18 JAN

Summer Reading Book List

PRESCHOOL

Elvis: The Story of the Rock and Roll King
by Bonnie Christensen

An only child, a mama’s boy—Elvis was a shy kid who struggled to make friends and found comfort singing in church and learning guitar. While in high school, he continued his music but was often ridiculed by students. On a whim, he recorded a song for his mom’s birthday at Sun Record Studios as part of a customer promotion. The studio loved it so much that they sent it to local record stations . . . and the rest is history.

 

PRESCHOOL

Jimi: Sounds Like A Rainbow: A Story of the Young Jimi Hendrix
by Gary Golio

Before he became one of the greatest guitar players of all time, Jimi Hendrix was a boy who loved to paint and listen to records, and who asked himself an unusual question: could someone paint pictures with sound? This a story of a talented child who learns to see, hear, and interpret the world around him in his own unique way. It is also a story of a determined kid with a vision, who worked hard to become a devoted and masterful artist.

PRESCHOOL
Hello I’m Johnny Cash
by Greg Neri

There’s never been anyone like music legend Johnny Cash. His deep voice is instantly recognizable, and his heartfelt songs resonate with listeners of all ages and backgrounds. G. Neri captures Johnny’s story in beautiful free verse, portraying an ordinary boy with an extraordinary talent who grew up in extreme poverty, faced incredible challenges, and ultimately found his calling by always being true to the gift of his voice.
PRESCHOOL
Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince and His Orchestra
by Andrea Davis Pinkney

His name was Duke. Duke Ellington. As a child, he said piano made an umpy-dump sound that was headed nowhere worth following. But, years later, he heard the piano played a whole new way. People called the music “ragtime”, and soon the sound had Duke’s fingers riding the piano keys.
PRESCHOOL

When Marian Sang: The True Recital of Marian Anderson
by Pam Munoz Ryan

Marian Anderson is best known for her historic concert at the Lincoln Memorial in 1939, which drew an integrated crowd of 75,000 people in pre-Civil Rights America. While this momentous event showcased the uniqueness of her voice, the strength of her character, and the struggles of the times in which she lived, it is only part of her story. Like the operatic arias Marian would come to sing, Ryan’s text is as moving as a libretto, and Selznick’s pictures as exquisitely detailed and elaborately designed as a stage set. What emerges most profoundly from their shared vision is a role model of courage.
PRESCHOOL
Monsieur Marceau: Actor Without Words
by Leda Schubert


Marcel Marceau, the world’s most famous mime, enthralled audiences around the world for more than fifty years. When he waved his hand or lifted his eyebrow he was able to speak volumes without ever saying a word. But few know the story of the man behind those gestures . . .  Distinguished author Leda Schubert and award-winning artist Gerard DuBois bring their own artistry to this gorgeously written and illustrated picture book biography.

PRESCHOOL

The Music in George’s Head: George Gershwin Creates Rhapsody in Blue
by Suzanne Slade

George Gershwin heard music all the time—at home, at school, even on New York City’s busy streets. Classical, ragtime, blues, and jazz—George’s head was filled with a whole lot of razzmatazz! With rhythmic swirls of words and pictures, author Suzanne Slade and illustrator Stacy Innerst beautifully reveal just how brilliantly Gershwin combined various kinds of music to create his masterpiece.

 

PRESCHOOL

Little Stevie Wonder
by Quincey Troupe

Eleven-year-old Stevland Judkins Morris Hardaway hit the big time when he signed a Motown recording contract. At the age of thirteen, Little Stevie Wonder had millions of fans dancing to the number-one song in the nation. Little Stevie Wonder is the true story of a boy who lost his sight shortly after birth, grew up in Detroit, Michigan, and became one of the twentieth century’s most creative and influential musicians—an instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, musical innovator, and cultural activist.

 

PRESCHOOL

Jazz Age Josephine
by Jonah Winter

Singer, dancer, actress, and independent dame, Josephine Baker felt life was a performance. She lived by her own rules and helped to shake up the status quo with wild costumes and a you-can’t-tell-me-no attitude that made her famous. She even had a pet leopard in Paris!  Rising from a poor, segregated upbringing, Josephine was able to break through racial barriers with her own sense of flair and astonishing dance abilities.

 

PRESCHOOL

Brothers of the Knight
by Debbie Allen

Reverend Knight can’t understand why his twelve sons’ sneakers are torn to threads each and every morning, and the boys aren’t talking. They know their all-night dancing wouldn’t fit with their father’s image in the community. Maybe Sunday, a pretty new nanny with a knack for getting to the bottom of household mysteries, can crack the case. This modern, hip retelling of the classic tale The Twelve Dancing Princesses bursts with vibrant artwork and text that’s as energetic as the twelve toe-tapping Knight brothers themselves

PRESCHOOL

Ballerino Nate
by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

Teased by his brother about wanting to become a ballerina, Nate begins to believe his jokes about having to wear a tutu and pink shoes when he discovers he is the only boy in the class, in a moving story about a young boy’s big dreams and his strong determination to dance!

PRESCHOOL

Tap Dance Fever
by Pat Brisson

From sunrise to sunset, Annabelle can’t keep her feet from moving. She’s danced a ridge into Creek Road that causes Mr. Harville T. Stone’s tire to blow. Even Mrs. Ethel Pontoon’s chickens are upset. They refuse to lay eggs as long as Annabelle keeps dancing. It seems Annabelle has turned the entire town topsy-turvy with her terpsichore. Now the citizens have banded together to stop Annabelle once and for all! But the people of Fiddler’s Creek are in for a big surprise when they try to cure Annabelle’s Tap-Dance Fever.

PRESCHOOL

Firebird
by Misty Copeland

In her debut picture book, Misty Copeland tells the story of a young girl–an every girl–whose confidence is fragile and who is questioning her own ability to reach the heights that Misty has reached. Misty encourages this young girl’s faith in herself and shows her exactly how, through hard work and dedication, she too can become Firebird.

PRESCHOOL

A Dance Like Starlight: One Ballerina’s Dream
by Kristy Dempsey

Little ballerinas have big dreams. Dreams of pirouettes and grande jetes, dreams of attending the best ballet schools and of dancing starring roles on stage. But in Harlem in the 1950s, dreams don’t always come true—they take a lot of work and a lot of hope. And sometimes hope is hard to come by.  But the first African-American prima ballerina, Janet Collins, did make her dreams come true. And those dreams inspired ballerinas everywhere, showing them that the color of their skin couldn’t stop them from becoming a star.

PRESCHOOL

Tommy Can’t Stop
by Tim Federle

Tommy bounces, and he leaps. Tommy clomps, and he bulldozes. Nothing tires Tommy out, and his family can’t keep up! But then his sister has an idea: could tap class be just right for Tommy?  This exuberant picture book, written by Broadway dancer Tim Federle, with illustrations by Mark Fearing, stars one very energetic kid who finally finds his place in the spotlight.

PRESCHOOL

The Cranky Ballerina
by Elise Gravel

Ada hates everything about ballet class, yet she still has to go! Arabesques? Grotesque! And then one Saturday, Ada pliés right out the door and into the hallway, smacking into someone who thinks her ungraceful moves are great!  Children who love ballet—and definitely those who don’t—will delight in this clever, subversive tale about a kid who has to do what she doesn’t like in order to discover what she loves.

PRESCHOOL

Brontorina
by James Howe

Brontorina has a dream. She wants to dance. But Brontorina is rather large too large to fit in Madame Lucille s dance studio. Brontorina does not have the right shoes, and everyone knows you can t dance without the proper footwear. Still, Brontorina knows, deep in her heart, that she is meant to be a ballerina. James Howe introduces a lovable dinosaur whose size is outmatched only by her determination, and whose talent is outmatched only by her charm.

 

PRESCHOOL

Bea at Ballet
by Rachel Isadora

Bea loves everything about ballet class, from putting on her leotard and ballet slippers to bowing good-bye at the end of class. Bright, cheerful illustrations show Bea and her class learning the basic positions and movements and show them leaping and twirling to their hearts’ delight

 

PRESCHOOL

Emma and Julia Love Ballet
by Barbara McClintock

Emma takes ballet lessons, so does Julia. Emma is learning to be a ballerina, Julia is a professional ballerina. They are both excited about the big performance in the theater tonight.  Emma will be watching from the audience.  Julia will be dancing onstage! And afterward, Emma will go backstage to meet her ballet hero!

 

PRESCHOOL

I Want to be a Ballerina
by Anna Membrino

When Mia tries to become a ballerina just like her big sister, she discovers that getting the right outfit is just the beginning. Despite great effort, there are lots of mishaps, and Mia doesn’t quite become the prima ballerina she hoped to be. But she does finally earn her true reward: time with her sister.

 

PRESCHOOL

This Is It
by Daria Peoples-Riley

When a young dancer is nervous about her upcoming auditions, her shadow springs to life and leads her on a joyous exploration of their city. Soon enough, the young girl finds confidence in her skills, her body, and her ability to shine.  Daria Peoples-Riley’s debut picture book is a celebration of individuality, self-expression, and dance.

 

PRESCHOOL

Ballet Cat: Dance! Dance! Underpants!
by Bob Shea
(Ballet Cat Series)

Ballet Cat is getting her friend Butter Bear ready for her big ballet debut. “Leap, Butter Bear, leap!” Ballet Cat prompts. But Butter Bear would prefer to just point her toe. When Ballet Cat keeps pushing, Butter Bear gets hungry, then thirsty, then sleepy . . . The bottom line is that Butter Bear would rather do almost anything to avoid making a big leap. Why? Because her bottom is covered in silly underpants!

 

PRESCHOOL

Tallulah’s Toe Shoes
by Marilyn Singer
(Tallulah Series)

Tallulah is back in ballet class and now she wants to go en pointe—to dance up on the tips of her toes in pink satin toe shoes, like a real ballerina. But going en pointe is not good for growing feet, and her ballet teacher says her feet aren’t ready yet. Oh, yes, they are, Tallulah thinks. And so am I. Not only is she ready, she’s determined. And nothing stops Tallulah when her mind is made up!

 

PRESCHOOL

Danza! Amalia Hernandez and El Ballet Folklorico de Mexico
by Duncan Tonatiuh

As a child, Amalia always thought she would grow up to be a teacher, until she saw a performance of dancers in her town square. She was fascinated by the way the dancers twirled and swayed, and she knew that someday she would be a dancer, too. She began to study many different types of dance, including ballet and modern, under some of the best teachers in the world. Soon she founded her own dance company, El Ballet Folklórico de México, where she integrated her knowledge of ballet and modern dance with folkloric dances.

