Library News
2024 WDM Public Library Staff Favorites: Juvenile Fiction
The West Des Moines Public Library Staff is sharing their favorite Juvenile (chapter books, picture books, graphic novels, and nonfiction) picks from the year below!
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Medusa
An intimate look into the life of a legendary mythical villain who has so often been stripped of her voice and humanity in this debut novel, perfect for fans of Madeline Miller's Circe and the works of Jennifer Saint.
You know how Medusa's story ends, but you've never heard her tell her own story... until now.
The only mortal daughter of two sea gods, and a priestess of Athena, Medusa was a woman who thought she had found her place in the world. But when Medusa suffers a horrific violation at the hands of Poseidon, Athena is outraged over the desecration of her name and sends a message by transforming Medusa into the snake-haired monster of legend. With one look, any who meet her gaze is turned to stone. Word of her monstrosity travels fast, igniting a king's fear so greatly that he commands the boy-hero Perseus to bring him her head. With a power that will spare no one, Medusa begins to wonder if this is a blessing or a curse. Medusa only knows that she must leave the city she has come to call home before she harms another soul.
Searching for a haven free from mortals, anger buoying her every step, Medusa journeys across ancient Greece. Her eyes are hidden beneath a blindfold, with nothing but the snakes for company. Through her travels, Medusa discovers solace and understanding in the mythical figures she stumbles upon: A debaucherous wine god, an alluring nymph, and a three-headed dog. But one cannot escape fate forever. As Perseus closes in, Medusa faces a choice: become the monster everyone expects her to be, or cling to the last piece of her humanity.
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Guide Me Home
In this stunning culmination of the award-winning Highway 59 trilogy, Detective Darren Mathews is pulled out of an early retirement to investigate the case of a missing black college student from an all-white sorority and soon finds a town that will stop at nothing to keep its secrets hidden.
Texas Ranger Darren Mathews isn't sure he's been a good cop, but believes he's got a shot at being a good man--if he manages to dodge the potential indictment hanging over his head and if he, from here on out, pledges allegiance to the truth. It's a virtue the country appears to have wholly lost its grip on, but one Darren sees as his salvation. He is in the midst of remaking his life with the woman he loves, hoping for the peace of country living at his beloved farmhouse, when he is visited by someone who couldn't hold the truth on her tongue if it was dipped in sugar, a woman who's always been bent of tearing his life apart. His mother. Armed with a tall tale about a missing Black college student, Sera (whose white sorority sisters insist she isn't missing at all). Darren must decide if his can trust his mother is telling the truth--and what her ulterior motive may be, and what if that motive has to do with a grand jury deciding his fate.
Darren gets his hooks into the investigation, along the way discovering things about Sera's family and her hometown that are odd at best, vaguely sinister at worst. Hamstrung by local law enforcement and the Texas Rangers who likewise doubt the account of a missing girl, if Darren wants answers, he'll need help from the person whom he swore to never trust again--his mother.
In this emotionally stirring conclusion to the singular Highway 59 series, set three years after the events of Heaven, My Home, Darren reckons with his life's purpose as he's forced to choose between his own peace and the higher call to do good. -
Errands & Espionage
After being recruited to pose as a secret agent, a single mom finds herself on an unexpected adventure in this fast-paced and deliciously witty spy romcom, perfect for fans of Finlay Donovan Is Killing It.
Meet Gabby Greene: Housewife. Glorified taxi driver and maid. Burner of meatloaf. Recently divorced Gabby Greene spends most of her days listening to self-help books while wrangling her loving yet erratic kids. Having been married for over a decade, Gabby has shoved aside her career and ambitions to make room for mountains of laundry, running errands, and investigating the case of the missing socks. Her number one suspect: their horny Bichon Frise, Mr. Bubbles. All that changes when a secret government agency comes knocking on Gabby's door.
At first, she thinks some reality show is pranking her, but the truth hits home when they announce they need her to go undercover and finish a mission that one of their-now-dead-agents started. While she can't deny the uncanny resemblance to her apparent doppelgèanger, taking agent Darcy Dagger's place won't be easy, though, and hilarity and hijinks soon ensue as Gabby contends with juggling her responsibilities and trudging through a crash course in Spy 101 with a handsome James Bond-type who has secrets of his own.
