All Books
Synopsis: The secret lives and loves of cats are revealed in this adventurous novel that peeks into a year in the life of the mischievous feline Adrian Cat. Adrian is having trouble keeping his new year's resolutions (especially "I will not be condescending to my humans"), and he's also adjusting to the fact that his humans have a new baby, his best friend needs constant advice, and he's in love for the first time—with the angelic-seeming Snowball. When Snowball turns out to be less than perfect and tries to lead Adrian into organized crime, he refuses to follow her and instead joins up with a scruffy yet tender alley cat named Gypsy. After Snowball's gang runs Adrian out of town, he is forced to make some strange friends and travel a rough road in order to get home safely to his family and to his new love, Gypsy.
Publication Date: 07/30/07
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
Synopsis:
Where murder takes on a rhyming quality and capture ends the verse.
Detective Katie Knight is Philadelphia's top monster hunter. Katie and her partner, Avis Rent are assigned to the Pied Piper case, the name the newspapers have given to the latest serial killer running amuck in the city.
The killer's signature is one Katie has never seen. Everything about the case is unusual and eluding.
Katie has to prove herself since the antiquated Chief of Detectives wants all women ...especially her out of the homicide division. Katie refuses to give up in spite of the numerous dilemmas she faces.
The Rhyme Killers has an ending so bizarre no reader will be able to determine the outcome.
Where murder takes on a rhyming quality and capture ends the verse.
Detective Katie Knight is Philadelphia's top monster hunter. Katie and her partner, Avis Rent are assigned to the Pied Piper case, the name the newspapers have given to the latest serial killer running amuck in the city.
The killer's signature is one Katie has never seen. Everything about the case is unusual and eluding.
Katie has to prove herself since the antiquated Chief of Detectives wants all women ...especially her out of the homicide division. Katie refuses to give up in spite of the numerous dilemmas she faces.
The Rhyme Killers has an ending so bizarre no reader will be able to determine the outcome.
Publication Date: 07/26/07
Age Level: Mature Young Adult
Genre: Mystery
Synopsis: Living in a world where magic is outlawed, Sadima's special gift to speak to the animals binds her to two young men who are determined to restore magic to their poor village in order to save the people they love.
Publication Date: 07/24/07
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fantasy
Synopsis: Destiny has a secret. She's been told not to tell anyone what happened at Crater Lake. She also can't tell anyone about her sister's bruises. Her friends all want her to report her parents, but Destiny won't. When the secret becomes too much to carry and
Publication Date: 07/24/07
Age Level: Mature Young Adult
Genre: Fiction
Synopsis: Maybe it was bad karma. Maybe it was just bad luck. Whatever the reason, fifteen-year-old David was born defective. His bug eyes, pinched face, and hearing aids are obvious, but there is a secret David keeps from everyone, even his foster parents. Because of a thin layer of skin hidden under each arm, David can fly--well, glide is more like it. Terrified of doctors, wary of letting down his guard, David is determined to hide his secret at any cost. But then David meets Cheetah, a girl whose own defect doesn't diminish her spirit, and suddenly his life begins to take wing.
In this arresting new novel, Will Weaver creates an unforgettable character on the path to discovering that some blessings can be a curse--and some curses a blessing.
In this arresting new novel, Will Weaver creates an unforgettable character on the path to discovering that some blessings can be a curse--and some curses a blessing.
Publication Date: 07/24/07
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Synopsis:
Just when Joey Pigza's wired world finally seems to be under control, his good-for-nothing dad pops back into his life. This time, though, Carter Pigza is a new man – literally. After a lucky lotto win, Carter Pigza has a crazy new outlook on life, and he's even changed his name to Charles Heinz. He thinks Joey and his mom should become new people, too. Soon Joey finds himself bombarded with changes: a new name, a new home, and a new family business – running the beat-up Beehive Diner. He knows he should forgive his dad as his mom wants him to, and get with the new family program. But Joey is afraid that in changing names and going with the flow he will lose sight of who he really is.
In this rocket-paced new chapter in Joey Pigza's life, a favorite hero discovers what identity and forgiveness really mean, and how to cook a delicious turkey burger.
This title has Common Core connections.
Publication Date: 07/24/07
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Synopsis: Billy Hooten is a weird kid. He gets beat up a lot, and spends the rest of his time doggedly trying to build a robot. One day, Billy Hooten hears a cry for help coming from the cemetery that borders his backyard. Against his better judgment, he runs toward it. And after that, everything changes for Billy Hooten. Because Billy Hooten, you see, is Owlboy. A quickthinking, goggle-and-feather-wearing superhero who protects the bizarre and monstrous citizens of Monstros City, a city that exists under Billy's hometown of Bradbury, Massachusetts. But is Billy truly worthy of the moniker Owlboy?
