Our Books

MIDDLE GRADE

HEART OF A SHEPHERD by Rosanne Parry.
Contemporary, Coming of Age. Random House, January 27, 2009
With
his father deployed to Iraq, sixth grader Ignatius–who goes by
Brother–promises to keep the family ranch running perfectly in the hope
that it will bring his father safely home. A year of hardship brings
changes to the ranch and also reveals the man Brother is meant to
become.

THE YEAR THE SWALLOWS CAME EARLY, by Kathryn Fitzmaurice.
Contemporary. The Bowen Press, An Imprint of HarperCollins, February 3, 2009
Eleven-year-old
Eleanor “Groovy” Robinson plans to go to culinary school as soon as
she’s old enough, but even her thoughtfully planned menus can’t fix the
things that start to go wrong after her father is sent to jail. But as
Groovy begins to expect the unexpected, she starts to understand the
complex stories of the people in her family, and the importance of
forgiveness.

BULL RIDER, by Suzanne Morgan Williams.
Contemporary, Coming of Age, Margaret K. McElderry Books, February 24, 2009
When
fourteen year old Cam O’Mara’s brother is seriously injured in the war
in Iraq and returns to their central Nevada ranch to mend, Cam turns
from skateboarding to bull riding, tradition, and family, to cope with
loss and give his brother hope.

JANE IN BLOOM, by Deborah Lytton.
Contemporary, Dutton Children’s Books, March 2009
In
the wake of family tragedy, twelve-year-old Jane learns to look through
her camera lens and frame life differently, embracing her broken family
and understanding that every girl has her season to blossom.

MY LIFE IN PINK&GREEN, by Lisa Greenwald.
Contemporary, Coming of Age, Abrams Books for Young Readers/Amulet Books, March 2009
An
entrepreneurial story with an environmental twist: a debut featuring a
narrator who knows what she wants, whether it’s great makeup, a killer
business plan, or a better world.

ALSO KNOWN AS HARPER, by Ann Haywood Leal.
Henry Holt and Company, May 26, 2009

Harper’s world has been turned upside down–her father gone, her family evicted–which she could just about handle if it wasn’t for the poetry contest at school. If only she could get up on that stage and read her poems out loud . . .

SECRETS OF THE CHEESE SYNDICATE, by Donna St. Cyr. Fantasy, CBAY Books/Blooming Tree Press, Spring 2009

When Robert Montasio finds a mysterious bottle of Madame Gorgonzola’s Effervescent Elixir on the bus, he has no idea it’s going to become the number one problem on his top ten list–and the biggest adventure of his life.

OPERATION REDWOOD, by S. Terrell French.
Adventure, Amulet Books, Earth Day, April 22, 2009
When Julian Carter-Li intercepts an e-mail revealing his high-powered uncle’s plan to log an ancient redwood grove, it sets him and his friends on an environmental adventure filled with undercover plots, secret messages, and treetop stand-offs.

WHEN THE WHISTLE BLOWS, by Fran Cannon Slayton.
Historical, Coming of Age, Philomel Books, a division of Penguins Young Readers Group, June 11, 2009
In a book that goes to the core of boyhood–its Halloween mischief, its hunting day mystery, its championship football game surprise, and its nighttime adventures–Fran Cannon Slayton brings her readers to the breathtaking crossroad of an unforgettable West Virginia railroad town, a family that matters, and adulthood itself.

ROAD TO TATER HILL by Edith M. Hemingway.
Historical Fiction, Delacorte Press, September 8, 2009.
Set in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina in 1963. Grief-stricken after the death of her newborn sister, eleven-year-old Annie Winters finds comfort in holding an oblong stone she calls her rock baby and befriends a reclusive mountain woman with a devastating secret.

HAVEN, by Beverly Patt.
Contemporary, Blooming Tree Press, Fall 2009
Soon after meeting orphan Latonya Dennis, fourteen-year-old Rudy Morris finds himself an unwitting participant in a runaway plan that has dire consequences for them both.

YOUNG ADULT

FREAKED, by J.T. Dutton.
Humor, Coming of Age.
Set in the mid-nineties. Prep school student and ardent fan of the Grateful Dead, fifteen-year-old Scotty Douglas Loveletter road trips to the most unforgettable show of his life.
HarperTeen, March 17, 2009

MY BIG NOSE AND OTHER NATURAL DISASTERS, by Sydney Salter.
Humor, Coming of Age, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, April 1, 2009
Seventeen-year-old Jory Michaels is convinced she can solve all her problems (and snag herself a boyfriend) by getting a nose job.

BREATHING, by Cheryl Renée Herbsman.
Contemporary, Romantic Coming of Age, Viking, April 16, 2009
Savannah believes she’s found true love and the cure for her life-threatening asthma all at once. But when life gets turned about, she finds her way to love, to following her dreams, and to learning to breathe all on her own.

WATERSMEET, by Ellen Jensen Abbott.
Fantasy, Marshall Cavendish, April 2009
Fourteen-year-old Abisina flees the prejudice and hate of her village and heads north in search of her father, accompanied by the dwarf, Haret. On their journey they face mythic creatures, benevolent spirits, challenges to their survival, their own prejudices, and dreams that look like nightmares.

SHRINKING VIOLET, by Danielle Joseph.
Humor, Self-Esteem, MTV/Pocket Books, a Division of Simon&Schuster, May 5, 2009
Painfully shy high school senior, Tere Adams, must learn to come out of from behind her mask and face the bullies in her life in order to reach her dream of becoming a radio DJ.

CRASH INTO ME, by Albert Borris.
Contemporary, Simon Pulse, May 2009
Four troubled teens embark on a road trip to visit the graves of celebrity suicides prior to their own planned demise in Death Valley.

INITIATION, by Susan Fine.
Contemporary, Coming of Age. Flux, May 2009
What comes from going to high school with eight hundred blue-blazered boys? That’s what freshman Mauricio Londoño discovers, along with a few things about Macbeth and geometry, during his first long year at the St. Stephen’s School for Boys in New York City.

GIVE UP THE GHOST, by Megan Crewe.
Paranormal, Henry Holt, September 15, 2009
A teen outcast who sees ghosts and uses the secrets they dig up to expose her fellow students' deceits must choose between revenge and compassion when the popular student council V.P. comes to her for supernatural help.

MY INVENTED LIFE, by Lauren Bjorkman.
Contemporary, Henry Holt, September 29, 2009
A modern-day quasi-Shakespearean comedy about rivalry, deceit, and sisterly devotion, cast with characters of ambiguous sexuality.

NOTHING LIKE YOU, by Lauren Strasnick.
Contemporary, Simon Pulse, October 20, 2009
A seventeen-year-old grieving the loss of her Mom can’t let go of a one-night stand.

DREAMING ANASTASIA, by Joy Preble.
Contemporary Fantasy, Sourcebooks, Fall 2009
Sixteen-year-old Anne’s line of descent becomes her destiny as she joins forces with mysterious Ethan to save Anastasia Romanov from the legendary Russian witch Baba Yaga.