As Gabby embarks on a dangerous mission involving money laundering, a Russian oligarch, and an unfortunate incident with a prosthetic nose, she begins to realize that she is far from the invisible housewife she once believed herself to be, and that maybe, just maybe, she might be capable of saving the day
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Graveyard Shift
THE USA TODAY NATIONAL BESTSELLER!
The author of sales sensation If We Were Villains returns with a story about a ragtag group of night shift workers who meet in the local cemetery to unearth the secrets lurking in an open grave.
Every night, in the college’s ancient cemetery, five people cross paths as they work the late shift: a bartender, a rideshare driver, a hotel receptionist, the steward of the derelict church that looms over them, and the editor-in-chief of the college paper, always in search of a story.
One dark October evening in the defunct churchyard, they find a hole that wasn’t there before. A fresh, open grave where no grave should be. But who dug it, and for whom?
Before they go their separate ways, the gravedigger returns. As they trail him through the night, they realize he may be the key to a string of strange happenings around town that have made headlines for the last few weeks—and that they may be closer to the mystery than they thought.
Atmospheric and eerie, with the ensemble cast her fans love and a delightfully familiar academic backdrop, Graveyard Shift is a modern Gothic tale in If We Were Villains author M. L. Rio’s inimitable style. -
Our Long Marvelous Dying
Palliative-care physician and award-winning author Anna DeForest returns with an ode to life and to death, and the ways we care for ourselves and others on our long, marvelous walk toward the end.
In a pandemic-hushed city, a young doctor lives a life of insecure attachments: to a distant partner in an untended marriage, to a loaner child who stirs up hurts from the past, to houseplants wilting in a dark apartment on a once-vibrant street.
Through a yearlong fellowship caring for the dying and their families, death is impossible to ignore, and still more endings loom at every turn--endings made worse by wounded, avoidant doctors who don't know how to let go. But after the sudden loss of a long-estranged father, our unnamed narrator's work is thrown into painful relief, and we see, under threats large and small, how far we will go to hold on to our lives--no matter how little we live them.
Lyrical and with piercing insight, Our Long Marvelous Dying is a meditation on the twin drives of life and death--and how all of us reckon, day by day, with their ecstatic, inevitable collide. -
Rogue Community College
From the author of White Trash Warlock and Dark Moon, Shallow Sea, Rogue Community College is a delightful fantasy full of magic and mayhem ...
Isaac Frost is an assassin. Raised in the Graveyard of the cruel and mysterious Undertaker, he has mastered the deadly art of the knife and the skill of survival, together with scores of others just like him--young men taken from their families to become the most infamous killers throughout the realms of elves and humans. But Isaac is unique: a single drop of another's blood can confer upon him the knowledge and power of friend and foe alike.
After crossing paths with the elf queen Argent, Isaac is sent to a strange magical school for wayward practitioners in the hopes that he can learn where he--and his unusual talent--fit in the world. Isaac is charmed by the school's chaotic nature and finds himself unexpectedly drawn to Vran, a Sea Elf haunted by secret knowledge.
But Vran isn't the only one with secrets, and Isaac's arrival is no accident. The Undertaker has charged him with infiltrating the school for the purpose of destroying it utterly, and his future rests on completing his mission--before the Undertaker takes matters into his own hands.
A new novel set in the world of the Adam Binder series!
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The Hurricanes of Weakerville
Middle grade star author Chris Rylander brings his signature sense of humor, a compelling and original baseball story, and tons of heart to the story of the Hurricanes of Weakerville.
All his life, Alex Weakerman has had one passion: baseball. Specifically, the Hurricanes of Weakerville, Iowa--the scrappy independent-league team owned by his Grandpa Ira.
Even as team and the town have fallen on tough times, there's no place Alex would rather be than at the ballpark--a hot dog in one hand, a pencil and scorebook in the other, keeping track of each and every statistic. Alex has never been all that great at playing baseball, but that doesn't matter. For someone as painfully awkward as Alex, being a fan--and a wiz with baseball stats--is all he needs.
When Grandpa Ira passes away, though, Alex is crushed. He's lost his best friend, and he doesn't see any way that the team will survive. But Ira, it seems, has one last trick up his sleeve: his will names Alex the new manager of the Hurricanes.