Publication Date: 07/24/07
Age Level: 8 - 12
Genre: Fiction
Synopsis: When an accident leaves teenage cousins Meline and Jocelyn parentless, they come to live with their unknown and eccentric Uncle Marten on his private island. They soon discover that the island has a history as tragic as their own: it was once an air force training camp, led by a mad commander whose crazed plan to train pilots to fly airplanes without instruments sent eleven pilots to their deaths. Jocelyn, Meline, and Uncle Marten are soon joined on this island of wrecked planes and wrecked men by an elderly Austrian housekeeper, a very mysterious butler, a cat, and a dog. But to Jocelyn and Meline, being in a strange new place around strange new people only underscores the fact that the world they once knew has ended.
Told in the alternating voices of four characters dealing with grief in different ways, Polly Horvath’s new novel is a rich and complicated story about loss and the possibility— and impossibility—of beginning again. The Corps of the Bare-Boned Plane is a 2008 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.
Told in the alternating voices of four characters dealing with grief in different ways, Polly Horvath’s new novel is a rich and complicated story about loss and the possibility— and impossibility—of beginning again. The Corps of the Bare-Boned Plane is a 2008 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.
Publication Date: 07/24/07
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Synopsis: Step back to an English village in 1255, where life plays out in dramatic vignettes illuminating twenty-two unforgettable characters. Winner of the Newbery Medal.
Maidens, monks, and millers’ sons — in these pages, readers will meet them all. There’s Hugo, the lord’s nephew, forced to prove his manhood by hunting a wild boar; sharp-tongued Nelly, who supports her family by selling live eels; and the peasant’s daughter, Mogg, who gets a clever lesson in how to save a cow from a greedy landlord. There’s also mud-slinging Barbary (and her noble victim); Jack, the compassionate half-wit; Alice, the singing shepherdess; and many more. With a deep appreciation for the period and a grand affection for both characters and audience, Laura Amy Schlitz creates twenty-two riveting portraits and linguistic gems equally suited to silent reading or performance. Illustrated with pen-and-ink drawings by Robert Byrd — inspired by the Munich-Nuremberg manuscript, an illuminated poem from thirteenth-century Germany — this witty, historically accurate, and utterly human collection forms an exquisite bridge to the people and places of medieval England.
Maidens, monks, and millers’ sons — in these pages, readers will meet them all. There’s Hugo, the lord’s nephew, forced to prove his manhood by hunting a wild boar; sharp-tongued Nelly, who supports her family by selling live eels; and the peasant’s daughter, Mogg, who gets a clever lesson in how to save a cow from a greedy landlord. There’s also mud-slinging Barbary (and her noble victim); Jack, the compassionate half-wit; Alice, the singing shepherdess; and many more. With a deep appreciation for the period and a grand affection for both characters and audience, Laura Amy Schlitz creates twenty-two riveting portraits and linguistic gems equally suited to silent reading or performance. Illustrated with pen-and-ink drawings by Robert Byrd — inspired by the Munich-Nuremberg manuscript, an illuminated poem from thirteenth-century Germany — this witty, historically accurate, and utterly human collection forms an exquisite bridge to the people and places of medieval England.
Publication Date: 07/24/07
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Historical Fiction
Synopsis: Marianne is teetering at the edge of reason. A death in the family sends her brilliant academic career and promising future spiraling out of control until resentment towards those who shaped her past leads her on a wild and desperate search for the truth about herself. On the seedy side of New York, she meets Miles, a hip musician busking the streets and playing low-rent venues in a muddled bid to make his own dreams come true. In her new life, she finds anarchic squalor, home grown music and poetry, booze, drugs, sex, violence, love, loss, and, above all, exhilarating freedom on her troubled journey from sleep to awakening. This gritty, relentless story unfolds with the same cool detachment that motivates the central character to peel back the layers of her life and expose the painful scalding within.
Publication Date: 07/24/07
Age Level: Mature Young Adult
Genre: Mystery
Synopsis: The stranger Orange-Eyes, recognizing that the one who controls fire can become absolute ruler, challenges Ratha's authority over the Named, a clan of intelligent wild cats living twenty-five million years ago. Reissue.
Publication Date: 07/19/07
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Synopsis: Learn essential financial lessons that can help you better manage your money.
Publication Date: 07/17/07
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Educational
Synopsis: "Starting a new chapter" is how Kayla’s mother, Marilyn, has always referred to their abrupt movesfive in the past two years. But what 15-year-old Kayla hates even more than moving is Marilyn’s drinking. It once landed Kayla in foster care, and she’ll do anything to keep that from happening again, even if it means making sacrifices in her own life to keep her mother from falling apart.
Now Marilyn has moved them to New Mexico and promised, yet again, to quit booze for good. Kayla knows better than to believe her, but something about this move does feel different. Kayla is putting down roots, earning money as a dog walker, and spending time with Remy, a 24-year-old musician. And after years of taking care of her mother, Kayla is starting to think of herself and who she wants to be. She knows for sure who she doesn’t want to be. But is she willing to do whatever it takes to create a different life for herselfeven if it means leaving her mother behind?
Sharply honest and beautifully written, this powerful novel is about loving someone else enough to stay with her through anythingand loving yourself enough to let her go.
