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The Lastling by Philip Gross Fourteen-year-old Paris is thrilled when her rich, influential uncle Franklin decides to take her on a trip to the Himalayas. She hopes this will be her chance to prove just how mature and worthy of his company she is.
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The Silver Ship & the Sea by Brenda Cooper The colony planet Fremont is joyous, riotous, and very wild. Its grasses can cut your arms and legs to ribbons, the rinds of its precious fruit can skewer your thumbs, and some of the predators are bigger than humans. Meteors fall from the sky and volcanoes erupt. Fremont’s single town, Artistos, perches on a cliff below rugged mountains. Below Artistos lie the Grass Plains, which lead down to the sea. And in the middle of the Grass Plains, a single silver spaceship lies quiet and motionless. The seasons do not dull it, nor do the winds scratch itand the fearful citizens of Aristos won't go near it.
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Epic by Conor Kostick Generations ago, violence was banned on New Earth. Society is governed and conflicts are resolved in the arena of a fantasy computer game, Epic. Everyone plays. If you win, you have the chance to go to university, get more supplies for your community, and fulfill your dreams; if you lose, your life both in and out of the game is worth nothing. When Erik, seeking revenge for the unjust treatment of his parents, dares to subvert the rules of Epic, he and his friends find themselves up against with the ultimate masters of the game: the Committee.
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The New Policeman by Kate Thompson There never seems to be enough time in Kinvara, or anywhere else in Ireland for that matter. When J.J.'s mother says that what she really wants for her birthday is more time in her day, J.J. decides to find her some. It seems as though J.J.'s given himself an impossible task. But then a neighbor reveals a secret to him. There is a place where time stands still. J.J. realizes he's the only person who can make the journey, but to do so he'll have to vanish from his own life. And when J.J. disappears from the village, enter the new policeman.
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The Prophecy by Hilari Bell Perryn is a hopeless prince. His drunken father scorns his love of books, the master of arms ridicules his swordplay, and someone in the castle may be trying to kill him! But Perryn's books are his best weapons to stop the dragon that is destroying his kingdom and his one hope of earning his father's respect. When he unearths a prophecy on how to kill the dragon, Perryn sets out to find the three things needed to make it come true: a unicorn, a true bard, and a special sword.
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Witch Catcher by Mary Downing Hahn
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The MEQ by Steve Cash The day that Zianno Zezen (Z), turns twelve, his life changes forever. Amid the chaos of a tragic train wreck, he has the first inkling that he is not human. He's a member of a race known as the Meq. The Meq have lost all memory of their origins: they do not know why they heal with astonishing speed, or why, once they turn twelve, they stop aging, unless they meet the single other member of their race destined to join with them. Certain Meq possess even more amazing powers, thanks to mysterious Stones they have carried since before the dawn of recorded history. Z's father carried such a Stone. Now that Stone is Z's to bear and to protect. The Meq are far-flung and elusive, but Z finds needed allies for a challenge comes from the renegade Meq called the Fleur-du-Mal, the Flower of Evil.
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The Last Dragon by Silvana de Mari In a post-apocalyptic world, shrouded in darkness and continually lashed by rain, a young elf named Yorsh struggles to survive. When his village is destroyed by the torrential waters, Yorsh finds himself suddenly orphaned and alone, the earth’s last elf. But soon Yorsh discovers he is part of a powerful prophecy: when the last dragon and the last elf break the circle, the past and the future will meet, and the sun of a new summer will shine in the sky. Now Yorsh must decipher the prophecy and find the last dragon. It is the only way to end the rains and save the world from the Dark Age that has begun.
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The Softwire: Virus on Orbis 1 by PJ Haarsma Thirteen-year-old Johnny Turnbull has always known there was something different about him, even before he and two hundred other kids landed on the first ring of Orbis. But once their spaceship lands, he is identified as the first-ever softwire, a human with the ability to enter and communicate with computers through his mind, and becomes the focus of intergalactic intrigue. Johnny and the rest of the refugee orphans are put to work in alien factories, and very quickly things go very wrong. When the all-knowing, all-controlling, and technologically perfect central computer starts malfunctioning, suspicious eyes turn to Johnny.