Alex is as excited as he is terrified at the chance to finally put some of his fantasy baseball genius to use. But as he sets to work trying to win over the players, he soon learns that leading them to victory is about more than just stats. Will he be able to save his team, his hometown, and his family legacy
From the author of The Fourth Stall, a SCBWI Sid Fleischman Humor Award winner and multiple state-award favorite, The Hurricanes of Weakerville is sure to appeal to middle grade readers looking for a funny book about real kids.
(added by Amy)
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Big Tree
The fate of all life on Earth may depend on the bravery of two little seeds in this epic adventure from the #1 New York Times bestselling creator and Caldecott Medalist of The Invention of Hugo Cabret.
"The tale of the natural world is the greatest story we have to tell, and Brian delivers a brilliant chapter of that tale throughout the pages of Big Tree." -- STEVEN SPIELBERG
* "An enthralling and expansive meditation on what it means to be alive on this planet."--Booklist, starred review
* "A balanced and rich book. . . . Powerful."-- The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, starred and recommended review
* "In evocative prose and peppery dialogue . . . the cinematic story journeys across time and space, contemplating the power of life to heal."-- Publishers Weekly, starred review
* "A special, one-of-a-kind book for the whole family that readers won't soon forget." -- School Library Journal, starred review
"Inspirational, important, and beautiful. A fable for our times." -- Alan Gratz, bestselling author of Refugee and Ground Zero
"Hello, stars. I thought I heard you calling me."
A mysterious voice has been speaking to Louise in her dreams. She and her brother Merwin are Sycamore seeds, who hope to one day set down roots and become big trees. But when a fire forces them to leave their mama tree prematurely, they find themselves catapulted into the unknown, far from home. Alone and unprepared, they must use their wits and imagination to navigate a dangerous world--filled with dinosaurs, meteors, and volcanoes!--and the fear of never finding a safe place to grow up. As the mysterious voice gets louder, Louise comes to realize their mission in life may be much bigger than either of them ever could have imagined!
Brimming with humor, wonder, mystery, and a profound sense of hope, Big Tree is a trailblazing adventure, illustrated with nearly 300 pages of breathtaking pictures. It is Selznick's most imaginative and far-reaching work to date and a singular reading experience for the whole family.
The audiobook edition of BIG TREE is brought magnificently to life by Meryl Streep and features music composed by Ernest Troost.
(added by Amy)
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Flipping Forward Twisting Backward
A diagnosis of dyslexia could change everything for an aspiring fifth-grade gymnast struggling at school in this authentic, high-energy novel in verse.
The print edition of this title is set in a font developed to be easy to read.
The gym is where Claire shines and she’s on her way to qualifying for the state championships. But at school, she’s known as a troublemaker—which is fine with her since it helps her hide her reading problem. Claire has never been able to make sense of the wobbling jumble of letters on a page.
When a sympathetic principal wonders if she’s acting out because she may have dyslexia, she’s stunned. Claire has always assumed she’s dumb, so she’s eager to get evaluated. But her mother balks. Afraid Claire will be labeled “stupid,” she refuses testing. Can Claire take on both her reading challenges and her mother’s denial? Is it worth jeopardizing her dream of the state championships?
Told in clear and poignant verse and featuring black and white illustrations, Claire’s struggle with something that seems to come easily to everyone else will resonate with readers and have them cheering her on.(added by Amy)
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The Secret of Glendunny #2: the Searchers
"Magical, exciting, and deeply moving. Lasky's perfectly constructed fantasy is told in beautifully descriptive, soaring language, with invented words and names feeling just right and an abundance of detailed information about each animal's habitat, attributes, and physiology." --Kirkus (starred review)
Newbery Honor winner Kathryn Lasky, author of the bestselling Guardians of Ga'Hoole series, delivers the second book in her new middle grade adventure series about a colony of beavers on a courageous quest to save the swan that protects their world.
Return to the brilliant, adventure-filled world of Glendunny. Dunwattle and Locksley are going on their greatest journey yet in their search for their beloved mother figure, Elsinore the swan, who has been kidnapped by dark forces. Little do they know, they have a much larger expedition in store when they discover other persecuted animals and baby otters being held against their will for nefarious purposes.
Will they be able to save Elsinore, the innocent animals, and themselves? Join Dunwattle and Locksley as they embark on this winding adventure, explore unknown lands beyond their pond, and endeavor to save their world and all the creatures in it.
