New Picture Books

Brother Hugo and the Bear - Katy Beebe
After painstakingly handcrafting a replacement copy of a library book, a medieval monk tries to protect it from a hungry bear with a taste for literature. Includes historical note on illuminated manuscripts.

Tippy-Tippy-Tippy Splash! - Candace Fleming
Fed up with the constant presence of rabbits in his house and yard, Mr. McGreely goes to the beach for some fun but the pesky pufftails will not give him a break.


My Father's Arms are a Boat - Stein Erik Lunde
Unable to sleep, a young boy climbs into his father's arms and asks about birds, foxes, and whether his mother will ever awaken, then under a starry sky, the father provides clear answers and assurances. A 2014 Batchelder Honor Book.

The Bathing Costume, or, The Worst Vacation of My Life - Charlotte Moundlic
On his first vacation without his parents, eight-year-old Myron faces a scary grandfather, teasing older cousins, his first dive off the ten-foot board, and his grandmother's encouragement to write his mother daily, telling her of his adventures. A 2014 Batchelder Honor Book.

The Streak: How Joe DiMaggio Became America's Hero - Barb Rosenstock
In the summer of 1941, Yankee center fielder Joe DiMaggio and his favorite bat, Betsy Ann, begin the longest hitting streak in baseball history. But when Betsy Ann goes missing, will DiMaggio keep hitting? Set on the brink of World War II, this is a spellbinding account of a sports story that united the country and made DiMaggio a hero, at a time when one was profoundly needed.

A Pond Full of Ink - Annie M.G. Schmidt
This delightfully humorous collection of poems offers children and the young at heart a refreshing, inventive look at the world from the well-known Dutch author, Annie Schmidt. Ordinary events and places become extraordinary adventures full of imagination.

Mice Mischief: Math Facts in Action - Caroline Stills
Ten mice wake and get their home ready for the circus. As they clean and play, these colorful and acrobatic creatures demonstrate how the numbers from 1 to 9 can add up to 10.

Mama Built a Little Nest - Jennifer Ward
Illustrations and simple, rhyming text introduce different kinds of birds' nests, from the scrapes falcons build on high, craggy ledges to the underground nests burrowing owls dig. Includes brief facts about each kind of bird.

Nonfiction

Maps and Geography - Ken Jennings
Offers facts about the highest landmarks and mountains, the deepest depth of the seas, what countries are shaped like food, ocean inhabitants, and capital location changes.

Legends, Icons & Rebels: Music That Changed the World - Robbie Robertson, Jim
Guerinot, Sebastian Robertson and Jared Levine
A tribute to more than two dozen legendary music artists who significantly influenced the landscape of music for generations to come, from Ray Charles and Bob Dylan to Chuck Berry and Johnny Cash.

The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights - Steve Sheinkin
Presents an account of the 1944 civil rights protest involving hundreds of African-American Navy servicemen who were unjustly charged with mutiny for refusing to work in unsafe conditions after the deadly Port Chicago explosion.

Audiobooks

Courage Has No Color: The True Story of the Triple Nickles: America's First Black Paratroopers
Tanya Lee Stone examines the role of African Americans in the military through the lens of the untold story of the Triple Nickles as they became America's first black paratroopers and fought a little-known World War II attack on the American West by the Japanese.

Matilda - Roald Dahl
Matilda is an exceptional five-year-old who's a whiz at reading and multiplication. However, her life is far from perfect. She has two of the most idiotic, self-centered parents who ever lived. Matilda uses her intelligence to get revenge on her father, but her skills are put to the test by her horrible nightmare of a principle, Mrs. Trunchbull.

Wonder
Auggie Pullman was born with a facial deformity that prevented him from going to a mainstream school, until now. He's about to start 5th grade at Beecher Prep, and is nervous about being the new kid at school. The thing is Auggie's just an ordinary kid, with an extraordinary face. But can he convince his new classmates that he's just like them, despite appearances?

New Picture Books

Knock Knock: My Dad's Dream for Me - Daniel Beaty
A boy wakes up one morning to find his father gone. At first, he feels lost. But his father has left him a letter filled with advice to guide him through the times he cannot be there.

Wild About Bears - Jeannie Brett
Takes a look at the common physical traits, behaviors, habits and habitats of the world's eight bear species.

Penguin in Peril - Helen Hancocks
With bare cupboards and hungry bellies, three cats steal a penguin to catch them fish. A hilarious sequence of events unfolds as the penguin makes his escape, gets mistaken for a nun and a waiter, then finds his way safely home. Meanwhile, the cats are caught for their crime and sent to jail — for a lifetime of gruel.

Shoe Dog - Megan McDonald
In order to stay in the warm and cozy home he has longed for, Shoe Dog must learn to stop chewing shoes.


At the Same Moment Around the World - Clotilde Perrin
Starting from the Greenwich meridian this book takes the reader east imagining what children are doing at that moment in each of the twenty-four time zones.

