Synopsis:

With time travel and mysteries that need solving, the Galactic Academy of Science (G.A.S.) series instructs readers on how to think like scientists. Under the guidance of a Dude or Dudette from the future, the middle school characters are faced with treacherous, present-day crimes that require a historical knowledge of science in order to be solved. From investigating problems to analyzing data and constructing explanations and solutions, this series blends elements of sci-fi with educational methods that distill the key thinking habits of scientists and engineers.

 

Learn to create and crack codes in this latest G.A.S. installment

 

Dr. G and his companions are using coded messages in a plot to corrupt the International Science Fair. Quarkum Phonon, a Dude from the future, calls on four middle school students for help. Benson and Anita work on their computers while two new G.A.S. recruits, Ella and Shomari, travel through time, facing kidnappers, thieves, and spies in their scramble to learn about codes and ciphers. Across two millennia and five countries, they meet Julius Caesar, Thomas Jefferson, Alan Turing, and others, while learning about substitution ciphers, frequency analysis, wheels, cylinders, book codes, the Verginère Table, the Enigma, and public and private keys. But will they break Dr. G’s code in time to save the science fair? A computer-based online extension that allows readers to create and decode their own secret messages is also included.

Synopsis: In 1959 Virginia, the lives of two girls on opposite sides of the battle for civil rights will be changed forever. 

Sarah Dunbar is one of the first black students to attend the previously all-white Jefferson High School. An honors student at her old school, she is put into remedial classes, spit on and tormented daily. 

Linda Hairston is the daughter of one of the town's most vocal opponents of school integration. She has been taught all her life that the races should be kept "separate but equal." 

Forced to work together on a school project, Sarah and Linda must confront harsh truths about race, power and how they really feel about one another. 

Boldly realistic and emotionally compelling, Lies We Tell Ourselves is a brave and stunning novel about finding truth amid the lies, and finding your voice even when others are determined to silence it.

Synopsis: Break Out by Nina Croft
Dark Desires (book 1)
The year is 3048, Earth is no longer habitable, and man has fled to the stars where they've discovered the secret of immortality--Meridian. Unfortunately, the radioactive mineral is exorbitantly expensive and only available to a select few. A new class comprised of the super rich and immortal soon evolves. The Collective, as they're called, rule the universe.
Two-thousand-year-old Ricardo Sanchez, vampire and rogue pilot of the space cruiser, El Cazador, can't resist two things: gorgeous women and impossible jobs. When beautiful Skylar Rossaria approaches him to break a prisoner out of the Collective's maximum security prison on Trakis One, Rico jumps at the chance. Being hunted by the Collective has never been so dangerous-or so fun! The Dark Desires series: Book 1 Break OutBook 2 Deadly PursuitBook 3 Death DefyingBook 4 Temporal ShiftBook 5 Blood and Metal

Synopsis: Sixteen-year-old Isra Kalb has grown up starving in the slums of Islamabad. But hunger is only the beginning. When her father is mysteriously murdered and madness corrupts her mother's mind, she's left alone to fend for herself and her sister. Homeless and destitute, the only thing she has to remember her loving family by is a commonplace necklace--an amulet barely worth keeping. Or so she thinks. Swept into a web of lies, deceit and turmoil, Isra struggles to find a place for herself and Zaffirah, wondering if the strange creatures and visions she's seeing are indications of the madness that took her mother. But when Snatchers capture Zaffirah, Isra learns her amulet isn't so useless after all. Transported to Zarcane--the beastly garden where Adam and Eve were born--Isra comes face to face with her destiny. She's a Keeper, charged with protecting the borders of Zarcane and keeping the demon hordes lurking in the shadows from taking realms that are not their own. And she's not the only one; there's a second Keeper, a boy whose identity hasn't been revealed. Now, in order to save her sister and fulfill her family's legacy as Keeper of the Amulet, she has to find the second Keeper and close the borders. Surrounded by betrayal, trapped between warring factions of angels, and desperate to save the only family she has left, Isra must decide: Who can she trust when nothing is what it seems?

Synopsis: During a ceasefire of a war that has taken more lives than could be considered just, there are shadows of betrayal and deceit lurking in the rays of the morning sun. Something is lingering on the horizon, and it's hell-bent on destruction, despair and death. Whatever it may be, it's driven the Goddess to some very desperate measures. Life for the Harmon siblings has been hard enough, but now they face responsibilities that they never asked for. They never asked for power. They never asked for a world of monsters. They never asked to come face-to-face with demons, the corrupted of their own people, or their own mortality. But that is just what they will have to do. They are the chosen heroes of Cornelia, the final hope for order and sanity, the last line of defence against the darkness. They are the Buan.

Synopsis: Kidnapped on the streets of Tangier and sold into slavery, Tariq, Fez, and Aseem are fighting for their lives with the evil warlord, Caid Ali Tamzali, ruler of the Rif Mountains. Joined by British school girl Margaret Owen, also kidnapped and sold to the Caid to join his harem, the four must act quickly to escape before almost certain death—or worse. Although aided by a beautiful assassin and a small but clever band of resistance fighters, their lives depend on their own teamwork, inventiveness, and courage.

This fast-paced historical adventure, set in 1912, transports you from Tangier's corrupt slave markets to the wild frontier of the Moroccan desert, to the heart of ancient China, and the pirate-infested seas of the Mediterranean. The first book in the Red Hand Adventures series, Rebels of the Kasbah is an exhilarating tale of adventure, daring, danger and friendship.

Synopsis: Racial intolerance, social change, and sweeping progress make 1908 Washington, D.C., a turbulent place to grow up in for 12-year-old Emily Soper. For Emily, life in Papa’s carriage barn is magic, and she's more at home hearing the symphony of the blacksmith’s hammer than trying to conform to the proper expectations of young ladies. When Papa’s livelihood is threatened by racist neighbors and horsepower of a different sort, Emily faces changes she'd never imagined. Finding courage and resolve she didn't know she had, Emily strives to save Papa’s business, even if it means going all the way to the White House.