Graceling

by Kristin Cashore

"Katsa has been able to kill a man with her bare hands since she was eight—she’s a Graceling, one of the rare people in her land born with an extreme skill. As niece of the king, she should be able to live a life of privilege, but Graced as she is with killing, she is forced to work as the king’s thug.

She never expects to fall in love with beautiful Prince Po.

She never expects to learn the truth behind her Grace—or the terrible secret that lies hidden far away . . . a secret that could destroy all seven kingdoms with words alone."

From the Publisher's website

Wintersmith

by Terry Pratchett

"At 9, Tiffany Aching defeated the cruel Queen of Fairyland.

At 11, she battled an ancient body-stealing evil.

At 13, Tiffany faces a new challenge: a boy. And boys can be a bit of a problem when you're thirteen. . . .

But the Wintersmith isn't exactly a boy. He is Winter itself—snow, gales, icicles—all of it. When he has a crush on Tiffany, he may make her roses out of ice, but his nature is blizzards and avalanches. And he wants Tiffany to stay in his gleaming, frozen world. Forever.
Tiffany will need all her cunning to make it to Spring. She'll also need her friends, from junior witches to the legendary Granny Weatherwax. They—

Crivens! Tiffany will need the Wee Free Men too! She'll have the help of the bravest, toughest, smelliest pictsies ever to be banished from Fairyland—whether she wants it or not.
It's going to be a cold, cold season, because if Tiffany doesn't survive until Spring—

—Spring won't come. "

from the publisher's website

From the DiscWorld series

Amazing Grace

by Megan Shull

"Grace Kincaid, tennis superstar (beautiful, teenaged, and the BEST in the world), calls her mother on the eve of the U.S. Open and says three little words. Her mother flies to her daughter’s side, cancels all further engagements, endorsements, press conferences, tournaments, and gives Grace an entirely new identity, which includes a make-under, a former FBI agent as a mentor and bodyguard, and a new life in Medicine Hat, Alaska -- population 813 (including one very cute boy!).

How one teenager goes from everybody’s idea of perfect to her own idea of an imperfect (but wonderful) self is the subject taken on by Megan Shull, a sparkling new voice in teen fiction."

From the publisher's website

Dairy Queen

by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

"When you don't talk, there's a lot of stuff that ends up not getting said.

Welcome to the summer that D.J. Schwenk of Red Bend, Wisconsin, learns to talk, and ends up having an awful lot of stuff to say. In Dairy Queen, an extraordinary debut novel full of humor, football, and dairy farming, Catherine Gilbert Murdock introduces one of the most likable young adult heroines to come along in quite some time.

Grandpa Schwenk was a dairy farmer, and D.J.'s ex-football coach father was one, too, until he messed up his hip moving the manure spreader. With her dad injured, her mom always at work, and her football star brothers off at college and not speaking to the rest of the family, it falls to D.J. to run the struggling farm as best she can, including the five a.m. milking of all thirty-two cows by hand.

If that wasn't enough to deal with, the Huge Family Fight over Christmas may mean she'll never see her brothers again. Dutiful D.J. takes it all in stride — until she decides to try out for her high school football team, her best friend, Amber, starts acting strange, and she falls in love with the opposing team's quarterback, whom she just happens to be training.

Murdock's care and craft come through in every aspect of this book: the spot-on dialogue that is laugh-out-loud funny and always rings true; the stress and hard work of life on a dairy farm; the tough training, body aches, and anguish of high school football; and perhaps most important, the humor, heartache, and messiness of learning to open up to family and friends. "

From the publisher's website

Rat Life, a mystery

by Tedd Arnold

"The dead body found in the Chemanga River has nothing to do with Todd. He’s been busy making beds at the family motel and writing alien stories to entertain his friends. Sure, a murder is big news, but what would really interest him? A paying job and a story line free of UFOs and poop jokes. And then he meets Rat.

Just a little older than Todd, Rat’s already been to Vietnam and back. He’s got a tattoo and a messed-up family life. And when he offers Todd a gig at the drive-in theater, Todd takes it. After all, it pays actual money. But hanging out with Rat leads to a host of strange experiences and perplexing questions. More and more, that corpse from the river is on Todd’s mind, and no matter how he shifts the pieces around, Rat is always part of the puzzle."

