Queen of Hearts - Colleen Oakes

Queen of Hearts - Colleen Oakes

This is a different take on Alice in Wonderland.

Dinah, Princess and future Queen of Wonderland, is awaiting her coronation. In the meantime, her time is spent playing crochet, attending tea parties, and trying to avoid her father the King. He is a tyrant and criticizes everything Dinah does. Along comes Duchess Vittiore, Dinah's half-sister that she didn't know existed. Dinah knows she will have an even harder time pleasing her father.

After receiving a message, Dinah and Wardley, her best friend and love of her life, take off for the Black Towers. Events happen on Execution Day that force Dinah to run for her life.

The usual Alice in Wonderland characters are there, but not in the form we are used to seeing them.
Cheshire - The King's Advisor
Rabbit - Dinah's Guardian
Mad Hatter - Dinah's mentally ill brother Charles

Suggested Level: Upper Middle School and High School

Sweet - Emmy Laybourne

Sweet - Emmy Laybourne

A luxurious cruise ship is setting sail for a week long vacation. If you take this trip, you are guaranteed to lose weight. The ship is measured before leaving port and it will weigh less when it returns. The weight loss craze Solu will be on sale soon. This cruise is its launch party.

Laurel isn't sure about accepting her friend's invitation for the cruise, but decides she will. Besides, what could possibly go wrong? Laurel is seasick the first day out and does not take her Solu packets. She begins to see what it is doing to the other guests.

Tom is a former childhood star. He's working on a piece about Solu. He's doing interviews and filming. He never had any intention of taking the packets. He's careful what he puts in his body.

Tom and Laurel notice what is happening to the others on board the ship. They have become addicted to Solu. They will do ANYTHING to get their fix.

Suggested Level: Middle School and High School


The paperback released June 7. It has a different cover. I almost like it better.

The Outliers - Kimberly McCreight

The Outliers - Kimberly McCreight

Please, Wylie, I need your help. 

Wylie hasn't heard from Cassie since their last fight. Wylie has been watching Cassie make one bad decision after another.

Cassie keeps sending Wylie cryptic messages for her to come help. Cassie also sends her boyfriend Jasper to Wylie's house. Together, Jasper and Wylie head out into the woods of Maine to find and help Cassie.

Once they find her, the mystery continues. Someone Wylie knows and trusts is in charge of what's happening.

Suggested Level: Upper Middle School and High School

ARC Received at TLA

The Fall of Butterflies - Andrea Portes

The Fall of Butterflies - Andrea Portes

Willa Parker is headed east to start new. It was her mother's idea for her to attend Pembroke Prep.
Willa has no intentions of staying there long. In fact, she doesn't plan to be around much longer.

The first person she meets is Remy Taft. Remy is the most intriguing girl on campus. Remy decides that she and Willa will be friends. Willa is around to Remy spiral out of control.

All Willa has ever wanted was to fit in. Remy helps her do that. Is there a cost?

Suggest Level: High School

Received an ARC at TLA.


I really like the published cover better than the ARC. What do you think?

Waiting on Wednesday - Scythe

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine

Scythe - Neal Shusterman

From Goodreads:

In a world where disease has been eliminated, the only way to die is to be randomly killed ("gleaned") by professional reapers ("sythes"). Citra and Rowan are teenagers who have been selected to be scythe's apprentices, and -- despite wanting nothing to do with the vocation -- they must learn the art of killing and come to understand the necessity of what they do.

Only one of them will be chosen as the scythe's apprentice. And when it becomes clear that the winning apprentice's first task will be to glean the loser, Citra and Rowan are pitted against one another in a fight for their lives. 

Release Date: November 22, 2016

Publisher: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers

Waiting on Wednesday - Stalking Jack the Ripper

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine

Stalking Jack the Ripper - Kerri Maniscalco

From Goodreads:

Seventeen-year-old Audrey Rose Wadsworth was born a lord's daughter, with a life of wealth and privilege stretched out before her. But between the social teas and silk dress fittings, she leads a forbidden secret life. 