 

PRESCHOOL

Silent Movie
by Avi

In the early years of the twentieth century, a Swedish family encounters separation and other hardships upon immigrating to New York City until the son is cast in a silent movie, in a picture book that evokes an actual silent movie.  Black-and-white images follow one after another.
The story of an immigrant family alone in a big city.  Close-ups of a mother, a son — faces filled with heartache and joy. Plenty of action. Excitement. Melodrama. A Silent Movie.

PRESCHOOL

Maisy Goes to the Movies
by Lucy Cousins

Maisy and her friends are so excited! They’re going to see a fun adventure film. With tickets and snacks at the ready, they scramble for seats and settle in for the movie to begin. Cyril’s a little afraid of the dark, but Maisy is happy to hold his hand. When Eddie enthusiastically shouts at the screen, he quickly learns a lesson in movie etiquette! After little ones share this outing with Maisy, they’ll be raring to go on their own movie-theater adventure.

PRESCHOOL

This is a Moose
by Robert T. Morris

MOOSE? Yes, Moose! When a movie director tries to capture the life of a moose on film, he’s in for a big surprise. It turns out the moose has a dream bigger then just being a moose–he wants to be an astronaut and go to the moon.  His forest friends step in to help him, and action ensues. Lots of action. Like a lacrosse-playing grandma, a gigantic slingshot into space, and a flying, superhero chipmunk.

PRESCHOOL

Rifka Takes a Bow
by Betty Rosenberg Perlov

Rifka’s parents are actors in the Yiddish Theater in New York, but one day Rifka finds herself center stage in a special role! A slice of immigrant life on New York’s Second Avenue, this is a unique book about a vanished time and a place – the Yiddish theater in the early 20th century―made real through the telling of the true life story of the 96-year-old author as a little girl.

PRESCHOOL

Starring Miss Darlene
by Amy Schwartz

A STAR IS BORN, HIPPO STYLE in this riotous tribute to life upon the stage. Determined to be a star, Darlene signs up for theater class.  And she succeeds, though not in the way you might expect.  In Noah’s Ark she’s cast as the Flood, with cataclysmic results.  She mangles her lines in a science fiction epic.  And as Sleeping Beauty, she, well, sleeps.  The funniest book yet by an acclaimed author and artist, this picture book romp will have readers dancing in the aisles.

PRESCHOOL

The Z Was Zapped: A Play in 26 Acts
by Chris Van Allsburg

A dramatic black-and-white presentation of the alphabet in which the two-time Caldecott Medalist depicts how A was in an avalanche, B was badly bitten, C was cut to ribbons, and the other letters of the alphabet suffered similar mishaps.

SCHOOL AGE

Annabel the Actress Starring in Just a Little Extra
by Ellen Conford
(Annabel Book #2)

When aspiring actress Annabel sees the movie company vans roll into her neighborhood, she is determined that this will be her big break. Annabel schmoozes her way onto the set and lands a role as an extra! However, when the day of shooting arrives, everything goes wrong and Annabel’s five seconds of stardom turn into a disaster. But her career’s not over yet!

 

SCHOOL AGE

Kate Walden Directs: Night of the Zombie Chickens
by Julie Mata

Night of the Zombie Chickens is supposed to be Kate Walden’s breakout film. But her supporting actresses-her mother’s prize organic hens-are high maintenance, to say the least. Thank goodness Kate’s best friend Alyssa is the star. She’s great at screaming and even better at killing zombies in creative ways. However Kate soon realizes that nothing-in filmmaking or in life-ever goes exactly as planned, especially when there are diabolical hens out to get you.

 

SCHOOL AGE

My Life as a Stuntboy
by Janet Tashjian
(My life #2)

Derek Fallon gets the opportunity of a lifetime—to be a stunt boy in a major movie featuring a pretty teen starlet. After accepting the job he learns that he is the star’s stunt double and must wear a wig! His friends are never going to let him live this down. If that weren’t his only problem, his parents are threatening to give away his pet monkey, and his best friend just posted an embarrassing video of him on Youtube. Can life get any worse? Still the irrepressible Derek takes it all in stride and even manages to save the day.

 

SCHOOL AGE

Mr. Popper’s Penguins
by Richard Atwater

The Poppers unexpectedly come into possession of a penguin, then get a penguin from the zoo who mates with the first penguin to have 10 baby penguins. Before long, something must be done before they eat the Poppers out of house and home!  A classic of American humor, this story of a gentle housepainter and his high stepping penguins has delighted children for generations.

 

SCHOOL AGE

How to Train Your Dragon
by Cressida Crowell
(How to Train Your Dragon Series)

Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III is a truly extraordinary Viking hero known throughout Vikingdom as “the Dragon Whisperer”…but it wasn’t always so. Travel back to the days when the mighty warrior was just a boy, the quiet and thoughtful son of the Chief of the Hairy Hooligans. Can Hiccup capture a dragon and train it without being torn limb from limb? Join the adventure as the small boy finds a better way to train his dragon and become a hero!

 

SCHOOL AGE

The BFG
by Roald Dahl

Captured by a giant! The BFG is no ordinary bone-crunching giant. He is far too nice and jumbly. It’s lucky for Sophie that he is. Had she been carried off in the middle of the night by the Bloodbottler, the Fleshlumpeater, the Bonecruncher, or any of the other giants-rather than the BFG-she would have soon become breakfast. When Sophie hears that they are flush-bunking off in England to swollomp a few nice little chiddlers, she decides she must stop them once and for all. And the BFG is going to help her!  

 

SCHOOL AGE

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
by Roald Dahl

Willy Wonka’s famous chocolate factory is opening at last! But only five lucky children will be allowed inside. And the winners are: Augustus Gloop, an enormously fat boy whose hobby is eating; Veruca Salt, a spoiled-rotten brat whose parents are wrapped around her little finger; Violet Beauregarde, a dim-witted gum-chewer with the fastest jaws around; Mike Teavee, a toy pistol-toting gangster-in-training who is obsessed with television; and Charlie Bucket, Our Hero, a boy who is honest and kind, brave and true, and good and ready for the wildest time of his life!

 

SCHOOL AGE

Because of Winn-Dixie
by Kate DiCamillo

The summer Opal and her father, the preacher, move to Naomi, Florida, Opal goes into the Winn-Dixie supermarket—and comes out with a dog. A big, ugly, suffering dog with a sterling sense of humor. A dog she dubs Winn-Dixie. Because of Winn-Dixie, the preacher tells Opal ten things about her absent mother, one for each year Opal has been alive. Winn-Dixie is better at making friends than anyone Opal has ever known, and together they make many unlikely friends.

 

SCHOOL AGE

Coraline
by Neil Gaiman

The day after they moved in, Coraline went exploring….  In Coraline’s family’s new flat are twenty-one windows and fourteen doors. Thirteen of the doors open and close.  The fourteenth is locked, and on the other side is only a brick wall, until the day Coraline unlocks the door to find a passage to another flat in another house just like her own.  Only it’s different… At first, things seem marvelous in the other flat, but there’s another mother, and another father, and they want Coraline to stay with them and be their little girl. They want to change her and never let her go.

 

SCHOOL AGE

The Phantom Tollbooth
by Norman Juster

For Milo, everything’s a bore. When a tollbooth mysteriously appears in his room, he drives through only because he’s got nothing better to do. But on the other side, things seem different. Milo visits the Island of Conclusions (you get there by jumping), learns about time from a ticking watchdog named Tock, and even embarks on a quest to rescue Rhyme and Reason! Somewhere along the way, Milo realizes something astonishing. Life is far from dull. In fact, it’s exciting beyond his wildest dreams.

 

SCHOOL AGE

Diary of a Wimpy Kid
by Jeff Kinney
(Diary of a Wimpy Kid Series)

It’s a new school year, and Greg Heffley finds himself thrust into middle school, where undersized weaklings share the hallways with kids who are taller, meaner, and already shaving. The hazards of growing up before you’re ready are uniquely revealed through words and drawings as Greg records them in his diary.

 

SCHOOL AGE

A Wrinkle in Time
by Madeline L’Engle
(Time Series)

 Meg Murry, the daughter of two brilliant scientists, is a socially awkward 12-year-old who has trouble fitting in at school. Her closest friend is her younger brother, Charles Wallace, an extremely bright 4-year-old who is also gifted with second sight. Accompanied by friend Calvin O’Keefe, and aided by the unearthly trio of Mr. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which, Meg and Charles Wallace travel to another dimension is search of their missing father. However, in order to rescue Mr. Murry, Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin must first do battle with the evil, and all controlling, IT.

 

SCHOOL AGE

Ella Enchanted
by Gail Carson Levine
(Ella Enchanted Series)

At birth, Ella is inadvertently cursed by an imprudent young fairy named Lucinda, who bestows on her the “gift” of obedience. Anything anyone tells her to do, Ella must obey. Another girl might have been cowed by this affliction, but not feisty Ella. When Ella’s father dies Ella’s life and well-being seem to be in grave peril. But her intelligence and saucy nature keep her in good stead as she sets out on a quest for freedom and self-discovery.

 

SCHOOL AGE

The Giver
by Lois Lowry
(The Giver Series)

Written from the point of view of Jonas, an eleven-year-old boy living in a futuristic society that has eliminated all pain, fear, war, and hatred. There is no prejudice, since everyone looks and acts basically the same, and there is very little competition. The society has also eliminated choice. Given his lifetime assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas becomes the receiver of memories shared by only one other in his community and discovers the terrible truth about the society in which he lives.

 

SCHOOL AGE

Wonder
by R.J. Palacio
(Wonder Series)

August Pullman was born with a facial difference that, up until now, has prevented him from going to a mainstream school. Starting 5th grade at Beecher Prep, he wants nothing more than to be treated as an ordinary kid—but his new classmates can’t get past Auggie’s extraordinary face.  The story begins from Auggie’s point of view, but soon switches to include his classmates, his sister, her boyfriend, and others. These perspectives converge in a portrait of one community’s struggle with empathy, compassion, and acceptance.

 

SCHOOL AGE

Holes
by Louis Sachar
(Holes Series)

Stanley Yelnats is under a curse. A curse that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten- pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnats. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys’ detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the warden makes the boys “build character” by spending all day, every day, digging holes: five feet wide and five feet deep. It doesn’t take long for Stanley to realize there’s more going on at Camp Green Lake. Stanley tries to dig up the truth in this inventive and darkly humorous tale of crime and punishment—and redemption.

 

SCHOOL AGE

Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices From a Medieval Village
by Laura Amy Schlitz

Step back to medieval 1255 England and meet 22 villagers, illustrated in pen and ink, inspired by the Munich-Nuremberg manuscript, an illuminated poem from thirteenth-century Germany. Hugo, the lord’s nephew, proves his manhood by hunting a wild boar. Sharp-tongued Nelly supports her family by selling live eels. Peasant Mogg gets a clever lesson in how to save a cow from a greedy landlord. Barbary slings mud on noble Jack. Alice is the singing shepherdess. And many more . . .