(added by Amy)
New Non-Fiction
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Medusa
An intimate look into the life of a legendary mythical villain who has so often been stripped of her voice and humanity in this debut novel, perfect for fans of Madeline Miller's Circe and the works of Jennifer Saint.
You know how Medusa's story ends, but you've never heard her tell her own story... until now.
The only mortal daughter of two sea gods, and a priestess of Athena, Medusa was a woman who thought she had found her place in the world. But when Medusa suffers a horrific violation at the hands of Poseidon, Athena is outraged over the desecration of her name and sends a message by transforming Medusa into the snake-haired monster of legend. With one look, any who meet her gaze is turned to stone. Word of her monstrosity travels fast, igniting a king's fear so greatly that he commands the boy-hero Perseus to bring him her head. With a power that will spare no one, Medusa begins to wonder if this is a blessing or a curse. Medusa only knows that she must leave the city she has come to call home before she harms another soul.
Searching for a haven free from mortals, anger buoying her every step, Medusa journeys across ancient Greece. Her eyes are hidden beneath a blindfold, with nothing but the snakes for company. Through her travels, Medusa discovers solace and understanding in the mythical figures she stumbles upon: A debaucherous wine god, an alluring nymph, and a three-headed dog. But one cannot escape fate forever. As Perseus closes in, Medusa faces a choice: become the monster everyone expects her to be, or cling to the last piece of her humanity.
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Guide Me Home
In this stunning culmination of the award-winning Highway 59 trilogy, Detective Darren Mathews is pulled out of an early retirement to investigate the case of a missing black college student from an all-white sorority and soon finds a town that will stop at nothing to keep its secrets hidden.
Texas Ranger Darren Mathews isn't sure he's been a good cop, but believes he's got a shot at being a good man--if he manages to dodge the potential indictment hanging over his head and if he, from here on out, pledges allegiance to the truth. It's a virtue the country appears to have wholly lost its grip on, but one Darren sees as his salvation. He is in the midst of remaking his life with the woman he loves, hoping for the peace of country living at his beloved farmhouse, when he is visited by someone who couldn't hold the truth on her tongue if it was dipped in sugar, a woman who's always been bent of tearing his life apart. His mother. Armed with a tall tale about a missing Black college student, Sera (whose white sorority sisters insist she isn't missing at all). Darren must decide if his can trust his mother is telling the truth--and what her ulterior motive may be, and what if that motive has to do with a grand jury deciding his fate.
Darren gets his hooks into the investigation, along the way discovering things about Sera's family and her hometown that are odd at best, vaguely sinister at worst. Hamstrung by local law enforcement and the Texas Rangers who likewise doubt the account of a missing girl, if Darren wants answers, he'll need help from the person whom he swore to never trust again--his mother.
In this emotionally stirring conclusion to the singular Highway 59 series, set three years after the events of Heaven, My Home, Darren reckons with his life's purpose as he's forced to choose between his own peace and the higher call to do good. -
Errands & Espionage
After being recruited to pose as a secret agent, a single mom finds herself on an unexpected adventure in this fast-paced and deliciously witty spy romcom, perfect for fans of Finlay Donovan Is Killing It.
Meet Gabby Greene: Housewife. Glorified taxi driver and maid. Burner of meatloaf. Recently divorced Gabby Greene spends most of her days listening to self-help books while wrangling her loving yet erratic kids. Having been married for over a decade, Gabby has shoved aside her career and ambitions to make room for mountains of laundry, running errands, and investigating the case of the missing socks. Her number one suspect: their horny Bichon Frise, Mr. Bubbles. All that changes when a secret government agency comes knocking on Gabby's door.
At first, she thinks some reality show is pranking her, but the truth hits home when they announce they need her to go undercover and finish a mission that one of their-now-dead-agents started. While she can't deny the uncanny resemblance to her apparent doppelgèanger, taking agent Darcy Dagger's place won't be easy, though, and hilarity and hijinks soon ensue as Gabby contends with juggling her responsibilities and trudging through a crash course in Spy 101 with a handsome James Bond-type who has secrets of his own.
