The Seer of Shadows

 

by AVI

Newbery Medalist Avi weaves one of his most suspenseful and scary tales—about a ghost who has to be seen to be believed and must be kept from carrying out a horrifying revenge.

The time is 1872. The place is New York City. Horace Carpetine has been raised to believe in science and rationality. So as apprentice to Enoch Middleditch, a society photographer, he thinks of his trade as a scientific art. But when wealthy society matron Mrs. Frederick Von Macht orders a photographic portrait, strange things begin to happen.

Horace’s first real photographs reveal a frightful likeness: it’s the image of the Von Machts’ dead daughter, Eleanora.

Pegg, the Von Machts’ black servant girl, then leads him to the truth about who Eleanora really was and how she actually died. Joined in friendship, Pegg and Horace soon realize that his photographs are evoking both Eleanora’s image and her ghost. Eleanora returns, a vengeful wraith intent on punishing those who abused her.

Rich in detail, full of the magic of early photography, here is a story about the shadows, visible and invisible, that are always lurking near.

Fall 09 Booklist

The Hunt for the Seventh

 

by Christine Morton-Shaw

A haunted mansion.
Six dead children.
A garden of statues.

With every step he takes around the carefully manicured grounds of Minerva Hall, Jim is haunted by the ghosts of children, long dead, whom no one else can see.

Urging him to “find the Seventh,” the children leave him cryptic clues pointing to a devastating ancient prophecy that only he can stop from being fulfilled.

Jim befriends another boy – Einstein, who lives at the Hall. Einstein is autistic and very, very smart. If anyone can help Jim find the Seventh, perhaps he can – Einstein clearly knows more than he is saying. At the same time, the dead children seem to be leaving Jim some sort of macabre treasure trail.

If Jim doesn’t figure out the clues, innocent people will die. But how can Jim find the answers while the dangers of the Hall grow ever more threatening? And even if he can, the real question is – is Jim already too late?

Linking ancient rites with modern mystery, Christine Morton-Shaw has crafted an eerie thriller that will keep readers guessing until its startling conclusion.

Fall 09 Booklist

More Bones

by Arielle North Olson, Howard Schwartz ,  and E M Gist (Illustrator)

Ready for scary?!

” Shhh! “Have you heard about the man who marries . . . a corpse?! Or what about the magic school where one student in every class is never allowed to leave? Or the beautiful red-haired maiden whose hair is actually serpents? Many of these tales go back hundreds of years and to the farthest corners of the earth, but as diverse as they are, they also reveal one important truth: everyone loves a scary story. The authors have dug deeplyafrom Egypt to Icelandato find the spookiest stories for “More Bones.” Listen! Can you hear the bones beginning to rattle?

Fall 09 Booklist

Smiles to Go

 

by Jerry Spinelli

 The author of the Newbery Medal-winning “Maniac Magee” introduces Will Tuppence, a young man whose world is suddenly tipped on its side. Will soon begins to see that the beauty and wonder of life’s journey is in “not” knowing what comes next.

 

Fall 09 Booklist

My Life, in Pink and Green

 

by Lisa Greenwald

Twelve-year-old Lucy Desberg is a natural problem solver. After the local homecoming queen shows up at her family’s struggling drugstore with a beauty disaster that Lucy helps to fix, Lucy has a long line of makeover customers for every school dance and bat mitzvah. But all the makeup tips in the world won’t help save the pharmacy. If only she could find a way to make the pharmacy the center of town again—a place where people want to spend time, like in the old days. Lucy dreams up a solution that could resuscitate the family business and help the environment, too. But will Lucy’s family stop fighting long enough to listen to a seventh-grader?

This book is a funny and sweet debut featuring an unforgettable narrator who knows what she wants, whether it’s great makeup, a killer business plan, or a better world.

Fall 09 Booklist

The Cupcake Queen

by Heather Hepler

A confection of a novel, combining big city sophistication with small town charm. When her mother moves them from the city to a small town to open up a cupcake bakery, Penny’s life isn’t what she expected. Her father has stayed behind, and Mom isn’t talking about what the future holds for their family. And then there’s Charity, the girl who plays mean pranks almost daily. There are also bright spots in Hog’s Hollow—like Tally, an expert in Rock Paper Scissors, and Marcus, the boy who is always running on the beach. But just when it looks as though Penny is settling in, her parents ask her to make a choice that will turn everything upside down again. A sweet novel about love, creativity, and accepting life’s unexpected turns.

Fall 09 Booklist

Night of the Howling Dogs

 

by Graham Salisbury

DYLAN’S SCOUT TROOP goes camping in Halape, a remote spot below the volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii. The only thing wrong with the weekend on a beautiful, peaceful beach is Louie, a tough older boy. Louie and Dylan just can’t get along.

That night an earthquake rocks the camp, and then a wave rushes in, sweeping everyone and everything before it. Dylan and Louie must team up on a dangerous rescue mission. The next hours are an amazing story of survival and the true meaning of leadership.

Fall 09 Booklist

Seekers #3: Smoke Mountain

 

 

by Erin Hunter

The Last Great Wilderness . . .

There is a place where bears can live in peace, where there is sea-ice all year, where the forests are full of prey, where flat-faces never go. Polar bears Kallik and Taqqiq, black bear Lusa, grizzly Toklo, and the shape-shifting Ujurak believe that this fabled bear paradise must be the destination of their quest. But the path they follow is dangerous.

The burning Smoke Mountains are more treacherous than anything the bears have faced before, and tensions run high as they encounter obstacle after obstacle. A rushing river and hostile flat-faces separate them from their goal, and a bear is pushed to the brink of death. Signs and omens point in different directions, and the bears, though traveling together, must each follow his or her own star . . . causing one bear to leave the group forever.

But as the others travel on, they soon learn that it will take all their strength and determination to reach their destination. And, if they reach it at last, they may learn that what they thought was their quest’s end is in fact a new beginning. . . .

Fall 09 Booklist

Tentacles

 

 

 

by Roland Smith

Marty and Grace O’Hara’s globe-trotting parents disappeared while on assignment for a nature magazine, and now they’re living with their Uncle Wolfe, a scientist fascinated by cryptids–creatures that appear in myths but haven’t been proven to exist, such as the Loch Ness Monster. Wolfe is planning an expedition to New Zealand to track a giant squid, and he’s rented a huge (and possibly haunted) freighter for the trip. But someone on board is determined to sabotage their mission–and if Marty and Grace keeping poking their noses into things, they might end up the saboteur’s next victims!

Fall 09 Booklist

 

Distant Waves: A Novel of the Titanic

by Suzanne Weyn

Science, spiritualism, history, and romance intertwine in Suzanne Weyn’s newest novel.

Four sisters and their mother make their way from a spiritualist town in New York to London, becoming acquainted with journalist W. T. Stead, scientist Nikola Tesla, and industrialist John Jacob Astor.

When they all find themselves on the Titanic, one of Tesla’s inventions dooms them…and one could save them.

Fall 09 Booklist