New Releases for August 11th
Hardcover
AFTER by Amy Efaw (Viking)
An infant left in the trash to die. A teenage mother who never knew she was pregnant . . .
Before That Morning, these were the words most often used to describe straight-A student and star soccer player Devon Davenport: responsible, hardworking, mature. But all that changes when the police find Devon home sick from school as they investigate the case of an abandoned baby. Soon the connection is made --- Devon has just given birth; the baby in the trash is hers. After That Morning, there’s only one way to define Devon: attempted murderer.
HAMLET by John Marsden (Candlewick Press)
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark, but Hamlet can’t be sure what’s causing the stench. His rage at his mother’s infidelities --- together with his greed for the sensual Ophelia and his dead father’s call to revenge a "murder most foul" --- have his mind in chaos, and he wants to scatter his traitorous uncle’s insides across the fields. But was it really his father’s ghost that night on the ramparts, or a hell-fiend sent to trick him? "Action is hot," he tells Ophelia, who lives shut up in a tower with her longings and lust. "Action is courage, and reflection is cowardly. Picking up the knife has the colors of truth. As soon as I hesitate. . . ." In this dark, erotically charged, beautifully crafted novel, John Marsden brings one of Shakespeare’s most riveting characters to full-blooded life in a narrative of intense psychological complexity.
PSYCH MAJOR SYNDROME by Alicia Thompson (Disney-Hyperion)
Using the skills you've learned so far in Introduction to Psychology, please write a brief self-assessment describing how things are going in your freshman year. Presenting Concerns: The Patient, Leigh Nolan (that would be me), has just started her first year at Stiles College. She has decided to major in psychology (even though her parents would rather she study Tarot cards, not Rorschach blots).
Patient has always been very good at helping her friends with their problems, but when it comes to solving her own...not so much.
Patient has a tendency to over-analyze things, particularly when the opposite sex is involved. Like why doesn't Andrew, her boyfriend of over a year, ever invite her to spend the night? Or why can't she commit to taking the next step in their relationship? And why does his roommate Nathan dislike her so much? More importantly, why did Nathan have a starring role in a much-more-than-friendly dream?
Aggravating factors include hyper-competitive fellow psych majors, a professor who's badly in need of her own psychoanalysis, and mentoring a middle-school-aged girl who thinks Patient is, in a word, naive. Diagnosis: Psych Major Syndrome
ROSIE & SKATE by Beth Ann Bauman (Wendy Lamb)
It's off-season at the Jersey shore, when the boardwalk belongs to the locals. Rosie is 15 and her sister Skate is 16. Their dad, an amiable drunk, is spending a few weeks in jail while their cousin Angie looks after them in their falling-down Victorian on the beach. Skate and her boyfriend Perry are madly in love, inseparable --- until now, when Perry goes off to Rutgers. Rosie is shyer than Skate, but she’s drawn to Nick, a boy in their Alateen group. What happens to Rosie and Skate in a few tumultuous weeks is deftly shaded, complex, and true. Readers will be caught up in each girl’s shifting feelings as the story plays out within the embrace of their warmhearted community.
WHEN THE SNOW FELL by Henning Mankell (Delacorte Books for Young Readers)
Joel Gustafson’s journey toward becoming a man continues.
As it has in the past, the first snow of the year signifies to Joel Gustafson his very own New Year’s Eve. So when the snow begins to fall on a cold November day, Joel gets busy making new resolutions --- three, to be exact.
As the winter days pass, life becomes ever more complicated. Joel has questions and the answers don’t necessarily come easily, but he is determined to keep his resolutions --- for his father, for himself, and for their future.
In this companion novel to A BRIDGE TO THE STARS and SHADOWS IN THE TWILIGHT, readers follow Joel’s journey as he realizes along the way that it will require determination, strength, and valor to truly become a man.
Paperback
IMPOSSIBLE by Nancy Werlin (Speak)
Inspired by the ballad “Scarborough Fair,” this riveting novel combines suspense, fantasy, and romance for an intensely page-turning and masterfully original tale.
Lucy Scarborough is 17 when she discovers that the women of her family have been cursed through the generations, forced to attempt three seemingly impossible tasks or fall into madness upon their child’s birth. Unless she can complete these tasks, Lucy will go mad, just like her mother and all the Scarborough women before her. But Lucy is the first girl who won’t be alone as she tackles the list. She has her fiercely protective foster parents and her childhood friend Zach beside her. As they struggle to make sense of the puzzle in the ballad and play by the dangerously important rules, time is slipping away and Lucy’s fate hangs in the balance. Do they have love and strength enough to overcome an age-old evil?
LESSONS FROM A DEAD GIRL by Jo Knowles (Candlewick)
Leah Greene is dead. For Laine, knowing what really happened and the awful feeling that she is, in some way, responsible set her on a journey of painful self-discovery. Yes, she wished for this. She hated Leah that much. Hated her for all the times in the closet, when Leah made her do those things. They were just practicing, Leah said. But why did Leah choose her? Was she special, or just easy to control? And why didn’t Laine make it stop sooner? In the aftermath of the tragedy, Laine is left to explore the devastating lessons Leah taught her, find some meaning in them, and decide whether she can forgive Leah and, ultimately, herself.
A BRIDGE TO THE STARS by Henning Mankell (Delacorte Books for Young Readers)
Two things are hard for Joel Gustafson to cope with: not knowing why, and not being able to do anything about it. Joel’s father was once a sailor who lived by the sea. Joel’s mother once lived with them. Joel’s father abandoned the sea. Joel’s mother abandoned Joel and his father.
While looking out his window one night, Joel sees a lonely dog on the street. Joel spots the animal again and begins sneaking out night after night, trying to find it. During these nocturnal outings, Joel discovers aspects of life he has never imagined. And then one night he discovers that his father’s bed, too, is empty.
As Joel investigates his father’s mysterious absences and continues to search for the dog, he discovers his own inner strength and learns about adult disappointments and needs.
THE DEBUTANTE by Kathryn Williams (Hyperion)
Annie McRae has her whole senior year planned out. Early acceptance to Brown University, a field hockey scholarship to pay the bills, and days spent with her best friend Jamie and her boyfriend Jake. It is going to be perfect. Then her parents ruin it all by moving--to Alabama. Now, Annie finds herself in an unfamiliar world where she isn't even sure she speaks the same language. To top it off, she discovers that if she ever wants to escape back to her comfortable Yankee life, she will have to become a debutante. As in white-dress-wearing, perfect-manners-practicing, curtsying girly-girl. Fighting every step of the way, Annie spends the year learning to be a lady. Along the way, she discovers that friends can come from the most unlikely of places and that change is not always a bad thing...
THE CASTAWAYS: The Curse of the Jolly Stone Trilogy, Book III by Iain Lawrence
(Laurel Leaf)
The spirited adventure that began in THE CONVICTS and continued in THE CANNIBALS has its riveting conclusion in THE CASTAWAYS --- in which Tom Tin and his four convict companions save two sailors stranded on an iceberg. There’s Mr. Beezley, with his tattooed hands and icy stare; and Mr. Moyle, with his pig-like face and rotten teeth, who supposedly eats children. As Tom grows wary of the men, he suspects they are plotting to get rid of him. But
how? And if Tom and the other boys can’t stop the sailors, will they ever make it home to England, where Tom’s diamond remains buried, and where he still stands a chance of sorting out his tangled fate?
