Favorite Books - PG-15 - Fiction

Same Difference (Hardcover)

By Siobhan Vivian
$17.99
ISBN-13: 9780545004077
Availability: Not currently in the store – Usually ships in 1-5 days
Published: Push, 3/2009
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At the end of her junior year in high school, Emily is accepted to attend a pre-college art program in Philadelphia.  Three days a week during the summer, she’ll leave the safety of her comfortable and predictable suburban existence to get a taste of life as a college student.  Trepidation turns into excitement and a challenge as Emily’s perspective on art and artists takes shape.  Siobhan Vivian’s new novel, SAME DIFFERENCE (Scholastic, $17.99), offers a refreshing take on coming of age.  Ages 13-17 HWP

Swim the Fly (Hardcover)

By Don Calame
$16.99
ISBN-13: 9780763641573
Availability: Not currently in the store – Usually ships in 1-5 days
Published: Candlewick, 4/2009
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Each summer, Matt, Sean, and Coop set themselves a challenge. This year it’s to see a real live girl naked.  In order to impress Kelly, a new girl on the swim team, Matt also has another goal: to teach his scrawny body to SWIM THE FLY (Candlewick, $16.99). Author Don Calame captures the raunchy yet odd sensitivity of 16-year-old boys in a side-splittingly funny novel.  Ages 12 and up.  DDL

Eli the Good (Hardcover)

By Silas House
$16.99
ISBN-13: 9780763643416
Availability: Not currently in the store – Usually ships in 1-5 days
Published: Candlewick, 9/2009
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Eli’s close-knit family is struggling with issues that were little understood in 1976.  His father is traumatized by flashback dreams of the Vietnam War, his sister is becoming virulently anti-American, and his best friend’s parents are divorcing.  He is trying to be ELI THE GOOD (Candlewick, $16.99), but author Silas House’s sensitive character is having trouble keeping his emotions in check during the hot Kentucky Bicentennial summer.  Ages 13-16.  DDL

Fire (Hardcover)

By Kristin Cashore
$17.99
ISBN-13: 9780803734616
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Dial, 10/2009
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FIRE’s (Dial Books, $17.99) monstrous beauty lures men to her, and while she has real strength in her powers, she is also vulnerable. Fearful of using her mind-reading powers lest they have evil consequences, she becomes convinced that with them she can help the kingdom and begin to reverse the destruction that her monster-father caused. Full of romance and page-turning tension, Kristin Cashore’s companion to Graceling will leave readers eagerly awaiting the third volume about the Seven Kingdoms.  Ages 14 and up.  JEH

 

King of the Screwups (Hardcover)

By K. L. Going
$17.00
ISBN-13: 9780152062583
Availability: Not currently in the store – Usually ships in 1-5 days
Published: Harcourt Children's Books, 4/2009
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Despite his excellent fashion sense and extreme popularity, Liam’s father constantly reminds him that he is the KING OF THE SCREW-UPS (Harcourt, $17).  When Liam is kicked out of the house to live with his militaristic grandparents, his mother contrives a plan for Liam to live with “Aunt” Pete, his father’s gay, cross-dressing, trailer-living brother. Author K.L. Going (Fat Kid Rules the World) has created a superb, idiosyncratic cast of characters, including “Aunt” Pete’s friends, in this funny, heartfelt quest for self-worth.  Ages 14 and up.  DDL

Purple Heart (Hardcover)

By Patricia McCormick
$16.99
ISBN-13: 9780061730900
Availability: Not currently in the store – Usually ships in 1-5 days
Published: Balzer + Bray, 9/2009
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Matt Duffy is not sure he deserves the PURPLE HEART (HarperCollins, $16.99) he is given in an Iraqi combat hospital while recovering from traumatic brain injury. Back in combat, with the floating memory of a young Iraqi boy’s death haunting him, Matt tries to figure out the consequences of split-second decisions made by young, inexperienced soldiers.  Patricia McCormick leaves the reader pondering the unintended consequences of current policy in Iraq and Afganistan.  Ages 14 and up.  JEH

Crossing Stones (Hardcover)

By Helen Frost
$16.99
ISBN-13: 9780374316532
Availability: Not currently in the store – Usually ships in 1-5 days
Published: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR), 9/2009
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Muriel and Ollie Jorgensen and Frank and Emma Norman have grown up together, their homes connected by the CROSSING STONES (FSG, $16.99) that form a bridge across Crabapple Creek.  Now, as America enters World War I, all four teenagers are struggling to find their place in the world.  Frank and Ollie leave their families to join the war effort in Europe, Emma helps keep the families safe at home, and Muriel finds her place in the burgeoning women’s rights movement and the fight for women’s suffrage.  Muriel, Ollie, and Emma take turns narrating Helen Frost’s novel in carefully crafted verse.  Ages 14 and up.  DMC

