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| Children's |
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|  | Armstrong, Alan LOOKING FOR MARCO POLO
July 01, 2009 - The author of Whittington (2005) profiles another medieval celebrity using a similar scenario—fleshing out historical incidents with imagined but thoroughly researched details and conversations and framing the entire narrative as a tale told to a
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|  | Binding, Tim SYLVIE AND THE SONGMAN
July 01, 2009 - This finely tuned adventure opens with William Blake's "The Tyger" and lives up to that reference in surprisingly accessible ways. Sylvie lives with her composer father and "comfortable, obstinate dog" Mr Jackson. They miss mum, who disappeared into
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| | Bluemle, Elizabeth HOW DO YOU WOKKA-WOKKA?
July 01, 2009 - A little boy bounds out of his house because "[s]ome days you wake up and you just gotta wokka— / Say "HEY!' to your neighbors up and down the blocka / wammy-lammy-wotcha-hoo. Do your funky wokka, get your dance on." The exuberant boy walks down the
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| | Collins, Suzanne CATCHING FIRE
July 01, 2009 - In the sequel to the hugely popular The Hunger Games (2008), Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark, having won the annual Games, are now rich and famous—and trapped in the fiction that they are lovers. They are seen as a threat to the Capitol, their
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| | Cousins, Lucy YUMMY
July 01, 2009 - In a considerable change of pace, Cousins steps away from Maisy's toddler-friendly world for short but briskly savage versions of several classic tales. Here the Little Red Hen refuses to share her bread with anyone, Foxy Loxy gobbles down Henny
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| | Crimi, Carolyn HENRY AND THE CRAZED CHICKEN PIRATES
July 01, 2009 - The bookish young hero of Henry and the Buccaneer Bunnies (2005) again saves the flop-eared, fun-loving crew of the pirate ship Salty Carrot. This time, when a threatening note floats up in a bottle, Henry braves the derision of his shipmates to
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| | Cruise, Robin BARTLEBY SPEAKS!
July 01, 2009 - Wee toddler Bartleby is almost as inscrutable as his Melvillean namesake, though a sight more cooperative. He gurgles and coos, chortles and clucks—he just doesn't speak. The distress of the rest of the Huddle family is cacophonous: Mama sings
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| | Ct, Genevi've ME AND YOU
July 01, 2009 - Not to be confused with another, equally pleasing 2009 book of the same name, by Janet A. Holmes and illustrated by Judith Rossell, this tale of two friends goes ear-to-ear and tail-to-tail between a rabbit and a pig. Standing side by side, each
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| | Deedy, Carmen Agra 14 COWS FOR AMERICA
July 01, 2009 - Wilson Kimeli Naiyomah is about to return home, to a small village in Kenya. He has been studying to become a doctor in the United States. Amid a joyous homecoming, the children in the village ask if he has brought any stories. He has only one; one
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| | Duey, Kathleen SACRED SCARS
July 01, 2009 - Thrumming with dense, meaningful tension from first page to last, this middle installment in the Resurrection of Magic trilogy follows the two plotlines established in the first volume, Skin Hunger (2007), through despair, oppression and rare
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| | Dunkle, Clare B. THE WALLS HAVE EYES
July 01, 2009 - Like its predecessor The Sky Inside (2008), this sequel posits that no corrupt government is so powerful that it can't be toppled by a boy and his robot dog. Frustrated with his uselessness among the genius children who make up the anti-government
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| | Ebbitt, Carolyn Q. THE EXTRA-ORDINARY PRINCESS
July 01, 2009 - Amelia is the youngest of four princesses, one of the White Queens. Her sisters have graces and talents, but Amelia is quite, quite ordinary and complains about it at every opportunity. When plague strikes, killing the king and queen, the
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| | Efaw, Amy AFTER
July 01, 2009 - Devon, a perfect student and soccer star, can't explain how she didn't know about her pregnancy or how she could put IT, bloody and wailing, in a trash bag and carry IT out to a dumpster. Efaw captures Devon's mortification, denial and despair,
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| | Elliott, David FINN THROWS A FIT!
