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Pete plays bass in his high school band and lives a fairly uneventful life until he gets a chance to join the local garage band that’s just getting ready to hit the big time. As Pete explores rock stardom, he finds that he still pines for the girl back home despite the temptations of life on the road.

After battling deadly space piranhas in Sector 7 of the Cosmos, Rocket and Groot crash-land on a planet made entirely of strip malls! Sounds like paradise, right? Wrong. It doesn’t take long for Rocket to discover that the place is infested with raccoon-eating toilets! That’s right. KILLER toilets! Badly injured from the piranha fight, the totally-butt-kicking-duo have no ship, no guns, no money, no food, no water but they have each other. Oh, and Veronica, the totally awesome super-intelligent tape dispenser! (She told us to say that).

The fabulously inventive tale of Hamlet as told from the worm’s-eye view of the bewildered Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two minor characters in Shakespeare’s play. Echoes of Waiting for Godot resound, reality and illusion mix, and where fate leads heroes to a tragic but inevitable end.

Cap (short for Capricorn) Anderson is at a bit of a cultural disadvantage when he arrives at Claverage (aka C average) Middle School. He’s been raised, homeschooled, and protected by his grandmother Rain at an isolated and deserted 1960s farm commune. But when Rain is hospitalized, Cap is sent to live in civilization (with his social worker) and to public school. At school, his innocence exposed to all the corruption Rain has been protecting from, Cap’s flower power starts to blossom in others.

In the comics boom of the 1940s, a legend was born: the Green Turtle. He solved crimes and fought injustice just like the other comics characters. But this mysterious masked crusader was hiding something more than your run-of-the-mill secret identity… 

This comic had a short run before lapsing into obscurity, but Gene Luen Yang and Sonny Liew have revived this character in Shadow Hero, a new graphic novel that creates an origin story for the Green Turtle. This gorgeous, funny comics adventure for teens is a new spin on the long, rich tradition of American comics lore. 

Maya is a good student, and a good worker at her family’s restaurant. She’s so good at things she’s asked to tutor hot jock Camden and mind the restaurant while her family goes out of town. But one thing leads to another, and not in a good way, in this hilarious, quick read.

The cast of the Pastis syndicated comic strip, Pearls Before Swine, share adventures in this comic book collection of slightly irreverent, always funny strips.

Welcome to high school. Brace yourself for too much homework, too much attention from dangerous seniors, and no idea what your Spanish teacher is talking about. Or your math teacher, for that matter.

Vince’s family is wealthy, while his new girlfriend is solidly middle class. But the bigger problem is Vince’s father is a mob boss, and his girlfriend’s father works for the FBI. Filled with colorful characters, this book is perfect for reluctant readers.

Stanford flunks English and is forced to go to summer school instead of his beloved basketball camp. What makes it worse is Millicent Min, girl genius, is brought in to act as his tutor. This is a very funny book that will especially appeal to boys.

Nobody knows comics trivia like Stanley knows comics trivia. It’s what he takes comfort in when the world around him gets to be too much. And after he faints during a safety assembly, Stanley takes his love of comics up a level by inventing his own imaginary superhero, named John Lockdown, to help him through. Help is what he needs, because Stanley’s entered Trivia Quest — a giant comics-trivia treasure hunt — to prove he can tackle his worries, score VIP passes to Comic Fest, and win back his ex-best friend.

Meet the Hatchers through the voice of Peter, the oldest of son, tormented (as all siblings are) by his younger and perennially “cute” brother, Farley (better known as Fudge). Their life in an apartment in New York City sparkles with humor and plausible family scenes in this first of the stories of Peter, his family, and ultimately his neighbors.

After their home burns down, fourteen-year-old Nick, his younger brother, and their father move into a ramshackle Victorian house they’ve inherited. When Nick opens the door to his attic room, he’s hit in the head by a toaster. That’s just the beginning of his weird experiences with the old junk stored up there. After getting rid of the odd antiques in a garage sale, Nick befriends some local kids-Mitch, Caitlin, and Vincent-and they discover that all of the objects have extraordinary properties. What’s more, Nick figures out that the attic is a strange magnetic vortex, which attracts all sorts of trouble. It’s as if the attic itself has an intelligence… and a purpose.

When Junior gets a chance to leave the reservation school and attend a far-away white high school, he must deal with prejudice not only from his new schoolmates, but from those he left behind.

Alice was four when her mother died. Though her father and brother do what they can, it’s tough being the only girl in the family. But as Alice begins 6th grade, she learns that there’s more to a person than just good looks. Readers will appreciate Alice’s sturdy but unattractive teacher, Mrs. Plotkins, and grow to respect her as did Alice. Both poignant and funny, this first in the Alice series introduces a girl who grows up literally in each successive installment. As Alice grows, so does the sophistication of the issues with which she deals.

The history and more of a modern American classic by well-known historian of children’s literature publishing is just in time for its 50th anniversary (and the 50th Anniversary edition).

Twelve-year-old Rahul Kapoor, an Indian-American boy growing up in small-town Indiana, struggles to come to terms with his identity, including that he may be gay.

Melissa Fuller, a New York City gossip columnist, lives a life filled with shopping, man troubles, and frivolity. But when her elderly neighbor is attacked, Melissa assumes responsibility for the woman’s pets, with help from the neighbor’s playboy nephew. Or so she thinks. This novel is written entirely in emails.

Fifteen-year-old Ruby “Roo” Oliver is having a tough year at Tate Prep. Through a series of social debacles, she loses her best friends, her boyfriend, her dignity, and the respect of her fellow Taters in less than two weeks’ time. Following nearly half a dozen panic attacks, Roo starts to spend some quality time on Doctor Z.’s couch, where she makes a list of boyfriends past and present, official and unofficial, and starts on a journey of self-discovery. Ruby is a likable and empathetic character whose quirks and behaviors will strike a chord with many readers. [This is the first book in the Ruby Oliver quartet.] (School Library Journal)

Twelve—and only twelve—emerald-bedecked integers sleep somewhere in this nation’s soil. If you can find them, they’re yours to keep—and only this book can tell you where they are. 

This compilation of the worst-case scenario books that were a phenomenon in the late 90’s will be all new for today’s teens. Learn how to avoid an animal attack, or escape an avalanche — perfect for wanna-be Survivor contestants.

The Croc family is on a never-ending mission to eat Rat, Pig, Goat, and Zebra. Fans of graphic novels (or comic collections such as Calvin and Hobbes) and of the Timmy Failure series are sure to enjoy this collection.

Over the course of one summer, Frankie Landau-Banks, a somewhat geeky girl with an unassuming nature, has developed into a 15-year-old with an attention-grabbing figure, a new attitude, and sights set on making changes at her elite boarding school. The teenager also has a new boyfriend who belongs to a long-standing secret society on campus—The Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds, known mostly for silly pranks and a history of male-only membership. With a witty, sharp, and intelligently scheming mind, Frankie manipulates the Loyal Order to do her bidding with pranks meant to make a political statement about the male-dominated and classist nature of the school. (School Library Journal)

When her parents make the dangerous and illegal trek across the Mexican border in pursuit of the American dream, Reyna and her siblings are forced to live with their stern grandmother, as they wait for their parents to build the foundation of a new life.

But when things don’t go quite as planned, Reyna finds herself preparing for her own journey to “El Otro Lado” to live with the man who has haunted her imagination for years: her long-absent father. Both funny and heartbreaking, The Distance Between Us sheds light on the immigrant experience beautifully capturing the struggle that Reyna and her siblings endured while trying to assimilate to a different culture, language, and family life in El Otro Lado (The Other Side).