Against her stern father's wishes and society's expectations, Audrey often slips away to her uncle's laboratory to study the gruesome practice of forensic medicine. When her work on a string of savagely killed corpses drags Audrey into the investigation of a serial murders, her search for answers brings her close to her own sheltered world. 

The shocking twists and turns, augmented with real sinister period photos, will make this dazzling debut from author Maniscalco impossible to forget. 

Release Date: September 20, 2016

Waiting on Wednesday - P.S. I Like You

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine

P.S. I Like You - Kasie West

From Goodreads:

While Lily is spacing out in Chemistry one day, she picks up her pencil and scribbles a line from one of her favorite songs on the desk. The next day, someone else has written back to her on the desk! Soon enough Lily and the mystery student are exchanging notes, and lyrics, and even sharing secrets. When Lily finds out that her anonymous pen pal is a guy, she's flustered -- and kind of feels like she is falling for him. She and her best friend set out to unravel the identity of the letter writer -- but when the truth is revealed, the guy is the LAST person Lily could ever imagined it to be. Now Lily knows the truth, can she untangle her feelings and gather the courage to listen to her heart?

Release Date: July 26, 2016

Middle Grade New Releases - May 24, 2016

Clatter of Jars - Lisa Graff
It's summertime and everyone is heading off to camp. For talented kids, the place to be is Camp Atropos, where they can sings songs by the campfire, practice for the Talent show, and take some nice long dips in the lake. But what the kids don'e know is that they've been gathered for a reason -- one that the camp's director want to keep hidden at all costs. Companion to A Tangle of Knots (Junior Library Guild Selection)






Exile for Dreamers - Kathleen Baldwin
Tess can't get away from her dreams. They bring nothing but death and grief, and she refuses to accept that she may be destines for the same madness that destroyed her mother. Until her dreams become the only means of saving Lord Ravencross, the man she loves. Book 2. (For library programming for book 1, visit Spirit of Texas - Kathleen Baldwin)



Mayday - Karen Harrington
Wayne Kovok lives in a world of After. After his uncle in the army was killed overseas. After Wayne and his mother survived a plane crash while coming back from the funeral. After he lost his voice.

Wayne has always used his love of facts to communicate. Without his voice, how will he wow the prettiest girl in school? How will he stand up to his drill-sergeant grandfather? And how will he share his hopes with his deadbeat dad? It's not until Wayne loses his voice completely that he realizes how much he doesn't say.

Return to the Isle of the Lost - Melissa de la Cruz
Mal's an expert at intimidating her enemies, but she's broken the habit since leaving her villainous roots behind. So when she and her friends Evie, Carlos, and Jay all receive threatening messages demanding they return home, Mal can't believe it. Sure, she's King Ben's girlfriend now, and she's usually nice to her classmates, but she still didn't think anyone would be silly enough to try and push her around. Book 2





Summer of the Lost and Found - Rebecca Behrens
Nell Dare expected to spend her summer vacation hanging out with friends in New York City. That is, until her botanist mom dragged her all the way to Roanoke Island for a research trip. To make matters worse, her father suddenly and mysteriously leaves town, leaving no explanation or clues as where he went -- or why?

Everland - Wendy Spinale

Everland - Wendy Spinale

Gwen, Joanna, and Mikey Darling had survived the bombings and disease of London. Gwen takes care of her siblings by finding food while avoiding the Marauders and their leader Captain Hanz Otto Oswald Kretschmer (Captain HOOK).

Captain Hook is searching for a cure and believes it can be found in an Immune, a survivor. He captures survivors and experiment on them. Joanna is one of their captors. Gwen sets out to save her. Along the way, she meets Pete. Gwen, Pete, his band of Lost Boys, and Bella set out to outsmart Captain Hook and save Joanna.