 

SCHOOL AGE

Pushing Up The Sky: Seven Native American Plays for Children
by Joseph Bruchac

A collection of seven lively plays for children to perform, each one adapted from a different traditional Native tale. Filled with heroes and tricksters, comedy and drama, these entertaining plays are a wonderful way to bring Native cultures to life for young people. Each play has multiple parts that can be adjusted to suit the size of a particular group and includes simple, informative suggestions for props, scenery, and costumes that children can help to create.

 

SCHOOL AGE

Lola Levine, Drama Queen
by Monica Brown
(Lola Levine Series)

Seven-year-old Lola Levine is fierce on the soccer field. She can do a slide tackle (although she’s not supposed to) and even likes gooey worms. Nothing scares Lola! That is, until she is auditioning in front of EVERYONE for her class play. After Lola is overcome with stage fright, she’s cast as Squirrel #2, a non-speaking part! Lola is more than a little disappointed, and she looks to her bubbe for advice and comfort. But on opening night, the curtain rises, and she finds herself smack in the middle of an exasperating turn of events.

 

SCHOOL AGE

Better Nate Than Ever
by Tim Federle
(Better Nate Than Ever Series)

Nate Foster has big dreams. His whole life, he’s wanted to star in a Broadway show. (Heck, he’d settle for *seeing* a Broadway show.) But how is Nate supposed to make his dreams come true when he’s stuck in Jankburg, Pennsylvania, where no one (except his best pal Libby) appreciates a good show tune? With Libby’s help, Nate plans a daring overnight escape to New York. There’s an open casting call for E.T.: The Musical, and Nate knows this could be the difference between small-town blues and big-time stardom.

 

SCHOOL AGE

Jack & Louisa: Act 1
by Andrew Keenan-Bolger
(Jack & Louisa Series)

Twelve-year-olds Jack and Louisa tell, in their separate voices, of his reluctant departure from New York City and Broadway stardom to live in Shaker Heights, Ohio, where new neighbor Louisa, a “musical theater nerd,” urges him to audition for the local theater’s production of “Into the Woods.”  As the audition date looms nearer, the two are faced with difficult choices. Should Jack return to the stage? Will Louisa have confidence to go it alone? And can their friendship survive all those complicated octave leaps?

 

 SCHOOL AGE

Captain Awesome Saves the Winter Wonderland
by Stan Kirby
(Captain Awesome Series)

Eugene and Charlie can hardly wait for Sunnyview Elementary’s holiday spectacular, “The Winter Wonderland.” These superhero pals are prepared to give it all they’ve got as members of the Snowflake Symphony. MI-TEE! Captain Awesome and Nacho Cheese Man’s superhero skills are called into action when an all-new villain threatens to ruin the second graders’ performance. Can the Sunnyview Superhero Squad save the show?
SCHOOL AGE
 The Stratford Zoo Midnight Revue Presents Macbeth
by Ian Lendler


The Stratford Zoo looks like a normal zoo… until the gates shut at night. That’s when the animals come out of their cages to stage elaborate performances of Shakespeare’s works. They might not be the most accomplished thespians, but they’ve got what counts: heart. Also fangs, feathers, scales, and tails.
SCHOOL AGE
 Tracing Stars
by Erin E. Moulton


Indie Lee Chickory knows she’s not as cool as her older sister Bebe. So when Indie accidentally brings her pet lobster to school, makes a scene, loses him in the ocean and embarrasses Bebe worse than usual, she makes a wish on a star to become a better Chickory. She tries to do this by joining the stage crew of the community’s theater production, The Sound of Music. But Bebe is worried that Indie will embarrass her again, so she gives her a makeover and tells her who she should be friends with. That means Owen is out. But he’s fun and smart, so Indie keeps her friendship with him a secret.

 

SCHOOL AGE
 

Junie B., First Grader: Shipwrecked
by Barbara Park
(Junie B. Series)

Junie B. Jones’ Room One is putting on a play, and guess what? It’s about explorers looking for the New World, there’s ships and sea captains and everything. Plus here’s the bestest news of all, Junie B. thinks she might be the star of the whole entire production, only sailing the ocean blue is not as easy as it looks cause problems keep on happening. Like the actors keep catching the flu. And bossy May keeps trying to take over the show. Can this play be saved? Will the ships ever get to land? Or is Room One in for a disaster at sea that they will never forget?

TWEEN
 

Chomp
by Carl Hiassen

When his dad takes a job with a reality TV show called “Expedition Survival!”, Wahoo figures he’ll have to do a bit of wrangling himself—to keep his dad from killing Derek Badger, the show’s boneheaded star, before the shoot is over. But the job keeps getting more complicated. Derek Badger seems to actually believe his PR and insists on using wild animals for his stunts. And Wahoo’s acquired a shadow named Tuna—a girl who’s sporting a shiner courtesy of her old man and needs a place to hide out.

TWEEN
 

Drama
by Raina Telgemeier

Callie loves theater. And while she would totally try out for her middle school’s production of Moon Over Mississippi, she can’t really sing. Instead she’s the set designer for the drama department stage crew, and this year she’s determined to create a set worthy of Broadway on a middle-school budget. But how can she, when she doesn’t know much about carpentry, ticket sales are down, and the crew members are having trouble working together? Not to mention the onstage AND offstage drama that occurs once the actors are chosen. And when two cute brothers enter the picture, things get even crazier!

TWEEN
 

Short
by Holly Goldberg Sloan

Julia is very short for her age, but by the end of the summer run of The Wizard of Oz, she’ll realize how big she is inside. She hasn’t ever thought of herself as a performer, but when the wonderful director of Oz casts her as a Munchkin, she begins to see herself in a new way. As Julia becomes friendly with the poised and wise Olive – one of the adults with dwarfism who’ve joined the production’s motley crew of Munchkins – and with her deeply artistic neighbor, Mrs. Chang, Julia’s own sense of self as an artist grows.

 

TWEEN
 

A Star is Born
by Walter Dean Meyers
(Cruisers Series)

The Cruiser, an alternative newspaper published by Zander and his crew of middle school misfits, is alive and well. And now there’s plenty to report on when LaShonda, one of the Cruisers, steps into the spotlight with her costume designs for an upcoming play, but she soon learns that show business is filled with challenges and choices. LaShonda is forced to consider what’s more important–fame, or loyalty to her autistic brother, and she can’t help but wonder if the Cruisers have got her back and will be there for her whether she’s center stage or waiting in the wings.

 

TWEEN

Acting Out: Six One Act Plays! Six Newberry Stars
by Justin Chanda

In these one-act plays written by six Newbery Award winners, each writer had to use the same six words — \”dollop,\” \”hoodwink,\” \”Justin,\” \”knuckleball,\” \”panhandle,\” and \”raven\” — in a different way. The result is a collection of plays that include a view into the publishing world, a look at the environment fighting back against developers, a spooky ghost story, and a twisted look at a fairy tale.

 

TWEEN
 

Lights, Camera, Middle School!
by Jennifer L. Holm
(Babymouse Series)

For Babymouse, middle school is like a monster movie. You can never be sure who’s a friend and who’s an enemy, and the halls are filled with mean-girl zombies. Instead of brains, the zombies hunger for stuff the perfect wedge sandals or the right shade of sparkly lip gloss and they expect everyone to be just like them. But Babymouse doesn’t want to fit in she wants to stand out! So she joins the film club to write and direct a sweeping cinematic epic. Will making the film of her dreams turn into a nightmare?

 

TWEEN
 

Once Upon a Mignight Eerie
by Gordon McAlpine
(The Misadventures of Edgar and Allan Series)

 Edgar and Allan Poe the great-great-great-great-grandnephews of the legendary Edgar Allan Poe are in New Orleans, about to play the young Poe in a feature film. But the role may cost them their lives, because now someone else wants them dead. But who? And can the twins—with the help of their co-stars, Em and Milly Dickinson, their ghostly forebear, and a pair of real ghosts—manage to outwit them?

TWEEN
 

Slacks, Camera, Action!
by Scott McCormick
(Mr. Pants Series)

 Mr. Pants only has a few hours to make a movie with his sisters if they’re going to win the filmmaking contest and get a trip to Hawaii. Why do dumb things like chores and tea parties always get in the way? With a little creative thinking, and a big dose of goofball personality, the cats get their debut film done just in the nick of time. 

TWEEN
 

I Funny TV: A Middle School Story
by James Patterson
(I Funny Series)

Jamie Grimm has finally accomplished his dream of proving himself the Planet’s Funniest Kid Comic, and the sky’s the limit from there. Enter a couple of TV executives with a huge plan for Jamie: a new show about Jamie and his oddball friends! But when Jamie struggles to learn the acting ropes, will it be an early curtain call for the biggest show of the decade?  

TWEEN
 

Tales From a Not-So-Glam TV Star
by Rachel Renee Russel
(Dork Diaries Series)

Everyone’s been rooting for me and my crush, Brandon—and now I can FINALLY write all about what did – or didn’t – happen with our first kiss! Sighhhhh. There’s a LOT happening right now! A reality TV crew is following me and my friends as we record our hit song together, plus there are voice lessons, dance practice, and my little sister Brianna’s latest wacky hijinks. I’m sure I’ve got this…but I hope all of this excitement won’t cause new problems for me and Brandon…eek!!

TWEEN

Finally
by Wendy mass
(Willow Falls Series)

You can pierce your ears when you’re twelve. You can go to the mall with your friends when you’re twelve. You can babysit little Timmy next door when you’re twelve. You can get a cell phone when you’re twelve. Hey, you can even ride in the front passenger-side seat when you’re twelve. My name is Rory Swenson, and I’ve been waiting to turn twelve my whole life. In exactly 18 hours, 36 minutes, and 52 seconds, it will finally happen. My life will officially begin.

 

TWEEN

Gracefully Grayson
by Ami Polonsky

Alone at home, twelve-year-old Grayson Sender glows, immersed in beautiful thoughts and dreams. But at school, Grayson grasps at shadows, determined to fly under the radar. Because Grayson has been holding onto a secret for what seems like forever: “he” is a girl on the inside, stuck in the wrong gender’s body. Strengthened by an unexpected friendship and a caring teacher who gives her a chance to step into the spotlight, Grayson might finally have the tools to let her inner light shine.

 

TWEEN

Okay For Now
by Gary Schmidt

Okay For Now explores a seemingly improbable alliance, between a new outsider in town Doug Swieteck and Lil Spicer, the savvy spitfire daughter of his deli owner boss. With her challenging assistance, Doug discovers new sides of himself. Along the way, he also readjusts his relationship with his abusive father, his school peers, and his older brother, a newly returned war victim of Vietnam.

