As March winds down and April fast approaches, make sure to keep your shelves stocked and your "TBR" pile stacked high in preparation for many a rainy afternoon spent indoors. We have over a dozen new titles to share that just might be the perfect antidotes to gray skies and soggy weather --- including THE HEART IS NOT A SIZE by Beth Kephart, WATCH FOR ME BY MOONLIGHT by Jacqueline Mitchard and FEVER CRUMB by Philip Reeve, not to mention the paperback editions of CLICK by Nick Hornby, Meg Cabot's BEING NIKKI, and STEINBECK'S GHOST by Lewis Buzbee --- so get yourself to your local bookstore or library ASAP!New Releases for March 30th
Hardcover
THE HEART IS NOT A SIZE by Beth Kephart (HarperTeen)
Georgia knows what it means to keep secrets. She knows how to ignore things. She knows that some things are better left unsaid…. Or are they?
When Georgia and her best friend, Riley, travel along with nine other suburban Pennsylvania kids to Anapra, a squatters’ village in the heat-flattened border city of Juarez, Mexico, secrets seem to percolate and threaten both a friendship and a life. Certainties unravel. Reality changes. And Georgia is left to figure out who she is outside the world she’s always known.
Beth Kephart paints a world filled with emotion, longing, and the hot Mexican sun.
Paperback
CAT AMONG THE PIGEONS by Julia Golding (Square Fish)
MYSTERY, DISGUISES, AND A FIGHT FOR FREEDOM.
Welcome back to the seedy underbelly of London, in 1790. Cat Royal and her friends at the Theater Royal are getting ready for their next performance. But the star of the show may not make it to opening night. Pedro has proved to all of London that he is a brilliant musician and a gifted actor, but, according to Mr. Kingston Hawkins, Pedro is nothing more than a slave. When Cat attempts to secure Pedro’s freedom, she ends up risking her own and has to go into hiding. Go undercover with Cat as she infiltrates aristocratic society one moment and Billy Shepherd’s gang hideaway the next. The irrepressible Cat Royal never fails to stir up trouble --- and save the day --- wherever she goes.
HOUSE OF DANCE by Beth Kephart (HarperTeen)
Rosie and her mother coexist in the same house as near strangers. Since Rosie’s father abandoned them years ago, her mother has accomplished her own disappearing act, spending more time with her boss than with Rosie. Now faced with losing her grandfather too, Rosie begins to visit him every day, traveling across town to his house, where she helps him place the things that matter most to him “in trust.” As Rosie learns her grandfather’s story, she discovers the role music and motion have played in it. But like colors, memories fade. When Rosie stumbles into the House of Dance, she finally finds a way to restore the source of her grandfather’s greatest joy.
Eloquently told, National Book Award finalist Beth Kephart’s HOUSE OF DANCE is a powerful celebration of life and the people we love who make it worthwhile.
MASTERPIECE by Elise Broach and Kelly Murphy (Square Fish)
Marvin lives with his family under the kitchen sink in the Pompadays’ apartment. He is very much a beetle. James lives with his family in New York City. He is very much an 11-year-old boy. After James gets a pen and ink set for his birthday, Marvin surprises him by creating an elaborate miniature drawing. Then James ends up with all the credit, and is expected to do it again. Before they know it, the unlikely friends are caught up in an art heist that could lead them to a long-lost drawing by Albrecht Dürer. Of course, James can’t go through with the plan without Marvin’s help. But can a boy take a beetle to a museum and let him recreate a master work of art without anyone knowing about it? Even more important, can he bring the beetle safely back home?
STEINBECK’S GHOST by Lewis Buzbee (Square Fish)
It’s been two months since Travis’s family moved from their shabby old house to a development so new that it seems totally unreal. There’s one place, though, where Travis can still connect with his old life: the Salinas library. Travis and his family used to go there together every Saturday, but now he bikes to it alone, re-reading his favorite books: the works of John Steinbeck. Suddenly Travis is seeing Steinbeck’s characters come to life. There’s the homeless man in the alley behind the library, the boy who writes by night in an attic bedroom. Travis has met them before --- as a reader. But how can they be here now? And why?
TEENAGE LOVE AFFAIR by Ni-Ni Simone (Dafina)
Check it: I’m Zsa-Zsa. Some call me arrogant, but I call it confidence. You decide when you find out what I’m working with.
First things first --- I’m 17, but I’m grown and have been for a long time. I have my own ride, my mama doesn’t clock my time, and my boyfriend, Ameen, is getting money like you wouldn’t believe. There’s only one problem: when Ameen gets mad, sometimes he takes his anger out on me. And yeah, maybe I could leave him, but there’s no way Ameen could imagine being without me.
So now I’m all confused, especially since my first love, Malachi, is back in my life. Ameen is not giving up without a fight, and no matter how hard I try, the love I have for Malachi won’t go away. And did I mention that Malachi has a girl? Needless to say, my days are filled with drama. So this is my story and you need to come and chill with me as I try and see what boy is for me, what love is all about, and if my first teenage love affair will forever rule or ruin my life.
New Releases for April 1st
Hardcover
THE DREAMER written by Pam Muñoz Ryan and illustrated by Peter Sís (Scholastic Press)
From the time he is a young boy, Neftalí hears the call of a mysterious voice. Even when the neighborhood children taunt him, and when his harsh, authoritarian father ridicules him, and when he doubts himself, Neftalí knows he cannot ignore the call. Under the canopy of the lush rain forest, into the fearsome sea, and through the persistent Chilean rain, he listens and he follows. . . Combining elements of magical realism with biography, poetry, literary fiction, and sensorial, transporting illustrations, Pam Muñoz Ryan and Peter Sís take readers on a rare journey of the heart and imagination.
