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The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) has prepared the 2010 Best Books for Young Adults list. Teens, as well as publishers, authors, and librarians selected this list of recommended books. It is a diverse list that features science fiction and fantasy, nonfiction, novels in verse, cutting-edge contemporary fiction, and graphic novels. The "best books" listed below can be found in the Southbury Library.
You'll find a complete list of the Best Books for Young Adults on the YALSA website.
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| Anderson, Laurie Halse |
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Wintergirls. 2009 |
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Eighteen-year-old Lia comes to terms with her best friend's death from anorexia as she struggles with the same disorder. |
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| Bradley, Alan |
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The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. 2009 |
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Eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison, is propelled into a mystery when a man is found murdered on the grounds of her family's decaying English mansion and Flavia's father becomes the main suspect. |
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| Bray, Libba |
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Going Bovine. 2009 |
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Cameron Smith, a sixteen year-old diagnosed with Creutzfeld Jakob (aka mad cow) disease, sets off on a road trip with a death-obsessed video-gaming dwarf in an attempt to find a cure. |
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| Brennan, Sarah Rees |
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The Demon's Lexicon. 2009 |
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Sixteen-year-old Nick and his family have battled magicians and demons for most of his life, but when his brother, Alan, is marked for death while helping new friends Jamie and Mae, Nick's determination to save Alan leads him to uncover a devastating secret.
Sequels include The Demon's Covenant |
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| Brown, Jennifer |
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Hate List. 2009 |
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Sixteen-year-old Valerie, whose boyfriend Nick committed a school shooting at the end of their junior year, struggles to cope with integrating herself back into high school life, unsure herself whether she was a hero or a villain. |
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| Burg, Ann E. |
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All The Broken Pieces. 2009 |
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Two years after being airlifted out of Vietnam in 1975, Matt Pin is haunted by the terrible secret he left behind and, now, in a loving adoptive home in the United States, a series of profound events forces him to confront his past. |
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| Cashore, Kristin |
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Fire. 2009 |
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In a kingdom called the Dells, Fire is the last human-shaped monster, with unimaginable beauty and the ability to control the minds of those around her, but even with these gifts she cannot escape the strife that overcomes her world.
This is a sequel to Graceling. |
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| Collins, Suzanne |
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Catching Fire. 2009 |
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By winning the annual Hunger Games, District 12 tributes Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark have secured a life of safety and plenty for themselves and their families, but because they won by defying the rules, they unwittingly become the faces of an impending rebellion.
This is a sequel to Hunger Games and followed by Mockingjay |
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| Crowley, Suzanne Carlisle |
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The Stolen One. 2009 |
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After the death of her foster mother, sixteen-year-old Kat goes to London to seek the answers to her parentage, and surprisingly finds herself invited into Queen Elizabeth's court. |
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| Davies, Jacqueline |
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Lost . 2009 |
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In 1911 New York, sixteen-year-old Essie Rosenfeld must stop taking care of her irrepressible six-year-old sister when she goes to work at the Triangle Waist Company, where she befriends a missing heiress who is in hiding from her family and who seems to understand the feelings of heartache and grief that Essie is trying desperately to escape. |
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| Dessen, Sarah |
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Along for the Ride. 2009 |
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When Auden impulsively goes to stay with her father, stepmother, and new baby sister the summer before she starts college, all the trauma of her parents' divorce is revived, even as she is making new friends and having new experiences such as learning to ride a bike and dating. |
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| Dowd, Siobhan |
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Solace of the Road. 2009 |
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While running away from a London foster home just before her fifteenth birthday, Holly has ample time to consider her years of residential care and her early life with her Irish mother, whom she is now trying to reach. |
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| Efaw, Amy |
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After. 2009 |
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In complete denial that she is pregnant, straight-A student and star athlete Devon Davenport leaves her baby in the trash to die, and after the baby is discovered, Devon is accused of attempted murder. |
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| Forman, Gayle |
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If I Stay. 2009 |
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While in a coma following an automobile accident that killed her parents and younger brother, seventeen-year-old Mia, a gifted cellist, weighs whether to live with her grief or join her family in death. |