The Man with the Violin - Kathy Stinson
When Dylan hears someone playing their violin in the subway he wants to stop and listen, but his mother and other commuters ignore the violinist completely. It also includes a brief biography of Joshua Bell.

New YA Fiction

Charm & Strange - Stephanie Kuehn
A lonely teenager exiled to a remote Vermont boarding school in the wake of a family tragedy must either surrender his sanity to the wild wolves inside his mind or learn that surviving means more than not dying. Winner of the 2014 William C. Morris Debut Award.

Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass - Meg Medina
One morning before school, some girl tells Piddy Sanchez that Yaqui Delgado hates her and wants to beat her up. Piddy doesn't even know who Yaqui is, never mind what she's done to make her mad. Word is that Yaqui thinks Piddy is stuck-up, shakes her stuff when she walks, and isn't Latin enough with her white skin, good grades, and no accent. And Yaqui isn't kidding around, so Piddy better watch her back. At first Piddy is more concerned with trying to find out more about the father she's never met and how to balance honors courses with her weekend job at the neighborhood hair salon. But as the harassment escalates, avoiding Yaqui and her gang starts to take over Piddy's life. Is there any way for Piddy to survive without closing herself off or running away?" -- (from publisher's web site ). Winner of the 2014 Pura-Belpre Author Award.

Fangirl - Rainbow Rowell
Being consummate fans of the Simon Snow series helped Cath and her twin sister, Wren, cope as little girls whose mother left them, but now, as they start college but not as roommates, Cath fears she is unready to live without Wren holding her hand--and without her passion for Snow.


Midwinter Blood - Marcus Sedgwick
Seven linked vignettes unfold on a Scandinavian island inhabited--throughout various time periods--by Vikings, vampires, ghosts, and a curiously powerful plant. Winner of the 2014 Michael L. Printz Award.

Middle Grade Fiction

The Finisher - David Baldacci
Vega Jane has never left the village of Wormwood. But this isn't unusual, nobody has ever left the village of Wormwood. At least not until Quentin Herms vanishes into the unknown. Vega knows Quentin didn't just leave, but that he was chased. And he's left behind a very dangerous trail of clues that only she can decode. The Quag is a dark forest filled with terrifying beasts and bloodthirsty Outliers. But just as deadly are the threats that exist within the walls of Wormwood. It is a place built on lies, where influential people are willing to kill to keep their secrets. Vega is determined to uncover the truth. But the closer she gets, the more she risks her life.


The Eternity Code (Artemis Fowl series) - Eoin Colfer
After Artemis uses stolen fairy technology to create a powerful microcomputer and it is snatched by a dangerous American businessman, Artemis, Juliet, Mulch, and the fairies join forces to try to retrieve it.

The Opal Deception (Artemis Fowl series) - Eoin Colfer
While preparing to steal a famous Impressionist painting from a German bank, Artemis
Fowl has no idea that Opal Koboi has escaped from jail, leaving only Captain Holly Short of the LEPrecon fairy police to save Artemis before Opal seeks revenge on him.


Africa is My Home: A Child of the Amistad - Monica Edinger
Presents a tale of a child who arrives in America on the slave ship Amistad describing her capture, her witness to a mutiny, and the Supreme Court trial that prompts her return to Africa.

Mister Orange - Truus Matti
When Linus Muller takes over making deliveries for his family's Manhattan grocery store in 1943, including bringing a crate of oranges every other week to an artist from Europe, the two become friends as they discuss war, the future, freedom, and imagination.


Sky Raiders - Brandon Mull
Whisked through a portal to The Outskirts, an in-between world, sixth-grader Cole must rescue his friends and find his way back home--before his existence is forgotten.

Hollow City - Ransom Riggs
Having escaped Miss Peregrine's island by the skin of their teeth, Jacob and his new friends must journey to London (circa 1940), the "peculiar" capital of the world.



A Less Than Perfect Peace - Jacqueline Levering Sullivan
Fourteen-year-old Annie Howard is determined to help her father embrace life once again as the Cold War grips the nation. In the midst of her efforts, she meets and befriends two refugees from Holland, and comes to see the world differently and understand a bit about the nature of sacrifice.

The Ghosts of Tupelo Landing - Sheila Turnage
When Miss Lana accidentally buys a haunted inn at the Tupelo Landing town auction, Desperado Detectives--aka Mo LoBeau and her best friend Dale--opens up a paranormal division to solve the ghost's identity before the town's big 250th anniversary bash.

Elementary Fiction

Twistrose Key - Tone Almhjell
After a mysterious key arrives for her, eleven-year-old Lin Rosenquist finds a crack in the cellar, a gate to the world of Sylver. This frozen realm is the home of every dead animal that ever loved a child. Lin is reunited with Rufus, the pet she buried under the rosebush and together they must find the missing Winter Prince in order to save Sylver from destruction.

The Cats of Tanglewood Forest - Charles De Lint
Twelve-year-old Lillian, an orphan who loves roaming the woods looking for fairies when her chores are done, is bitten by a deadly snake and saved through the magical forest creatures in this expansion on the author's and illustrator's previous work, A circle of cats.