GUARDIAN OF THE DEAD by Karen Healey (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
"You're Ellie Spencer." I opened my mouth, just as he added, "And your eyes are opening."
Seventeen-year-old Ellie Spencer is just like any other teenager at her boarding school. She hangs out with her best friend Kevin, she obsesses over Mark, a cute and mysterious bad boy, and her biggest worry is her paper deadline.
But then everything changes. The news headlines are all abuzz about a local string of serial killings that all share the same morbid trademark: the victims were discovered with their eyes missing. Then a beautiful yet eerie woman enters Ellie's circle of friends and develops an unhealthy fascination with Kevin, and a crazed old man grabs Ellie in a public square and shoves a tattered Bible into her hands, exclaiming, "You need it. It will save your soul." Soon, Ellie finds herself plunged into a haunting world of vengeful fairies, Maori mythology, romance, betrayal, and an epic battle for immortality.
SHADOW by Jenny Moss (Scholastic Press)
In a time of kings, queens, and conspiracy, it's impossible to know whom one can trust. . . .
In a kingdom far away and long ago, it was prophesied at her birth that the queen would die before her sixteenth birthday. So Shadow, an orphan girl the same age as the young queen, was given the duty to watch her every move. And as prophesies do tend to come true, the queen is poisoned days before her birthday. When the castle is thrown into chaos, Shadow escapes with a young knight, whom she believes was betrothed to the queen.
Unsure of why she is following Sir Kenway, but determined to escape as far as possible from the castle, her long-time prison, Shadow sets off on an adventure with the handsome knight who has been charged with protecting her. As mystery builds, and romantic tension does, too, Shadow begins to wonder what her role in the kingdom truly is. Soon, she learns, it is up to her to save her land.
Jenny Moss's novel is a lyrical, fast-paced adventure filled with mystery, magic, honor, and romance that will lead readers on an incredible journey.
WATCH FOR ME BY MOONLIGHT: A Midnight Twins Novel, by Jacquelyn Mitchard (Razorbill/Penguin Young Readers Group)
In the third book of the Midnight Twins Trilogy, Mally and Merry’s supernatural dream visions are put to the test when their baby brother is kidnapped --- and by someone who has grown very close to the Brynn family.
Meanwhile, Meredith is distracted by the strange new boy in town. But there’s one problem with her new romance: he’s a ghost from the past, a boy who actually died in the Vietnam War and is struggling with his soul.
Mallory must help her sister let go of a love that was never meant to be --- and the twins must come together and use their powers to save their baby brother.
FEVER CRUMB by Philip Reeve (Scholastic Press)
Fever Crumb is a girl who has been adopted and raised by Dr. Crumb, a member of the order of Engineers, where she serves as apprentice. In a time and place where women are not seen as reasonable creatures, Fever is an anomaly, the only female to serve in the order. Soon though, she must say goodbye to Dr. Crumb --- nearly the only person she's ever known --- to assist archeologist Kit Solent on a top-secret project. As her work begins, Fever is plagued by memories that are not her own and Kit seems to have a particular interest in finding out what they are. Fever has also been singled out by city-dwellers who declare her part Scriven. The Scriveners, not human, ruled the city some years ago but were hunted down and killed in a victorious uprising by the people. If there are any remaining Scriven, they are to be eliminated. All Fever knows is what she's been told: that she is an orphan. Is Fever a Scriven? Whose memories does she hold? Is the mystery of Fever, adopted daughter of Dr. Crumb, the key to the secret that lies at the heart of London?
Haunting, arresting, and astonishingly original, FEVER CRUMB will delight and surprise readers at every fast-paced, breathless turn.
Paperback
CLICK by Nick Hornby, Roddy Doyle, Gregory Maguire, Linda Sue Park, David Almond, Tim Wynne-Jones, Ruth Ozeki, Deborah Ellis, Margo Lanagan, and Eoin Colfer (Scholastic Paperbacks)
A video message from a dead person. A larcenous teenager. A man who can stick his left toe behind his head and in his ear. An epileptic girl seeking answers in a fairy tale. A boy who loses everything in World War II, and his brother who loses even more. And a family with a secret so big that it changes everything.
The world's best beloved authors each contribute a chapter in the life of the mysterious George "Gee" Keane, photographer, soldier, adventurer, and enigma. Under different pens, a startling portrait emerges of a man, his family, and his gloriously complicated tangle of a life.
- Click here to read our review of CLICK.
PURGE by Sarah Darer Littman (Scholastic Paperbacks)
Janie Ryman hates throwing up. So why does she binge eat and then stick her fingers down her throat several times a day? That’s what the doctors and psychiatrists at Golden Slopes hope to help her discover. But first Janie must survive everyday conflicts between the Barfers and the Starvers, attempts by the head psychiatrist to fish painful memories out of her emotional waters, and shifting friendships and alliances among the kids in the ward.
BEING NIKKI by Meg Cabot (Point)
It's not easy being Nikki. Ever since former tomboy Emerson Watts' accident at the SoHo Stark Megastore --- and subsequent brain transplant into the body of teen supermodel Nikki Howard --- her life has changed dramatically. Em's trying to handle the demands of school, modeling, fending off Nikki's creepy ex-boyfriends, and living with celebutante Lulu Collins.
Will this former tomboy be able to make it in the world of high fashion? What will happen if she can't?
How can Em balance all her new, crazy life demands of her with school, runway shows, and weekend jaunts to St. Johns --- especially when she's got ex-boyfriends crawling out of the woodwork who want more than just a photo op; a sister who is headed to the high school cheerleading championships; a company she represents that seems to be turning to the dark side. . .
Not to mention trying to convince the love of her life that models aren't really airheads after all. . .especially one model in particular.
But then, nobody said it was going to be easy being Nikki.
- Click here to read our review of BEING NIKKI
