THE NATION
Volume 1: The Pox Party
M.T. Anderson
Candlewick Press
ISBN-10: 0763624020
ISBN-13: 9780763624026
Ages 14-up
368 pages

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It sounds like a fairy tale. He is a boy dressed in silks and white wigs and given the finest of classical educations. Raised by a group of rational philosophers known only by numbers, the boy and his mother --- a princess in exile from a faraway land --- are the only ones in their household assigned names. As the boy's regal mother, Cassiopeia, entertains the house scholars with her beauty and wit, young Octavian begins to question the purpose behind his guardians' fanatical studies. Only after he dares to open a forbidden door does he learn the hideous nature of their experiments - and his own chilling role in them.

Sequel to PEEPS

THE LAST DAYS
Scott Westerfeld
Razorbill/Penguin Young Readers Group
ISBN-10: 159514062X
ISBN-13: 9781595140623
Ages 14-up
288 pages

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Strange things are happening: old friends disappearing, angels (or devils) climbing on the fire escapes of New York City. But for Pearl, Moz and Zahler, all that matters is the band. As the city reels under a mysterious epidemic, the three combine their talents with a vampire lead singer and a drummer whose fractured mind can glimpse the coming darkness. Will their music stave off the end? Or summon it?

Set against the gritty apocalypse that began in PEEPS, THE LAST DAYS is about five teenagers who find themselves creating the soundtrack for the end of the world.