New e-books added to NCLS

My Heart and Other Black Holes, by Jasmine Warga.

A stunning novel about the transformative power of love, perfect for fans of Jay Asher and Laurie Halse Anderson.

Sixteen-year-old physics nerd Aysel is obsessed with plotting her own death. With a mother who can barely look at her without wincing, classmates who whisper behind her back, and a father whose violent crime rocked her small town, Aysel is ready to turn her potential energy into nothingness.

There's only one problem: she's not sure she has the courage to do it alone. But once she discovers a website with a section called Suicide Partners, Aysel's convinced she's found her solution—Roman, a teenage boy who's haunted by a family tragedy, is looking for a partner. Even though Aysel and Roman have nothing in common, they slowly start to fill in each other's broken lives. But as their suicide pact becomes more concrete, Aysel begins to question whether she really wants to go through with it. Ultimately, she must choose between wanting to die or trying to convince Roman to live so they can discover the potential of their energy together.

Red Queen, by Victoria Aveyard.

Graceling meets The Selection in debut novelist Victoria Aveyard's sweeping tale of seventeen-year-old Mare, a common girl whose once-latent magical power draws her into the dangerous intrigue of the king's palace. Will her power save her or condemn her?

Mare Barrow's world is divided by blood—those with common, Red blood serve the Silver- blooded elite, who are gifted with superhuman abilities. Mare is a Red, scraping by as a thief in a poor, rural village, until a twist of fate throws her in front of the Silver court. Before the king, princes, and all the nobles, she discovers she has an ability of her own.

To cover up this impossibility, the king forces her to play the role of a lost Silver princess and betroths her to one of his own sons. As Mare is drawn further into the Silver world, she risks everything and uses her new position to help the Scarlet Guard—a growing Red rebellion—even as her heart tugs her in an impossible direction. One wrong move can lead to her death, but in the dangerous game she plays, the only certainty is betrayal.

When I Was the Greatest, by Jason Reynolds.

In Bed Stuy, New York, a small misunderstanding can escalate into having a price on your head—even if you’re totally clean. This gritty, triumphant debut captures the heart and the hardship of life for an urban teen.

A lot of the stuff that gives my neighborhood a bad name, I don’t really mess with. The guns and drugs and all that, not really my thing.

Nah, not his thing. Ali’s got enough going on, between school and boxing and helping out at home. His best friend Noodles, though. Now there’s a dude looking for trouble—and, somehow, it’s always Ali around to pick up the pieces. But, hey, a guy’s gotta look out for his boys, right? Besides, it’s all small potatoes; it’s not like anyone’s getting hurt.

And then there’s Needles. Needles is Noodles’s brother. He’s got a syndrome, and gets these ticks and blurts out the wildest, craziest things. It’s cool, though: everyone on their street knows he doesn’t mean anything by it.

Yeah, it’s cool…until Ali and Noodles and Needles find themselves somewhere they never expected to be…somewhere they never should've been—where the people aren't so friendly, and even less forgiving. 

Dragons at Crumbling Castle and Other Tales, by Terry Pratchett. (Audio, narrated by Julian Rhind-tutt.)

Dragons have invaded Crumbling Castle, and all of King Arthur's knights are either on holiday or visiting their grannies. It's a disaster!

Luckily, there's a spare suit of armour and a very small boy called Ralph who's willing to fill it. Together with Fortnight the Friday knight and Fossfiddle the wizard, Ralph sets out to defeat the fearsome fire-breathers.

But there's a teeny weeny surprise in store...

Fourteen fantastically funny stories from master storyteller Sir Terry Pratchett, full of time travel and tortoises, monsters and mayhem!

Katie Friedman Gives Up Texting! And Lives to Tell About It, by Tommy Greenwald. Illustrated by J.P. Coovert.

When a text goes wrong, Katie Friedman learns the hard way that sometimes you need to disconnect to connect.

Here are a few things you need to know about Katie Friedman:

1. Katie is swearing off phones for life! (No, seriously. She just sent the wrong text to the wrong person!)

2. She wants to break up with her boyfriend. (Until, that is, he surprises her with front row tickets to her favorite band, Plain Jane. Now what!?)

3. She wants to be a rock star (It's true. She has a band and everything.)

4. Her best friend is Charlie Joe Jackson. (Yeah, you know the guy.)

5. And most importantly, Katie's been offered the deal of a lifetime—get ten of her friends to give up their phones for one week and everyone can have backstage passes to Plain Jane. (A whole week!? Is that even possible?)

Pinstripe Pride: The Inside Story of the New York Yankees, by Marty Appel.

Get the complete story of the Yankees, from Babe Ruth to Carlos Beltran—with twenty-seven World Championships in between—in this middle grade adaptation of Pinstripe Empire, a celebrated adult nonfiction tome from author and former Yankees PR director Marty Appel.

The New York Yankees are the team of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Mickey Mantle, Don Mattingly, Reggie Jackson, Mariano Rivera, and Derek Jeter; the team of forty American League pennants, twenty-seven World Championships, and nearly forty Hall of Famers.

With more than a century’s worth of great stories, folklore, and photos, plus an introduction by Yankee television broadcaster Michael Kay, Marty Appel—who Bob Costas calls “a fine storyteller with a keen eye for detail”—tells the complete story of the Yankees from their humble beginnings, with no stadium to call their own, to today, when the team’s billion-dollar franchise presides over Yankee Stadium. Middle grade sports lovers, baseball fans, and Yankee acolytes will find a treasure trove of facts, tales, and insider details in Pinstripe Pride. 

Smashie McPerter and the Mystery of Room 11, by N. Griffin. Illustrated by Kate Hindley.

Who stole the hamster from Room 11? A once-happy class is set on edge in this humorous, highly relatable mystery perfect for middle-grade readers. The day the hamster disappears from Smashie McPerter's class begins like any other. Well, except for the fact that the teacher is out sick and Smashie's class is stuck with Mr. Carper, the worst substitute in the world. And except for the mysterious business with the glue. And except for the fact that Smashie is wrestling with a terrible problem, which only partly stems from her extreme aversion to hamster feet.

As the peaceable and productive days of Room 11 turn into paranoia-fueled chaos, as natural suspects produce natural alibis and motives remain unmotivated, Smashie and her best friend, Dontel, are forced to the limits of their parlor-room detecting to set things right.

(All descriptions from OverDrive.)