Arrival by Chris Morphew
Location: online (view by clicking on the above image) or TFTH (Thriller) MOR
Luke is having a rough year. When his parents split up, his mum drags him to Phoenix, a brand-new town in the middle of nowhere.
But Phoenix is no ordinary town. There are no cars, no phones and no internet. Luke thinks this is as weird as it gets.
Then he discovers that someone is plotting to wipe out the human race. Phoenix is suddenly the safest and most dangerous place on earth.
And the clock is already ticking.
There are 100 days until the end of the world.
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
Inventor Leviticus Blue creates a machine that accidentally destroys part of downtown Seattle and uncovers a vein of Blight Gas that turns everyone who breathes it into the living dead. Sixteen years later Briar, Blue's widow, lives in the poor neighbourhood outside the wall that's been built around the uninhabitable city. Life is tough with a ruined reputation, but she and her teenage son Ezekiel are surviving - until Zeke decides that he must reclaim his father's name from the clutches of history.
The carbon diaries 2015 by Saci Lloyd.
It's 2015 and the UK is the first nation to introduce carbon dioxide rations, in a drastic bid to cut greenhouse gas emissions. As her family spirals rapidly out of control Laura Brown chronicles the first year of rationing with scathing abandon.
Cold Hands, Warm Heart by Jill Wolfson
Location: online (view by clicking the image above) or TFSO (Social Issues) WOL
Dani was born with her heart on the wrong side of her body. In her fifteen years of life, she's had more doctor's appointments, X-rays, and tests, and eaten more green hospital Jell-O than she cares to think about. Fourteen-year-old Amanda is a competitive gymnast, her body a small package of sleek muscles, in perfect health. The two girls don't know each other, don't go to the same school, don't have any friends in common. But their lives are about to collide.
Game theory by Barry Jonsberg
Game theory has brought me to this point and I must follow where it leads. Even though this is not a game...Jamie is a sixteen-year-old maths whiz. Summerlee, his older sister, is in the grip of a wild phase. Tensions at home run high...When Summerlee wins a 7.5-million-dollar lottery, she cuts all ties with her family. But money can cause trouble - big trouble. And when Jamie's younger sister Phoebe is kidnapped for a ransom, the family faces a crisis almost too painful to bear...Jamie thinks he can use game theory - the strategy of predicting an opponent's actions - to get Phoebe back. But can he outfox the kidnapper? Or is he putting his own and his sister's life at risk?
Gold of the gods by Bear Grylls
Beck Granger is on a trip to Colombia. His anthropologist uncle has taken him along on a visit to Don Rafael de Castillo, a descendent of a great explorer who claimed to have discovered a lost city of gold. But the secret of the city died with the explorer . . . until now. Beck’s uncle and Don Rafael believe they know where to find the city, but before they find it, they are both kidnapped. With Marco and Christina—the Don's children—Beck must set off into the wilds of Colombia to find the city and bring his uncle back. Along the way he must build a raft, negotiate wild river rapids, make camp, defend his friends from wild animals, and keep them all alive in the jungle. This fast-paced, exciting adventure is also full of real survival details and tips.
I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore
Location: online (view by click the above image) or TFSF (Science Fiction) LOR
Nine of us came here. We look like you. We talk like you. We live among you. But we are not you. We can do things you dream of doing. We have powers you dream of having. We are stronger and faster than anything you have ever seen. We are the superheroes you worship in movies and comic books--but we are real.
Our plan was to grow, and train, and become strong, and become one, and fight them. But they found us and started hunting us first. Now all of us are running. Spending our lives in shadows, in places where no one would look, blending in. We have lived among you without you knowing.
But they know.
They caught Number One in Malaysia.
Number Two in England.
And Number Three in Kenya.
They killed them all.
I am Number Four.
I am next.
If you find me by Emily Murdoch
There are some things you can't leave behind... A broken-down camper hidden deep in a national forest is the only home fifteen year-old Carey can remember. The trees keep guard over her threadbare existence, with the one bright spot being Carey's younger sister, Jenessa, who depends on Carey for her very survival. All they have is each other, as their mentally ill mother comes and goes with greater frequency. Until that one fateful day their mother disappears for good, and two strangers arrive. Suddenly, the girls are taken from the woods and thrust into a bright and perplexing new world of high school, clothes and boys. Now, Carey must face the truth of why her mother abducted her ten years ago, while haunted by a past that won't let her go... a dark past that hides many a secret, including the reason Jenessa hasn't spoken a word in over a year. Carey knows she must keep her sister close, and her secrets even closer, or risk watching her new life come crashing down.