 

TWEEN
 

The Marvels
by Brian Selznick

 After surviving a shipwreck, Billy Marvel finds work in a London theatre. There, his family flourishes for generations as brilliant actors until 1900, when young Leontes Marvel is banished from the stage. Nearly a century later, runaway Joseph Jervis seeks refuge with an uncle in London. Albert Nightingale’s strange, beautiful house, with its mysterious portraits and ghostly presences, captivates Joseph and leads him on a search for clues about the house, his family, and the past.

TWEEN
 

Selling Hope
by Kristin O’Donnel Tubb

Hope wants out of vaudeville, and longs for a “normal” life — or as normal as life can be without her mother, who died five years before. Hope sees an opportunity: She invents “anti-comet” pills to sell to the working-class customers desperate for protection. Soon, she’s joined by a fellow troupe member, young Buster Keaton, and the two of them start to make good money. And just when Hope thinks she has all the answers, she has to decide: What is family? Where is home?

TWEEN
 

The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe
 by C.S. Lewis
(Chronicles of Narnia Series)

NARNIA…the land beyond the wardrobe, the secret country known only to Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy…the place where the adventure begins. Lucy is the first to find the secret of the wardrobe in the professor’s mysterious old house. At first, no one believes her when she tells of her adventures in the land of Narnia. But soon Edmund and then Peter and Susan discover the Magic and meet Aslan, the Great Lion, for themselves. In the blink of an eye, their lives are changed forever.

TWEEN
 

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
 by J.K. Rowling
(Harry Potter Series)

Harry Potter’s life is miserable. His parents are dead and he’s stuck with his heartless relatives. But his fortune changes when he receives a letter that tells him the truth about himself: he’s a wizard. A mysterious visitor rescues him from his relatives and takes him to his new home, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Though Harry’s first year at Hogwarts is the best of his life, not everything is perfect. There is a dangerous secret object hidden within the castle walls, and Harry believes it’s his responsibility to prevent it from falling into evil hands. But doing so will bring him into contact with forces more terrifying than he ever could have imagined.

TWEEN
 

The Bad Beginning
 by Lemony Snicket
(A Series of Unfortunate Events)

I’m sorry to say that the book you are holding in your hands is extremely unpleasant. It tells an unhappy tale about three very unlucky children. Even though they are charming and clever, the Baudelaire siblings lead lives filled with misery and woe. From the very first page of this book when the children are at the beach and receive terrible news, continuing on through the entire story, disaster lurks at their heels. One might say they are magnets for misfortune.

TEEN
 

You Look Different in Real Life
by Jennifer Castle

The premise was simple: five kids, just living their lives. There’d be a new movie about them every five years, starting in kindergarten. But no one could have predicted what the cameras would capture. And no one could have predicted that Justine would be the star.
Now sixteen, Justine doesn’t feel like a star anymore. In fact, when she hears the crew has gotten the green light to film Five at Sixteen, all she feels is dread. Justine, who was so funny and edgy in the first two movies, now feels like a disappointment.

TEEN
 

Catch a Falling Star
by Kim A. Culbertson

Nothing ever happens in Little, CA. Which is just the way Carter Moon likes it. But when Hollywood arrives to film a movie starring former child star turned PR mess Adam Jakes, everything changes. Carter seems to be the only girl not falling all over herself to get a glimpse of Adam. Which apparently makes her perfect for the secret offer of a lifetime: playing the role of Adam’s girlfriend while he’s in town, to improve his public image, in exchange for a hefty paycheck. Her family really needs the money and so Carters agrees. But it turns out Adam isn’t at all who she thought he was.   

TEEN
 

Pirate Cinema
by Cory Doctorow

Trent McCauley is obsessed with one thing: making movies on his computer by reassembling footage from popular films he downloads from the net. In near-future Britain, this is more illegal than ever. The punishment for being caught three times is to cut off your entire household from the internet for a year – no work, school, health or money benefits.
Trent thinks he is too clever for that to happen, but it does, and nearly destroys his family. Parliament is in power of a few wealthy media conglomerates. But the powers-that-be haven’t entirely reckoned with the power of a gripping movie to change people’s minds

TEEN
 

Everything Leads to You
by Nina LaCour

A young set designer, Emi has already started to find her way in the competitive Hollywood film world. Emi is a film buff and a true romantic, but her real-life relationships are a mess. She has desperately gone back to the same girl too many times to mention. But then a mysterious letter from a silver screen legend leads Emi to Ava. Ava is unlike anyone Emi has ever met. She has a tumultuous, not-so-glamorous past, and lives an unconventional life. She’s enigmatic…. She’s beautiful. And she is about to expand Emi’s understanding of family, acceptance, and true romance.

TEEN
 

Bang
by Barry Lyga

Sebastian Cody did something horrible, something not even Sebastian himself—can forgive. At the age of four, he accidentally shot and killed his infant sister with his father’s gun. Now, ten years later, Sebastian has lived with the guilt and horror for his entire life. With his best friend away for the summer, Sebastian has only a new friend—Aneesa—to distract him from his darkest thoughts. But even this relationship cannot blunt the pain of his past. Because Sebastian knows exactly how to rectify his childhood crime and sanctify his past. It took a gun to get him into this. Now he needs a gun to get out.

TEEN
 

Project 17
by Laurie Faria Stolarz

 Built in 1878 and closed in 1992, Danvers State Hospital is rumored to be the birthplace of the lobotomy. Locals have long believed the place to be haunted. On the eve of the hospital’s demolition, six teens break in to film a movie about their adventures. For Derik, it’s an opportunity to win a filmmaking contest and save himself from a future of flipping burgers at his parents’ diner. For the others, it’s a chance to be on TV. But what starts as a playful dare quickly escalates into a frenzy of nightmarish action.

 

TEEN
 

The Greatest Zombie Movie Ever
by Jeff Strand

After producing three horror films that went mostly ignored on YouTube, Justin and his filmmaking buddies decide it’s time to make something epic. In fact, they’re going to make The Greatest Zombie Movie Ever. They may not have money or a script, but they have passion. And, after a rash text message, they also have the beautiful Alicia Howtz as the lead. Hemmed in by a one-month timeline and a cast of uncooperative extras, Justin must face the sad, sad truth: he may, in actuality, be producing The Worst Zombie Movie Ever..

 

TEEN
 

Viola in Reel Life
by Adriana Trigiani
(Viola Series)

Viola doesn’t want to go to boarding school, but somehow she ends up at an all-girls school in South Bend, Indiana, far away from her home in Brooklyn. There’s no way Viola’s going to survive the year, especially since she has to replace her best friend Andrew with three new roommates. She resorts to hiding behind the lens of her video camera. Boarding school, though, and her roommates are nothing like she thought they would be, and soon Viola realizes she may be in for the most incredible year of her life. 

 

TEEN
 

Saving Hamlet
by Molly Booth

Emma Allen couldn’t be more excited to start her sophomore year. Not only is she the assistant stage manager for the drama club’s production of Hamlet, but her crush Brandon is directing. But soon after school starts, everything goes haywire. One night after rehearsal, Emma stays behind and distractedly falls through the stage’s trap door…landing in the basement of the Globe Theater. It’s London, 1601, and with her awesome new pixie cut, everyone thinks Emma’s a boy—even Will Shakespeare himself.

 

TEEN
 

Dramarama
by E. Lockhart

 Two theater-mad, self-invented fabulositon Ohio teenagers. One boy, one girl. One gay, one straight. One black, one white. And SUMMER DRAMA CAMP! It’s a season of hormones, gold lame, hissy fits, jazz hands, song and dance, true love, and unitards that will determine their future–and test their friendship.

 

TEEN
 

Eyes Like Stars
by Lisa Mantchev

 

Bertie Shakespeare Smith is not an actress, yet she lives in a theater. She’s not an orphan, but she has no parents. She knows every part, but she has no lines of her own. That is, until now. Welcome to the Theatre Illuminata, where the actors of every play ever written can be found behind the curtain. They were born to play their parts, and are bound to the Theatre by The Book, an ancient and magical tome of scripts. Bertie is not one of them, but they are her family, and she is about to lose them all and the only home she has ever known.

 

TEEN
 

Caught in the Act
by Peter Moore

 

Meet Ethan Lederer. He’s got a great girlfriend, and he’s in all honor classes. Life is almost normal until Lydia Krane shows up in chemistry class. She’s not really Ethan’s type, but he feels an attraction to her he can’t explain. Ethan finds himself opening up in ways he never could with his girlfriend or his family. Lydia is so different. She loves theater just like Ethan, but suddenly Lydia changes. Why does she seem so attached and desperate? It doesn’t take long for Ethan to realize that Lydia will do anything to keep him, the boy of her dreams.

 

TEEN
 

My Faire Lady
by Laura Wettersten

 

Rowena Duncan is a modern girl with big plans for her summer—until she catches her boyfriend making out with another girl. Heartbroken, she applies to an out-of-town job posting and finds herself somewhere she never expected: the Renaissance Faire. Ro is thrown headfirst into a vibrant community of artists and performers. She feels like a fish out of water until Will, a quick-witted whip cracker, takes her under his wing. Then there’s Christian, a blue-eyed stunt jouster who makes Ro weak in the knees. Soon, it’s not just her gown that’s tripping her up.

 

TEEN
 

Thirteen Reasons Why
by Jay Asher

 

Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a strange package with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers several cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker–his classmate and crush–who committed suicide two weeks earlier. Hannah’s voice tells him that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he’ll find out why. Clay spends the night crisscrossing his town with Hannah as his guide. He becomes a firsthand witness to Hannah’s pain, and as he follows Hannah’s recorded words throughout his town, what he discovers changes his life forever.

 

TEEN
 

Ender’s Game
 by Orson Scott Card
(Enders Series)

Andrew “Ender” Wiggin thinks he is playing computer simulated war games; he is, in fact, engaged in something far more desperate. The result of genetic experimentation, Ender may be the military genius Earth desperately needs in a war against an alien enemy seeking to destroy all human life. The only way to find out is to throw Ender into ever harsher training, to chip away and find the diamond inside, or destroy him utterly. Ender Wiggin is six years old when it begins. He will have to grow up fast.

 

TEEN

The Perks of Being a Wallflower
 by Stephen Chbosky

 Perks follows observant “wallflower” Charlie as he charts a course through the strange world between adolescence and adulthood. First dates, family drama, and new friends. Sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Devastating loss, young love, and life on the fringes. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it, Charlie must learn to navigate those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up.