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| Garsee, Jeannine |
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Say the Word. 2009 |
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After the death of her estranged mother, who left Ohio years ago to live with her lesbian partner in New York City, seventeen-year-old Shawna Gallagher's life is transformed by revelations about her family, her best friend, and herself. |
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| George, Jessica Day |
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Princess of the Midnight Ball. 2009 |
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A retelling of the tale of twelve princesses who wear out their shoes dancing every night, and of Galen, a former soldier now working in the king's gardens, who follows them in hopes of breaking the curse. |
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| Gill, David Macinnes |
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Soul Enchilada. 2009 |
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When, after a demon appears to repossess her car, she discovers that both the car and her soul were given as collateral in a deal made with the Devil by her irrascible grandfather, eighteen-year-old Bug Smoot, given two-days' grace, tries to find ways to outsmart the Devil and his minions. |
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| Griffin, Paul |
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The Orange Houses. 2009 |
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Tamika, a fifteen-year-old hearing-impaired girl, Jimmi, an eighteen-year-old veteran who stopped taking his antipsychotic medication, and sixteen-year-old Fatima, an illegal immigrant from Africa, meet and connect in their Bronx, New York, neighborhood, with devastating results. |
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| Halpern, Julie |
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Into the Wild Nerd Yonder. 2009 |
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When high school sophomore Jessie's long-term best friend transforms herself into a punk and goes after Jessie's would-be boyfriend, Jessie decides to visit "the wild nerd yonder" and seek true friends among classmates who play Dungeons and Dragons. |
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| Han, Jenny |
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The Summer I Turned Pretty. 2009 |
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Belly spends the summer she turns sixteen at the beach just like every other summer of her life, but this time things are very different. |
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| Herlong, M. H. |
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The Great Wide Sea. 2008 |
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Still mourning the death of their mother, three brothers go with their father on an extended sailing trip off the Florida Keys and have a harrowing adventure at sea. |
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| Hernandez, David |
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No More You For Us. 2009 |
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Isabel and Carlos, both seventeen, find themselves growing closer after an unexpected accident forces them to confront both the harshness and the beauty of life. |
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| Jinks, Catherine |
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The Reformed Vampire's Support Group. 2009 |
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Fifteen-year-old vampire Nina has been stuck for fifty-one years in a boring support group for vampires, and nothing exciting has ever happened to them--until one of them is murdered and the others must try to solve the crime. |
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| Katcher, Brian |
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Almost Perfect. 2009 |
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With his mother working long hours and in pain from a romantic break-up, eighteen-year-old Logan feels alone and unloved until a zany new student arrives at his small-town Missouri high school, keeping a big secret. |
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| Knowles, Jo |
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Jumping Off Swings. 2009 |
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Tells, from four points of view, the ramifications of a pregnancy resulting from a "one-time thing" between Ellie, who feels loved when boys touch her, and Josh, an eager virgin with a troubled home life. |
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| LaCour, Nina |
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Hold Still. 2009 |
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Devastated by her best friend’s suicide, Caitlin tries to rebuild her own life and relationships while finding the courage to read the journal that Ingrid left behind. |
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| Larbalestier, Justine |
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Liar. 2009 |
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Compulsive liar Micah promises to tell the truth after revealing that her boyfriend has been murdered. |
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| Levine, Kristine |
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The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had. 2009 |
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In Moundville, Alabama, in 1917, twelve-year-old Dit hopes the new postmaster will have a son his age, but instead he meets Emma, who is black, and their friendship challenges accepted ways of thinking and leads them to save the life of a condemned man. |
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| Lockheart, E. |
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The Treasure Map of Boys : Noel, Jackson, Finn, Hutch, Gideon - and Me, Ruby Oliver. 2009 |
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A Seattle sixteen-year-old juggles therapy, running a school bake sale, coping with her performance artist mother, growing distant from an old friend, and conflicting feelings about her ex-boyfriend and potential new boyfriends. |
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| Magoon, Kekla |
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The Rock and the River. 2009 |
