Queen of Second Place

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The Queen of Second Place
by Laura Peyton Roberts

Cassie Howard believes everyone has a talent. Unfortunately, hers is taking second place. No matter how hard she tries, she's always second best . . . in school, in life, and especially in love. When Cassie discovers new-boy-in-town Kevin Matthews she wants him on sight. But so does conniving Sterling Carter, a ridiculously beautiful preppy princess and Cassie's enemy since freshman year. Sterling is the kind of girl who always gets it all, and Cassie . . . isn't. Is there any point even trying when the first fifteen years of Cassie's life have proven she's doomed to fail? Can the Queen of Second Place ever truly win?

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With new-found determination and the support of friends whose not-so-glorious talents range from parking cars to whistling, Cassie sets out to capture Kevin’s heart and make herself first at last.



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880L High School 336 Romance 2006 0440238714

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Twilight

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Twilight
by Stephanie Meyer

Isabella Swan’s move to Forks, a small, perpetually rainy town in Washington, could have been the most boring move she ever made. But once she meets the mysterious and alluring Edward Cullen, Isabella’s life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn. Up until now, Edward has managed to keep his vampire identity a secret in the small community he lives in, but now nobody is safe, especially Isabella, the person Edward holds most dear. The lovers find themselves balanced precariously on the point of a knife–between desire and danger.


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720 High School 544 Fantasy 2006 0316015849

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Picture Perfect

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Picture Perfect
by Elaine Marie Alphin

Ian Slater’s best friend has vanished. Ian and Teddy were supposed to spend the afternoon photographing the redwoods, but Teddy never showed up. People might go missing in a big city like San Francisco, but not a little town like Sawville. Has Teddy gone in search of the father he’s never met? Or has something terrible happened to him? What is the truth behind the picture perfect image?

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Ian doesn’t know. But he’s suddenly hearing strange voices, and he keeps seeing Teddy in his dreams. Even more disturbing – he can’t quite remember everything he did on the day Teddy vanished. Now people are telling him he’s acting strangely, and the sheriff is questioning him. Ian is determined to prove – to the sheriff and to his teachers and classmates, as well as to himself -that he has nothing to hide. But the more he searches for clues to Teddy’s disappearance, the more he wonders: How well did he ever know Teddy? How well does he even know himself?

Growing up in California, I always admired the majestic redwoods. When I had the opportunity to return there for a speaking engagement, I explored them again with a friend, and thought how deceptive, and threatening, the shadowy, towering redwoods could become – and how difficult it was to capture the truth about them in a photograph. I thought how easy it would be to disappear into the mist, and how easy it was for truth to disappear into an image, and Ian and Teddy were born.


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800 Middle School 244 Drama 2003 0822505355

pictureperfect

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Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment

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Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment
by James Patterson

Fang, Iggy, Nudge, the Gasman, Angel, and Maximum: Six kids who are pretty normal in most ways-except that they’re 98% human, 2% bird. They grew up in cages, living like rats, but now they’re free. Riding the wind, their wings are an amazing gift….and yet, their world can morph into a nightmare in a single instant.

For when the bloodthirsty Erasers-half men, half wolves genetically engineered by sick and sinister scientists-kidnap little Angel, the Flock embarks on a rescue mission that will change them forever


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700L Middle School 422 Science Fiction 2003 031615556X

Maximum ride: The Angel Experiment

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We Beat the Street: How a Friendship Led to Success

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We Beat the Street: How a Friendship Led to Success
by Sampson Davis

Sampson, George, and Rameck could easily have followed their childhood friends into drug dealing, gangs, and prison. Like their peers, they came from poor, single-parent homes in urban neighborhoods where survival, not scholastic success, was the priority. When the three boys met in a magnet high school in Newark, they recognized each other as kindred spirits who wanted to overcome the incredible odds against them and reach for opportunity.