From the publisher's website

Gossamer

by Lois Lowry

"Where do dreams come from? What stealthy nighttime messengers are the guardians of our most deeply hidden hopes and our half-forgotten fears? Drawing on her rich imagination, two-time Newbery winner Lois Lowry confronts these questions and explores the conflicts between the gentle bits and pieces of the past that come to life in dream, and the darker horrors that find their form in nightmare. In this haunting novel that tiptoes between reality and imagination, two people-a lonely, sensitive woman and a damaged, angry boy-face their own histories and discover what they can be to one another. Their strength comes from a tiny, caring creature they will never see."

From the author's website

Hoot

by Carl Hiaasen

"Roy Eberhardt is accustomed to being the new kid in school, so when his father’s job moves the family to Coconut Cove, Florida, Roy enters Trace Middle School with the full knowledge of what it feels like to have no real friends. What he doesn’t expect is an immediate encounter with the school bully. Dana Matherson is everyone’s fear, but at the very moment he mashes Roy’s face against the school-bus window, Roy notices a barefoot boy running away from the school bus and across a field. His curiosity about the boy leads him to Beatrice, the boy’s stepsister, and Beatrice leads him to the burrowing owls that are about to become homeless because a Mother Paula’s All-American Pancake House is about to be built on the land where the owls live. The three unlikely allies take on the construction guys, the corporate PR honchos, and the police–all for the sake of the owls."

From the publisher's website

Sand Dollar Summer

by Kimberly K. Jones

"Twelve-year-old Lise watches her safe world fall apart when her strong, self-reliant mom is injured in a car accident. To recuperate, Mom takes Lise and her bright little brother to live in a rattletrap house on the beach in Maine for the summer. Although her mother grew up there, this is Lise's first experience with the ocean. She's terrified by what may be lurking in the cold depths and confused by the ways that Maine is changing her mother. As secrets from the past start spilling out, even the solid earth may not keep Lise safe anymore. Lise will have to learn to go with the flow -- or risk falling apart -- in this tender, funny, and wise novel...the story of one family's unforgettable summer. "

From the publisher's website

Accidents of Nature

by Harriet McBryde Johnson

"Seventeen-year-old Jean has cerebral palsy and gets around in a wheelchair, but she’s always believed she’s just the same as everyone else. She goes to normal school and has normal friends. She’s never really known another disabled person before she arrives at Camp Courage. But there Jean meets Sara, who welcomes her to “Crip Camp” and nicknames her Spazzo. Sara has radical theories about how people fit into society. She’s full of rage and revolution against pitying insults and the lack of respect for people with disabilities. As Jean joins a community unlike any she has ever imagined, she comes to question her old beliefs and look at the world in a new light. The camp session is only ten days long, but that may be all it takes to change a life forever. "

From the publisher's website

Beating Heart: A Ghost Story

by A.M. Jenkins

"This house is mine and I am its beating heart.

She is a momentary chill in warm sunlight, a shadow glimpsed from the corner of an eye, and a memory of secret kisses and hidden passion. He is seventeen years old, waiting for the start of his senior year, and ever since his family moved into this big old house -- abandoned for decades -- he has dreamt of her. Hot, wordless dreams that turn more intense and darker each night. Ghost and boy fascinate each other -- until her memories and his desire collide in a moment that changes them both forever."

From the publisher's website

Odd Man Out

by Sarah Ellis

"Kip is spending the summer with his grandmother and his five eccentric girl cousins, including Emily, who thinks she's a dog. Gran's house is about to be demolished, so anything goes, whether it's drawing maps on the wall or sawing off the banister for a smoother ride. When Kip bashes through an old closet, he discovers the binder his late father kept as a teenager. He's bewildered by what he finds: puzzling lists, hair samples, old newspaper clippings and business cards -- all accompanying a confidential report written by a mysterious young operative who is carrying out a secret plan to infect teenagers with a cell-altering virus. "

From the publisher's web site

The Last Dragon

by Silvana De Mari

"In a postapocalyptic 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 to save the world from the Dark Age that has begun. Full of great tenderness and humor, this magical journey tells the story of a world now plagued by intolerance and wickedness, and the elf and the dragon who will fight for its redemption."

From the publisher's web site

Bad Kitty

by Michele Jaffe

"Meet Jasmine, forensic supersleuth and unwitting victim of a naughty feline.

All Jasmine really wants is to enjoy her family vacation in Las Vegas. And avoid her evil cousin Alyson and Alyson's best fiend, Veronique. And show her suspicious dad that she can be a Model Daughter. And maybe meet the hot guy she's been eyeing from across the pool. It that too much to ask?