 

TEEN
 

Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist
 by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan

It all starts when Nick asks Norah to be his girlfriend for five minutes. He only needs five minutes to avoid his ex-girlfriend, who just walked in to his band’s show. With a new guy. And then, with one kiss, Nick and Norah are off on an adventure set against the backdrop of New York City and smack in the middle of all the joy, anxiety, confusion, and excitement of a first date.

 

 

TEEN
 

The Maze Runner
 by James Dashner
(Maze Runner Series)

If you ain’t scared, you ain’t human. When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his name. He’s surrounded by strangers—boys whose memories are also gone. Outside the towering stone walls that surround the Glade is a limitless, ever-changing maze. It’s the only way out—and no one’s ever made it through alive. Everything is going to change. Then a girl arrives. The first girl ever. And the message she delivers is terrifying. Remember. Survive. Run.

 

TEEN
 

Beautiful Creatures
by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl
(Caster Series)

Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she’s struggling to conceal her power, and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But secret cannot stay hidden forever. Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town’s oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them. In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.

 

TEEN
 

The Fault in Our Stars
by John Green

Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten. 

 

TEEN
 

Lemonade Mouth
by Mark Peter Hughes
(Lemonade Mouth Series)

Until now, nobody’s known the inside story of how the powerhouse band Lemonade Mouth came to be. How five outcasts in Opoquonsett High School’s freshman class found each other, found the music, and went on to change both rock and roll and high school as we know it. Wen, Stella, Charlie, Olivia, and Mo take us back to that fateful detention where a dentist’s jingle, a teacher’s coughing fit, and a beat-up ukulele gave birth to Rhode Island’s most influential band.

 

TEEN
 

The DUFF: Designated Ugly Fat Friend
by Kodi Keplinger

Seventeen-year-old Bianca Piper doesn’t think she’s the prettiest of her friends by a long shot. She’s also too smart to fall for the charms of womanizer and slimy school hottie Wesley Rush. And when he nicknames her “the Duff,” she throws her Coke in his face. But Bianca is desperate for a distraction and she ends up kissing Wesley. Eager for escape, Bianca throws herself into a closeted enemies-with-benefits relationship with him. Suddenly Bianca realizes with absolute horror that she’s falling for the guy she thought she hated more than anyone.

 

TEEN
 

Ophelia
by Lisa M. Klein

In this reimagining of Shakespeare’s famous tragedy, it is Ophelia who takes center stage. A motherless girl, she grows up at Elsinore Castle to become the queen’s most trusted lady-in-waiting. Ambitious for knowledge and witty as well as beautiful, Ophelia learns the ways of power in a court where nothing is as it seems. When she catches the attention of the captivating, Prince Hamlet, their love blossoms in secret. But bloody deeds soon turn Denmark into a place of madness, and Ophelia’s happiness is shattered. Ultimately, she must choose between her love for Hamlet and her own life.

 

TEEN
 

I am Number Four
by Pittacus lore
(Lorien Legacies Series)

Nine of us came here. We look like you. We talk like you. We live among you. But we are not you. We are the superheroes you worship in movies and comic books–but we are real. Our plan was to grow, and train, and become strong, and become one, and fight them. But they found us and started hunting us first. They caught Number One in Malaysia, Number Two in England, and Number Three in Kenya. They killed them all, and I am Number Four. I am next.

 

TEEN
 

Vampire Academy
by Richelle Mead
(Vampire Academy Series)

Lissa Dragomir is a Moroi princess: a mortal vampire with a rare gift for harnessing the earth’s magic. She must be protected at all times from Strigoi; the fiercest vampires – the ones who never die. The powerful blend of human and vampire blood that flows through Rose Hathaway, Lissa’s best friend, makes her a dhampir. Rose is dedicated to a dangerous life of protecting Lissa from the Strigoi, who are hell-bent on making Lissa one of them.

 

 

TEEN
 

Eragon
by Christopher Paolini
(Inheritance Series)

When Eragon finds a polished blue stone in the forest, he thinks it is the lucky discovery of a poor farm boy. But when the stone brings a dragon hatchling, Eragon realizes he has stumbled upon a legacy nearly as old as the Empire itself. Overnight his simple life is shattered, and he is thrust into a perilous new world of destiny, magic, and power. Can Eragon take up the mantle of the legendary Dragon Riders? The fate of the Empire may rest in his hands.

 

TEEN
 

The Golden Compass
by Phillip Pullman
(His Dark Materials Series)

Lyra is rushing to the cold, far North, where witch clans and armored bears rule. North, where the Gobblers take the children they steal–including her friend Roger. North, where her fearsome uncle Asriel is trying to build a bridge to a parallel world. Can one small girl make a difference in such great and terrible endeavors? This is Lyra: a savage, a schemer, a liar, and as fierce and true a champion as Roger or Asriel could want–but what Lyra doesn’t know is that to help one of them will be to betray the other.

 

TEEN
 

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
by Ranson Riggs
(Miss Peregrine Series)

A horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow-impossible though it seems-they may still be alive.

 

TEEN
 

Persepolis
by Marjane Satrapi
(Persepolis Series)

Wise, funny, and heartbreaking, Persepolis is Marjane Satrapi’s memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution. In powerful black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah’s regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects of war with Iraq. The intelligent and outspoken only child of committed Marxists and the great-granddaughter of one of Iran’s last emperors, Marjane bears witness to a childhood uniquely entwined with the history of her country.

 

TEEN
 

Pretty Little Liars
by Sara Shepard
(Pretty Little Liars Series)

Three years ago, Alison disappeared after a slumber party, not to be seen since. Her friends at the elite Pennsylvania school mourned her, but they also breathed secret sighs of relief. Each of them guarded a secret that only Alison had known. Now they have other dirty little secrets, secrets that could sink them in their gossip-hungry world. When each of them begins receiving anonymous emails and text messages, panic sets in. Are they being betrayed by some one in their circle? Worse yet: Is Alison back?

 

TEEN
 

Everything, Everything
by Nicola Yoon

My disease is as rare as it is famous. Basically, I’m allergic to the world. I have not left my house in seventeen years. The only people I ever see are my mom and my nurse, Carla. But then one day, a moving truck arrives next door. I look out my window, and I see him. He’s tall, lean and wearing all black and a black knit cap that covers his hair completely. He catches me looking and stares at me. I stare right back. His name is Olly. I am certainly going to fall in love with Olly. It’s almost certainly going to be a disaster.

 

TEEN
 

Divergent
by Veronica Roth
(Divergent Series)

In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

 

 

TEEN
 

City Of Bones
by Cassandra Clare
(The Mortal Instruments Series)

When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder― much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It’s hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing―not even a smear of blood―to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy?

 

TEEN
 

The Hunger Games
by Suzanne Collins
(The Hunger Games Series)

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love.

 

 

TEEN

Twilight
by Stephenie Meyer
(Twilight Series)

About three things I was absolutely positive. First, Edward was a vampire. Second, there was a part of him—and I didn’t know how dominant that part might be—that thirsted for my blood. And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.
When seventeen-year-old Bella leaves Phoenix to live with her father in Forks, Washington, she meets an exquisitely handsome boy at school for whom she feels an overwhelming attraction and who she comes to realize is not wholly human.

TEEN

The Moon & More
by Sarah Dessen

Luke is the perfect boyfriend, he and Emaline have been together all through high school in Colby. But now, Emaline wonders if perfect is good enough. Enter Theo, a super-ambitious outsider, a New Yorker assisting on a documentary film about a reclusive local artist. Theo’s sophisticated, exciting, and, best of all, he thinks Emaline is much too smart for Colby. Emaline is attracted to the bright future that Theo promises But she also clings to the deep roots of her loving mother, stepfather, and sisters. Can she ignore the pull of the happily familiar world of Colby?

 

TEEN

The Cutting Room Floor
by Dawn Klehr

Life in the Heights has never been easy for Riley Frost, but when she’s publicly dumped and outed at the same time, she becomes an immediate social outcast at her high school. So Riley swears off romance and throws herself into solving the shocking murder of her favorite teacher, Ms. Dunn. Riley turns to her best friend, budding filmmaker Desmond. What she doesn’t know is that Dez has been secretly directing her life, blackmailing her friends, and hoping his manipulations will make her love him.

 

TEEN

Tash Hearts Tolstoy
by Katie Ormsbee

After a shout-out from one of the Internet’s superstar vloggers, Tash finds herself and her  amateur web series, Unhappy Families, thrust into the limelight. Her show is a modern adaptation of Anna Karenina—written by Tash’s literary love Leo Tolstoy. And when Unhappy Families is nominated for an award, Tash’s cyber-flirtation with Thom Causer, a fellow award nominee, suddenly has the potential to become something IRL—if she can figure out how to tell said crush that she’s romantic asexual.

 

 

TEEN

The Devil and Winnie Flynn
by Micol Ostow

Winnie Flynn doesn’t believe in ghosts. (Though she wouldn’t mind a visit from her mom, explaining why she took her own life.) When her mysterious aunt Maggie, a TV producer, recruits Winnie to spend a summer working as a production assistant on her current reality hit, she suddenly finds herself in the one place her mother would never go: New Jersey. As the filming progresses, Winnie sees and hears things about her mother’s death that might explain why she’s never met Aunt Maggie until now.

 

 

TEEN

Summerlost
by Allyson Braithwaite Condie

It’s the first real summer since the devastating accident that killed Cedar’s father and younger brother, Ben. But now Cedar and what’s left of her family are returning to the town of Iron Creek for the summer. They’re just settling into their new house when a boy named Leo, dressed in costume, rides by on his bike. Cedar follows him to the renowned Summerlost theatre festival. Soon, she not only has a new friend in Leo and a job working concessions at the festival, she finds herself surrounded by mystery.

 

TEEN

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
by Jesse Andrews

Greg Gaines  has only one friend, Earl, and together they spend their time making movies, their own incomprehensible versions of Coppola and Herzog cult classics.
Until Greg’s mother forces him to rekindle his childhood friendship with Rachel.
Rachel has been diagnosed with leukemia, but a parental mandate has been issued and must be obeyed. When Rachel stops treatment, Greg and Earl decide the thing to do is to make a film for her, which turns into the Worst Film Ever Made and becomes a turning point in each of their lives.

 

TEEN

Airhead
by Meg Cabot
(Airhead Series)

Emerson Watts didn’t even want to go to the new SoHo Stark Megastore grand opening. But someone needed to look out for her sister, Frida, whose crush, British heartthrob Gabriel Luna, would be singing and signing autographs, along with the newly appointed Face of Stark, teen supermodel sensation Nikki Howard. How was Em to know that disaster would strike, changing her life forever? One bizarre accident later, and Em Watts, always the tomboy, never the party princess, is no longer herself. Literally.