July 01, 2009 - To say that Finn, a blue-shirted, yellow-booted tot with more than a passing resemblance to Humpty-Dumpty, is out of sorts is to severely understate the case. When his mother offers him his usual plate of peach slices—the very idea!—he throws the
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| | Forler, Nan BIRD CHILD
July 01, 2009 - Eliza learns a powerful truth from her mother, which she draws on when a classmate is victimized. "Look down and see what is. Now, look up and see what can be." Silently, Eliza observes new girl Lainey's ostracism due to her unusual appearance,
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| | Gay, Marie-Louise WHEN STELLA WAS VERY, VERY SMALL
July 01, 2009 - Stella has always been a fountain of creative knowledge, offering her little brother Sam the benefits of her vivid imagination. In previous works they have had adventures by the seashore, in the forest and in the snow. Now Gay offers her readers
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| | Gifford, Peggy MOXY MAXWELL DOES NOT LOVE PRACTICING THE PIANO
July 01, 2009 - Prime procrastinator and drama queen Moxy Maxwell is about to take the stage for real, making her Piano Debut at the Palace Theater, playing "Heart and Soul" with her little sister, Patsy. True, there is the scary note from the piano teacher. But
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| | Gralley, Jean YONDERFEL'S CASTLE
July 01, 2009 - King Yonderfel was once revered for his generous spirit; he beckoned all travelers to visit until his castle overflowed with guests. When his landlord, Ogre Guy, takes half of the castle's mountain, the lopsided residence causes the freeloaders to
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| | Haddix, Margaret Peterson SENT
July 01, 2009 - Historical time travel for the middle-school crowd continues in this second installment of Haddix's latest series, The Missing. The first book (Found, 2008) set the premise—36 endangered children have been snatched from history. Here, readers are
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| | Haycak, Cara LIVING ON IMPULSE
July 01, 2009 - With her life spinning out of control, an unfocused teen searches for the person she wants to be and eventually finds her. Fifteen-year-old Mia lives in a college town in rural New York with her disgruntled single-parent mother and her ailing
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| | Higgins, F.E. THE EYEBALL COLLECTOR
July 01, 2009 - In what the author dubs a "polyquel" that partially bridges her Black Book of Secrets (2007) and its prequel Bone Magician (2008), Higgins sends a suddenly penniless young orphan from the filthy streets of Urbs Umida's South Side to an extravagantly
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| | Holmes, Janet A. ME AND YOU
July 01, 2009 - There are many things this bunny is proud to be able to do—sit still, jump, somersault, ride a bike, make sand castles and dig holes, for a start. Rossell's cheerful and appealing pictures play an important role here and complement the text
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| | Holt, Kimberly Willis PIPER REED GETS A JOB
July 01, 2009 - To earn money for a clubhouse where she and her friends can meet outside her crowded home, fifth grader Piper Reed sets herself up as a party planner, substitutes for her babysitting older sister and illustrates her younger sister's book. Not
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| | Hopkins, Ellen TRICKS
July 01, 2009 - Hopkins sharply portrays extreme adolescent turbulence with her biggest cast yet, as five disparate, desperate teens are sucked into the Las Vegas world of selling sex. Indiana farm boy Seth is kicked off his family's farm for being gay; optionless,
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| | Hyde, Catherine Ryan DIARY OF A WITNESS
July 01, 2009 - Hyde portrays high school as downright frightening, a place where socially elite bullies are given free rein to torment the less fortunate with impunity. And for different reasons, both the bullies and the bullied tend to follow a Mafia-like code of
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| | Kimmel, Eric A. A SPOTLIGHT FOR HARRY
July 01, 2009 - When the circus comes, Harry, son of the town's rabbi, is transfixed by the tightrope walker, who tops the show by hanging from his teeth. The boy picks the lock on an old barn so he and his brother can rig a makeshift tightrope. With persistence,
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| | Kizer, Amber MERIDIAN
July 01, 2009 - Constantly wracked with pain, Meridian Sozu has always been surrounded by dead insects and animals. When she witnesses a car accident on her 16th birthday, the winter solstice, her parents abandon her, hastily sending her off to Revelation, Colo.