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Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier High in the Transylvanian woods, at the castle Piscul Draculi, live five daughters and their doting father. It's an idyllic life for Jena, the second eldest, who spends her time exploring the mysterious forest with her constant companion, a most unusual frog. But best by far is the castle's hidden portal, known only to the sisters. Every Full Moon, they alone can pass through it into the enchanted world of the Other Kingdom. There they dance through the night with the fey creatures of this magical realm, but their peace is shattered when Father falls ill.
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Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt Keturah follows a legendary hart into the king's forest, where she becomes hopelessly lost. Her strength diminishes until, finally, she realizes that death is near. Little does she know that he is a young, handsome lord, melancholy and stern. Renowned for her storytelling, Keturah is able to charm Lord Death with a story and thereby gain a reprieve but only for twenty-four hours. She must find her one true love within that time, or all is lost. Keturah searches desperately while the village prepares for an unexpected visit from the king, and Keturah is thrust into a prominent role as mysterious happenings alarm her friends and neighbors.
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The Serpent Gift by Lene Kaaberbol A watching face in a market crowd, a mist-shrouded figure on the moor, a haunting presence seen only when he wants to be seen, Sezuan, possessor of the Serpent Gift for lie and illusion, is a chilling and ambiguous figure at the best of times. He is also Dina’s father. And when he comes to claim the daughter he has never seen, the Shamer and her family are catapulted into reckless flight and danger. With nowhere else to turn, Dina must learn to see through her father’s deceit and use her own powers to her advantage.
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Artemis Fowl and the Lost Colony by Eoin Colfer Ten thousand years ago, humans and fairies fought a great battle. When the fairies realized they’d never win, they moved their civilization underground and hid. All the families agreed, except the demons. The demons planned to lift themselves out of time until they were ready to wage war on the humans once more. But the spell went wrong, and they were catapulted into Limbo. Now the spell’s deterioration is accelerating and the demon materializations are erupting. Even the fairy scientists cannot predict the next one.
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The Darkling Plain by Philip Reeve The once great traction city of London is now just a radioactive wreck, a ruin haunted by electrical discharges and the dashed hopes of the people who once called it home. Twenty years after Tom Natsworthy fled he and his daughter Wren discover that something stirs in the remains of the old city. They aren't the only people interested in London. The desperate armies of the Traction Cities and the Green Storm are also closing in, certain that whatever is taking shape within the city holds the key to victory in their never-ending war.
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The Bar Code Rebellion by Suzanne Weyn Kayla has resisted getting the bar code tattoo even though it has meant forfeiting any chance she would have had at living a normal life. Without the tattoo, she's an exile. But when someone very important sets about to bring her back in again,with a tattoo, Kayla finds herself a part of the resistence, where her unexpected allies and even more unexpected enemies include three clones of her. An edge-of-your-seat, teen's-eye-view thriller that merges the headlines of today with the world of tomorrow.
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Jacob's Ladder by Brian Keaney After waking up in a field with no memory of what happened before, Jacob now joins a group of teenagers dressed in gray, eating spongy nondescript food and moving rocks day after day in a barren field. Through vivid but short memories that the boys share at night, it becomes apparent that they are all dead. Jacob has a clear glimpse of his parents who are now fighting and ready to separate because of their son's death. He wants to go back to the land of the living. With two other kids, they walk away. Finally, they make their way to the Palace of Remembrance where Jacob has a chance to live again, but will he make the same mistake as before and end up back in the field? In the last chapter Jacob is alive again and other boys are daring him to put a wooden plank on the railroad track. Will he refuse or continue on this destructive path?
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Tantalize by Cynthia Leitich Smith Quincie Morris has never felt more alone. Her parents are dead, and her hybrid-werewolf first love is threatening to embark on a rite of passage that will separate them forever. Then, as she and her uncle are about to unveil their hot vampire themed restaurant, a brutal murder leaves them scrambling for a chef. Can Quincie transform their new hire into a culinary Dark Lord before opening night? As human and preternatural forces clash, a deadly love triangle forms, and the line between predator and prey begins to blur. Who's playing whom? And how long can Quincie play along before she loses everything?
