In case you didn't already know, April 11-17 is National Library Week --- be sure to show your local or school library some love by stopping by and checking out the amazing resources they have to offer! And while you're there, you might as well keep an eye out for some of the amazing new titles hitting the shelves this week, including Patrick Carman's suspenseful dystopian adventure THIRTEEN DAYS TO MIDNIGHT, Catherine Jinks's interstellar fantasy LIVING HELL, Jame Richards' historical romance THREE RIVERS RISING, and Don Calame's hysterical coming-of-age comedy, SWIM THE FLY.New Releases for April 12th
Hardcover
THIRTEEN DAYS TO MIDNIGHT by Patrick Carman (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
You are indestructible. Three whispered words transfer an astonishing power to Jacob Fielding that changes everything. At first, Jacob is hesitant to use the power, unsure of its implications. But there's something addictive about testing the limits of fear.
Then Ophelia James, the beautiful and daring new girl in town, suggests that they use the power to do good, to save others. But with every heroic act, the power grows into the specter of a curse. How to decide who lives and who dies?
In this nail-biting novel of mystery and dark intrigue, Jacob must walk the razor thin line between right and wrong, good and evil, and life and death. And time is running out. Because the Grim Reaper doesn't disappear. . . . He catches up.
LIVING HELL by Catherine Jinks (Harcourt Children's Books)
What happens when a single moment changes everything? For seventeen-year-old Cheney, life on earth exists only in history books. He and more than one thousand other people have known life only aboard the Plexus spacecraft: self-contained, systematic, and serene. But that was before the radiation wave.
Now Plexus has suddenly turned on them, becoming a terrifying and unrecognizable force. As the crew dwindles under attack, Cheney and his friends need to fight back before the ship that’s nurtured them for so long becomes responsible for their destruction.
A WIZARD OF MARS: THE NINTH BOOK IN THE YOUNG WIZARDS SERIES by Diane Duane (Harcourt Children's Books)
In the hotly anticipated ninth installment of the Young Wizards series, Kit and Nita become part of an elite team investigating the mysterious "message in a bottle," which holds the first clues to the secrets of the long-lost inhabitants of Mars. But not even wizardry can help them cope with the strange events that unfold when the "bottle" is uncorked and a life form from another era emerges.
Though the Martians seem friendly, they have a plan that could change the shape of more than one world. As the shadow of interplanetary war stretches over both worlds, Kit and Nita must fight to master the strange and ancient synergy binding them to Mars and its last inhabitants. If they don't succeed, the history that left Mars lifeless will repeat itself on Earth.
Paperback
FLORA’S DARE: How a Girl of Spirit Gambles All to Expand Her Vocabulary, Confront a Bouncing Boy Terror, and Try to Save Califa from a Shaky Doom (Despite Being Confined to Her Room) by Ysabeau S. Wilce (Graphia Paperbacks)
Flora Fyrdraaca wants nothing more than to be a ranger, and for that she must master the magickal --- and dangerous --- language of Gramatica. But before she can find the ideal teacher, her aspirations are put to the test. Would a true ranger be intimidated by a tentacle that reaches for her from the depths of a toilet? Be daunted by her best friend’s transformation into a notorious outlaw, thanks to a pair of sparkly stolen boots? Be cowed by the revelation that only she can rescue the city of Califa from the violent earthquakes that threaten its survival?
Never. Saving her city and her best friend are the least a Girl of Spirit can do --- yet what Flora doesn’t expect are the life-altering revelations she learns about her family and herself.
New Releases for April 13th
Hardcover
BOYS, BEARS, AND A SERIOUS PAIR OF HIKING BOOTS by Abby McDonald (Candlewick)
Can a boy-hungry Jersey girl survive the wilds of Canada with her eco-identity intact?
Jenna may hail from the ’burbs of New Jersey, but Green Teen activism is her life. So when her mom suggests they spend the summer at Grandma’s Florida condo, Jenna pleads instead to visit her hippie godmother, Susie, up in rural Canada. Jenna is psyched at the chance to commune with this nature she’s heard about --- and the cute, plaidwearing boys she’s certain must roam there. But after a few run-ins with local wildlife (from a larger-than-life moose to Susie’s sullen Goth stepdaughter to a hot but hostile boy named Reeve), Jenna gets the idea that her long-held ideals, like vegetarianism and conservation, don’t play so well with this population of real outdoorsmen. A dusty survival guide offers Jenna amusing tips on navigating the wilderness --- but can she learn to navigate the turns of her heart?
EFRAIN’S SECRET by Sofia Quintero (Knopf Books for Young Readers)
Ambitious high school senior Efrain Rodriguez dreams of escaping the South Bronx for an Ivy League college like Harvard or Yale. But how is his family going to afford to pay for a prestigious university when Moms has to work insane hours to put food on the table as it is? And Efrain wouldn’t dare ask that good-for-nothing father of his who has traded his family in for younger models. Left with few options, Efrain chooses to do something he never thought he would. He embarks on a double life --- honor student by day, drug peddler at night --- convinced that by temporarily capitulating to society’s negative expectations of a boy like him, he can eventually defy them.
Sofia Quintero makes a stunning debut writing for young adults with this gritty, complex, and real exploration of the life of an urban teen whose attempt to leave one world behind for a better one could cost him everything.
