A World Without Heroes by Brandon Mull

"The prince dangled in the darkness, shoulders aching,
ancient manacles digging into his wrists as he tried to sleep."

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Summary: Fourteen-year-old Jason Walker is transported to a strange world called Lyrian, where he joins Rachel, who was also drawn there from our world, and a few rebels, to piece together the Word that can destroy the malicious wizard emperor, Surroth.

Aladdin, 454 pages

The Floating Islands by Rachel Neumeier

"Trei was fourteen the first time he saw the Floating Islands."

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Summary: The adventures of two teenaged cousins who live in a place called The Floating Islands, one of whom is studying to become a mage and the other one of the legendary island flyers.

Alfred A. Knopf; 388 pages

The Cardturner: A Novel about a King, a Queen, and a Joker by Louis Sachar

"Ever since I was a little kid, I've had it drilled into me that my uncle Lester was my favorite uncle."

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When his wealthy uncle, a champion bridge player who has lost his vision, asks seventeen-year-old Alton to be a cardturner for him, Alton has no idea how much he will ultimately learn from his eccentric relative.

Delacorte Press, 336 pages

Ashes by Kathryn Lasky

"In 1914 my story begins."

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Summary: In 1932 Berlin, thirteen-year-old Gaby Schramm witnesses the beginning of Hitler's rise to power, as soldiers become ubiquitous, her beloved literature teacher starts wearing a jewelled swastika pin, and the family's dear friend, Albert Einstein, leaves the country while Gaby's parents secretly bury his books and papers in their small yard.

Viking Press; 309 pages

The Monster Variations by Daniel Kraus

"Five more minutes and I'm gone."

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Abstract: On his way to State University, nineteen-year-old James runs into a former friend and is immersed in memories from the year they were twelve and learned that monsters exist in the world--and within themselves.

Publisher: Delacorte Press; 245 pages

Lost by Jacqueline Davies

"Mama is on the bed grunting like a pig, and Ida Pelz from next door is telling her to push."

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Summary: 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.

Marshall Cavendish; 242 pages

A Voice of Her Own - Becoming Emily Dickinson by Barbara Dana

"It was too dreary, the last of our family's possessions piled by the side of the road as if Gypsies had relinquished squatter's rights and were moving on to points unknown."

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Abstract: A fictionalized first-person account of revered American poet Emily Dickinson's girlhood in mid-nineteenth-century Amherst, Massachusetts. Award-winning author Barbara Dana brilliantly imagines the girlhood of this extraordinary young woman, capturing the cadences of her unique voice and bringing her to radiant life.

Publisher: HarperTeen; 346 pages

The Rock and the River by Kekla Magoon

"I tried to pretend I was somewhere else."

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Abstract: 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.

Publisher: Aladdin; 290 pages

Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork

"Marcelo, are you ready?"

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Abstract: 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.

Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books; 312 pages

Twilight Prisoner by Katherine Marsh

This book was suggested for inclusion on our blog but I do not have a copy of it in hand to jot down the first sentence. If anyone has a copy and wants to let me know the first sentence, I'll be happy to jot it down here, otherwise -- be patient -- I'll put it in as soon as our Library receives the book or the ARC is returned.

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Abstract: In an effort to impress a female classmate, high school sophomore Jack Perdu endangers both of their lives by taking her to New York City's Underworld, where those who died in New York reside until they are ready to move on.

Publisher: Hyperion; 246 pages

Reality Check by Peter Abrahams

This book was suggested for inclusion on our blog but I do not have a copy of it in hand to jot down the first sentence. If anyone has a copy and wants to let me know the first sentence, I'll be happy to jot it down here, otherwise -- be patient -- I'll put it in as soon as our Library receives the book or the ARC is returned.


Publisher: HarperCollins; 336 pages

Wings by Jason Lethcoe

"Edward Alistair Macleod had an itch that he couldn't scratch."

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Abstract: In 1921, fourteen-year-old Edward gets caught up in a conflict between the Guardians of Woodbine--the place of the dead--and the Groundlings, the Jackal's agents of corruption on Earth, and sets out on an important quest using his newly-sprouted wings.

Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap; 214 pages

Perpetual Check by Rich Wallace

"They're barefoot, moving silently along the carpeted hallway, searching for some clue to which hotel room might be Jenna McNultys."

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Abstract: Brothers Zeke and Randy participate in an important chess tournament, playing against each other while also trying to deal with their father's intensely competitive tendencies.

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf; 112 pages

Jumped by Rita Williams-Garcia

"Zero Period."

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Abstract: The lives of Leticia, Dominique, and Trina are irrevocably intertwined through the course of one day in an urban high school after Leticia overhears Dominique's plans to beat up Trina and must decide whether or not to get involved.

Publisher: HarperTeen; 168 pages

Shifty by Lynn D. Hazen

"Summer is just starting and I'm getting into trouble without even trying."

Tricycle Press; 188 pages

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

"When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold."

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Abstract: In a future North America, where the rulers of Panem maintain control through an annual televised survival competition pitting young people from each of the twelve districts against one another, sixteen-year-old Katniss's skills are put to the test when she voluntarily takes her younger sister's place.

Publisher: Scholastic, 374 pages

Skin Deep by E. M. Crane

"My name is Andrea."

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Abstract: When sixteen-year-old Andrea Anderson begins caring for a sick neighbor's dog, she learns a lot about life, death, pottery, friendship, hope, and love.

Delacorte Press; 273 pages

Ever by Gail Carson Levine

"I am huge in my Mati's womb, straining her wide tunic."

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Abstract: Fourteen-year-old Kezi and Olus, Akkan god of the winds, fall in love and together try to change her fate--to be sacrificed to a Hyte god because of a rash promise her father made--through a series of quests that might make her immortal.

Harper Collins; 244 pages

The Missing Girl by Norma Fox Mazer

"If the man is lucky, in the morning on his way to work, he sees the girls."

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Abstract: In Mallory, New York, as five sisters, aged eleven to seventeen, deal with assorted problems, conflicts, fears, and yearnings, a mysterious middle-aged man watches them, fascinated, deciding which one he likes the best.

Publisher: HarperTeen; 284 pages

Nick of Time by Ted Bell

"Hard a'lee, me boys!" shouted Nick McIver over the wind, "or be smashed to smithereens in the jaws of Gravestone Rock!"

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Abstract: With the help of Lord Hawke, whose children have been taken by the evil pirate Captain Billy Blood, young Nick McIver uses a time machine to rescue the two children as well as change the course of events in two time periods, the Napoleonic Wars and World War II.

Publisher: St. Martin's/Griffin; 419 pages