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Undine by Penni Russon Undine gets along well with her unconventional mother, she adores her baby brother, and she has a devoted kindred spirit in her best friend and next-door neighbor, Trout. It's inconvenient that Trout has a sloppy crush on her, but Undine tries to overlook this. Undine is basically satisfied until strange things begin happening to her. It starts with an odd feeling, a shadow in the mirror, a whisper only Undine can hear; and it builds. One hot day, when Undine imagines knitting together a few scattered clouds, she creates a massive thunderstorm. Where does her power come from? But Undine's magic is powerful, wild, and dangerous and her feelings as she uncovers the truth are even fiercer.
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Breathe by Penni Russon In this sequel to Undine, six months have passed since Undine discovered the powerful magic within her and very nearly threw the entire world into chaos. Life has almost gone back to normal. The magic still swirls relentlessly below her surface, demanding that she break her promise not to use it. And then there's Trout who's so desperate to learn about Undine's magic that he's willing to trust a mysterious young woman who knows an awful lot about him, about Undine, and about chaos theory. As their lives continue to both unravel and coalesce, Undine and Trout feel drawn back to the Bay, where it all began.
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Avielle of Rhia by Dia Calhoun Avielle is a Rhian princess, but her own people fear her. She has the silver skin and hair of her great-great-grandmother, a Dredonian who used her evil magic against Rhia. The 15-year-old, ever fearful of taking after her relative, takes comfort in her lack of magic: no magic, she reasons, no evil. After the Brethren of the Black Cloak attack, Avielle is the only member of the royal family who survives. She is taken in by a kind weaver and learns that her gift is weaving. At first she hides her identity, but as the attacks continue and suspicion of Dredonian Rhians grows, she must find the courage to come forward and save her people.
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Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer When Miranda first hears the warnings that a meteor is headed on a collision path with the moon, they just sound like an excuse for extra homework assignments. But her disbelief turns to fear in a split second as the entire world witnesses a lunar impact that knocks the moon closer in orbit, catastrophically altering the earth's climate. Everything else in Miranda's life fades away as supermarkets run out of food, gas goes up to more than ten dollars a gallon, and school is closed indefinitely. But what Miranda and her family don't realize is that the worst is yet to come. This a heart-pounding account told through Miranda's diary entries.
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The Pack by Tom Pow Bradley, Victor, and Floris live with wild dogs on the dark, forgotten edge of a devastated city. Haunted by memories and abandoned by society, they have learned to survive on their own. But when Floris is kidnapped the others must venture into the unknown to save their friend. It is a dangerous journey where violent gangs walk the streets and corrupt warlords viciously guard their territories, but it is also a journey of discovery.
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The Bull Raid by Carlo Gebler How much would you sacrifice to get what you most wanted in the world? Your friends? Everything you have? Read the story of how one boy warrior, part human-part god, took his place in Irish legend. In a time of magic, immortals, and terrible war, a prophecy foretells a new king, the death of countless men, and a strange curse that will give rise to a hero. This story has existed for three-thousand years: it is the ancient story of Cuchulainn, the boy warrior, and the war that made him an Irish hero.
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Rash by Pete Hautman In the late twenty-first century Bo Marsten is unjustly accused of a causing a rash that plagues his entire high school. He loses it, and as a result, he's sentenced to work in the Canadian tundra, at a pizza factory that's surrounded by hungry polar bears. Bo finds prison life to be both boring and dangerous, but it's nothing compared to what happens when he starts playing on the factory's highly illegal football team. In the meantime, Bork, an artificial intelligence that Bo created for a science project, tracks Bo down in prison. Bork has spun out of control and seems to be operating on his own.
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Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix The final episode of Margaret Peterson Haddix's futuristic Shadow Children sequence brings conclusions, but also surprises. Illegal third-born Luke Garner is working undercover in Population Police headquarters. Endangered by exposure at every turn, he is offered a dangerous mission that he cannot refuse: He is assigned to travel around the region to issue new identification. At the very first stop, however, things go terribly wrong when Luke unintentionally sparks a local revolt. Before he can quell the disturbance, the uprising has blown into widespread revolution.