Now Marilyn has moved them to New Mexico and promised, yet again, to quit booze for good. Kayla knows better than to believe her, but something about this move does feel different. Kayla is putting down roots, earning money as a dog walker, and spending time with Remy, a 24-year-old musician. And after years of taking care of her mother, Kayla is starting to think of herself and who she wants to be. She knows for sure who she doesn’t want to be. But is she willing to do whatever it takes to create a different life for herselfeven if it means leaving her mother behind?
Sharply honest and beautifully written, this powerful novel is about loving someone else enough to stay with her through anythingand loving yourself enough to let her go.
Publication Date: 07/16/07
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
Synopsis: On the night Nazi soldiers come to her home in Czechoslovakia, Milada’s grandmother says, “Remember, Milada. Remember who you are. Always.” Milada promises, but she doesn’t understand her grandmother’s words. After all, she is Milada, who lives with her mama and papa, her brother and sister, and her beloved Babichka. Milada, eleven years old, the fastest runner in school. How could she ever forget?
Then the Nazis take Milada away from her family and send her to a Lebensborn center in Poland. There, she is told she fits the Aryan ideal: her blond hair and blue eyes are the right color; her head and nose, the right size. She is given a new name, Eva, and trained to become the perfect German citizen, to be the hope of Germany’s future—and to forget she was ever a Czech girl named Milada.
Inspired by real events, this fascinating novel sheds light on a little-known aspect of the Nazi agenda and movingly portrays a young girl’s struggle to hold on to her identity and her hope in the face of a regime intent on destroying both.
Then the Nazis take Milada away from her family and send her to a Lebensborn center in Poland. There, she is told she fits the Aryan ideal: her blond hair and blue eyes are the right color; her head and nose, the right size. She is given a new name, Eva, and trained to become the perfect German citizen, to be the hope of Germany’s future—and to forget she was ever a Czech girl named Milada.
Inspired by real events, this fascinating novel sheds light on a little-known aspect of the Nazi agenda and movingly portrays a young girl’s struggle to hold on to her identity and her hope in the face of a regime intent on destroying both.
Publication Date: 07/16/07
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Adventure
Synopsis: Ever since she was a tiny child, Amy’s father’s friends have told her that her young, pretty mother is going to leave her. Of course Amy knows that could never happen—her parents love each other and her, so how could her mother ever leave? Then, one chilly afternoon, Amy’s mother never shows up to pick her up from school. In that moment, Amy confronts a world that she never wanted to know existed.
Amy and her father are Khmer, or Cambodian. In Florida’s tight-knit Cambodian community, word travels fast—and pity soon becomes suffocating. When Amy and her father escape to California, Amy faces new challenges, including a father that she barely recognizes. But with strength and courage, Amy builds a new network of friends, and comes to understand her father’s deep sadness—and his fierce love for her. Home Is East is a moving and hopeful story of how a father and daughter came apart, and how they found their way back to each other.
From the Hardcover edition.
Amy and her father are Khmer, or Cambodian. In Florida’s tight-knit Cambodian community, word travels fast—and pity soon becomes suffocating. When Amy and her father escape to California, Amy faces new challenges, including a father that she barely recognizes. But with strength and courage, Amy builds a new network of friends, and comes to understand her father’s deep sadness—and his fierce love for her. Home Is East is a moving and hopeful story of how a father and daughter came apart, and how they found their way back to each other.
From the Hardcover edition.
Publication Date: 07/10/07
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Fiction
Synopsis: Without his job at the hospital, Clay would be lost. The hard work, the struggles of the patients, the drama in the ERÑit makes his days worth something, and gives focus to his dream of someday becoming a doctor. Clay can't afford to go away to college like the rest of his graduating senior class, but what other 17-year-old has delivered a baby or helped save a life?
Still, Clay wishes his life could be more like his best friend Joey's. Joey has it all—a great family, a good college waiting for him at the end of the summer, money, a car. Clay has to bike everywhere, and the miles are starting to wear him down.
But Joey's golden future shatters one day when he overdoses at a party. Now he's clinging to life at the hospital where Clay works, and Clay may even be implicated in Joey's injuries. Tension and emotion rise as those who love Joey gather and wait. Clay will do whatever he can to find out what happened at the party, and to help Joey recover. But to survive this ordeal Clay must draw on a strength he never knew he had.
Still, Clay wishes his life could be more like his best friend Joey's. Joey has it all—a great family, a good college waiting for him at the end of the summer, money, a car. Clay has to bike everywhere, and the miles are starting to wear him down.
But Joey's golden future shatters one day when he overdoses at a party. Now he's clinging to life at the hospital where Clay works, and Clay may even be implicated in Joey's injuries. Tension and emotion rise as those who love Joey gather and wait. Clay will do whatever he can to find out what happened at the party, and to help Joey recover. But to survive this ordeal Clay must draw on a strength he never knew he had.
Publication Date: 07/10/07
Age Level: 12 and up
Genre: Juvenile Fiction