CHILDREN'S
Released: March 8, 2011
"By turns heartbreaking, infuriating and ultimately inspiring. (Fiction. 13 & up)"
The riveting tale of an indigenous Ecuadorian girl being sent away from her family to work for a middle-class mestizo (of Spanish heritage) couple, this collaborative novel by teen author Resau and Farinango is based on the life story of the latter.
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CHILDREN'S
Released: March 1, 2011
"It was just good and bad and interesting and fucked-up and very human, like anything else." (Fiction. 14 & up)"
Finally, a book about a transgender teen that gives its central character a life in which gender and transition matter but do not define his existence!
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CHILDREN'S
Released: Feb. 1, 2011
"There's enough wish fulfillment here to delight starry-eyed music lovers and enough cautionary realism to reassure a worried Gramma. (Fiction. 13 & up)"
Though comfortable with her private school, protective Gramma and house in Toledo, devoted underground hip-hop fan Ann Michelle Lewis sometimes wonders if she's missing out.
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CHILDREN'S
Released: Aug. 1, 2010
"A much-needed look at the terrifying perils of life on the margins that will have all readers pondering the heady question of moral responsibility. (Graphic fiction. 12 & up)"
A haunting, ripped-from-the-headlines account of youth gang violence in Chicago provides the backdrop for a crucial mediation on right and wrong.
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CHILDREN'S
Released: Aug. 1, 2010
"Krystal and her fellow Mystyx are all people of color, adding a dimension of diversity too rarely seen in the genre. (Paranormal mystery. YA)"
New Yorker Krystal, 15, moves to her mother's hometown of Lincoln, Conn., after her parents divorce.
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CHILDREN'S
Released: May 1, 2010
"Fans, future bankers and future gametechs will be in heaven; those without interest will skim or give up by the halfway mark. (Science fiction. YA)"
In a future so close it will be easily mistaken for today, teens all over the world play massively multiplayer online role-playing games, but not all are in the game for fun.
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CHILDREN'S
Released: April 13, 2010
"Both Spanish and urban African-American vernacular dialogue add credibility to this innovative novel that is sure to spark discussion among students who are pondering their options. (Fiction. YA)"
Efrain Rodriguez, on track to be valedictorian at Pedro Albizu Campos High School in the South Bronx, is determined to break the barriers that have kept other low-income students out of ultra-selective universities such as Harvard, Yale and Princeton.
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CHILDREN'S
Released: April 1, 2010
"Hopeful and beautifully strange. (Fantasy. 11-13)"
Fat, poor and intellectually slow, Melanie Tamaki's days are divided between torment at school and her alcoholic mother at home.
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CHILDREN'S
Released: May 1, 2009
"This fantasy heroine, who shows her spunk with quiet self-determination instead of swordfights, headlines an appealing magical adventure set in a refreshingly non-Western milieu. (Fantasy. 12-14)"
Ai Ling wants to be a dutiful daughter, but surely marrying the vile widower Master Huang is a bad idea.
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CHILDREN'S
Released: March 10, 2009
"It's Me, Margaret and will fill a niche in any school or public library looking to beef up their YA multicultural fiction offerings. (Fiction. 13 & up)"
CHILDREN'S
Released: Jan. 1, 2009
"Written with insight, humor and sensitivity, Abdel-Fattah introduces a winning Muslim-Australian heroine who discovers that "honesty is liberating." (Fiction. 12-16)"
A 16-year-old Australian-Muslim-Lebanese teen wonders who she really is as she straddles two cultural realities.
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CHILDREN'S
Released: March 1, 2008
A passionate girl loses her first love but finds community and self in this flashy debut with awkward prose but lots of heart.
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CHILDREN'S
Released: Jan. 1, 2008
"Headley brings Chinese history, the implications of wealth and the power of self-acceptance into soft focus, nudging reflective readers to delve deeper after they reluctantly turn the last page. (Fiction. YA)"
Syrah wants to be more than just the daughter of billionaire Ethan Cheng; she used to be a killer snowboarder, until a boy destroyed her trust and a horrific accident ruined her knee.
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CHILDREN'S
Released: Sept. 1, 2007
"Junior's keen cartoons sprinkle the pages as his fluid narration deftly mingles raw feeling with funny, sardonic insight. (Fiction. YA)"
Alexie nimbly blends sharp wit with unapologetic emotion in his first foray into young-adult literature.
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CHILDREN'S
Released: Oct. 1, 2001
"There is a list of advocacy groups at the end, unusual in a novel, but understandable, perhaps necessary, in this one. (Fiction. YA)"
The lives of three suburban high school students become dramatically entangled in a manner familiar mostly to high-schoolers and soap-opera fans.
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