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Hidden Talents

David Lubar

American Library Association "Best Books for Young Adults"
American Library Association "Quick Picks for Young Adults"

Martin Anderson and his friends don't like being called losers. But they've been called that for so long even they start to believe it. Until Martin makes an incredible discovery: each of his friends has a special hidden talent.

Edgeview Alternative School was supposed to be end of the road. But for Martin and his friends, it just might be a new beginning.

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Supergifted

Gordon Korman

Donovan is back at Hardcastle, along with nerdy genius Noah Youkilis who is being bullied by a basketball star. His efforts to protect Noah earn Donovan a restraining order. One evening, Donovan gets word of Noah heading over to the bully's house to challenge him. Donovan rushes out to stop him. During the argument, the boys notice an out of control propane tanker. Donovan leaps into the moving truck and steers it to safety, and the boys flee. The next morning school is buzzing with the news of the hero; all anyone saw of him was his legs. Donovan sweats as police collect evidence, but soon the hero reveals himself--Noah! He explains to Donovan that he is trying to protect him. Overnight, Noah becomes a star. Unused to popularity, he has no idea that he's becoming even worse than the jocks and A-listers who once bullied him. Donovan and Noah's friendship deteriorates, to the dismay of the robotics team at ASD, who still depend on them. Word arrives that the Governor himself is coming to town to award Noah a medal for bravery and public service. At the assembly, the robotics team are scheduled to entertain the governor with a demonstration of Heavy Metal. Suddenly the robot goes berserk. All eyes turn to the super-kid, but Noah is frozen with horror. It's Donovan who bursts into action, tackling and subduing the runaway robot. In so doing, his legs kick out horizontally in a manner that is instantly recognized by the driver of the propane truck. The police decide to forgive him in light of his heroism. Besides, regardless of what really happened with the propane truck, everyone is confident of one thing: There has never been anyone more un-super than Donovan Curtis.

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Found

Margaret Peterson Haddix

Thirteen-year-old Jonah has always known that he was adopted, and he's never thought it was any big deal. Then he and a new friend, Chip, who's also adoped, begin receiving mysterious letters. The first one says, "You are one of the missing." The second one says, "Beware! They're coming back to get you."

Jonah, Chip, and Jonah's sister, Katherine, are plunged into a mystery that involves the FBI, a vast smuggling operation, an airplane that appeared out of nowhere -- and people who seem to appear and disappear at will. The kids discover they are caught in a battle between two opposing forces that want very different things for Jonah and Chip's lives.

Do Jonah and Chip have any choice in the matter? And what should they choose when both alternatives are horrifying?

With Found, Margaret Peterson Haddix begins a new series that promises to be every bit as suspenseful as her Shadow Children series -- which has sold more than 41/2 million copies -- and proves her, once again, to be a master of the page-turner.

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Coraline

Neil Gaiman

When a young girl ventures through a hidden door, she finds another life with shocking similarities to her own.

Coraline has moved to a new house with her parents and she is fascinated by the fact that their 'house' is in fact only half a house! Divided into flats years before, there is a brick wall behind a door where once there was a corridor. One day it is a corridor again and the intrepid Coraline wanders down it. And so a nightmare-ish mystery begins that takes Coraline into the arms of counterfeit parents and a life that isn't quite right.

Can Coraline get out? Can she find her real parents? Will life ever be the same again?

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Gregor the Overlander Collection:

Suzanne Collins

Read all five books in the New York Times bestselling Gregor: The Underland Chronicles! When Gregor follows his little sister through a grate in the laundry room of their New York apartment building, he hurtles into the dark Underland beneath the city. There, humans live uneasily beside giant spiders, bats, cockroaches, and rats--but the fragile peace is about to fall apart. Gregor wants no part in this conflict, but again and again, he and his family are drawn into the Underland. Gregor must find his place in the frightening prophecies he encounters, the strength to protect his family, and the courage to defend against an army of giant rats. In this action-packed and masterful series, Suzanne Collins unfolds the fate of the Underland and its great warrior, Gregor the Overlander.

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Artemis Fowl

Eoin Colfer

When a twelve-year-old evil genius tries to restore his family fortune by capturing a fairy and demanding a ransom in gold, the fairies fight back with magic, technology, and a particularly nasty troll.

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I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

Ally Carter

Cammie Morgan, who attends the The Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women which in reality is a secret spy school, can speak fourteen different languages, hack CIA computer codes and kill a man seven different ways. After being sheltered for years from living a normal teenage life, she is quite unprepared with meeting a cute ordinary teen boy who thinks she is just an ordinary teen girl.  How does she handle this?

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Al Capone Shines My Shoes

Gennifer Choldenko

Moose and the cons are about to get a lot closer in this much-anticipated sequel.

It's 1935. Moose Flanagan lives on Alcatraz with his family, the other families of the guards, and a few hundred no-name hit men, con men, mad dog murderers and a handful of bank robbers too. And one of those cons has just done him a big favor.

You see, Moose has never met Al Capone, but a few weeks ago Moose wrote a letter to him asking him to use his influence to get his sister, Natalie, into a school she desperately needs in San Francisco. After Natalie got accepted, a note appeared in Moose's freshly laundered shirt that said: Done.

As this book begins, Moose discovers a new note. This one says: Your turn. Is it really from Capone? What does it mean? Moose can't risk anything that might get his dad fired. But how can he ignore Al Capone?
 

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The Iron Trial (Magisterium #1)

Holly Black

From NEW YORK TIMES bestselling authors Holly Black and Cassandra Clare comes a riveting new series that defies what you think you know about the world of magic. Most kids would do anything to pass the Iron Trial. Not Callum Hunt. He wants to fail. All his life, Call has been warned by his father to stay away from magic. If he succeeds at the Iron Trial and is admitted into the Magisterium, he is sure it can only mean bad things for him. So he tries his best to do his worst - and fails at failing. Now the Magisterium awaits him. It's a place that's both sensational and sinister, with dark ties to his past and a twisty path to his future. The Iron Trial is just the beginning, for the biggest test is still to come . . . From the remarkable imaginations of bestselling authors Holly Black and Cassandra Clare comes a heart-stopping, mind-blowing, pulse-pounding plunge into the magical unknown.

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My Papi Has a Motorcycle

Isabel Quintero

A celebration of the love between a father and daughter, and of a vibrant immigrant neighborhood, by an award-winning author and illustrator duo.

When Daisy Ramona zooms around her neighborhood with her papi on his motorcycle, she sees the people and places she's always known. She also sees a community that is rapidly changing around her.

But as the sun sets purple-blue-gold behind Daisy Ramona and her papi, she knows that the love she feels will always be there.

With vivid illustrations and text bursting with heart, My Papi Has a Motorcycle is a young girl's love letter to her hardworking dad and to memories of home that we hold close in the midst of change.

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Bear Came Along

Richard T. Morris

A cheerful and action-packed adventure about the importance of friendship and community from a successful author and illustrator duo!
Once there was a river flowing through a forest. The river didn't know it was capable of adventures until a big bear came along. But adventures aren't any fun by yourself, and so enters Froggy, Turtles, Beaver, Racoons, and Duck.
These very different animals take off downstream, but they didn't know they needed one another until thankfully, the river came along.
This hilarious picture book and heartfelt message celebrates the joy and fun that's in store when you embark together on a ride of a lifetime.

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