As Gabby embarks on a dangerous mission involving money laundering, a Russian oligarch, and an unfortunate incident with a prosthetic nose, she begins to realize that she is far from the invisible housewife she once believed herself to be, and that maybe, just maybe, she might be capable of saving the day
-
Graveyard Shift
THE USA TODAY NATIONAL BESTSELLER!
The author of sales sensation If We Were Villains returns with a story about a ragtag group of night shift workers who meet in the local cemetery to unearth the secrets lurking in an open grave.
Every night, in the college’s ancient cemetery, five people cross paths as they work the late shift: a bartender, a rideshare driver, a hotel receptionist, the steward of the derelict church that looms over them, and the editor-in-chief of the college paper, always in search of a story.
One dark October evening in the defunct churchyard, they find a hole that wasn’t there before. A fresh, open grave where no grave should be. But who dug it, and for whom?
Before they go their separate ways, the gravedigger returns. As they trail him through the night, they realize he may be the key to a string of strange happenings around town that have made headlines for the last few weeks—and that they may be closer to the mystery than they thought.
Atmospheric and eerie, with the ensemble cast her fans love and a delightfully familiar academic backdrop, Graveyard Shift is a modern Gothic tale in If We Were Villains author M. L. Rio’s inimitable style. -
Our Long Marvelous Dying
Palliative-care physician and award-winning author Anna DeForest returns with an ode to life and to death, and the ways we care for ourselves and others on our long, marvelous walk toward the end.
In a pandemic-hushed city, a young doctor lives a life of insecure attachments: to a distant partner in an untended marriage, to a loaner child who stirs up hurts from the past, to houseplants wilting in a dark apartment on a once-vibrant street.
Through a yearlong fellowship caring for the dying and their families, death is impossible to ignore, and still more endings loom at every turn--endings made worse by wounded, avoidant doctors who don't know how to let go. But after the sudden loss of a long-estranged father, our unnamed narrator's work is thrown into painful relief, and we see, under threats large and small, how far we will go to hold on to our lives--no matter how little we live them.
Lyrical and with piercing insight, Our Long Marvelous Dying is a meditation on the twin drives of life and death--and how all of us reckon, day by day, with their ecstatic, inevitable collide. -
Rogue Community College
From the author of White Trash Warlock and Dark Moon, Shallow Sea, Rogue Community College is a delightful fantasy full of magic and mayhem ...
Isaac Frost is an assassin. Raised in the Graveyard of the cruel and mysterious Undertaker, he has mastered the deadly art of the knife and the skill of survival, together with scores of others just like him--young men taken from their families to become the most infamous killers throughout the realms of elves and humans. But Isaac is unique: a single drop of another's blood can confer upon him the knowledge and power of friend and foe alike.
After crossing paths with the elf queen Argent, Isaac is sent to a strange magical school for wayward practitioners in the hopes that he can learn where he--and his unusual talent--fit in the world. Isaac is charmed by the school's chaotic nature and finds himself unexpectedly drawn to Vran, a Sea Elf haunted by secret knowledge.
But Vran isn't the only one with secrets, and Isaac's arrival is no accident. The Undertaker has charged him with infiltrating the school for the purpose of destroying it utterly, and his future rests on completing his mission--before the Undertaker takes matters into his own hands.
A new novel set in the world of the Adam Binder series!
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The Hurricanes of Weakerville
Middle grade star author Chris Rylander brings his signature sense of humor, a compelling and original baseball story, and tons of heart to the story of the Hurricanes of Weakerville.
All his life, Alex Weakerman has had one passion: baseball. Specifically, the Hurricanes of Weakerville, Iowa--the scrappy independent-league team owned by his Grandpa Ira.
Even as team and the town have fallen on tough times, there's no place Alex would rather be than at the ballpark--a hot dog in one hand, a pencil and scorebook in the other, keeping track of each and every statistic. Alex has never been all that great at playing baseball, but that doesn't matter. For someone as painfully awkward as Alex, being a fan--and a wiz with baseball stats--is all he needs.
When Grandpa Ira passes away, though, Alex is crushed. He's lost his best friend, and he doesn't see any way that the team will survive. But Ira, it seems, has one last trick up his sleeve: his will names Alex the new manager of the Hurricanes.
