National Network for Equitable Library Service

From the author of Cracked and Empty comes a gripping, emotional story of two brothers who must make the ultimate decision about what's more important: family or their differences. It's not Oscar's fault he's misunderstood. Ever since his mother died, he's been disrespected by his father and bullied by his self-absorbed older brother, so he withdraws from his fractured family, seeking refuge in his art. Vance wishes his younger brother would just loosen up and be cool. It was hard enough to deal with their mother's death without Oscar getting all emotional.

An emotional and heart wrenching novel about grief and striving for perfection. Lighter. Leaner. Faster. Raesha will to do whatever it takes to win Nationals. For her, competing isn't just about the speed of her horse or the thrill of the win. It's about honoring her mother's memory and holding onto a dream they once shared. Lighter. Leaner. Faster. For an athlete, every second counts. Raesha knows minus five on the scale will let her sit deeper in her saddle, make her horse lighter on his feet.

He calls it fate. She calls it blackmail. Rory has a secret: she's the vandal who paints graffiti lions all over her small town. If her policeman dad knew, he'd probably disown her. So when Hayes, a former screw-up on the path to recovery, catches her in the act, Rory's sure she's busted. Instead, he makes her a deal. If Rory shows him around town, he won't turn her in. It might be coercion, but at least the boy is hot. As they spend more time together, Rory worries she made the wrong choice.

You can't always believe what you see in this hilarious coming of age novel from the author of The Greatest Zombie Movie Ever and I Have a Bad Feeling about This Harry Houdini. Penn and Teller. David Copperfield. Marcus Millian the Third. Okay, so Marcus isn't a famous magician. He may not even be a great magician. But his great-grandfather, the once-legendary and long-retired Zachary the Stupendous, insists Marcus has true talent.

An action-packed, edge-of-your-seat novel about a teen who, when backed into a corner, fights back, from the author of What Waits in the Woods Kaia has been on the run her whole life. The daughter of professional assassins, she knows danger-and she'll do anything to survive. After her parents vanished during a job gone bad, Kaia's spent the last year in hiding, trying to blend in as an ordinary teenager, and there's no one who makes her feel more normal, more special, than her boyfriend, Oliver.

For readers of Girl Interrupted and Tweak, Cyndy Etler's gripping memoir gives readers a glimpse into the harrowing reality of her sixteen months in the notorious "tough love" program the ACLU called "a concentration camp for throwaway kids." I never was a badass. Or a slut, a junkie, a stoner, like they told me I was. I was just a kid looking for something good, something that felt like love. I was a wannabe in a Levi's jean jacket. Anybody could see that. Except my mother. And the professionals at Straight. From the outside, Straight Inc. was a drug rehab.

Sofia lost her mother eight months ago, and her friends were 100% there for her. Now it's a new year and they're ready for Sofia to move on. Problem is, Sofia can't bounce back, can't recharge like a cellphone. She decides to write Dear Kate, an advice columnist for Fifteen Magazine, and is surprised to receive a fast reply. Soon the two are exchanging emails, and Sofia opens up and spills all, including a few worries that are totally embarrassing.

Hawthorn wasn't trying to insert herself into a missing person's investigation. Or maybe she was. But that's only because Lizzie Lovett's disappearance is the one fascinating mystery their sleepy town has ever had. Bad things don't happen to popular girls like Lizzie Lovett, and Hawthorn is convinced she'll turn up at any moment-which means the time for speculation is now. So Hawthorn comes up with her own theory for Lizzie's disappearance. A theory way too absurd to take seriously...at first. The more Hawthorn talks, the more she believes.

Sixteen-year-old Harper Jacobs and her bored friends make a pact to engage in a series of not-quite illegal break-ins. They steal from each other's homes, sharing their keys and alarm codes. But they don't take anything that can't be replaced by some retail therapy, so it's okay. It's thrilling. It's bad. And for Harper, it's payback for something she can't put into words-something to help her deal with her alcoholic mother, her delusional father, and to forget the lies she told that got her druggie brother arrested.

After nailing the murderer of her addict mom and proving that her detractors are full of it, seventeen-year-old Faith Flores is back for another kick-ass science mystery. She's proud to be chosen for a summer internship at a research lab in Santa Fe, New Mexico, but once she arrives, complications abound. For one thing, Santa Fe is the birthplace of the father she's never met, and for another, she clashes with a local environmentalist trying to pull the plug on the genetically modified chiles her new boss is engineering.