Suggested Level: Middle School & High School

Every Exquisite Thing - Matthew Quick

Every Exquisite Thing - Matthew Quick

The book The Bubblegum Reaper has changed Nanette O'Hare's life. She was once quiet and did what was expected of her until reading the book and meeting the author, Nigel Booker. He introduces her to Alex. Alex is a poet her age. He introduces her to a younger boy named Oliver, who was bullied at school. Together, they try to solve the real life mysteries of the The Bubblegum Reaper. 

Alex stands up to Oliver's bullies and is arrested. Nanette falls apart and does not make good decisions.

Release Date: May 31, 2016
ARC received from Little Brown Books for Young Readers

Suggested Level: High School


Every Exquisite Thing is not my typical read. I wasn't a fan. It wasn't a bad book. In fact, I really enjoyed the beginning and couldn't put it down. It lost me about half way through.

Waiting on Wednesday - The Last Cherry Blossom

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine

The Last Cherry Blossom - Kathleen Burkinshaw

From Goodreads: 

Following the seventieth anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, this is a new very personal story to join Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. 

Yuriko was happy growing up in Hiroshima when it was just her and Papa. But her aunt Kimiko and her cousin Genji are living with them now, and the family is getting bigger with talk of a double marriage! And while things are changing at home, the world beyond their doors is even more unpredictable. World War II is coming to an end, and Japan's fate is not entirely clear, with any battle losses being hidden from its people. Yuriko is used to the sirens and the air-raid drills, but things start to feel more realwhen the neighbors who have left to fight stop coming home. When the bomb hits Hiroshima, it's through Yuriko's twelve -year-old eyes that we witness the devastation and horror. 

Release Date: August 2, 2016 

March: Book One & Two - John Lewis

March: Book One &  March: Book Two - John Lewis

Graphic novels tell the story of Congressmen John Lewis and his role in the Civil Rights Movement.

Book One shows John's childhood in Alabama, his first years in college, his meeting with Martin Luther King Jr.,  his role in the Nashville Student Movement, and their nonviolent lunch counter sit-ins that ended on the steps of City Hall.

Book Two continues the story with the Freedom Riders and their bus trips into southern cities. John Lewis' election to chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and becoming one of the "Big Six" leaders in the civil rights movement.

Book Three: Scheduled to be released August 2, 2016

Recommended Level: Upper Middle School & High School

Nimona - Noelle Stevenson

Nimona - Noelle Stevenson

Nimona, a shapeshifter, is a self-promoted sidekick to Lord Blackheart. They don't always see eye to eye in their villainous ways. Nimona is spunky and wants to destroy and kill everything. Lord Blackheart believes in the rules and that you can't go around doing that. He is curious about Nimona's past and her wild side.

Together, they set out to prove that the Institution of Law Enforcement and Sir Ambrosius Goldenloin aren't the heroes that they portray to be.

Suggested Level: Middle School & High School


I don't usually read graphic novels. I'd heard nothing but good things about Nimona. (That's what prompted me to read it.) I did enjoy it.

Draw the Line - Laurent Linn

Draw the Line - Laurent Linn

The Adrian Piper isn't necessarily the run of the mill high school student. He is an artist with his own website superhero, Graphite. Graphite gives him a place to express himself and what is going on in his life without revealing his identity.

Adrian is caught up in the events of a hate crime. He goes from being the quite, closeted boy in school to being vocal and out.

The book contains illustrations of Graphite.

Release Date: May 17, 2016
Received an ARC at Texas Library Association Annual Conference

Suggested Level: High School (language, violence, off page sex, LGBT)

Waiting on Wednesday 5.11 - The Fate of the Tearling

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Breaking the Spine

The Fate of the Tearling -Erika Johansen

Book #3

From Goodreads:

The thrilling conclusion to the New York times bestselling Tearling trilogy. 

In less than a year, Kelsea Glynn has transformed from a gawky teenager into a powerful monarch. As she has come into her own as the Queen of the Tearling, the headstrong, visionary leader has also transformed her realm. In her quest to end corruption and restore justice, she has made many enemies--including the evil Red Queen, her fiercest rival, who has set her armies against the Tear.

