National Network for Equitable Library Service

The Third Act deals with the intercultural struggles faced by Chinese students studying in North America in the present day and by an American playwright, Neil Peterson, caught up in the Nanjing Massacre of 1937. The contemporary story focuses on three Chinese friends (Tone, Pike and Theresa) who grapple in their own ways with the pressure to succeed in an unfamiliar culture. The historical tale concerns Peterson's effort to find his literary voice and save the woman he loves amidst the chaos and horror of the fall of Nanjing in the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Sixteen-year-old Jolene, named after the girl in the Dolly Parton song, is from a long line of lowlifes, but at least they're musical lowlifes. Her mother is a tanning-salon manager who believes she can channel her karaoke habit into a professional singing career. Jolene's dad, a failed bass player, has gone back to the family demolition business and lives by the company motto: "We do not build things; we only tear them down." But Jolene and her big brother, Matt, are true musicians, writing songs together that make everything Jo hates about their lives matter less.

Inspired by the terrible breakups around her, sixteen-year-old Lizzie, strapped for cash and itching to go on the school's band trip to NYC, teams up with her best friend, Willa, to create a genius business: personalized gift baskets--breakup baskets--sent from dumper to dumpee. The Goodbye Girls operate in secret, and business is booming. But it's not long before someone begins sabotaging The Goodbye Girls, sending impossibly cruel baskets to seemingly random targets, undermining everything Lizzie and Willa have built and jeopardizing their anonymity.

Sixteen-year-old Tamera lives in La Cresta, a rural fishing community on a Caribbean island. Despite having the support of relatives, including her dad, Earl, her elder sister, Mary and her best friend and first cousin, Jan, she struggles to deal with her mom's mental health issues and the absence of her boyfriend, Dalton who moves out of the village to work. Tamera's life is further complicated after one of her classmates disappears, and weeks turn to months without any word of the missing girl's whereabouts. Life gets even more challenging after Tamera suffers a personal loss.

It's a decade since the world died. Humanity has retreated inside walled territories to protect those who are left. Every day is like the one before it: simple, mundane, dreadful. Erin Bishop lives in the territory Eden, where she enforces the rule of Mr. Bellemark, its leader and keeper - a self-proclaimed saviour of the world. All is well inside her concrete cage until the day she learns of a terrorist threatening the lives inside the walls and her partner falls victim to a vicious attack. All at once, Erin is swept up into a centuries-old battle between dark and light.

In Shakespeare's time, women were not allowed to appear on stage, and so female parts were played by boy actors. In I Was Cleopatra, readers meet John Rice - perhaps the most beautiful and acclaimed boy actor of them all. It is believed by many that John Rice originated the roles of Lady Macbeth, Cleopatra and Cordelia, and this fictional memoir explores his life both on and off the stage.

The mission was a failure. Even though Zivah and Dineas discovered a secret that could bring down the empire, their information is useless without proof. Now, with their cover blown and their quest abandoned, their only remaining hope is to get home before Ampara brings the full might of its armies against their peoples. As Shidadi and Dara alike prepare for war, Zivah and Dineas grapple with the toll of their time in the capital.

Pretty Little Liars meets Ocean's 11 in this highly commercial, intrigue-filled contemporary drama. Welcome to Vale Hall: a school for aspiring con artists. When Brynn Hilder is recruited to the elite Vale Hall, she can't believe her luck. Vale means a new life, away from her mom's loser boyfriend Pete and her run-down neighborhood. But Brynn soon learns that she hasn't been recruited because of her straight A's-she's been chosen because up until now, her extracurriculars involved conning rich North Shore kids out of their extravagant allowances in an attempt to save up for college.

The conclusion to the gorgeous and lush Wintersong duology, Shadowsong by S. Jae-Jones. Six months after the end of Wintersong, Liesl is working toward furthering both her brother's and her own musical careers. Although she is determined to look forward and not behind, life in the world above is not as easy as Liesl had hoped. Her younger brother Josef is cold, distant, and withdrawn, while Liesl can't forget the austere young man she left beneath the earth, and the music he inspired in her.

A story about life lived and lost, and what two teens hold onto in the wake of a tragic plane crash, told in a unique voice and style that puts readers directly inside the heroine's mind. Can you want something-or someone-so badly that it changes your destiny' Elyse Schmidt never would have thought so, until it happened to her. When Elyse and her not-so-secret crush, Josh Harris, are the sole survivors of a plane crash, tragedy binds them together. It's as if their love story is meant to be.