Sunday, May 19, 2013

Fun New Titles Just in Time for Summer Vacation!!

The Gnaughty Gnomes of No! by Jamie Rix

Away from the Hothell Darkness, these children book their passage on a rusting hulk at the bottom of the ocean floor, "The Hard Ship Grizzly." Read and weep at the tales of the wicked children who were too naughty, too selfish, too rude or just . . . too much.
 
A Mummy in Her Backpack/Una momia en su mochila by James Luna (Bilingual edition-Spanish/English)

Flor enjoyed her two-week trip to Mexico, though she's glad to be back at school. But when she tries to pull her homework out of her backpack, she's shocked to feel a cold hand clutching hers. Thinking that the pesky boys in her class are playing a trick on her, she turns around to look into her pack. She's even more stunned when she sees two yellow eyes peeking out at her.

Flor and her best friend Lupita stare in astonishment as a cowboy hat, followed by a small man with dark yellow skin and thin, stringy hair, emerges from her backpack. He introduces himself as Rafa, a mummy from the famous museum in Guanajuato. Flor visited the museum and learned that some people buried there mummified naturally. She can't believe that an actual mummy hitched a ride with her to the United States!
The Elsewhere Chronicles: The Shadow Spies by Nykko

With the Shadow Door shattered and the passageway closed, Rebecca and Max set out across the dangerous lands of ElseWhere to find a way home. Wherever there is darkness, the Shadow Spies - servants of the Master of Shadows - lie in wait to stop them. Back on the other side of the door, Noah and Theo are working on a rescue. 

With the clues left behind by Grandpa Gabe and the help of new allies, can they find another passageway and keep the Shadows from destroying our world?
 
Blue Ribbon Champ by Marsha Hubler

A blue-ribbon horse and a boy with Down syndrome teach Skye the meaning of love.Joey Klingerman is one of the most loving kids you could ever meet, but Skye would welcome a lot less of his affection. This is Joey's second summer at Keystone Stables, and the outgoing boy has latched onto Skye as his 'girlfriend.' Skye finds his attention embarrassing and frustrating.

To add to the frustration, Joey won't stop pestering Skye to let him ride her horse, Champ. Skye won't even consider it. No one rides Champ but her.What does God want her to learn about loving others---including Joey? With the Snyder County Horse Show drawing near, Skye is about to find out
 
A Picture for Marc by Eric A. Kimmel

GROWING UP IN Russia in the late 1800s, Marc Chagall doesn't know what art is. He doesn't even know what drawing is until one of his schoolmates shows him how to trace a picture in a magazine. Marc tries it himself, then decides to pull pictures out of his own mind - his Uncle Noah on the roof, giant chickens, flying cows, happy men with fiddles, and women with lambs. 

Suddenly Marc knows what he wants to do with his life. He wants to be an artist!
 
Black Heart by Justin Somper

There's a new ship of vampirates roaming the seas, leaving a trail of fear and devastation in its wake. When a high-profile pirate is slain, the Pirate Federation takes decisive action and begins training up a ship of dedicated vampire hunters. The team will be led by newly appointed Captain, Cheng Li and will include pirate prodigy Connor Tempest.

Meanwhile, Connor's twin sister Grace enjoys a bittersweet reunion with their mother. Sally Tempest has some important and shocking news that will leave the twins facing a very uncertain future.


The Faceless Ones by Derek Landy

Valkyrie screamed, sprinting toward Skulduggery.

He looked up and reached out to her, but it was too late.

Some bad guy wants to bring about the end of the world, and Skulduggery and Valkyrie fight valiantly to stop it from happening. A few people get hurt, sure, but everything's all right in the end.

Well, not this time.


The Outlaw Varjak Paw by SF Said

Having saved the city cats from a fate worse than death, Varjak Paw finds himself the leader of a new gang. But will the pressure take its toll on this brave but sometimes naive cat? 

Soon the city erupts in an all-out gang war as the evil Sally Bones attempts to control all cats. Horrified and outnumbered, Varjak and the others must fight for their freedom or die trying.
 