To protect her people from a devastating invasion Kelsea did the unthinkable -- she gave herself and her magical sapphires to her enemy-- and named the Mace, the trusted head of her personal guards, Regent in her place. But the Mace will not rest until he and his men rescue their sovereign, imprisoned in Mortmesne.

Now, as the suspenseful endgame begins, the fate of Queen Kelsea-- and the Tearling itself--will finally be revealed.

Release date: November 29, 2016

Beware That Girl - Teresa Toten

Beware That Girl - Teresa Toten

Kate O'Brian is a liar. She's good at it. She's smart. Kate is a scholarship student at Waverly School in New York City. Her goal is to make friends with the "right" girls and get into Yale.

Olivia has secrets of her own. Kate weasels her way into Olivia's life and they become friends. (Chapters switch between the two girls revealing the secrets they are keeping from the other.)

Enter Mark Redkin, Waverly administration. Mark and Olivia become close, and he is a threat to Kate.

Release Date: May 31, 2016
ARC Received from Texas Library Association Annual Conference

Suggested Level: High School

Readalikes:
We Were Liars
Pretty Little Liars

Free Audio Books

SYNC is a free summer audiobook program for teens 13+.

SYNC 2016 will give away 30 titles - two paired audiobook downloads a week.

Visit SYNC Audio Books 

There is a Google Slide presentation. Feel free to share it with your students. 

The Crown - Kiera Cass

The Crown - Kiera Cass
The last book in the Selection series.

Eadlyn has narrowed the Selection down to the Elite. There are five young men still there wanting to marry her...maybe. Things don't go as planned. Eadlyn must decide what is best for her country is the same as what is best for her.

This was a satisfying ending to the series. I had figured out who Eadlyn would end up with before it happened. There was still a surprise character.

Suggested Level: Middle School & High School

Wolf Hollow - Lauren Wolk

Wolf Hollow - Lauren Wolk

It is after World War I and the Great Depression, before World War II. Annabelle lives in the small town of Wolf Hollow, Pennsylvania. She leads a quiet, normal life until Betty Glengarry shows up at school.

Betty is a bully. She picks on Annabelle. She is mean and vicious. Her antics greatly effect the lives of those in her path. Toby, a World War I vet, becomes a victim of Betty's attacks.

One day, Toby and Betty go missing. The worse is thought, that Toby has taken Betty. A man hunt has begun for the two. Annabelle knows the truth, but will everyone listen to her?

ARC received from TLA Annual Conference

Suggested Level: Middle School

Readalikes:
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
Little House on the Prairie series - Laura Ingalls Wilder

This book is beautifully written. I had a hard time putting it down.

My Lady Jane - Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, Jodi Meadows

My Lady Jane - Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, Jodi Meadows

Sixteen year old Lady Jane Grey is known as the Nine Day Queen. She was left the throne on her cousin King Edward's deathbed. Edward's sister Mary did not agree with his decision and overthrew Jane. Jane was sentenced to death for high treason.

That's the real story of Lady Jane Grey. The fictionalized version is so much better!

Lady Jane Grey is set to marry. Her cousin, King Edward, has picked out the perfect man for her. Unfortunately, Jane has no idea that her future husband spends his days as a horse. Gifford Dudley, who prefers to be called G, is an Edian, someone who turns into an animal.  Jane is not...

Edward escapes being poisoned by his confidant, but the kingdom believes him dead. Lady Jane Grey is announced as queen and dethroned by Mary. Together, Jane, G, Edward, his sister Elizabeth, and several other Edians plot to take the throne back from Mary.

Release Date: June 7, 2016
ARC Received from Texas Library Association Annual Conference

Suggested Level: Middle School & High School



I adore this book! It is smart and funny. The humor begins with the dedication and doesn't stop.
Ladies, please, PLEASE rewrite more history!


I was explaining it to my 7th grade daughter who told me that people changing into animals is preposterous. I told her that there are people in Harry Potter who turn into animals...