Alex is as excited as he is terrified at the chance to finally put some of his fantasy baseball genius to use. But as he sets to work trying to win over the players, he soon learns that leading them to victory is about more than just stats. Will he be able to save his team, his hometown, and his family legacy
From the author of The Fourth Stall, a SCBWI Sid Fleischman Humor Award winner and multiple state-award favorite, The Hurricanes of Weakerville is sure to appeal to middle grade readers looking for a funny book about real kids.
(added by Amy)
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Big Tree
The fate of all life on Earth may depend on the bravery of two little seeds in this epic adventure from the #1 New York Times bestselling creator and Caldecott Medalist of The Invention of Hugo Cabret.
"The tale of the natural world is the greatest story we have to tell, and Brian delivers a brilliant chapter of that tale throughout the pages of Big Tree." -- STEVEN SPIELBERG
* "An enthralling and expansive meditation on what it means to be alive on this planet."--Booklist, starred review
* "A balanced and rich book. . . . Powerful."-- The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, starred and recommended review
* "In evocative prose and peppery dialogue . . . the cinematic story journeys across time and space, contemplating the power of life to heal."-- Publishers Weekly, starred review
* "A special, one-of-a-kind book for the whole family that readers won't soon forget." -- School Library Journal, starred review
"Inspirational, important, and beautiful. A fable for our times." -- Alan Gratz, bestselling author of Refugee and Ground Zero
"Hello, stars. I thought I heard you calling me."
A mysterious voice has been speaking to Louise in her dreams. She and her brother Merwin are Sycamore seeds, who hope to one day set down roots and become big trees. But when a fire forces them to leave their mama tree prematurely, they find themselves catapulted into the unknown, far from home. Alone and unprepared, they must use their wits and imagination to navigate a dangerous world--filled with dinosaurs, meteors, and volcanoes!--and the fear of never finding a safe place to grow up. As the mysterious voice gets louder, Louise comes to realize their mission in life may be much bigger than either of them ever could have imagined!
Brimming with humor, wonder, mystery, and a profound sense of hope, Big Tree is a trailblazing adventure, illustrated with nearly 300 pages of breathtaking pictures. It is Selznick's most imaginative and far-reaching work to date and a singular reading experience for the whole family.
The audiobook edition of BIG TREE is brought magnificently to life by Meryl Streep and features music composed by Ernest Troost.
(added by Amy)
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Flipping Forward Twisting Backward
A diagnosis of dyslexia could change everything for an aspiring fifth-grade gymnast struggling at school in this authentic, high-energy novel in verse.
The print edition of this title is set in a font developed to be easy to read.
The gym is where Claire shines and she’s on her way to qualifying for the state championships. But at school, she’s known as a troublemaker—which is fine with her since it helps her hide her reading problem. Claire has never been able to make sense of the wobbling jumble of letters on a page.
When a sympathetic principal wonders if she’s acting out because she may have dyslexia, she’s stunned. Claire has always assumed she’s dumb, so she’s eager to get evaluated. But her mother balks. Afraid Claire will be labeled “stupid,” she refuses testing. Can Claire take on both her reading challenges and her mother’s denial? Is it worth jeopardizing her dream of the state championships?
Told in clear and poignant verse and featuring black and white illustrations, Claire’s struggle with something that seems to come easily to everyone else will resonate with readers and have them cheering her on.(added by Amy)
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The Secret of Glendunny #2: the Searchers
"Magical, exciting, and deeply moving. Lasky's perfectly constructed fantasy is told in beautifully descriptive, soaring language, with invented words and names feeling just right and an abundance of detailed information about each animal's habitat, attributes, and physiology." --Kirkus (starred review)
Newbery Honor winner Kathryn Lasky, author of the bestselling Guardians of Ga'Hoole series, delivers the second book in her new middle grade adventure series about a colony of beavers on a courageous quest to save the swan that protects their world.
Return to the brilliant, adventure-filled world of Glendunny. Dunwattle and Locksley are going on their greatest journey yet in their search for their beloved mother figure, Elsinore the swan, who has been kidnapped by dark forces. Little do they know, they have a much larger expedition in store when they discover other persecuted animals and baby otters being held against their will for nefarious purposes.
Will they be able to save Elsinore, the innocent animals, and themselves? Join Dunwattle and Locksley as they embark on this winding adventure, explore unknown lands beyond their pond, and endeavor to save their world and all the creatures in it.