 

TEEN

Echo After Echo
by Amy Rose Capetta

Zara Evans has come to the Aurelia Theater, to play her dream role in Echo and Ariston, the Greek tragedy that taught her everything she knows about love. But it’s hard not to be distracted when there’s a death at the theater, and it’s hard not to be distracted when assistant lighting director Eli Vasquez, a girl made of tattoos and abrupt laughs looks at Zara. It’s hard not to fall in love.

 

TEEN

The Great  American Whatever
by Tim Federle

Quinn Roberts is a sixteen-year-old smart aleck and Hollywood hopeful whose only worry used to be writing convincing dialogue for the movies he made with his sister Annabeth. Of course, that was all before Quinn stopped going to school, before his mom started sleeping on the sofa…and before Annabeth was killed in a car accident. Enter Geoff, Quinn’s best friend who insists it’s time that Quinn came out—at least from hibernation. One haircut later, Geoff drags Quinn to his first college party, where instead of nursing his pain, he meets a guy—a hot one—and falls hard.

 

TEEN

Will Grayson, Will Grayson
by John Green & David Levithan

It’s not that far from Evanston to Naperville, but Chicago suburbanites Will Grayson and Will Grayson might as well live on different planets. When fate delivers them both to the same surprising crossroads, the Will Graysons find their lives overlapping and hurtling in new and unexpected directions. With a push from friends new and old – including the massive, and massively fabulous, Tiny Cooper, offensive lineman and musical theater auteur extraordinaire – Will and Will begin building toward respective romantic turns-of-heart and the epic production of history’s most awesome high school musical.

 

TEEN
 

Hold Me Closer: The Tiny Cooper Story
by David Levithan
(Will Grayson Series)

 Tiny finally gets to tell his story—from his fabulous birth and childhood to his quest for true love and his infamous parade of ex-boyfriends—the way he always intended: as a musical! Filled with honesty, humor, and “big, lively, belty” musical numbers, the novel is told through the full script of the musical first introduced in Will Grayson, Will Grayson.

 

TEEN
 

The Unfinished Life of Addison Stone
by Adele Griffin

From the moment she stepped foot in NYC, Addison Stone’s subversive street art made her someone to watch, and her violent drowning left her fans and critics craving to know more. I conducted interviews with those who knew her best—including close friends, family, teachers, mentors, art dealers, boyfriends, and critics—and retraced the tumultuous path of Addison’s life. I hope I can shed new light on what really happened the night of July 28.

 

TEEN
 

Love, Lucy.
by April Linder

While backpacking through Florence, Italy, during the summer before she heads off to college, Lucy Sommersworth finds herself falling in love with the culture, the architecture, the food…and Jesse Palladino, a handsome street musician. After a whirlwind romance, Lucy returns home, determined to move on from her “vacation flirtation.” But just because summer is over doesn’t mean Lucy and Jesse have to be, does it?

 

TEEN
 

The Hero’s Closet
by Gillian Conahan

This essential handbook offers detailed, step-by-step instructions that cover the basics of sewing costumes to help even the most novice sewists create the costumes of their dreams. A skilled crafter and avid cosplayer, Gillian Conahan walks readers through finding inspiration online and through their fandom; shares insight into translating character art into real-world garments; and offers advice on pattern selection, alterations, fabrics, and embellishment techniques.

 

TEEN
 

Make: Wearable Electronics
by Kate Hartman

Our bodies are our primary interface for the world. Interactive systems designed to be worn can be intimate, upfront, and sometimes in your face (literally). Bringing wearable electronics from concept to prototype to product can be both inspiring and challenging. This book gives you what you need to start working with these new materials, tools, and techniques. It covers popular wearable products such as the Arduino Lilypad, Adafruit Flora, and the Fabrickit.  

 

TEEN
 

Cosplay Basics: A Beginner’s Guide to the Art of Costume Play
by Yuki Takasou

Curious about the growing new trend of cosplay? Then this guide is for you! Learn all the basics of cosplay here straight from experts in the heart of Tokyo. Japanese cosplayers have taken the art of cosplay to a new level and now you can learn their secrets! Cosplay Basics has collected all you need to know in an easy to follow how-to book on the making and engaging in the art of cosplay. With original designs and patterns included, you can learn how to make your own! Learn how to: Buy costumes! Make your own! Wigs and make-up! Attend events! Photography tips! And more!

 

ADULT
 

Beach Town
by Mary Kay Andrews

As a movie location scout, picture-perfect is the name of the game. But her last project literally went up in flames. Greer has been given one more chance, to find the perfect beach hideaway for a big-budget movie. She zeroes in on a sleepy Florida town called Cypress Key. There’s just one problem. Eben, the town mayor, completely objects to Greer’s plan. Eben wants the town to be revitalized, not commercialized, and Eb has no intention of letting anybody screw with his town. But Greer has a way of making things happen. And Greer and Eb are way too attracted to each other for either of them to see reason.

 

ADULT
 

Saint Mazie
by Jami Attenberg

 When the Great Depression hits, Addicts and bums roam the Bowery, and homelessness is rampant. If Mazie won’t help them, then who? When she opens the doors of The Venice to those in need, this ticket-taking, fun-time girl becomes the beating heart of the Lower East Side, and in defining one neighborhood helps define the city. Then, more than ninety years after Mazie began her diary, it’s discovered by a documentarian in search of a good story. Who was Mazie Phillips, really? A chorus of voices from the past and present fill in some of the mysterious blanks of her adventurous life.

 

ADULT
 

The Glimmer Palace
by Beatrice Colin

As the clock chimes the turn of the twentieth century, Lilly Nelly Aphrodite takes her first breath. The illegitimate, orphaned daughter of a cabaret performer, she finds early refuge at a Berlin Catholic orphanage. From there follows a lifetime of reinventions, from orphan to maid, war bride, tingle-tangle nightclub girl, and script typist. Her eventual transformation into one of Germany’s leading silent-film stars, and a partner in a remarkable romance that crosses decades and continents, could ultimately cost her everything she has worked for.

 

ADULT
 

Don’t Look Down
by Jennifer Cruise

She is a director of commercials who’s just been recruited to finish a four-day movie shoot. But as soon as Lucy Armstrong arrives on set, she discovers that the staff is in chaos, the stunt director just happens to be her ex-husband, and the temperamental lead actor has just acquired as an advisor a Green Beret who has the aggravating habit of always being right.

 

ADULT
 

Good Things
by Mia King

Deidre McIntosh became famous teaching women to live simply, and simply live-ironic for a woman who thrives on the chaos of a television career. But when her Seattle cooking-and-lifestyle show gets bumped off the air, she’s left trying to figure out the next segment. Seizing on a chance encounter with an attractive stranger, Deidre accepts his offer to use his country home. She hopes to get away for a while and learn to gain the courage to start again, and take the first slow, cautious steps toward a new kind of success-and maybe even love.

 

ADULT
 

Dating is Murder
by Harley Jane Kozak

Wollie Shelley is a greeting card artist struggling to keep afloat financially and to pursue the search for the love of her life. She reluctantly agrees to be a contestant on the reality television show Biological Clock. The show’s premise: Six eligible singles date each other, and the audience votes on which couple would make the best parents. Alas, Wollie isn’t having much luck finding a man she’d like to date “off the air,” much less father her child. As her own biological clock ticks away, Wollie gets caught up in a much more pressing demand on her time. Her friend Annika has vanished into thin air, and Wollie is convinced that she’s in grave danger.

 

 

ADULT
 

P.S. From Paris
by Marc Levy

On the big screen, Mia plays a woman in love. But in real life, she’s an actress in need of a break from her real-life philandering husband—the megastar who plays her romantic interest in the movies. So she heads across the English Channel to hide in Paris behind a new haircut, fake eyeglasses, and a waitressing job at her best friend’s restaurant. Paul is an American author hoping to recapture the fame of his first novel. When his best friend surreptitiously sets him up with Mia through a dating website, Paul and Mia’s relationship status is “complicated.”

 

 

ADULT
 

Movie Star, By Lizzie Pepper
by Hilary Liftin

Actress Lizzie Pepper was America’s Girl Next Door and her marriage to Hollywood mega-star Rob Mars was tabloid gold. But fame, beauty, and wealth weren’t enough to keep their marriage together. Hollywood’s “It” couple are over—and now Lizzie is going to tell her side of the story. Celebrity ghostwriter Hilary Liftin chronicles the tabloids’ favorite marriage as Lizzie Pepper realizes that, when the curtain falls, her romance isn’t what she and everyone else thought.

 

ADULT
 

Another Thing to Fall
by Laura Lippman
(Tess Monaghan Series)

In the past, Tess has had enough trouble guarding her “own” body. Keeping a spoiled movie princess under wraps may be more than she can handle. This is not Tess’s world. And these are not her kind of people, with their vanities, their self-serving agendas and invented personas, and their remarkably skewed visions of reality–from the series’ aging, shallow, leading man to its resentful, always-on-the-make cowriter to the officious young assistant who may be too hungry for her own good.

 

ADULT
 

Only the Dead Know Burbank
by Bradford Tatum

A young girl awakens in a hastily dug grave—vague memories of blood and fever, her mother performing a mysterious ceremony before the world went away. Germany has lost the first great war and Europe has lost millions more to the Spanish Flu epidemic. But Maddy has not only survived, she has changed. No longer does she eat, sleep, or age. No longer can she die. After taking up with a pair of street performers, she shocks and fascinates the crowds with her ability to survive outrageous traumas. But at a studio in Berlin, Maddy discovers her true calling: film.

 

ADULT
 

Attack of the Theater People
by Marc Acito
(Edward Zanni Series)

It is 1986, and aspiring actor Edward Zanni has been kicked out of drama school for being “too jazz hands for Juilliard.” Mortified, Edward heads out into the urban jungle of eighties New York City and finally lands a job as a “party motivator” who gets thirteen-year-olds to dance at bar mitzvahs and charms businesspeople as a “stealth guest” at corporate events. When he accidentally gets caught up in insider trading with a handsome stockbroker named Chad, only the help of his crew can rescue him from a stretch in Club Fed.

 

ADULT
 

Lives of the Circus Animals
by Christopher Bram

Playwright Caleb Doyle suffers through deep-set writer’s block. Henry Lewse, the openly gay star of a ludicrous Broadway musical dotes on the handsome but dull-witted Toby Vogler, and Toby pines for Caleb. Jessie has her own problems as the love object of director Frank Earp, whose floundering career has reduced him to staging children’s plays. The secrets and heartaches of these many unfulfilled romances, unions, and associations unfold during the course of Caleb’s bizarre birthday bash, where his pistol-packin’ grandma causes even more mayhem.