THE KNIFE THAT KILLED ME by Anthony McGowan (Delacorte Books for Young Readers)
Paul Vanderman could be at any normal high school where bullies, girls, and annoying teachers are just part of life. But “normal” doesn’t apply when it comes to the school’s biggest bully, Roth --- a twisted and threatening thug with an evil agenda.
When Paul ends up delivering a message from Roth to the leader of a gang at a nearby school, it fuels a rivalry with immediate consequences. Paul attempts to distance himself from the feud, but somehow Roth keeps finding reasons for him to stick around. Then one day Roth hands him a knife. And even though Paul is scared, he has never felt so powerful.
SPORTS CAMP by Rich Wallace (Knopf Books for Young Readers)
Riley feels like the smallest kid at sports camp. In fact, he is. He just turned eleven in April, but most kids here are twelve, and a few are even thirteen --- and gigantic. It’s hard enough for a shrimp like Riley to fit in. He just doesn’t want to be the weak link as his bunk competes for the Camp Olympia Trophy.
Riley knows he’s no good at strength and accuracy games like basketball and softball. But when it comes to speed and endurance events, like running and swimming, he’s better than he looks. He’s pretty sure he can place in the top ten --- and bring in major trophy points --- in the final mile-long swim race across Lake Surprise. But he doesn’t count on being followed by the shadow of Big Joe, the giant vicious snapping turtle of camp lore. Wasn’t that supposed to be a legend?
THREE RIVERS RISING: A Novel of the Johnstown Flood, by Jame Richards (Knopf Books for Young Readers)
Sixteen-Year-Old Celstia spends every summer with her family at the elite resort at Lake Conemaugh, a shimmering Allegheny Mountain reservoir held in place by an earthen dam. Tired of the society crowd, Celestia prefers to swim and fish with Peter, the hotel’s hired boy. It’s a friendship she must keep secret, and when companionship turns to romance, it’s a love that could get Celestia disowned. These affairs of the heart become all the more wrenching on a single, tragic day in May, 1889. After days of heavy rain, the dam fails, unleashing 20 million tons of water onto Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in the valley below. The town where Peter lives with his father. The town where Celestia has just arrived to join him. This searing novel in poems explores a cross-class romance --- and a tragic event in U. S. history.
Paperback
CHAMELEON by Charles R. Smith Jr. (Candlewick)
Shooting the breeze with his boys. Tightening his D on the court. Doing a color check — making sure nobody's wearing blue or red, which some Crip or Piru carrying a cut-down golf club would see as disrespect. Then back to Auntie's, hoping she isn't passed out from whiskey at the end of the day. Now that Shawn is headed for high school, he wonders if he'd be better off at the school in Mama's neighborhood, where he'd be free of Compton's hassles. But then he wouldn't be with his fellas --- cracking jokes, covering each other's backs --- or the fine Marisol, who's been making star appearances in his dreams. Dad says he needs to make his own decision, but what does Shawn want, freedom or friendship? With teasing, spot-on dialogue and an eye to the realities of inner-city life, CHAMELEON takes on the shifting moods of a teenager coming of age.
SHARK GIRL by Kelly Bingham (Candlewick)
On a sunny day in June, at the beach with her mom and brother, fifteen-year-old Jane Arrowood went for a swim. And then everything --- absolutely everything --- changed. Now she’s counting down the days until she returns to school with her fake arm, where she knows kids will whisper, "That’s her --- that’s Shark Girl," as she passes. In the meantime there are only questions: Why did this happen? Why her? What about her art? What about her life? In this striking first novel, Kelly Bingham uses poems, letters, telephone conversations, and newspaper clippings to look unflinchingly at what it’s like to lose part of yourself --- and to summon the courage it takes to find yourself again.
SIDE EFFECTS by Amy Goldman Koss (Square Fish)
As if it isn’t bad enough to have cancer, practically every time we pick up a book or hear about a character in a movie who gets sick, we know they’ll be dead by the last scene. In reality, kids get all kinds of cancers, go through unspeakable torture and painful treatments, but walk away, fine in the end. Isabelle, not quite 15, is living a normal life of fighting with her younger brother, being disgusted with her parents, and hoping to be noticed by a cute guy. Everything changes in an instant when she is diagnosed with lymphoma --- and even her best friend, Kay, thinks Izzy is going to die. But she doesn’t, and her humor --- sardonic, sharp, astute --- makes reading this book accessible and actually enjoyable.
SWIM THE FLY by Don Calame (Candlewick)
Fifteen-year-old Matt Gratton and his two best friends, Coop and Sean, always set themselves a summertime goal. This year's? To see a real-live naked girl for the first time --- quite a challenge, given that none of the guys has the nerve to even ask a girl out on a date. But catching a girl in the buff starts to look easy compared to Matt's other summertime aspiration: to swim the 100-yard butterfly (the hardest stroke known to God or man) as a way to impress Kelly West, the sizzling new star of the swim team. In the spirit of Hollywood’s blockbuster comedies, screenwriter-turned-YA-novelist Don Calame unleashes a true ode to the adolescent male: characters who are side-splittingly funny, sometimes crude, yet always full of heart.
- Click here to read our review of SWIM THE FLY
- Click here to read Don's guest post, "Diving into the Deep End of Writing."