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| | Kohler, Dean Ellis ROCK 'N' ROLL SOLDIER
July 01, 2009 - A memoir about starting a rock band in the middle of a war zone. Drafted into the Vietnam War, Kohler served in a small port town, enforcing the law as part of his military service. Under orders from his commanding officer, the young MP formed
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| | Krasnesky, Thad I ALWAYS, ALWAYS GET MY WAY
July 01, 2009 - While little Emmy appears sweet, her looks are deceiving. She superglues her sister's skateboard to her dollhouse, claims her family's possessions as pirate loot and steals her brother's lizard for a bikini-clad bath-time swim. Emmy masterminds a
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| | Labatt, Mary LAKE MONSTER MIX-UP
July 01, 2009 - Samantha, the mystery- (and junk food–) seeking sheepdog, and her human friend Jennie, who can hear Sam's thoughts, head off with the family to a secluded lake island for a weekend getaway. Along with Jennie's best (human) friend Beth, they find a
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| | Luper, Eric BUG BOY
July 01, 2009 - Fifteen-year-old Jack Walsh is elevated from head exercise rider to "bug boy," or apprentice jockey, after another jockey is severely injured during a race. The Saratoga Race Course in 1934 is vividly realized in Jack's believable first-person,
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| | Mankell, Henning WHEN THE SNOW FELL
July 01, 2009 - Joel (A Bridge to the Stars, 2007, and Shadows in the Twilight, 2008) is now almost 14 and feeling all the bewildering emotions that growing up entails. He leads a rich inner life, filled with wild dreams and endless imagination. Along with his
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| | McAllister, Angela LEON AND THE PLACE BETWEEN
July 01, 2009 - Aimed at readers who enjoy such elaborately illustrated, strongly atmospheric ventures into mysterious worlds as Neil Gaiman's The Wolves in the Walls, illustrated by Dave McKean (2003), and Chris Van Allsburg's The Garden of Abdul Gasazi (1979),
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| | McDonald, Megan RULE OF THREE
July 01, 2009 - The Reel sisters—Joey, Stevie and Alex—are back in the second installment of the Sisters Club series. Each sister has her role in the family, and Stevie is the one who likes to do the backstage work. Even thinking about being onstage makes Stevie
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| | McLaughlin, Lauren (RE)CYCLER
July 01, 2009 - Jill has more reason than most recent high-school graduates to be both thrilled and terrified to leave home: Once a month, instead of having her period, she turns into a boy. Throughout high school, Jill's mother helped Jill sublimate her boy self
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| | Munro, Roxie INSIDE-OUTSIDE DINOSAURS
July 01, 2009 - Munro moves from architecture to paleontology for her latest Inside-Outside album, portraying each of eight familiar dinosaurs as a fossil skeleton and then, on the next spread, fleshing the specimen out and posing it in an open, natural setting
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| | Nayeri, Daniel ANOTHER FAUST
July 01, 2009 - Five teens with supernatural powers move to New York City, where they cause mayhem at an exclusive prep school. The source of their powers is their mysterious, beautiful governess, Nicola Vileroy, who adopted the children when they were ten years
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| | Parenteau, Shirley BEARS ON CHAIRS
July 01, 2009 - "Four small chairs / just right for bears. / Where is the bear / for each small chair?" One by one, Calico, Fuzzy, Yellow and Floppy Bears take their seats, but what to do when Big Brown Bear shows up and there's no chair? Parenteau's rhythm and
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| | Penner, Lucille Recht MONSTERS
July 01, 2009 - "Long ago, people believed in monsters. They thought there were monsters on land, in the sea, and in the sky. What else could cause so many scary things?...People thought earthquakes must be caused by fighting giants. They thought volcanoes came
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| | Perlman, Janet THE DELICIOUS BUG
July 01, 2009 - A deadlock between two chameleons disrupts the forest. Chameleon pals Willy and Wally are hanging out by the pond one day when a plump bumblebug (a bumpy blob of pink with eyes and wings) flies by—"flip flup flip flup." Lickety-split, both Willy and
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| | Pignataro, Anna PRINCESS AND FAIRY
July 01, 2009 - Saccharine, sparkly and overwhelmingly pink, this selection seems calculatedly aimed at some of the retail industry's hottest market: little girls. Princess and fairy are the best of friends. When they receive an invitation to the queen's birthday
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| | Poblocki, Dan THE STONE CHILD
July 01, 2009 - Eddie Fennicks is new to Gatesweed, Mass., when he discovers it's the home of Nathaniel Olmstead, his favorite writer. But the author has disappeared, creatures from his novels have come alive, children have gone missing and there have even been
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| | Roberts, Ken THUMB AND THE BAD GUYS
July 01, 2009 - In a hamlet on the coast of British Columbia that is reachable only by air or boat, 12-year-old Thumb is known among the 143 other villagers as the one who plays a trick on newcomers. Along with neighbor Susan, also 12, Thumb finds their lives seem
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| | Robinson, Fiona THE 3-2-3 DETECTIVE AGENCY
July 01, 2009 - While heading by train to Whiska City to chase her dream of becoming a detective, Jenny the donkey meets a menagerie of new friends who will make perfect partners in her new venture. Roger, a dung beetle who likes gourmet food, Priscilla, a penguin