 

ADULT
 

Untimely Death
by Elizabeth J. Duncan
(Shakespeare in the Catskills Mystery Series)

A Catskills resort’s production of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet takes a wickedly ironic turn when the leading lady, Lauren Richmond, is first poisoned and then stabbed. Who would extinguish the life of such a beautiful young thespian? Who wouldn’t? Seems like just about everyone had a motive to pull the ropes on her final curtain call.

 

ADULT
 

The Memory of Blood
by Christopher Fowler
(A Peculiar Crimes Unit Mystery Series)

For the crew of the New Strand Theatre, the play The Two Murderers seems less performance than prophecy when a cast party ends in the shocking death of the theater owner’s son. The crime scene is most unusual, even for Bryant and May. In a locked bedroom without any trace of fingerprints or blood, the only sign of disturbance is a gruesome life-size puppet of Mr. Punch laying on the floor. Everyone at the party is a suspect, including the corrupt producer, the rakish male lead, and the assistant stage manager, who is the wild daughter of a prominent government official.

 

ADULT
 

Station Eleven
by Emily St. John Mendel

One snowy night a famous Hollywood actor slumps over and dies onstage during a production of King Lear. Hours later, the world as we know it begins to dissolve. Moving back and forth in time, from the actor’s early days as a film star to fifteen years in the future. This suspenseful, elegiac, spellbinding novel charts the strange twists of fate that connect five people: the actor, the man who tried to save him, the actor’s first wife, his oldest friend, and a young actress with the Traveling Symphony, caught in the crosshairs of a dangerous self-proclaimed prophet.

 

ADULT
 

The Illusionists
by Rosie Thomas

As a turbulent and change-filled century draws to a close. A beautiful young woman of limited means, Eliza’s choices appear to lie between the stifling domesticity of marriage or a downwards spiral to the streets. One night at a run-down theatre, she meets the charismatic Devil Wix, a showman, master of illusion. Drawn into his circle, Eliza becomes the catalyst of change for his colleagues. And as Eliza embarks on a dangerous adventure, she must decide which path to choose, and how far she should go.

 

ADULT
 

As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales From The Making of the Princess Bride
by Cary Elwes

From actor Cary Elwes, who played the iconic role of Westley in The Princess Bride, comes a first-person account and behind-the-scenes look at the making of the cult classic film filled with never-before-told stories, exclusive photographs, and interviews with costars Robin Wright, Wallace Shawn, Billy Crystal, Christopher Guest, and Mandy Patinkin, as well as author and screenwriter William Goldman, producer Norman Lear, and director Rob Reiner.

 

ADULT
 

Bossypants
by Tina Fey

At last, Tina Fey’s story can be told. From her youthful days as a vicious nerd to her tour of duty on Saturday Night Live; from her passionately halfhearted pursuit of physical beauty to her life as a mother eating things off the floor; from her one-sided college romance to her nearly fatal honeymoon—from the beginning of this paragraph to this final sentence. Tina Fey reveals all, and proves what we’ve all suspected: you’re no one until someone calls you bossy.

 

ADULT
 

Talking as Fast as I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls (And Everything in Between)
by Lauren Graham

In Talking as Fast as I Can, Lauren Graham hits pause for a moment and looks back on her life, sharing laugh-out-loud stories about growing up, starting out as an actress, and, years later, sitting in her trailer on the Parenthood set and asking herself, “Did you, um, make it?” She opens up about the challenges of being single in Hollywood, the time she was asked to audition her butt for a role, and her experience being a judge on Project Runway.

 

ADULT
 

The Nerdist Way: How to Reach the Next Level
by Chris Hardwick

Chris Hardwick has learned all there is to know about Nerds. Developing a system, blog, and podcasts, Hardwick shares hard-earned wisdom about turning seeming weakness into world-dominating strengths in the hilarious self-help book. From keeping their heart rate below hummingbird levels to managing the avalanche of sadness that is their in-boxes; from becoming evil geniuses to attracting wealth by turning down work, Hardwick reveals the secrets that can help readers achieve their goals by tapping into their true nerdtastic selves.

 

ADULT
 

Neil Patrick Harris: Choose Your Own Autobiography
by Neil Patrick Harris

In this revolutionary, experiment in light celebrity narrative, actor Neil Patrick Harris lets you, the reader, live his life. You will be born in New Mexico. You will get your big break at an acting camp. You will get into a bizarre confrontation outside a nightclub with actor Scott Caan. Even better, at each critical juncture of your life, you will choose how to proceed. You will decide whether to try out for Doogie Howser, M.D. You will decide whether to spend years struggling with your sexuality. You will decide what kind of caviar you want to eat on board Elton John’s yacht.

 

ADULT
 

I Can’t Make This Up: Life Lessons
by Kevin Hart

It begins in North Philadelphia. Unwanted by his parents. His father was a drug addict who was in and out of jail. His brother was a crack dealer and petty thief. And his mother was overwhelmingly strict. The odds, in short, were stacked against our young hero, just like the odds that are stacked against the release of a new book in this era of social media. Kevin Hart, in his literary debut, he takes the reader on a journey through what his life was, what it is today, and how he’s overcome each challenge to become the man he is today.

 

ADULT
 

Believe Me: A Memoir of Love, Death, and Jazz Chickens
by Eddie Izzard

Still performing more than 100 shows a year, Izzard is arguably one of today’s top Kings of Comedy. With his brand of keenly intelligent humor, that ranges from world history to pop culture, politics and philosophy, he has built an extraordinary fan base that transcends age, gender, and race. Writing with the same candor and razor-sharp insight evident in his comedy, he reflects on a childhood marked by unutterable loss, sexuality and coming out, as well as a life in show business, politics, and philanthropy. Izzard’s Believe Me is an inspired account of a very singular life thus far.

 

ADULT
 

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)
by Mindy Kaling

In Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, Mindy invites readers on a tour of her life and her unscientific observations on romance, friendship, and Hollywood, with several conveniently placed stopping points for you to run errands and make phone calls. Mindy Kaling really is just a Girl Next Door—not so much literally anywhere in the continental United States, but definitely if you live in India or Sri Lanka.

 

ADULT
 

Born A Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood
by Trevor Noah

Born a Crime is the story of a mischievous young boy who grows into a restless young man as he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist. It is also the story of that young man’s relationship with his fearless, rebellious, and fervently religious mother, his teammate, a woman determined to save her son from the cycle of poverty, violence, and abuse that would ultimately threaten her own life.

 

ADULT
 

Gumption: Relighting the Torch of Freedom with America’s Gutstiest Troublemakers
by Nick Offerman

Offerman focuses on the lives of those who inspired him. From George Washington to Willie Nelson, he describes twenty-one heroic figures and why they inspire in him such great meaning. He combines both serious history with light-hearted humor. The subject matter also allows Offerman to expound upon his favorite topics, which readers love to hear—areas such as religion, politics, woodworking and handcrafting, agriculture, creativity, philosophy, fashion, and, of course, meat.

 

ADULT
 

Yes Please
by Amy Poehler

In Amy Poehler’s highly anticipated first book, Yes Please, she offers up a big juicy stew of personal stories, funny bits on sex and love and friendship and parenthood and real life advice (some useful, some not so much), like when to be funny and when to be serious. Powered by Amy’s charming and hilarious, biting yet wise voice.

 

ADULT
 

This is Just My Face: Try Not to Stare
by Gabourey Sidibe

In This is Just My Face, Gabourey shares a one-of-a-kind life story in a voice as fresh and challenging as many of the unique characters she’s played onscreen. With full-throttle honesty, Sidibe paints her family life with a polygamous father and a gifted mother who supports her two children by singing in the subway. She shares her unconventional rise to fame as a movie star, alongside “a superstar cast of rich people who lived in mansions and had their own private islands and amazing careers while I lived in my mom’s apartment.” 

 

ADULT
 

Keep Moving: And Other Tips and Truths About Aging
by Dick Van Dyke

In a fun and folksy way of addressing readers, Keep Moving serves as an instruction book on how to embrace old age with a positive attitude. The chapters are filled with exclusive personal anecdotes that explore various themes on aging: how to adapt to the physical and social changes, deal with loss of friends and loved ones, stay current, fall in love again, and “keep moving” every day like there’s no tomorrow.

 

ADULT
 

If You Ask Me (And of Course You Wont)
by Betty White

Drawing from a lifetime of lessons learned, seven-time Emmy winner Betty White’s wit and wisdom take center stage as she tackles topics like friendship, romantic love, aging, television, fans, love for animals, and the brave new world of celebrity. If You Ask Me mixes her thoughtful observations with humorous stories from a seven- decade career in Hollywood. Longtime fans and new fans alike will relish Betty’s candid take on everything from her rumored crushes to her beauty regimen, to the Facebook campaign that helped persuade her to host Saturday Night Live.

 

ADULT
 

Modern Romance
by Aziz Ansari

For years, Aziz Ansari has been aiming his comic insight at modern romance, but for Modern Romance, the book, he decided he needed to take things to another level. He teamed up with NYU sociologist Eric Klinenberg and designed a massive research project, including hundreds of interviews and focus groups conducted everywhere. They analyzed behavioral data and surveys. They enlisted the world’s leading social scientists, The result is unlike any social science or humor book we’ve seen before.

 

ADULT
 

Modelland
by Tyra Banks

With her untamable hair, large forehead, and gawky body, Tookie De La Crème isn’t expecting an invitation to Modelland, the exclusive, mysterious place on top of the mountain. But someone has plans for Tookie. Before she can blink her mismatched eyes, Tookie finds herself in the very place every girl in the world obsesses about. Thrown into a world where she doesn’t seem to belong, Tookie glimpses a future that could be hers… if she survives the beastly Catwalk Corridor and terrifying Thigh-High Boot Camp.

 

ADULT
 

Postcards From the Edge
by Carrie Fisher

Fisher beautifully brings readers the inside of Hollywood through a web of humor, drugs, relationships, Hollywood Party Terror, and much more. The plot centers on a 30-year-old actress named Suzanne Vale, and follows her challenges as she overcomes her drug addiction, gets back into the swing of things, and falls in love, sort of.

 

ADULT
 

Someday, Someday, Maybe
by Lauren Graham

Franny Banks is a struggling actress in New York City, with just six months left of the three-year deadline she gave herself to succeed. But so far, all she has to show for her efforts is a single line in an ad for ugly Christmas sweaters and a degrading waitressing job. She lives in Brooklyn with two roommates – Jane, her best friend from college, and Dan, a sci-fi writer, who is very definitely not boyfriend material – and is struggling with her feelings for a suspiciously charming guy in her acting class, all while trying to find a hair-product cocktail that actually works.

