Intermediate (ages 9-14)

Material appropriate for intermediate age groups

The Fire Ascending

On Earth, at the battle of Scuffenbury Hill, time has been suspended. Dragons and their natural enemies, the Ix, are trapped in a bitter, unresolved conflict. But at the dawn of history, something is working to change the past — and the future. A mysterious force is rewriting the timelines, turning what was once legend into startling reality. But is David Rain strong enough to save himself and those he loves from being written into a deadly new destiny? David, Zanna, Lucy, Alexa, and the Pennykettle dragons return, along with some new friends and enemies, to embark on their most dangerous, most thrilling, and most magical adventure yet. Bridging the magic of the first five books with the world and characters introduced in FIRE WORLD, this fiery and action-packed final installment of the Last Dragon Chronicles will have readers racing to the exciting conclusion.

Dead Cat Bounce

Liar’s Poker meets The Fugitive in this financial thriller! Jonah Lightbody is twelve years old the first time he sets foot on the trading floor where his father works. He expects his day to be filled with computer games and some father-son bonding, but when a hotshot trader offers to take Jonah under his wing, Jonah is catapulted into a high-stakes, take-no-prisoners lifestyle. When Jonah’s father is accused of orchestrating a global financial meltdown, Jonah will have to choose who to believe–the father whose blood runs through his veins or the one who taught him how to be a man. Dead Cat Bounce is the mostly true story of the 2008 financial collapse–it’s about traders but it’s also about our collective race to uncover the truth, as told through the eyes of a sixteen-year-old boy.

Spiral

It’s a wild downward SPIRAL and everything’s spinning out of control in the fifth title in the New York Times Bestselling TUNNELS series!Just when you thought it couldn’t get any deeper, darker, or weirder…The Styx have surfaced. Dormant underground for more than a century, the evil, imperious race have crept out into the open through cracks in the earth. And they’re infesting England like a plague of black-clad cockroaches, prepared at last to expose a skin-crawling secret. A secret that’s got Will Burrows completely bugging out!Strapped into steel-toe boots and armed to the teeth with the ammo of a motley crew of weary renegades and cynical ex-soldiers, can he – blam blam splat! – squash the threat?

The Crimson Shard

During what seems like an ordinary museum visit, a tour guide lures Sunni and Blaise through a painted doorway-and they discover they’ve stepped into eighteenth-century London. When they realize their “tour guide” will do anything to get more information about what Sunni and Blaise know about magical paintings, they attempt to flee and encounter body snatchers, art thieves and forgers.

That Mad Game: Growing Up in a Warzone

What’s it like to grow up during war? To be a victim of violence or exiled from your homeland, culture, family, and even your own memories?

When America’s talking heads talk about war, children and teenagers are often the forgotten part of the story. Yet who can forget images of the Vietnam “baby lift,” when Amer-Asian children were flown out of Vietnam to be adopted by Americans? Who can forget the horror of learning that Iranian children were sent on suicide missions to clear landmines? Who wasn’t captivated by stories of the “lost boys” of Sudan, traveling thousands of miles alone through the desert, seeking shelter and safety? From the cartel-terrorized streets of Juárez to the bombed-out cities of Bosnia to Afghanistan under the Taliban, from Nazi-occupied Holland to the middle-class American home of a Vietnam vet, this collection of personal and narrative essays explores both the universal and particular experiences of children and teenagers who came of age during a time of war.

My Own Revolution

Fourteen-year-old Patrik rebels against the communist regime in small ways whenever he gets the chance: spray-painting slogans, listening to contraband Beatles records, even urinating on a statue of Lenin under cover of night. But anti-Party sentiment is risky, and when party interference cuts a little too close to home, Patrik and his family find themselves faced with a decision — and a grave secret — that will change everything. As the moments tick toward too late, Patrik takes his family’s fate in hand, risking everything for a chance at freedom. Examining the psychological toll of living under an authoritarian regime, Carolyn Marsden allows readers to experience both Patrik’s persistent worry and his hope for better things.

Island of Doom

Modo, the shape-shifting, masked spy, and fellow spy Octavia Milkweed learn that Modo’s biological parents are still alive but when the Clockwork Guild find Modo’s parents first, Octavia and Modo chase them across Europe and North America to the Island of Doom.

One Year in Coal Harbor

In a small fishing village in British Columbia, twelve-year-old Primrose tries to be a matchmaker for her Uncle Jack, befriends Ked, a new foster child, tries to decide if she is willing to go to jail for her convictions, and together with Ked, publishes a cook book to raise money for the Fisherman’s Aid. Includes recipes.

The Journey: Stories of Migration

Newbery Medalist Cynthia Rylant joins naturalist painter Lambert Davis to create a vibrant picture book that follow the migratory journeys of some magnificent creatures: locusts, gray whales, American silver eels, monarch butterflies, caribou, and terns. Rylant’s lively, poetic prose and Davis’ exquisite, dramatic paintings offer an awe-inspiring look at the animal world and the outstanding tests of endurance and strength that the animals have undergone for centuries, and which continue to cycle on and inspire us today.

Joan of Arc

A biography of the fifteenth-century peasant girl who led a French army to victory against the English and was burned at the stake for witchcraft.