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| | Root, Phyllis THIRSTY THURSDAY
July 01, 2009 - It's Thursday on Bonnie Bumble's farm, and everyone is thirsty—especially the flowers. The snapdragons snap, the tiger lilies growl, the Johnny-jump-ups jump up and down and the black-eyed Susans are spoiling for a fight. Not a drop of rain is in
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| | Rubinger, Ami BIG CAT, SMALL CAT
July 01, 2009 - "This cat is big / This cat is small / This cat is short / This cat is…" Cats of all shapes and sizes, ages, colors, heights and degrees of health are presented in rhyming couplets of opposites with the last word or phrase left out. Listeners and
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| | San Jos, Christine EVERY SECOND SOMETHING HAPPENS
July 01, 2009 - San Jos and Johnson (both formerly on the editorial staff of Highlights for Children) have organized an anthology of traditional rhymes, lesser-known verses and nicely crafted child-authored poems. The selections offer "a path" to interpreting the
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| | Sauer, Tammi CHICKEN DANCE
July 01, 2009 - A duck-and-chicken rivalry turns foul in this outrageous offering. Barn animals compete in a talent show to win Elvis Poultry concert tickets; after all, the King's "top bird." For chickens Marge and Lola, practice proves fruitless: Bowling squashes
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| | Seagraves, Donny Bailey GONE FROM THESE WOODS
July 01, 2009 - "I was always going to be that boy who killed his uncle," proclaims 11-year-old Daniel Sartain. He never wanted to hunt rabbits in his family's Georgia woods, but coming from a long line of hunters and idolizing his uncle, Clay, Danny follows him
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| | Smith, David J. IF AMERICA WERE A VILLAGE
July 01, 2009 - Smith and Armstrong follow up If the World Were a Village (2002) with a similarly eye-opening portrait of the United States as a "village" of 100 people (roughly one per 3,000,000). Paired to impressionistic street and crowd scenes viewed,
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| | Spires, Ashley BINKY THE SPACE CAT
July 01, 2009 - Pudgy black-and-white kitty Binky lives on a space station, where, like any good member of F.U.R.S.T. (Felines of the Universe Ready for Space Travel), he protects his two humans from aliens. Binky's humans call the aliens "bugs," and the space
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| | Thompson, Alicia PSYCH MAJOR SYNDROME
July 01, 2009 - Leigh's psych classes at Stiles College do little to help her understand why sex still doesn't seem like a good idea with her brainy, long-term boyfriend, why she can't stop thinking about his sweet, guitar-playing roommate and why her competitive
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| | Tracy, Kristen CAMILLE MCPHEE FELL UNDER THE BUS...
July 01, 2009 - Camille McPhee's father warns her: "Don't expect life to be fair." Is it fair that hypoglycemic Camille's the only kid who has to carry extra food to school in a cooler? Is it fair when her best friend Sally moves from Idaho to Japan, making fourth
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| | Umansky, Kaye CLOVER TWIG AND THE MAGICAL COTTAGE
July 01, 2009 - A stalwart young girl discovers the secrets of a benign witch's bungalow in this charming middle-grade fantasy. When intrepid 11-year-old Clover Twig goes to work for local witch Mrs. Eckles, she has no idea she's inadvertently placed herself in the
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| | Vincent, Rachel MY SOUL TO TAKE
July 01, 2009 - Harlequin Teen's debut series, Soul Screamers, starts off with a bang. This first volume introduces readers to the likable and willful Kaylee Cavanaugh. Kaylee's life has gotten super strange ever since she realized that she sees shadows surrounding
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| | Walsh, Vivian JUNE AND AUGUST
July 01, 2009 - In this tongue-in-cheek take on the tried-and-true theme of unlikely friendships, a python meets what she thinks is another python one night. June and August hit it off immediately, and not even the daytime revelation that June has been talking to
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| | Watt, Mlanie HAVE I GOT A BOOK FOR YOU!
July 01, 2009 - Children with a taste for TV infomercials now have a literary equivalent to savor any time. Watt, creator of Scaredy Squirrel, dishes up toothy, toupee-topped super-hawker Al Foxword who, fresh from selling iceboxes to penguins and umbrellas to fish
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| | Wolf-Morgenländer, Karl RAGTAG
July 01, 2009 - Standard animal warfare, awkwardly didactic but bolstered by creative city details. The Feathered Alliance, a group of various Boston bird clans, scrabbles to defend its urban territory against a band of predatory birds from the west. Narrative
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| | Zink, Michelle PROPHECY OF THE SISTERS
July 01, 2009 - Everything changes for 16-year-old Lia Milthorpe when her father dies under mysterious circumstances, leaving her orphaned along with twin sister Alice and younger brother Henry. Hours after her father's death, a mysterious mark appears on her skin,
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| Online Exclusive
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| More from Moore
June 30, 2009 - In How Fiction Works, the tutorial by the New Yorker critic and Harvard professor, James Wood writes, "Literature makes us better noticers of life; we get to practice on life itself; which in turn makes us better readers of detail in literature; which in turn makes us better readers of life. And so on and on."...Contemporary fiction has produced few noticers with a better eye and more engaging voice than Tassie Keltjin, the narrator of Lorrie Moore's deceptively powerful A Gate at the Stairs.
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