 

ADULT
 

The Gun Seller
by Hugh Laurie

Cold-blooded murder just isn’t Thomas Lang’s cup of tea. Offered a bundle to assassinate an American industrialist, he opts to warn the intended victim instead — a good deed that soon takes a bad turn. Up against rogue CIA agents, wannabe terrorists, and an arms dealer looking to make a high-tech killing, Lang’s out to save the leggy lady he has come to love…and prevent an international bloodbath to boot.

 

ADULT
 

An Object of Beauty
by Steve Martin

Lacey Yeager is young, captivating, and ambitious enough to take the NYC art world by storm. Groomed at Sotheby’s and hungry to keep climbing the social and career ladders put before her, Lacey charms men and women, old and young, rich and even richer with her magnetic charisma and liveliness. Her ascension to the highest tiers of the city parallel the soaring heights–and, at times, the dark lows–of the art world and the country from the late 1990s through today.

 

ADULT
 

When It Happens to You
by Molly Ringwald

Tales of love, loss, and betrayal are at the heart of When It Happens to You, the debut story collection from actress and author Molly Ringwald.  Ringwald brings that same compelling candor she displayed in her film roles to the unforgettable characters she has created in this series of linked stories about the particular challenges, joys, and disappointments of adult relationships. Here are stories that grapple with infertility and infidelity, fame and familial discord, in a magnificent collection that will resonate broadly with readers.

 

ADULT
 

Something to Remember You By: A Perilous Romance
by Gene Wilder

In a foxhole in Bastogne, Belgium, the innocent yet charmingly clever protagonist, Corporal Tom Cole, is injured. Wilder moves the action to a romantic wartime London where Cole convalesces and falls in love for the first time. But is the mysterious Danish girl he meets on the up and up? Cole is a cellist back home in the States, and Anna says she’s a monitor at the War Office, scanning radio waves for incoming German planes, but is she?

 

ADULT
 

Little Women
by Louisa May Alcott

Generations of readers young and old, male and female, have fallen in love with the March sisters of Louisa May Alcott’s most popular and enduring novel, Little Women. Here are talented tomboy and author-to-be Jo, tragically frail Beth, beautiful Meg, and romantic, spoiled Amy, united in their devotion to each other and their struggles to survive in New England during the Civil War.

 

ADULT
 

The Handmaid’s Tale
by Margaret Atwood

Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She may leave the home of the Commander and his wife once a day. She must lie on her back once a month and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, because in an age of declining births, Offred and the other Handmaids are valued only if their ovaries are viable. Offred can remember the years before, when she lived and made love with her husband, Luke; when she played with and protected her daughter; when she had a job, money of her own, and access to knowledge. But all of that is gone now.

 

ADULT
 

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
by Max Brooks

The Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the first-hand experiences of the survivors from those apocalyptic years, traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world and recorded the testimony of men, women, and sometimes children who came face-to-face with the undead. World War Z is the result. Never before have we had access to a document that so powerfully conveys the depth of fear and horror, and the ineradicable spirit of resistance, that gripped human society through the plague years.

 

ADULT
 

The Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald

THE GREAT GATSBY, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s third book, stands as the supreme achievement of his career. This exemplary novel of the Jazz Age has been acclaimed by generations of readers. The story is of the fabulously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his new love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan, of lavish parties on Long Island at a time when The New York Times noted “gin was the national drink and sex the national obsession,” it is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s.

 

ADULT
 

The Girl with All the Gifts
by M. R. Carey

Melanie is a very special girl. Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant Parks keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don’t like her. She jokes that she won’t bite, but they don’t laugh. Melanie loves school. She loves learning about spelling and sums and the world outside the classroom and the children’s cells. She tells her favorite teacher all the things she’ll do when she grows up. Melanie doesn’t know why this makes Miss Justineau look sad.

 

ADULT
 

Outlander
by Diana Gabaldon

The year is 1945. Claire Randall, a former combat nurse, is just back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon when she walks through a standing stone in one of the ancient circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach—an “outlander”—in a Scotland torn by war and raiding border clans in the year of Our Lord…1743. Hurled back in time by forces she cannot understand, Claire is catapulted into the intrigues of lairds and spies that may threaten her life, and shatter her heart.

 

ADULT
 

Memoirs of a Geisha
by Arthur Golden

This brilliant debut novel presents with seamless authenticity and exquisite lyricism the true confessions of one of Japan’s most celebrated geisha. In Memoirs of a Geisha, we enter a world where appearances are paramount; where a girl’s virginity is auctioned to the highest bidder; where women are trained to beguile the most powerful men; and where love is scorned as illusion. It is a unique and triumphant work of fiction – at once romantic, erotic, suspenseful – and completely unforgettable.

 

ADULT
 

The Princess Bride
by William Goldman

What happens when the most beautiful girl in the world marries the handsomest prince of all time and he turns out to be…well…a lot less than the man of her dreams? As a boy, William Goldman claims, he loved to hear his father read the S. Morgenstern classic, The Princess Bride. But as a grown-up he discovered that the boring parts were left out of good old Dad’s recitation, and only the “good parts” reached his ears. Now Goldman does Dad one better. He’s reconstructed the “Good Parts Version” to delight wise kids and wide-eyed grownups everywhere.

 

 

ADULT
 

The Other Boleyn Girl
by Philippa Gregory

When Mary Boleyn comes to court as an innocent girl of fourteen, she catches the eye of Henry VIII. Dazzled, Mary falls in love with both her golden prince and her growing role as unofficial queen. However, she soon realises just how much she is a pawn in her family’s ambitious plots as the king’s interest begins to wane and she is forced to step aside for her best friend and rival: her sister, Anne. Then Mary knows that she must defy her family and her king and take fate into her own hands.

 

ADULT
 

Never Let Me Go
by Kazuo Ishiguro

Hailsham seems like a pleasant English boarding school, far from the influences of the city. Its students are well tended and supported, trained in art and literature, and become just the sort of people the world wants them to be. But, curiously, they are taught nothing of the outside world and are allowed little contact with it. Within the grounds of Hailsham, Kathy grows from schoolgirl to young woman, but it’s only when she and her friends Ruth and Tommy leave the safe grounds of the school (as they always knew they would) that they realize the full truth of what Hailsham is.

 

ADULT
 

11/22/63
by Stephen King

Life can turn on a dime—or stumble into the extraordinary, as it does for Jake Epping, a high school English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine. A bizarre secret comes to light when Jake’s friend Al, owner of the local diner, enlists Jake to take over the mission that has become his obsession… How? By stepping through a portal in the diner’s storeroom, and into the era of Elvis, big American cars, and cigarette smoke. Finding himself in Jodie, Texas, Jake begins a new life. But all turns in the road lead to a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald. The course of history is about to be rewritten…and become heart-stoppingly suspenseful.

 

ADULT
 

To Kill a Mockingbird
by Harper Lee

The unforgettable novel of a childhood in a sleepy Southern town and the crisis of conscience that rocked it, To Kill A Mockingbird became both an instant bestseller and a critical success when it was first published in 1960. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was later made into an Academy Award-winning film, also a classic. Compassionate, dramatic, and deeply moving, To Kill A Mockingbird takes readers to the roots of human behavior – to innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, humor and pathos.

 

ADULT
 

The Lovely Bones
by Alice Sebold

The Lovely Bones is the story of a family devastated by a gruesome murder — a murder recounted by the teenage victim. The details of the crime are laid out in the first few pages: from her vantage point in heaven, Susie Salmon describes how she was confronted by the murderer one December afternoon on her way home from school. Lured into an underground hiding place, she was raped and killed. But what the reader knows, her family does not. Anxiously, we keep vigil with Susie, aching for her grieving family, desperate for the killer to be found and punished.

 

ADULT
 

The Martian
by Andy Weir

Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he’s sure he’ll be the first person to die there. After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone, but Mark isn’t ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills, and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit — he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?

 

ADULT
 

Don Quixote
by Miguel De Cervantes

Don Quixote has become so entranced by reading chivalric romances, that he determines to become a knight-errant himself. In the company of his faithful squire, Sancho Panza, his exploits blossom in all sorts of wonderful ways. While Quixote’s fancy often leads him astray – he tilts at windmills, imagining them to be giants – Sancho acquires cunning and a certain sagacity. Sane madman and wise fool, they roam the world together, and together they have haunted readers’ imaginations for nearly four hundred years.

 

ADULT
 

Alexander Hamilton
by Ron Chenrow

 An illegitimate, largely self-taught orphan from the Caribbean, Hamilton came out of nowhere to take America by storm, rising to become George Washington’s aide-de-camp in the Continental Army, coauthoring The Federalist Papers, and becoming the first Treasury Secretary of the United States. Historians have long told the story of America’s birth as the triumph of Jefferson’s democratic ideals over the aristocratic intentions of Hamilton. Chernow presents an entirely different man, whose legendary ambitions were motivated not merely by self-interest but by passionate patriotism.

 

ADULT
 

Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats
by T. S. Eliot

T. S. Eliot’s playful cat poems have delighted readers and cat lovers around the world ever since they were first published in 1939. They were originally composed for his godchildren, with Eliot posing as Old Possum himself, and later inspired the legendary musical Cats.

 

ADULT
 

Les Miserables
by Victor Hugo

Introducing one of the most famous characters in literature, Jean Valjean—the noble peasant imprisoned for stealing a loaf of bread. Within his dramatic story are themes that capture the intellect and the emotions: crime and punishment, the relentless persecution of Valjean by Inspector Javert, the desperation of the prostitute Fantine, the amorality of the rogue Thénardier, and the universal desire to escape the prisons of our own minds. Les Misérables gave Victor Hugo a canvas upon which he portrayed his criticism of the French political and judicial systems, but the portrait that resulted is larger than life.

 

ADULT
 

Anna and the King of Siam
by Margaret Landon

Anna Leonowens, a proper Englishwoman, was an unlikley candidate to change the course of Siamese (Thai) history. A young widow and mother, her services were engaged in the 1860’s by King Mongkut of Siam to help him communicate with foreign governments and be the tutor to his children. Anna found herself in an exotic land she could have only dreamed of, and in a king’s palace bustling with royal pageantry, ancient custom, and harems. One of her pupils, the young prince Chulalongkorn, was particularly influenced by Leonowens and her Western ideals. He learned about Abraham Lincoln and the tenets of democracy.

 

ADULT
 

The Phantom of the Opera
by Gaston Leroux

The Phantom of the Opera is a riveting story that revolves around the young, Swedish Christine Daaé. Her father, a famous musician, dies, and she is raised in the Paris Opera House with his dying promise of a protective angel of music to guide her. After a time at the opera house, she begins hearing a voice, who eventually teaches her how to sing beautifully. All goes well until Christine’s childhood friend Raoul comes to visit. The voice, however grows jealous, then Christine suddenly disappears. The phantom is in love, but it can only spell disaster.

 

 

 

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