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Fairest by Gail Carson Levine Fifteen-year-old Aza is anything but pretty. In fact, she is so unsightly that her loving innkeeper parents who found her abandoned as a baby keep her hidden from most of their guests. However, Aza possesses two special gifts and when, through a series of events, she winds up in the royal court, her talents draw notice. She has a stunning singing voice and she has the ability to throw her voice, so that it appears that someone else is singing. After Aza is made lady-in-waiting, she discovers a magic mirror that has the power to make her the fairest in the land. But becoming a raving beauty brings more heartache than joy and could even cost Aza her life.
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Water Shaper by Laura Williams Williams McCaffrey Margot is the daughter of a king, but she is beloved by neither his court nor his kingdom. She has "water in her blood," a trait associated with magic and looked upon with distaste and suspicion. When she meets Orrin, a foreign king who is respectful, not scornful, of her affinity for water, she flees with him to his castle by the sea, though she soon realizes he is not as benevolent as she first thought. Intertwined with Margot's story is that of Bird, a storyteller who must tell stories for Orrin, though he can barely stand him. When Orrin steals the Book of the Sea, a magical gift given to Margot by her mother, Margot knows she must run away once again, and the threads of the two stories begin to intertwine.
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Voices by Ursula K. LeGuin Ansul was once a peaceful town filled with libraries, schools, and temples. But that was long ago, and the conquerors of this coastal city consider reading and writing to be acts punishable by death, and they believe the Oracle House, where the last few undestroyed books are hidden, is seething with demons. But to seventeen-year-old Memer, the house is a refuge. Then an Uplands poet and his wife arrive and everything in Memer's life begins to change. Will she and the people of Ansul at last be brave enough to rebel against their oppressors? A haunting and gripping coming-of-age story set against a backdrop of violence, intolerance, and magic.
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NeverNEVER by Will Shatterly Under a spell that makes him half wolf, half boy, teenage runaway Ron learns to move easily between the world of punk elves, humans, and half-breeds in Bordertown and the magic world of the Faerie. Although he moves adeptly from world to world, he discovers there is no way to straddle the pain, the horror, and the sweetness of growing up human on the border of the Nevernever.
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The Sphere of Secrets: The Oracle Prophecies (Book 1) by Catherine Fisher Everything has gone wrong. The drought should have ended, but the land is still parched. Mirany should be savoring her role as priestess, but someone may be trying to poison her. Seth should know to stay away from smuggled goods, but his greed has led him to blackmail. Alexos should stay and rule as the Archon, but his plan is to journey to the Well of Songs, a place from which no one has ever returned. And in the midst of such chaos, The Two Lands should collapse but an ancient map carved into a silver sphere may be enough to make things right and save their world.
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Transcendent by Stephen Baxter In the concluding installment of his Destiny's Children trilogy (Coalescent and Exultant) Baxter goes half a million years into a future where godlike post-humans still struggle with very human failings. Transcendent is a combination of two intertwining plot threads: One follows a mid-21st-century engineer named Michael Poole as he deals with the destabilization of the Earth's biosphere due to global warming; the other chronicles the life of Alia, a girl living hundreds of thousands of years in the future who has been chosen to become a Transcendent, one of the hosts of virtually immortal post-humans who govern all of humankind.
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| Learning the World by Ken MacLeod Humanity has spread to every star within 500 light-years of its half-forgotten origin. Societies rise and fall. On the fringes, less modified humans get on with the job of settling a universe that has, so far, been empty of intelligent life. The ancient starship But the Sky, My Lady! The Sky! is entering orbit around a promising new system after a four hundred year journey. A younger generation is eager to settle the system. The ship is a seed-pod ready to burst. Then they detect curious electromagnetic emissions from the system's Earth-like world. As the nature of the signals becomes clear, the choices facing the humans become stark.
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Specials by Scott Westerfeld In this final book of the Uglies Trilogy, Tally Youngblood, the once rebellious Ugly and then troublemaking Pretty, is now a member of the Cutters, a new group of special Specials created by Dr. Cummings herself and lead by Tally's best friend, Shane. The Cutters were created in order to search out and destroy the New Smoke and most of the old Crims are now members. True to her character, however, Tally has trouble fully accepting what it means to be a Cutter without Zane by her side and demands to see him and help his case. When she sees the new Zane, Tally is horrified by how she reacts to his "prettiness" and lack of special qualities, yet she is determined to prove that Zane, the once level-headed leader of the Crims, should be made into a Cutter too.