Mission Unstoppable by Dan Gutman

In eight days, Coke and Pepsi McDonald are going to turn thirteen.

Before then, they'll jump off a cliff, get trapped in the locked basement of their burning school, chased cross-country by murderous lunatics, left for dead in the pit of a sand dune, forced to decipher mysterious coded messages, thrown into a giant vat of SPAM, and visit the world's largest . . . ball of twine

There's more, but if we told you here, we'd have to kill you.

 
Magic Pickle and the Planet of the Grapes by Scott Morse

Meet the Magic Pickle, a dilly of a superhero who's fighting the food fight against a brotherhood of evil fruits and vegetables who are plotting to take over the world!

Magic Pickle is a secret weapon developed in a secret military lab---under little JoJo Wigwam's bedroom floor. The fearless dill superhero meets his match in this feisty eight-year-old. Together they go after Ray Sin, a renegade raisin from the Brotherhood of Evil Produce. Ray Sin has a dastardly plan: to turn every human being on the planet into big, juicy, mindless grapes, so he can rule the world!

 
The Somebodies by N.E. Bode

There is a city beneath New York City, one made by and for Anybodies. There you can find Bing Chubb's Ballpark, Willy Fattler's ever-changing Underground Hotel, and a castle whose spire sticks up into the dirt-filled sky...dangerously close to the rear ends of unsuspecting picnic-goers in Central Park. 

 It's an extraordinary place, but it is in danger of becoming ordinary because of the nefarious Blue Queen. Somebody has to stop her, and if anybody is going to, nobody is better than everybody's favorite Anybody.
 
Birth of a Killer by Darren Shan

Before Cirque Du Freak...
Before the war with the vampaneze...
Before he was a vampire.

Larten Crepsley was a boy.

As a child laborer many centuries ago, Larten Crepsley did his job well and without complaint, until the day the foreman killed his brother as an example to the other children.

In that moment, young Larten flies into a rage that the foreman wouldn't survive. Forced on the run, he sleeps in crypts and eats cobwebs to get by. And when a vampire named Seba offers him protection and training as a vampire's assistant, Larten takes it.

This is his story.

 
Heck: Where the Bad Kids Go by Dale Basye

WHEN MILTON AND Marlo Fauster die in a marshmallow bear explosion, they get sent straight to Heck, an otherworldly reform school. Milton can understand why his kleptomaniac sister is here, but Milton is—or was—a model citizen. 

Has a mistake been made? Not according to Bea “Elsa” Bubb, the Principal of Darkness. She doesn’t make mistakes. She personally sees to it that Heck—whether it be home-ec class with Lizzie Borden, ethics with Richard Nixon, or gym with Blackbeard the Pirate—is especially, well, heckish for the Fausters. 

Will Milton and Marlo find a way to escape? Or are they stuck here for all eternity, or until they turn 18, whichever comes first?
 
The Night of the Solstice by L.J. Smith

When Claudia Hodges-Bradley meets a fox, she knows it will be an extraordinary day. Not just any fox, this vixen is the magical familiar of the sorceress Morgana Shee. For years Morgana has guarded the solitary gate between Earth and the Wildworld, a shimmering parallel universe where legends still live. She alone holds the secret of the mirrors that serve as the last passage to enchantment. But Morgana has been betrayed and imprisoned in the Wildworld, and the fox is determined to recruit the Hodges-Bradley kids for the rescue mission.

Armed only with courage and determination, Alys, Charles, Janie, and Claudia must save Morgana before the winter solstice, when the evil sorcerer Cadal Forge plans to escape Wildworld and conquer Earth. And with December 21 only two weeks away, there is not time to lose.


Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy

Meet Skulduggery Pleasant

Ace DetectiveSnappy DresserRazor-tongued WitCrackerjack SorcererandWalking, Talking, Fire-throwing Skeleton--as well as ally, protector, and mentor of Stephanie Edgley, a very unusual and darkly talented twelve-year-old.

These two alone must defeat an all-consuming ancient evil.

The end of the world? Over his dead body.