The Accidental Afterlife of Thomas Marsden, by Emma Trevayne.
Grave robbing is a messy business.
A
bad business. And for Thomas Marsden, on what was previously an
unremarkable spring night in London, it becomes a very spooky business.
For lying in an unmarked grave and half covered with dirt is a boy the
spitting image of Thomas himself. This is only the first clue that
something very strange is happening. Others follow, but it is a
fortune-teller’s frightened screams that lead Thomas into a strange
world of spiritualists, death, and faery folk. Faery folk with whom
Thomas’s life is bizarrely linked. Faery folk who need his help.
Desperate
to unearth the truth about himself and where he comes from, Thomas is
about to discover magic, ritual, and the uncanny truth that sometimes
the things that make a boy ordinary are what make him extraordinary.
Alive (Generations #1), by Scott Sigler.
A teenage girl awakens to find herself trapped in a coffin. She has no
idea who she is, where she is, or how she got there. Fighting her way
free brings little relief--she discovers only a room lined with caskets
and a handful of equally mystified survivors. Beyond their room lies a
corridor filled with bones and dust, but no people . . . and no answers.
She knows only one thing about herself--her name, M. Savage, which was
engraved on the foot of her coffin--yet she finds herself in charge. She
is not the biggest among them, or the boldest, but for some reason the
others trust her. Now, if they're to have any chance, she must get them
to trust each other.
Whatever the truth is, she is determined
to find it and confront it. If she has to lead, she will make sure they
survive. Maybe there's a way out, a rational explanation, and a fighting
chance against the dangers to come. Or maybe a reality they cannot
comprehend lies just beyond the next turn.
Another Kind of Hurricane, by Tamara Ellis Smith.
In this stunning debut novel, two very different characters--a black boy
who loses his home in Hurricane Katrina and a white boy in Vermont who
loses his best friend in a tragic accident--come together to find
healing.
A hurricane, a tragic death, two boys, one marble.
How they intertwine is at the heart of this beautiful, poignant book.
When ten-year-old Zavion loses his home in Hurricane Katrina, he and his
father are forced to flee to Baton Rouge. And when Henry, a
ten-year-old boy in northern Vermont, tragically loses his best friend,
Wayne, he flees to ravaged New Orleans to help with hurricane relief
efforts--and to search for a marble that was in the pocket of a pair of
jeans donated to the Red Cross.
Rich with imagery and
crackling with hope, this is the unforgettable story of how lives
connect in unexpected, even magical, ways.
Dad's First Day, by Mike Wohnoutka.
I'm with Cupid (Switched at First Kiss #1), by Anna Staniszewski.
Dared
to kiss the adorkable Marcus Torelli at a party, Lena thinks it's the
perfect opportunity to cross First Kiss off her list of "Things to
Accomplish Before I Turn Fourteen."
It's only when she gets sent
on an assignment the next day she realizes something went horribly
wrong. That ZING she felt wasn't the thrill of her first kiss—she and
Marcus have swapped powers!
Lena is not your average eighth grader,
she's a soul collector with an serious job to do. And Marcus turns out
to be a supernatural matchmaker (like Cupid, but without the diaper).
Now
logical Lena finds herself with the love touch, and sweet, sentimental
Marcus has death at his fingertips. The truth is that Lena should never
have taken that dare...because one little kiss has Lena and Marcus in a
whole lotta trouble.
The Moon is Going to Addy's House, by Ida Pearle.
After a play date in the city, Addy heads home to the country with her
family. And through the long drive, the moon seems to be following them
closely—Addy's faithful guardian and friend.
The comforting sense
that the moon is your own personal companion is universal to childhood,
and Ida Pearle has depicted it beautifully through her lyrical text and
soft, sleepy cut-paper collage illustrations. This is a book that
children will ask to hear every night at bedtime.
A School for Brides: A Story of Maidens, Mystery, and Matrimony, by Patrice Kindl.
The Winthrop Hopkins Female Academy of Lesser Hoo, Yorkshire, has one
goal: to train its students in the feminine arts with an eye toward
getting them married off. This year, there are five girls of
marriageable age. There's only one problem: the school is in the middle
of nowhere, and there are no men.
Set in the same English town as Keeping the Castle, and
featuring a few of the same characters, here's the kind of witty
tribute to the classic Regency novel that could only come from the pen
of Patrice Kindl!
The Six, by Mark Alpert.
Adam's muscular dystrophy has stolen his mobility, his friends, and
in a few short years, it will take his life. Virtual reality games are
Adam's only escape from his wheelchair. In his alternate world, he can
defeat anyone. Running, jumping, scoring touchdowns: Adam is always the
hero.
Then an artificial intelligence program, Sigma, hacks into
Adam's game. Created by Adam's computer-genius father, Sigma has gone
rogue, threatening Adam's life—and world domination. Their one chance to
stop Sigma is using technology Adam's dad developed to digitally
preserve the mind of his dying son.
Along with a select group of
other terminally ill teens, Adam becomes one of the Six who have
forfeited their bodies to inhabit weaponized robots. But with time
running short, the Six must learn to manipulate their new mechanical
forms and work together to train for epic combat...before Sigma destroys
humanity.
Stonewall: Breaking Out in the Fight for Gay Rights, by Ann Bausum.
In 1969 being gay in the United States was a criminal offense. It meant
living a closeted life or surviving on the fringes of society. People
went to jail, lost jobs, and were disowned by their families for being
gay. Most doctors considered homosexuality a mental illness. There were
few safe havens. The Stonewall Inn, a Mafia-run, filthy, overpriced bar
in New York City's Greenwich Village, was one of them.
Police
raids on gay bars happened regularly in this era. But one hot June
night, when cops pounded on the door of the Stonewall, almost nothing
went as planned. Tensions were high. The crowd refused to go away. Anger
and frustration boiled over.
The raid became a riot. The riot became a catalyst. The catalyst triggered an explosive demand for gay rights.
Ann Bausum's riveting exploration of the Stonewall Riots and the
national Gay Rights movement that followed is eye-opening, unflinching,
and inspiring.
(All descriptions from OverDrive.)
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