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In 1968 Chicago, fourteen-year-old Sam Childs is caught in a conflict between his father's nonviolent approach to seeking civil rights for African Americans and his older brother, who has joined the Black Panther Party. |
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| McCormick, Patricia |
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Purple Heart. 2009 |
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While recuperating in a Baghdad hospital from a traumatic brain injury sustained during the Iraq War, eighteen-year-old soldier Matt Duffy struggles to recall what happened to him and how it relates to his ten-year-old friend, Ali. |
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| McKernan, Victoria |
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The Devil's Paintbox. 2009 |
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In 1866, fifteen-year-old Aidan and his thirteen-year-old sister Maddy, penniless orphans, leave drought-stricken Kansas on a wagon train hoping for a better life in Seattle, but find there are still many hardships to be faced. |
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| Miller-Lachmann, Lyn |
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Gringolandia. 2009 |
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In 1986, when seventeen-year-old Daniel's father arrives in Madison, Wisconsin, after five years of torture as a political prisoner in Chile, Daniel and his eighteen-year-old "gringa" girlfriend, Courtney, use different methods to help this bitter, self-destructive stranger who yearns to return home and continue his work. |
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| Napoli, Donna Jo |
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Alligator Bayou. 2009 |
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Fourteen-year-old Calogero Scalise and his Sicilian uncles and cousin live in small-town Louisiana in 1898, when Jim Crow laws rule and anti-immigration sentiment is strong, so despite his attempts to be polite and to follow American customs, disaster dogs his family at every turn. |
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| Northrup, Michael |
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Gentlemen. 2009 |
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When three teenaged boys suspect that their English teacher is responsible for their friend's disappearance, they must navigate a maze of assorted clues, fraying friendships, violence, and Dostoevsky's "Crime and punishment" before learning the truth. |
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| Oakes, J. Adams |
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Why I Fight. 2009 |
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After his house burns down, twelve-year-old Wyatt Reaves takes off with his uncle, and the two of them drive from town to town for six years, earning money mostly by fighting, until Wyatt finally confronts his parents one last time. |
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| Pearson, Mary E. |
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The Miles Between. 2009 |
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Seventeen-year-old Destiny keeps a painful childhood secret all to herself until she and three classmates from her exclusive boarding school take off on an unauthorized road trip in search of "one fair day." |
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| Runyon, Brett |
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Surface Tension. 2009 |
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During the summer vacations of his thirteenth through his sixteenth year at the family's lake cottage, Luke realizes that although some things stay the same over the years that many more change. |
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| Ryan, Carrie |
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The Forest of Hands and Teeth. 2009 |
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Through twists and turns of fate, orphaned Mary seeks knowledge of life, love, and especially what lies beyond her walled village and the surrounding forest, where dwell the Unconsecrated, aggressive flesh-eating people who were once dead. |
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| Scott, Elizabeth |
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Love You, Hate You, Miss You. 2009 |
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After coming out of alcohol rehabilitation, sixteen-year-old Amy sorts out conflicting emotions about her best friend Julia's death in a car accident for which she feels responsible. |
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| Smith, Sherri L. |
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Flygirl. 2009 |
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During World War II, a light-skinned African American girl "passes" for white in order to join the Women Airforce Service Pilots. |
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| Standiford, Natalie |
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How to Say Goodbye in Robot. 2009 |
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After moving to Baltimore and enrolling in a private school, high school senior Beatrice befriends a quiet loner with a troubled family history. |
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| Stead, Rebecca |
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When You Reach Me. 2009 |
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As her mother prepares to be a contestant on the 1980s television game show, "The $20,000 Pyramid," a twelve-year-old New York City girl tries to make sense of a series of mysterious notes received from an anonymous source that seems to defy the laws of time and space. |
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| Stiefvater, Maggie |
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Lament: The Faerie Queen’s Deception. 2008 |
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On the day of an important music competition, talented but painfully introverted and nervous Deirdre Monaghan is helped to perform by the compelling and enigmatic Luke Dillon and finds herself inexorably drawn into the mysteries and dangers of the faerie world. |
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| Stiefvater, Maggie |
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Shiver. 2009 |
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In all the years she has watched the wolves in the woods behind her house, Grace has been particularly drawn to an unusual yellow-eyed wolf who, in his turn, has been watching her with increasing intensity.
