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WHITE
MAGIC - SPELLS TO HOLD YOU
Hardcover: 208 pages
Publisher: Wendy Lamb Books (August 14, 2007)
ISBN-10: 0375837698
Need
to attract a boy? Cure a fear? Let go of the past?
Yvonne
has the spell for you.
After
Chrissie's dad dies, her mom moves them to California
to remarry. Chrissie's lonely new life is transformed
when the amazing Yvonne jumps out of her apartment
door and pulls Chrissie inside to join Yvonne and
Karen in their coven of "good witches."
Yvonne is part gypsy, and somehow wiser than other
kids her age. Karen is sweet, shy, and madly in love
with the wrong boy. Alone, each girl is an outsider;
but when the friends share their powers and cast spells
to help each other, a kind of magic starts to happen.
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| Hiroshima
Dreams
Hardcover:
192 pages
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile (October 4, 2007)
ISBN-10: 0525478213
Lin
can’t explain the knowledge she has of the future,
of what people will say or what will happen. It’s
a gift she shares with Obaasan, her grandmother, who
has recently come from Japan to live with Lin’s
family. But seeing the future is more than knowing whether
or not a boy will call. What is Lin to make of the visions
she has of a day long ago, when the atomic bomb was
dropped on Hiroshima?
Acclaimed
author Kelly Easton’s poignant coming-of-age novel
about a girl with psychic abilities is rich in imagery
and memorable characters. |
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AFTERSHOCK
Hardcover:
176 pages
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry - Simon & Schuster
ISBN: 1416900527
Torment: extreme pain or anguish of body or
mind
Seventeen-year-old
Adam is tormented. He is the sole survivor of a fatal
car crash. In a state of shock, Adam begins a harrowing
journey across the country, heading toward home. But
he can't think in a straight line: The past and present
merge in his thoughts, and the future's a blank. He's
lost his voice and his money, and memories fling themselves
like stones.
Adam
remembers his beautiful girlfriend, his freewheeling
parents, and his foul-mouthed aunt and her autistic
son. Images of violence and sexuality - the experiences
that life throws at young men - flash through his
mind. But he can't make it all connect. Will Adam
ever reach home, and what will he find when he gets
there? Has he truly lost everything?
In
this profoundly moving portrait of a young man on
the edge, Kelly Easton asks a powerful question: When
your whole world is shattered, how do you collect
the fragments to make a new one?
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| WALKING
ON AIR
Hardcover:
240 pages
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry
ISBN: 0689848757
It
is the Depression in America, 1931. Twelve-year-old
June is a tightrope walker. Performing in her preacher
father's revival shows, June travels through cities,
makeshift camps, carnivals, and freak shows. The family
has no home, no money, no friends -- and faith that
is getting thinner than the air upon which June walks.
On her journey June examines her life and is torn between
loyalty to her family and their religion, and the life
she might have. She comes to understand that discovering
what the world has in store for her will require facing
old family secrets and making some gut-wrenching decisions.
Walking
on Air is a stirring novel of self-examination, as June
balances on a literal and figurative tightrope within
the rich and tormented landscape of America during the
Depression. Facing the problems of her day, June must
use her wit, fire, and strong spirit in order to triumph. |
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CANARIES
AND CRIMINALS
Paperback:
128 pages
Publisher: Candlewick
ISBN: 0763619280
What
do the Birdman of Alcatraz, a bizarrely painted turtle,
and three bumbling criminals have in common? Find out
in a funny, suspenseful new chapter of the Betts Pets
mystery series.
There’s never a dull moment at Betts Pets, the
neighborhood pet shop introduced in TROUBLE AT BETTS
PETS. Now, in CANARIES AND CRIMINALS, the eminently
likable Aaron Betts and pals Sharon Trout and Tony
Wong - not to mention Loafer the Chauffer (now a poet)
- are all back, along with a menagerie of offbeat
new characters. When Aaron’s school project
leads to an encounter with an ex-convict, and a turtle
with an intricate map on its shell turns up at the
shop, Aaron and Sharon are drawn into an all-new mystery
and even manage to foil an ill-fated heist. Along
the way, Aaron learns a few things about his family,
his own artistic talents - and a world where not everyone
succeeds as planned.
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| TROUBLE
AT BETTS PETS
Hardcover:
144 pages
Publisher: Candlewick Press
ISBN: 0763615803
From
Booklist
Fifth-grader Aaron Betts is going through a lot of changes.
The family pet store isn't pulling in much business
since the neighborhood has changed. His math tutor turns
out to be little "Miss Perfect" Sharon Trout,
and a community garden, frequented by a homeless woman
named Bertha, is threatened with demolition. Aaron is
a sensitive boy, and his story is full of courage and
understanding. He can sit by and watch the family business
dissipate. He can wonder what has happened to Bertha.
Or he can do something! Together with Sharon and his
best friend Tony Wong, Aaron sets out to discover who
has been stealing animals and supplies from the store
and goes in search of Bertha. The adventure teaches
the children--and readers--about life, friendship, and
loyalty. |
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THE
LIFE HISTORY OF A STAR
Paperback:
208 pages
Publisher: Simon Pulse
ISBN: 0689852703
From
Amazon.com
It's 1973, and Kristin Folger's diary is full of the
dubious joys of being 14. Her body is doing weird things
without her permission ("A giant betrayal! …
My hips have spread apart like two wishbones being pulled
from either side"), her parents' constant bickering
is getting on her nerves ("Are there any adults
who want to take responsibility for their lives? I think
they're a bunch of blamers"), and school is just
plain gross ("High school. Cesspool. What more
can I say?"). But it's what Kristin doesn't write
about that bothers her the most, and that's the "ghost"
who lives upstairs--the howling, drooling ghost who
used to be her brother David before he came back from
Vietnam, who's now just a crippled shadow living behind
a locked door. Growing up is hard. For Kristin, dealing
with the treacherously changing landscapes of school
and home, and her beloved brother's zombielike state,
it feels almost impossible: "Now there's a canyon
between me and everybody else. And all I can do is fall
into the space between." Using her journal as a
buffer against a world gone crazy, Kristin tries to
close that canyon--one page at a time.
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