(added by Amy)
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Nic Blake and the Remarkables: the Manifestor Prophecy
Internationally bestselling superstar author Angie Thomas makes her middle grade debut with the launch of an inventive, hilarious, and suspenseful new contemporary fantasy trilogy inspired by African American history and folklore.
It's not easy being a Remarkable in the Unremarkable world. Some things are cool--like getting a pet hellhound for your twelfth birthday. Others, not so much--like not being trusted to learn magic because you might use it to take revenge on an annoying neighbor.
All Nic Blake wants is to be a powerful Manifestor like her dad. But before she has a chance to convince him to teach her the gift, a series of shocking revelations and terrifying events launch Nic and two friends on a hunt for a powerful magic tool she's never heard of...to save her father from imprisonment for a crime she refuses to believe he committed.
(added by Amy)
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Cookie Monsters
A fun, fast-paced novel about friendship, family, fighting for what's right, and standing out from the crowd while standing up for yourself.
Twelve-year-old Brooklyn Ace is ready to take the Valentine World Scouts by storm and build her own cookie empire. She nearly won the top cookie selling spot last year and is determined to make her mom--who recently passed away--proud by coming in first this time around. With her fabulous best friends by her side, Brooklyn knows she'll become Santa Monica's District Cookie Queen. The crown is practically in the bag.
Then Piper Parker arrives.
Piper has a rich dad, a fancy hotel, and a drive to steal the cookie crown right off Brooklyn's head. Before long, most of the seventh grade is under Piper's spell. But Brooklyn is in it to win the biggest cookie war the school has ever seen. With the help of her cookie squad, her rockstar grandmother, her super cool therapist, and a lot of self-love and inner growth, maybe--just maybe--Brooklyn can end up a winner after all.(added by Amy)
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The Guardian Test (Legends of Lotus Island #1)
From two-time Newbery honor-winning author Christina Soontornvat comes a compelling and immersive new young middle grade fantasy series for readers who love stories about animals, magic, and kids like them embracing their power to change the world.
Young Plum is shocked to discover that she's been accepted to the Guardian Academy on Lotus Island, an elite school where kids learn how to transform into Guardians, magical animals who can communicate with the natural world. Once students discover their Guardian form, they study how to communicate with animals. They also learn to fight, both as humans and as animals, so they can protect the defenseless if needed.
To her dismay, Plum quickly finds herself struggling at school. Other classmates discover they can transform into amazing creatures. But Plum can't even seem to magic up a single feather! If she can't embrace her inner animal form soon, she'll have to leave school--and lose the first group of real friends she's ever known.
(added by Amy)
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Where the Black Flowers Bloom
A gripping, richly imagined fantasy set in an alternate ancient African world in which a Black girl finds her power and saves her people from evil, by the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Award-winning author of Black Panther: The Young Prince.
In the land of Alkebulan, twelve-year-old Asha is an orphan, raised by Madame S, the proprietor of a traveling carnival. When Madame S is attacked by ghoulish creatures, she manages to tell Asha before she dies, "Seek the Underground Kingdom, where the black flowers bloom."
Asha doesn't understand the mysterious words, but they launch her onto a page-turning quest to protect her people and stop an ancient evil. Along the way, she uncovers shocking secrets about the family she never knew and begins to find her place in the world as she discovers her own untapped powers.
(added by Amy)
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You Only Live Once, David Bravo
From Mark Oshiro, award-winning author of The Insiders, this time-bending adventure is perfect for fans of Sal and Gabi Break the Universe and When You Reach Me.
A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year * An ALA Rainbow Book List Top 10 Selection
Middle school is the worst, especially for David Bravo. He doesn't have a single class with his best (okay, only) friend, Antoine. He has to give a class presentation about his heritage, but he's not sure how--or even if--he wants to explain to his new classmates that he's adopted. After he injures Antoine in an accident at cross-country practice, he just wishes he could do it all over.
He doesn't expect his wish to summon a talking, shapeshifting, annoying dog, Fea, who claims that a choice in David's past actually did put him on the wrong timeline... and she can take him back to fix it.
But when their first try (and the second, and the third) is a total disaster, David and Fea are left scrambling through timeline after timeline--on a quest that may lead them to answers in the most unexpected places.
Coco meets Sliding Doors in this laugh-out-loud, heartwarming middle grade novel that explores how our choices make us who we are.
(added by Amy)