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Troll Mill by Katherine Langrish In this sequel to Troll Fell, a more mature Peer Ulfsson struggles with identity, disillusionment and unrequited love. The story begins with mysteries: Bjorn's wife pushes her baby daughter into Peer's arms before casting herself into the sea; the mill, deserted since Peer's uncles became trolls, runs at full throttle long after dark; and sheep disappear from the mountain, usually a sign that the trolls are on the move. Then it progresses through a variety of folkloric tropes and terrors. Lubbers and trolls are back and selkies are a new addition.
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Skybreaker by Kenneth Oppel Matt Cruse, now 16 and a student at Airship Academy in Paris, is swept into another sky adventure even richer and more surprising than the one in Airborn (2004). When an airship assumed to have crashed 40 years ago is spotted in the skies, various people scramble to "salvage" it and claim rights to all its cargo. Unfortunately, it's floating higher than most airships can go, even buoyed by the mango-scented hydrium gas crucial to flying technology. Wealthy, spirited Kate joins Matt, cocky pilot Hal, and gypsy girl Nadira on a mission to reach the Hyperion. Criminals and the altitude bring suspense and danger, but the most entrancing obstacle is a species of previously undiscovered flying sky squid. The squid are key to salvaging the treasure, which may or may not be what it seems.
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Spacer and Rat by Margaret Bechard Jack, who has spent his whole life in space, is preparing to leave his apprenticeship on Freedom for a new position on Liberty Station. On his way back from the spaceport, he runs into an Earthie named Kit. She is considered a rat, a term the Spacers use to refer to anyone who doesn't contribute to society, particularly Earthie children abandoned by their parents. Kit has in her possession a modified "maintenance bot" that is a highly intelligent being. Protecting this extremely useful and illegal tech and evading the various forces out to get possession of it forms the basis of the adventure. In the process, Jack's views about his future, his attitudes, and his preconceived notions about others are all transformed.
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The Bar Code Tattoo by Suzanne Weyn It's 2025, and the thing to do on your 17th birthday is to get a bar code tattoo, which is used for everything from driver's licenses to shopping. Kayla, almost 17, resists because she hates the idea of being labeled. Then the tattoos begin to drive people to commit suicide, Kayla's father among them, and she soon finds out that the markings contain detailed information about their bearers, including their genetic code. When the government, controlled by a corporation called Global-1, makes the tattoo mandatory, Kayla joins a teen resistance movement and falls for a gorgeous guy, unaware that he's a double agent.
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Beauty by Nancy Butcher Princess Tatiana Anatolia, 16, knows that the only way to have her mother's love and attention is to be as physically unappealing as possible. Queen Veda of Ran cannot stand the thought that someone may be more beautiful than she. Ana does not bathe, her hair is raggedy and oily, her face is covered with blemishes, and she feeds off pastries and other unhealthy food. The Queen's obsession drives her to a murderous plan. She invites all of the beautiful girls of the kingdom to attend a new, prestigious academy for young women where they take a powerful drug guaranteed to make them more beautiful and deathly ill. Ana discovers her true self and beauty as she saves those she cares about and stands up against her mother.
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Poison by Chris Wooding Poison has always been a willful, contrary girl, prone to being argumentative and stubborn. So when her sister is snatched by the mean-spirited faeries, she seeks out the Phaerie Lord to get her back. But finding him isn't easy, and the quest leads Poison into a murderous world of intrigue, danger, and deadly storytelling. With only her wits and her friends to aid her, Poison must survive the attentions of the Phaerie Lord, rescue her sister, and thwart a plot that's beyond anything she (or the reader) can imagine.
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Dusk by Susan Gates Dusk is more than just a girl. Her DNA was fused with hawk genes in a military experiment to make the best warriors, resulting in traits like night vision. After 13 years of being held captive in a government lab, she escapes and hides in an abandoned town. There she lives in an uneasy truce with the other subjects who fled the lab: a horde of killer mutant rats and a clan of vicious guard dogs. Then one day, a boy named Jay stumbles into town.Will Dusk follow her human instincts and save Jay or will the hawk in her see an easy prey?
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