One plastic bag : Isatou Ceesay and the recycling women of the Gambia by Miranda Paul and illustrated by Elizabeth Zunon
Plastic bags are cheap and easy to use. But what happens when a bag breaks or is no longer needed? In Njau, Gambia, people simply dropped the bags and went on their way. One plastic bag became two. Then ten. Then a hundred. The bags accumulated in ugly heaps alongside roads. Water pooled in them, bringing mosquitoes and disease. Some bags were burned, leaving behind a terrible smell. Some were buried, but they strangled gardens. They killed livestock that tried to eat them. Something had to change. Isatou Ceesay was that change. She found a way to recycle the bags and transform her community. This inspirational true story shows how one person's actions really can make a difference in our world.
Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys
Location: online (view by clicking on the above image) or TFWA (War) SEP
World War II is drawing to a close in East Prussia and thousands of refugees are on a desperate trek toward freedom, many with something to hide. Among them are Joana, Emilia, and Florian, whose paths converge en route to the ship that promises salvation, the "Wilhelm Gustloff." Forced by circumstance to unite, the three find their strength, courage, and trust in each other tested with each step closer to safety. Just when it seems freedom is within their grasp, tragedy strikes. Not country, nor culture, nor status matter as all ten thousand people adults and children alike aboard must fight for the same thing: survival.
The supernaturalist by Eoin Colfer
Fourteen-year-old Cosmo Hill longs to escape from the Clarissa Frayne Institute for Parentally Challenged Boys. When his chance comes he grabs it, but things go fatally wrong. Cosmo feels his life force ebbing away, sucked out of him by astrange blue parasite... until a wisecracking gang of kids bursts in, blast the creature, and save him. They are the Supernaturalists and Cosmo's new life with this unlikely "family" is about to begin.
These broken stars by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner
Luxury spaceliner Icarus suddenly plummets from hyperspace into the nearest planet. Lilac LaRoux and Tarver Merendsen survive – alone. Lilac is the daughter of the richest man in the universe. Tarver comes from nothing, a cynical war hero. Both journey across the eerie deserted terrain for help. Everything changes when they uncover the truth.
Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace ... One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin
Location: online (to view click the image above) or TFTS (True Stories) MOR
The inspiring account of one man's campaign to build schools in the most dangerous, remote, and anti-American reaches of Asia.
In April 2011, the CBS documentary "60 Minutes" called into question Greg Mortenson's work. The program alleged inaccuracies in Three Cups of Tea and its sequel, Stones into Schools as well as financial improprieties in the operation of Mortenson's Central Asia Institute. Questions were also raised about Mortenson's claim that he got lost near K2 and ended up in Korphe; that he was captured by the Taliban in 1996; the number of schools the CAI claimed to have built and whether CAI funds had been used appropriately for Mortenson's book tours. View the broadcast. Jon Krakauer, who had supported the CAI to the tune of $75,000, also questioned Mortenson's accounts and released his allegations in a lengthy article titled Three Cups of Deceit.
The disappearance of Ember Crow by Ambelin Kwaymullina
Ember Crow is missing. To find her friend, Ashala Wolf must control her increasingly erratic and dangerous Sleepwalking ability and leave the Firstwood. But Ashala doesn't realise that Ember is harbouring terrible secrets and is trying to shield theTribe and all Illegals from a devastating new threat - her own past
Wonder by R.J. Palacio
Location: online (to view click on the image above), as an audio book at STB (Talking Books) PAL, as a mini-set at SFMS (Mini-Sets) MINIS PAL or physically at TFSO (Social Issues) PAL
I won't describe what I look like. Whatever you're thinking, it's probably worse.
August (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 if you've ever been the new kid then you know how hard that can be. 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?
The shattering by Karen Healey
Keri, Janna and Sione have two things in common. They each have an older brother who committed suicide. And they each have a connection with Summerton. As the three teenagers delve deeper into the mystery they uncover secrets that will shatter everything they thought they knew.