Apparently, yes. One moment she's an innocent bylounger, the next the central figure in a Las Vegas-sized mystery. Fortunately, Jasmine is both a forensics enthusiast and possessed of some very, well, special friends. Polly, Tom, and Roxy crash the vacation, BeDazzle Jasmine's wardrobe, and find themselves key players in the most outrageous adventure in a town known for outrageous adventures.

All because of a very bad kitty."

From the Author's Web Site

An Abundance of Katherines

by John Green

"My second novel, An Abundance of Katherines, is the story of recent high-school graduate Colin Singleton. Colin is a former child prodigy--he's fluent in eleven languages and has an outlandishly good memory. Also, he has been dumped by 19 girls, all of whom were named Katherine. After being dumped by K-19, Colin sets out on a road trip with his best friend, and this book is the tale of that trip. "

From the author's web page

Love, Football, and Other Contact Sports

by Alden R. Carter

"On 'Jersey Day' the artsy academic girl wonders suspiciously which football player could have possibly put his invitational jersey on her desk. In 'The Briefcase' the new kid reaps the consequences when his parents force him to carry an expensive briefcase with him to school. In 'Elvis' a brainy girl with this unfortunate nickname receives social aid from an unlikely benefactor--the school's football star. In these laugh-out-loud pieces, Alden R. Carter tells the stories of students from one end of the social spectrum to the other. Jock to loner, academic snob to outcast, Carter explores and shatters the stereotypes behind the relationships, friendships, rumors, peer pressure, sports, bullies, and other assorted forms of mental anguish that come with high school."

From Amazon.com

The Secrets of Peaches

by Jodi Lynn Anderson

"Last summer, three very different girls—wild Murphy, perfect Leeda, and shy Birdie—etched their initials on a Magnolia tree at Darlington Peach Orchard to symbolize that they're friendship will last forever. But can it survive the less-than-peachy year ahead?

Murphy, more in love with Rex than ever, is torn between her big-city dreams and following her heart . . . all the way across the railroad tracks and into Rex's arms.

Leeda, nominated to be Bridgewater's Pecan Queen, basks in the rose-scented glow of her Ice Queen mother's sudden affection—until her sister, the princess, returns.

Birdie, happy for the first time, wants nothing more than to make time stand still. Too bad everything is changing, whether she likes it or not.

The sweet trio of Georgia girls that made Peaches a national bestseller returns in this delicious and satisfying sequel. This year, Murphy, Leeda, and Birdie discover that bitter endings can lead to sweet new beginnings . . . and that the orchard that brought them together will always be a part of them—even if they leave it behind. "

From the publisher's website

Peaches

by Jodi Lynn Anderson

"Murphy McGowen has bright green eyes, a reputation as the wildest girl in Bridgewater, and a way of getting out of all the trouble she gets into. But when she's caught stealing from the Darlington Orchard, she's forced to repay her debt picking peaches in the hot Georgia sun.

Leeda Cawley-Smith has professionally whitened teeth and the softest skin her boyfriend has ever touched. Unfortunately, Leeda's parents aren't too keen on her being touched anymore. Now Leeda's country-club summer is out the window -- she'll be getting a serious sock tan working at her uncle's peach orchard instead.

Birdie Darlington used to dance around her family's orchard picking peaches for fun. But now that her parents are getting divorced, Birdie would rather spend the summer in the A/C eating Thin Mints than pick another peach -- too bad she doesn't have a choice.

Thrown together at Darlington Orchard, Murphy, Leeda, and Birdie discover what it means to find a real soul mate, and that sometimes cute boys know a lot about peach cider. And, of course, they learn the trick to picking a perfect peach. One thing's for sure -- it's going to be a juicy summer. "

From the publisher's website

Defining Dulcie

by Paul Acampora

"Following the accidental death of her father, Dulcie Morrigan Jones is taken to California by a mom who decides that she and her daughter should move away from Connecticut to reinvent themselves. But Dulcie doesn’t think she needs reinventing. Dulcie's solution? She steals her dead dad’s Chevy pickup truck and heads back home to Connecticut. There, under the supervision of a larger than life grandfather, she meets Roxanne Soule, a girl whose scary home life makes Dulcie realize that her own situation might not be so bad. And luckily for Roxanne, Dulcie Morrigan Jones is a girl with a storehouse of strength and generosity of spirit that stretches on for miles.

Defining Dulcie is about the connections we make, the resilience of the human spirit, and the absurdities that keep life interesting."

From the author's website