When fourteen-year-old Nicholas Dane’s mother dies, social services sends him to a home for boys where intimidation and violence keep order. After a number of fights and brutal punishments, Nick thinks that life can’t possibly get any worse . . . until he realizes that the home’s respected deputy head, who has been grooming him with sweets and solace, has something more frightening in mind. Acclaimed writer and truth-teller Melvin Burgess brings us, with Dickensian scope and compelling narrative drive, his most ambitious book yet.
Young Adult (ages 14-18)
Material appropriate for young adults
Revolver
A loaded gun, stolen gold, and a menacing stranger. A taut frontier survivor story, set at the time of the Alaska gold rush. In an isolated cabin, fourteen-year-old Sig is alone with a corpse: his father, who has fallen through the ice and frozen to death only hours earlier. Then comes a stranger claiming that Sig’s father owes him a share of a horde of stolen gold. Sig’s only protection is a loaded Colt revolver hidden in the cabin’s storeroom. The question is, will Sig use the gun, and why?
Sequins, Secrets, and Silver Linings
When they meet a Ugandan refugee girl who’s an amazing designer, three trendy London teens combine their talents to create some kind of wonderful. Nonie’s a freak for fashion. Bleeding-heart Edie wants to green the planet. And starter-starlet Jenny has just landed a small part in a big Hollywood blockbuster. But when these trendy London besties meet a Ugandan refugee girl named Crow, sketching a dress at the Victoria & Albert Museum, their worldview gets a makeover. As they learn about the serious situation in Crow’s homeland, they decide to pool their talents to call attention to the crisis. One of Crow’s designs on the red carpet at the Oscars and they come up with a chic way to raise awareness.
Rich and Mad
Seventeen-year-olds Maddy Fisher and Rich Ross yearn for love, and after their first attempts at relationships go awry, they find one another and form a deep bond that can only be expressed one way.
Candle Man, Book Two: The Society of Dread
Dr. Saint is no more, Lord Dove has disappeared, and the Dodo has slipped back into seclusion. But for Theo Wickland, descendent of the Victorian crime fighter of legend, The Candle Man, the adventure is just beginning. Now head of the Society of Good Works, Theo is determined to turn the activities of the order toward the betterment of humanity, starting with bringing the Network, the fascinating, secret underground maze of tunnels, back to its former glory. But dark forces still lurk below the London streets–mysterious–creatures, and enemies of the Candle Man, long thought dead. They continue to plot the downfall of the world. Old enemies become new allies as Theo cobbles together a group to stop the sinister plans of these evil beings before they prove deadly. It is up to the new Candle Man and his Society of Dread to snuff out these nefarious plans, before it’s too late.
The Dealer
CHERUB agents are highly trained, extremely talented–and all under the age of seventeen. For official purposes, these agents do not exist. They are sent out on missions to spy on terrorists, hack into crucial documents, and gather intel on global threats—all without gadgets or weapons. It is an extremely dangerous job, but these agents have one critical advantage: adults never suspect that teens are spying on them. In THE DEALER, James is on his most daring mission yet: to smack down the world’s most powerful drug lord. It means hitting the streets, where the dealers work.
Prisoners in the Palace
Recently orphaned and destitute, seventeen-year-old Liza Hastings earns a position as a lady’s maid to sixteen-year-old Princess Victoria at Kensington Palace in 1836, the year before Victoria becomes Queen of England.
The Faeman Quest
Stubborn and feisty Mella, the half-faeire half-human daughter of Lord Henry and Queen Holly Blue, has the power to determine the fate of both the faerie and “analogue world” when she travels to the country of Haleklind and discovers rebel forces preparing for war.
King of Ithaka
Telemachos has a comfortable life on his small island of Ithaka, where his mother Penelopeia keeps the peace even though the land has been without its king, his father Odysseus, since the Trojan War began many years ago. But now the people are demanding a new king, unless Telemachos can find Odysseus and bring him home. With only a mysterious prophecy to guide him, Telemachos sets off over sea and desert in search of the father he has never known.
Johnny, My Friend
Everything changes for Chris one August evening when red-haired, freckle-faced Johnny turns up on a bicycle, but who is Johnny and why do the police have his bicycle and other belongings?