In the mood for something that packs a bit of a bigger punch than your usual YA fare? Many of the books in this week's roundup of new releases don't shy away from heavy topics, which range from suicide in Keith Grey's OSTRICH BOY and teen pregnancy in Nina de Gramont's EVERY LITTLE THING IN THE WORLD, to family drama in JOSPEH by Sheila T. Moses, and death in Holly Nicole Hoxter's THE SNOWBALL EFFECT. Be sure to check them out --- their poignant stories may just strike a chord with you. New Releases for March 23rd
Hardcover
CENTER FIELD by Robert Lipsyte (HarperTeen)
Mike has his junior year well under control. He’s got a solid group of friends. He’s dating Lori, one of the hottest girls in school. And Coach Cody has all but given him the starting spot as the Ridgedale Rangers’ varsity center fielder. And then Oscar Ramirez shows up. Oscar is an amazing ballplayer, as talented at the plate as he is in center field, and it’s not long before Mike loses control. He’s on the bench, he’s getting into fights, and he finds himself in weekend detention with Katherine Herold, the most mysterious, abrasive, alluring girl in school. Mike is lost, confused, and looking to Coach Cody to help him get back on track. But the coach has his own set of rules for Mike to play by, and the decisions Mike makes are going to impact more than just the starting lineup.
Robert Lipsyte, one of the most celebrated writers in young adult literature, has crafted a subtly intense tale of adolescent struggle, a sports story about much more than sports --- one that shows us how the moves one makes off the field matter even more than the moves one has on it.
A CONSPIRACY OF KINGS by Megan Whalen Turner (Greenwillow Books)
Sophos, under the guidance of yet another tutor, practices his swordplay and strategizes escape scenarios should his father’s villa come under attack. How would he save his mother? His sisters? Himself? Could he reach the horses in time? Where would he go? But nothing prepares him for the day armed men, silent as thieves, swarm the villa courtyard ready to kill, to capture, to kidnap. Sophos, the heir to the throne of Sounis, disappears without a trace.
In Attolia, Eugenides, the new and unlikely king, has never stopped wondering what happened to Sophos. Nor has the Queen of Eddis. They send spies. They pay informants. They appeal to the gods. But as time goes by, it becomes less and less certain that they will ever see their friend alive again.
Across the small peninsula battles are fought, bribes are offered, and conspiracies are set in motion. Darkening the horizon, the Mede Empire threatens, always, from across the sea. And Sophos, anonymous and alone, bides his time. Sophos, drawing on his memories of Gen, Pol, the magus --- and Eddis --- sets out on an Badventure that will change all of their lives forever.
EVERY LITTLE THING IN THE WORLD by Nina de Gramont (Atheneum Books for Young Readers/Simon & Schuster)
Sixteen-year-old Sydney Biggs is a “good kid” --- smart, pretty, self-aware. No one doubts that she’ll go far in life. But lately her mother worries that Sydney is wandering down the wrong path and getting all caught up in petty teenage rebellion and shenanigans. When Sydney and her best friend, Natalia, “borrow” a car to go to a party and then get escorted home by the police, their parents pack them up and ship them off to a hard-love wilderness camp to stop this behavior before it gets out of hand, before things go too far. The problem is, they already have.
Sydney the “good kid” is pregnant.
In the wilds of Canada --- where the girls are to spend the next four weeks canoeing, camping, and foraging for food --- time is ticking because Sydney isn’t sure what she wants to do about this baby. And she certainly isn’t expecting the other heady issues that will confront her as she forges friendships with her adventure mates, including a guy who makes it no secret that he is a major thug, and a teen television heartthrob with a secret of his own, not to mention her own best friend --- who is very adamant about what Sydney should do.
EVERY LITTLE THING IN THE WORLD introduces a luminous new young-adult voice by the author of the critically acclaimed book for adults GOSSIP OF THE STARLINGS.
OSTRICH BOYS by Keith Gray (Random House Books for Young Readers)
It’s not really kidnapping, is it? He’d have to be alive for it to be proper kidnapping.’ Kenny, Sim and Blake are about to embark on a remarkable journey of friendship. Stealing the urn containing the ashes of their best friend Ross, they set out from Cleethorpes on the east coast to travel the 261 miles to the tiny hamlet of Ross in Dumfries and Galloway. After a depressing and dispiriting funeral they feel taking Ross to Ross will be a fitting memorial for a 15-year-old boy who changed all their lives through his friendship. Little do they realise just how much Ross can still affect life for them even though he’s now dead. Drawing on personal experience Keith Gray has written an extraordinary novel about friendship, loss and suicide, and about the good things that may be waiting just out of sight around the corner...