Sequels include Linger |
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| Stork, Francisco X. |
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Marcelo in the Real World. 2009 |
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Marcelo Sandoval, a seventeen-year-old boy on the high-functioning end of the autistic spectrum, faces new challenges, including romance and injustice, when he goes to work for his father in the mailroom of a corporate law firm. |
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| Stroud, Jonathan |
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Heroes of the Valley. 2009 |
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When young Halli Sveinsson plays a trick on Ragnor of the House of Hakonsson, he sets in motion a chain of events that will forever alter his destiny, forcing him to leave home and go on a hero's quest where he encounters highway robbers, terrifying monsters, and a girl who may finally be his match. |
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| Tan, Shaun |
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Tales From Outer Suburbia. 2008 |
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Fifteen illustrated short stories, some humorous and some haunting, set in the Australian suburbs. |
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| Taylor, Laini |
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Lips Touch Three Times. 2009 |
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Three short stories about kissing, featuring elements of the supernatural. |
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| Thompson, Kate |
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Creature of the Night. 2009 |
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Bobby lives a reckless life smoking, drinking, and stealing cars in Dublin, so his mother moves the family to the country. But Bobby suspects their cottage might not be as quaint as it seems, and spooky details of the history of their little cottage gradually turn Bobby into a detective of night creatures real and imagined. |
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| Valentine, Jenny |
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Broken Soup. 2009 |
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A photographic negative and two surprising new friends become the catalyst for healing as fifteen-year-old Rowan struggles to keep her family and her life together after her brother's death. |
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| Vivian, Siobhan |
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Same Difference. 2009 |
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Feeling left out since her long-time best friend started a serious relationship, sixteen-year-old Emily looks forward to a summer program at the Philadelphia College of Art but is not sure she is up to the challenges to be faced there, including finding herself and learning to balance life and art. |
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| Warman, Jessica |
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Breathless. 2009 |
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At boarding school, Katie tries to focus on swimming and becoming popular instead of the painful memories of her institutionalized schizophrenic older brother. |
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| Westerfeld, Scott |
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Leviathan. 2009 |
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In an alternate 1914 Europe, fifteen-year-old Austrian Prince Alek, on the run from the Clanker Powers who are attempting to take over the globe using mechanical machinery, forms an uneasy alliance with Deryn who, disguised as a boy to join the British Air Service, is learning to fly genetically-engineered beasts.
Sequels include Behemoth and Goliath (coming soon) |
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| Williams, Carol Lynch |
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The Chosen One. 2009 |
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In a polygamous cult in the desert, Kyra, not yet fourteen, sees being chosen to be the seventh wife of her uncle as just punishment for having read books and kissed a boy, in violation of Prophet Childs' teachings, and is torn between facing her fate and running away from all that she knows and loves. |
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| Wynne-Jones, Tim |
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The Uninvited. 2009 |
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After a disturbing freshman year at New York University, Mimi is happy to get away to her father's remote Canadian cottage only to discover a stranger living there who has never heard of her or her father and who is convinced that Mimi is responsible for leaving sinister tokens around the property. |
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| Yancy, Rick |
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The Monstrumologist. 2009 |
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In 1888, twelve-year-old Will Henry chronicles his apprenticeship with Dr. Warthrop, a scientist who hunts and studies real-life monsters, as they discover and attempt to destroy a pod of Anthropophagi.
Sequels include The Curse of the Wendigo |
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| Yang, Gene Luen |
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The Eternal Smile. 2009 |
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Three tales in one graphic novel show the paper-thin margin that separates fantasy from reality for a warrior, a frog and a girl. |
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| Zarr, Sara |
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Once Was Lost. 2009 |
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As the tragedy of a missing girl enfolds in her small town, fifteen-year-old Samara, who feels emotionally abandoned by her parents, begins to question her faith. |
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| Zulkey, Claire |
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An Off Year. 2009 |
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Upon arriving at her dorm room, eighteen-year-old Cecily decides to postpone her freshman year of college and return to her Chicago home, where she spends a year pondering what went wrong while forging new relationships with family and friends. |
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| Heiligman, Deborah |
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Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith. 2009 |
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Charles Darwin and his wife, Emma, were deeply in love and very supportive of each other, but their opinions often clashed. Emma was extremely religious, and Charles questioned God's very existence. |
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| Holbrook, Sara and Allan Wolf |
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More Than Friends. 2008 |
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In a variety of forms of poetry in this slender book, a boy and a girl move from friendship to love and back to friendship again. |
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| Mann, Charles C. |
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Before Columbus. 2009 |
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This study of Native American societies is adapted for younger readers from Charles C. Mann's best-selling 1491. Turning conventional wisdom on its head, the book argues that the people of North and South America lived in enormous cities, raised pyramids hundreds of years before the Egyptians did, engineered corn, and farmed the rainforests. |
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| Swanson, James L. |
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Chasing Lincoln's Killer. 2009 |
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Much more than just Lincoln’s killing went on that night of the Ford Theater assassination, this book will inform and entertain you with the gory details. |
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