The Summer I Turned Pretty (Hardcover)

By Jenny Han
$17.99
ISBN-13: 9781416968238
Availability: Not currently in the store – Usually ships in 1-5 days
Published: Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers, 5/2009
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Since 15-year-old Belly was a baby, her family has spent summers at the beach with her mother’s best friend, Susannah, and her two sons, Conrad and Jeremiah. However, this summer seems different. Conrad, ready for college, and Jeremiah, almost 17, respond differently to her and the spirited Susannah seems ill.  Author Jenny Han uses flashbacks to provide an understanding of the characters’ previous and current relationships. In retrospect, Belly acknowledges that this is THE SUMMER I TURNED PRETTY (Simon and Schuster, $16.99), but also the summer her life changed forever.  This romantic, resonant novel will linger in the mind, no matter the season.  Ages 14 and up.  MAG

 

Marcelo In The Real World (Hardcover)

By Francisco Stork, Francisco X. Stork
$17.99
ISBN-13: 9780545054744
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Arthur A. Levine Books, 3/2009
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Seventeen-year-old Marcelo attends a school for students on the autistic spectrum. However, this summer his father wants MARCELO IN THE REAL WORLD (Arthur Levine, $17.99) and insists he take a job in the mailroom of his law firm.  The change in daily routine challenges Marcelo and he finds himself supported by his coworker, Jasmine, and foiled by the son of one of the other partners.  When Marcelo inadvertently discovers a case involving a major client and a young disfigured girl, he embarks on a journey of discovery about his father, the legal world, and himself.  Marcelo’s unforgettable voice will challenge preconceived notions of what it means to function in the real world. Francisco X. Stork’s novel is a satisfying legal drama and love story. Also available in audio.  Ages 15 and up.  MAG

If I Stay (Hardcover)

By Gayle Forman
$16.99
ISBN-13: 9780525421030
Availability: Not currently in the store – Usually ships in 1-5 days
Published: Dutton Juvenile, 4/2009
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On a snowy day in Oregon, an impromptu family drive goes horribly wrong and 17-year-old Mia’s life is drastically changed. Mia is an aspiring cellist and as she contemplates her new reality, she is drawn to her past and questions whether the future is worth holding on to.  Romantic, poignant, and interwoven with the significance of music in one's life, Gayle Foreman's IF I STAY (Dutton, $16.95) manifests the transformative power of family and love in a young woman's life.  Ages 14-18.  MAG

The Uninvited (Hardcover)

By Tim Wynne-Jones
$16.99
ISBN-13: 9780763639846
Availability: Not currently in the store – Usually ships in 1-5 days
Published: Candlewick, 5/2009
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After a disturbing freshman year at NYU, Mimi Shapiro can’t wait to escape to what she believes will be the peace and quiet of her father’s remote Canadian cottage.  But her summer is anything but peaceful.  Who is THE UNINVITED (Candlewick, $16.99)?  The married professor she’s dumped who continues to harass her?  Jay, a local musician about her age, who has taken up residence in her dad’s cottage?  The anonymous person who keeps leaving strange artifacts in and around the cottage?  Together, Mimi and Jay untangle a complex and surprising web of past and present relationships, stretching from New York to Canada in this gripping, fast-paced thriller by Tim Wynne-Jones.  Ages 15 and up.  HWP

Lips Touch: Three Times (Hardcover)

By Laini Taylor
$17.99
ISBN-13: 9780545055857
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Arthur A. Levine Books, 10/2009
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Magic may be powerful, but desire is even more so as LIPS TOUCH: THREE TIMES (Scholastic, $17.99). In each of Laini Taylor’s three novellas, a kiss has consequences. Adding to the book’s intensity is a series of wordless illustrations by Taylor’s husband, Jim di Bartolo, that begin each story and always foretell dark pasts. For fantasy and non-fantasy lovers alike, here’s a book that shows just how many places a kiss can lead when the supernatural is lurking.  Ages 15 and up.  JEH

Genesis (Hardcover)

By Bernard Beckett
$20.00
ISBN-13: 9780547225494
Availability: Not currently in the store – Usually ships in 1-5 days
Published: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 4/2009
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Set in a futuristic, post-Apocalyptic society founded on the principles of Plato’s Republic, Bernard Beckett’s GENESIS (Houghton Mifflin, $20) is a novel of ideas and an intense page-turner.  Anaximander faces a life challenge as she presses for admission into the Academy. The questions she must answer, however, pale in comparison to those the reader must face: Should a founding ideology—even one that has kept society safe for generations—be retained at the expense of humanity? What does it mean to be human?  Ages 15 and up.  SNB