THE SNOWBALL EFFECT by Holly Nicole Hoxter (HarperTeen)
Lainey Pike can tell you everything you need to know about the people in her family just by letting you know how they died. Her reckless stepfather drove his motorcycle off the highway and caused the biggest traffic jam in years. Her long-suffering grandmother lived through cancer and a heart attack before finally succumbing to a stroke. And Lainey’s mother --- well, Lainey’s mother hanged herself in the basement just days after Lainey’s high school graduation.
Now Lainey’s five-year-old brother is an orphan and her estranged older sister is moving back home to be his guardian. Meanwhile, Lainey’s boyfriend is thinking about having a family of their own, and her best friends are always asking the wrong sorts of questions and giving advice Lainey doesn’t want to hear. As she tries to pull away from everything familiar, Lainey meets an intriguing new guy who, through a series of Slurpees, burgers, and snowballs, helps her to make peace with a parent she never understood.
RIVALS: A Baseball Great Novel by Tim Green (HarperCollins Children’s Books)
Cooperstown! Josh is thrilled when all his hard training pays off in a big way and his team, the Titans, makes it to a national tournament in Cooperstown, home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame. More is on the line for Josh than just a trophy. Winning would mean everything to his dad --- now Josh’s coach. Winning could mean a major endorsement deal for the Titans and the attention of big league scouts!
After a dirty play and a brutal injury threaten to sideline Josh, he spies suspicious activity at the tournament. He tries to tell his good friend Jaden about what he’s seen, but she’s too busy spending time with the L.A. Comets’ star player, Mickey Mullen Jr., to want to get involved. Jaden says she’s doing research for the newspaper…but is she? Now Josh has a rival—both on the field and off --- as he swings for the fences in a game that quickly becomes more dangerous.
New York Times bestselling author Tim Green delivers a hard-hitting look at what some teams will do to win in this gripping companion to BASEBALL GREAT.
Paperback
THE AWAKENING by Kelley Armstrong (HarperCollins)
If you had met me a few weeks ago, you probably would have described me as an average teenage girl --- someone normal. Now my life has changed forever and I’m as far away from normal as it gets. A living science experiment --- not only can I see ghosts, but I was genetically altered by a sinister organization called the Edison Group. What does that mean? For starters, I’m a teenage necromancer whose powers are out of control; I raise the dead without even trying. Trust me, that is not a power you want to have. Ever.
Now I’m running for my life with three of my supernatural friends—a charming sorcerer, a cynical werewolf, and a disgruntled witch—and we have to find someone who can help us before the Edison Group finds us first. Or die trying.
BIRD LAKE MOON by Kevin Henkes (Greenwillow Books)
There are ghosts at Bird Lake, and they’re haunting Mitch Sinclair and Spencer Stone. Not the Halloween kind, but ghosts of the past. Memories of how life was before --- before the divorce, before the accident. Can their ghosts bring Mitch and Spencer together, as friends? Or will their secrets keep them apart?
Either way, it is a summer that neither Mitch nor Spencer will ever forget.
FRAGILE ETERNITY by Melissa Marr (HarperCollins)
Seth never expected he would want to settle down with anyone --- but that was before Aislinn. She is everything he’d ever dreamed of, and he wants to be with her forever. Forever takes on new meaning, though, when your girlfriend is an immortal faery queen.
Aislinn never expected to rule the very creatures who’d always terrified her --- but that was before Keenan. He stole her mortality to make her a monarch, and now she faces challenges and enticements beyond any she’d ever imagined.
In Melissa Marr’s third mesmerizing tale of Faerie, Seth and Aislinn struggle to stay true to themselves and each other in a milieu of shadowy rules and shifting allegiances, where old friends become new enemies and one wrong move could plunge the Earth into chaos.
JOSEPH by Shelia P. Moses (Margaret K. McElderry Book)
For Joseph Flood, life is tough. Tough because of Mama’s addiction to drugs and alcohol. Tough because Daddy is away with the army fighting in Iraq. Tough because it looks like there’s no way out once you’re living in a homeless shelter in a North Carolina ghetto neighborhood. And tough because Joseph is enrolled in yet another new school where he doesn’t know anyone and has to keep what’s going on in his life a secret.
Joseph struggles to keep Mama clean and to hold their broken family together while trying to make new friends and join the school tennis team. Can a boy who’s only fifteen years old win his daily battle to survive?
Joseph is a powerful and moving story from the author of National Book Award finalist THE LEGEND OF BUDDY BUSH that looks at what it really takes for a boy to begin to become a man.