Words with Wings - Nikki Grimes
Gabby daydreams to tune out her parents' arguments, but when her parents divorce and she begins a new school, daydreaming gets her into trouble. Her mother scolds her for it, her teacher keeps telling her to pay attention, and the other kids tease her...until she finds a friend who also daydreams and her teacher decides to work a daydreaming-writing session into every school day. With a notebook "thick with daydreams," Gabby grows more confident about herself and her future. This verse novel poignantly celebrates the power of writing and the inspiration a good teacher can deliver.

Handbook for Dragon Slayers - Merrie Haskell
Thirteen-year-old Princess Matilda, whose lame foot brings fear of the evil eye, has never given much thought to dragons, attending instead to her endless duties and wishing herself free of her royal responsibilities. When a greedy cousin steals Tilda's lands, the young princess goes on the run with two would-be dragon slayers. Before long she is facing down the Wild Hunt, befriending magical horses, and battling flame-spouting dragons. On the adventure of a lifetime, and caught between dreams of freedom and the people who need her, Tilda learns more about dragons -- and herself -- than she ever imagined.

The Adventures of a South Pole Pig: A Novel of Snow and Courage - Christ Kurtz
Flora the pig ditches the sedentary life on the farm for an adventure in Antarctica, where she escapes the knife and lives her dream of pulling a sled with a team of dogs.

A Snicker of Magic - Natalie Lloyd
The Pickles are new to Midnight Gulch, Tennessee, a town which legend says was once magic--but Felicity is convinced the magic is still there, and with the help of her new friend Jonah the Beedle she hopes to bring the magic back.

Graphic Novels

Amulet Book One: The Stone Keeper - Kazu Kibuishi
After moving to their ancestral home, Emily and Navin's mother is kidnapped by a tentacled creature in the basement that leads the children on a deadly chase into the magical world below their home.


Amulet Book Two: The Stonekeeper's Curse - Kazu Kibuishi
Emily and her brother Navin head for Kanalis to find an antidote for the poison that is killing their mother.



Amulet Book Three: The Cloud Searchers - Kazu Kibuishi
Emily, Navin and their crew of resistance fighters charter an airship and set off in search of the lost city of Cielis. there they hope to find held from the Guardian Council's powerful Stonekeepers. It's a mission that Alledia's survival depends on, and time is running out -- Emily's got to find Cielis before the Elf King finds her.


A Wrinkle in Time: The Graphic Novel - Adapted by Hope Larson
A graphic novel adaptation of the classic tale in which Meg Murry and her friends become involved with unearthly strangers and a search for Meg's father, who has disappeared while engaged in secret work for the government.


Aphrodite: Goddess of Love - George O'Connor
From the moment she emerged, fully grown, from the head of Zeus, Athena was one of the most complex Olympians. This graphic novel retells her many interwoven tales: how she killed Pallas, fought the Gigantes, aided Perseus, and cursed Arachne.

The Sea of Monsters - adapted by Robert Venditti
After discovering a secret that makes him question the honor of being the son of Poseidon, demi-god Percy Jackson journeys into the Sea of Monsters in an attempt to save Camp Half-Blood.


The Titan's Curse - adapted by Robert Venditti
When the goddess Artemis disappears while hunting a rare, ancient monster, a group of her followers joins Percy and his friends in an attempt to find and rescue her before the winter solstice, when her influence is needed to sway the Olympian Council regarding the war with the Titans.

Picture Books

Cat Says Meow and Other Animalopoeia - Michael Arndt
Animals and the sounds they make are paired up in this colorful picture book.

The Soccer Fence: A Story of Friendship, Hope and Apartheid in South Africa -
Phil Bildner
Each time Hector watches white boys playing soccer in Johannesburg, South Africa, he dreams of playing on a real pitch one day. After the fall of apartheid, when he sees the 1996 African Cup of Nations team, he knows that his dream can come true.

Maisy's First Numbers - Lucy Cousins
Helps readers practice early number skills by counting three fluttering butterflies, four swimming fish, and five snails in the rain.

Maria Had a Little Llama - Angela Dominguez
In this bilingual version of the classic rhyme, set in Peru, Maria takes her llama to school one day.


Have You Heard the Nesting Bird? - Rita Gray
In this nonfiction picture book for young readers, we learn just why the mother nesting bird stays quiet and still while sitting on her eggs.

Say Hello Like This! - Mary Murphy
This lively split-page-format book shows how animals say hello with different sounds.


Ball - Mary Sullivan
While searching for someone to play ball with him, a dog dreams of fantastical adventures he could have with his ball.


Stone Giant: Michelangelo's David and How He Came to Be - Jane Sutcliffe
There was a giant in the city, and it was a troublemaker. The enormous block of marble had irked the people of Florence for almost forty years. No one knew what to do with it until a young artist named Michelangelo came along.


The Big Book of Slumber - Giovanna Zoboli & Simona Mulazzani
All creatures of the world find time to rest. In this lullaby book, countless cozy animals settle down in their beds.