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They made a friendship pact, deciding together to take on the biggest challenge of their lives: attending college and then medical school. Along the way they made mistakes and faced disappointments, but by working hard, finding the right mentors, separating themselves from negative influences, and supporting each other, they achieved their goals-and more.


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860L High School 183 Drama 2003 0399239901

we beat the street

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Fat Kid Rules the World

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Fat Kids Rules the World
by K.L. Going

Troy Billings is seventeen, 296 pounds, friendless, utterly miserable, and about to step off a New York subway platform in front of an oncoming train. Until he meets Curt MacCrae, an emaciated, semi-homeless, high school dropout guitar genius, the stuff of which Lower East Side punk rock legends are made. Never mind that Troy’s dad thinks Curt’s a drug addict and Troy’s brother thinks Troy’s the biggest (literally) loser in Manhattan.

Soon, Curt’s recruited Troy as his new drummer-even though Troy can’t play the drums. Together, Curt and Troy will change the world of punk, and Troy’s own life, forever.


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700L Middle School 183 Realistic Fiction 2003 0399239901

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House of the Scorpion

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The House of the Scorpion
by Nancy Farmer

Fields of white opium poppies stretch away over the hills, and uniformed workers bend over the rows, harvesting the juice. This is the empire of Matteo Alacran, a feudal drug lord in the country of Opium, which lies between the United States and Aztlan, formerly Mexico. Field work, or any menial tasks, are done by “eejits,” humans in whose brains computer chips have been installed to insure docility. Alacran, or El Patron, has lived 140 years with the help of transplants from a series of clones, a common practice among rich men in this world.

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The intelligence of clones is usually destroyed at birth, but Matt, the latest of Alacran’s doubles, has been spared because he belongs to El Patron. He grows up in the family’s mansion, alternately caged and despised as an animal and pampered and educated as El Patron’s favorite. Gradually he realizes the fate that is in store for him, and with the help of Tam Lin, his bluff and kind Scottish bodyguard, he escapes to Aztlan. There he and other “lost children” are trapped in a more subtle kind of slavery before Matt can return to Opium to take his rightful place and transform his country.


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660L Middle School 380 Adventure 2002 0689852223

house of the scorpion

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City of Beasts

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City of Beasts
by Isabel Allende

Fifteen-year-old Alexander Cold is about to join his fearless grandmother on the trip of a lifetime. An International Geographic expedition is headed to the dangerous, remote wilds of South America, on a mission to document the legendary Yeti of the Amazon known as the Beast.

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But there are many secrets hidden in the unexplored wilderness, as Alex and his new friend Nadia soon discover. Drawing on the strength of their spirit guides, both young people are led on a thrilling and unforgettable journey to the ultimate discovery.


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1030L High School 406 Fantasy 202 006050918X

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Night

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Night
by Ellie Wiesel

Born in the town of Sighet, Transylvania, Elie Wiesel was a teenager when he and his family were taken from their home in 1944 to the Auschwitz concentration camp, and then to Buchenwald. Night is the terrifying record of Elie Wiesel’s memories of the death of his family, the death of his own innocence, and his despair as a deeply observant Jew confronting the absolute evil of man.e, a decision that will tear her family apart and have perhaps fatal consequences for the sister she loves.


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590L High School 109 Historical Fiction 1960 0553272535

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My Sister’s Keeper

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My Sister’s Keeper
by Jodi Picoult

Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age thirteen, she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, and shots so that her older sister, Kate, can somehow fight the leukemia that has plagued her since childhood. The product of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, Anna was conceived as a bone marrow match for Kate — a life and a role that she has never challenged…until now.

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Like most teenagers, Anna is beginning to question who she truly is. But unlike most teenagers, she has always been defined in terms of her sister — and so Anna makes a decision that for most would be unthinkable, a decision that will tear her family apart and have perhaps fatal consequences for the sister she loves.


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840L High School 423 Realistic Fiction 2004 0743454529

My Sisters Keeper

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