Dusk is more than just a girl—her DNA was fused with hawk genes in a military experiment to make the best warriors, resulting in traits like night vision. After 13 years of being held captive in a government lab, she escapes and hides in an abandoned town. There she lives in an uneasy truce with the other subjects who fled the lab: a horde of killer mutant rats and a clan of vicious guard dogs. Then one day, a boy named Jay stumbles into town. Will Dusk follow her human instincts and save Jay? Or will the hawk in her see an easy prey? In vivid prose, Susan Gates conjures a tale of science gone wrong that seems eerily realistic. As Dusk and Jay dance around both the local predators and each other, readers will find deep sympathy in their situation, even as they race through the pages to see what happens next.
Age
Catalog sorted by age group
Stopping for a Spell
In three magical stories, Chair Person finds being a chair easier than being a person, Angus Flint is a visitor who refuses to leave, and four grannies come to care for Emily and Erg.
Ask Me No Questions
Nadira and her family are undocumented, fleeing to the Canadian border as they run from the country they thought was their home. For years since emigrating from Bangladesh, they have lived on expired visas in New York City, hoping they could someday realize their dream of becoming legal citizens. But after 9/11, everything changes. Suddenly, being Muslim means being dangerous, a suspected terrorist. And when Nadira’s father is arrested and detained at the border, Nadira and her older sister, Aisha, are sent back to Queens and told to carry on, as if everything is the same. Nadira and Aisha live in fear they’ll have to return to a Bangladesh they hardly know. Aisha, always the responsible one, falls apart. It’s up to Nadira to find a way to bring her family back together again. Critically acclaimed author Marina Budhos has written a searing portrait of contemporary America in the days of terrorism, orange alerts, and the Patriot Act, and a moving and important story about something most people take for granted — citizenship and acceptance in their country.
The Entomological Tales of Augustus T. Percival: Petronella Saves Nearly Everyone
You would think Petronella’s sixteenth birthday would be cause for celebration. After all, fashionable friends are arriving at her country estate near London, teas are being served, and her coming out party promises to be a resplendent affair. Everything is falling nicely into place, until, suddenly—it isn’t. For Petronella discovers that her guardian, Uncle Augustus T. Percival, has developed a most unVictorian compulsion: He must eat bugs. Worse still, because he is her guardian, Uncle Augustus is to attend her soiree and his current state will most definitely be an embarrassment. During the festivities, when Petronella would much rather be sharing pleasantries with handsome Lord James Sinclair (swoon), important guests are disappearing, kidnapping notes are appearing, many of the clues are insects, and Uncle Augustus is surreptitiously devouring evidence. It’s more than one sixteen-year-old girl should have to deal with. But, truth be told, there is far more yet to come . . .
The White Witch
Accused of witchcraft, threatened by the Plague. The Great Plague has come to England, and no one is safe, least of all Gwendoline Riston. With fair skin and hair and a way with plants and animals, the villagers are calling her a witch and blaming her for the disease. A story of survival and self-discovery, this is historical fiction with a bit of suspense and even romance mixed in and is sure to captivate today’s reader.
My Brother
A child describes the many wonderful things about “my brother,” who can fly, write amazing stories, and stand up to bullies.
The Second Life Of Linus Hoppe
After intentionally getting himself expelled from Realm One, Linus Hoppe believed he would experience more of real life. But life in inferior Realm Two is a nightmare. For months Linus has been imprisoned in a factory, where he toils on an assembly line. At night, he’s so tired that he no longer dreams of a future, of the destiny he wanted to create for himself. As for his family and friends, he fears he’ll never see them again. He especially misses Chem and Yosh, his co-conspirators in fooling the Great Processor. What made them think they could change society’s rigid hierarchy? Ready to give up, Linus must somehow regain hope and the will to fight for his freedom.
The Onlyhouse (Northern Lights Young Novels)
Red Cedar Award nominee, 1997 Life in her new neighborhood isn’t going to be easy for Croatian immigrant Lucy Vakovik. Her mother has saved enough to buy them an onlyhouse: a single detached home. But to Lucy’s friends, her mother says, “My sometime English is broking.” What’s a kid to do? Lucy’s got a fight ahead of her and important choices to make. But she knows she’s not a stereotype like some people think – she’s Lucy and that’s a good place to start.
Eva
After a terrible accident, a young girl wakes up to discover that she has been given the body of a chimpanzee.
The Bomb
It is 1946, a year after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and World War II is over. But the U.S. government has decided that further tests of atomic bombs must be conducted. Bikini Atoll is chosen for the testing site, so the people who have lived there for generations must be relocated for two years. Sixteen-year-old Sorry Rinamu believes the Americans are lying and that it will never be safe for his people to return. He must find a way to stop the first bomb before it is dropped . . . even if that means risking his own destruction. This chilling novel is based on the true story of atomic weapons testing at Bikini Atoll in the western Pacific Ocean. “A haunting, soundly researched work.”–Publishers Weekly