Unusual Reads

"Entertaining, disturbing, memorable, and sophisticated, this mortality tale will continue to haunt after the last pages are turned." -- SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL
All Chris really wants is to be a normal kid, to hang out with his friends, avoid his parents, and get a date with Rebecca Schwartz. Unfortunately, Chris appears to be turning into a vampire. So while his hometown performs an ancient ritual that keeps Tch'muchgar, the Vampire Lord, locked in another world, Chris desperately tries to save himself from his own vampiric fate. He needs help, but whom can he trust? A savagely funny tale of terror, teen angst, suspense, and satire from celebrated FEED author M. T. Anderson.

Previously titled "Naughts & Crosses," this modern-day "Romeo and Juliet" by UK sensation Blackman ("Hacker") is set in a world where black and white mean right and wrong--and life and death. Named as one of the BBCUs Big Read Top 100 Books of All Time.

Watanuki Kimihiro is haunted by visions of ghosts and spirits. Seemingly by chance, he encounters a mysterious witch named Yuuko, who claims she can help. In desperation, he accepts, but realizes that he's just been tricked into working for Yuuko in order to pay off the cost of her services. Soon he's employed in her little shop--a job which turns out to be nothing like his previous work experience!
Most of Yuuko's customers live in Japan, but Yuuko and Watanuki are about to have some unusual visitors named Sakura and Syaoran from a land called Clow. . . .
XXXHolic volume one "crosses over with Tsubasa volume one!
"Don't miss it!
Includes special extras after the story!

In the shadow of an abandoned castle, a wolf pack seeks shelter. the she-wolf s pups will not be able to survive the harsh transylvanian winter. And they are being stalked by a lone wolf, Morgra, possessed of a mysterious and terrifying power known as the sight. Morgra knows that one of the pups born beneath the castle holds a key to power even stronger than her ownpower that could give her control of this world and the next. but the pack she hunts will do anything to protect their own, even if it means setting in motion a battle that will involve all of nature, including the creature the wolves fear the mostMan.

This is quite possibly the most bizarre teen book I’ve ever read. It’s a macabre blend of taxidermy, obsessive love, twins, and genetics, with a dash of mystery thrown in. Ivy lives with her mother in a small town hotel, and spends her afternoons across the street at the pharmacy with a pair of elderly twins. All is well until Ivy comes across the stuffed remains of the twins’ mother. If you liked the movie Psycho, give this a try.

Bored with high school in East Weston, Walter Nutria is glad to enter the spaceship that lands one afternoon. Once inside, Walter learns he has been specifically sought out by the Lirgonians to lead them against the Wotwots in their long-enduring feud. But the Wotwots have recruited Walter's friend Yselle Meridien as their commander. Once the battle begins, things go absolutely haywire!

Left on her own when her family dies in a terrible disaster, fifteen-year-old Green is haunted by loss and by the past. Struggling to survive physically and emotionally in a place where nothing seems to grow and ashes are everywhere, Green retreats into the ruined realm of her garden. But in destroying her feelings, she also begins to destroy herself, erasing the girl she'd once been as she inks darkness into her skin. It is only through a series of mysterious encounters that Green can relearn the lessons of love and begin to heal enough to tell her story.

From the author of "The Cure" comes another futuristic fable that raises fascinating questions about whether human behavior is determined by DNA, by upbringing, or by a higher power.

This award-winning futuristic tale--a bestseller in Canada--captures a chilling vision of an environmentally scarred Earth in the year 2368, and tells the story of an orphaned teen girl who's chosen for a special mission by a guardian of the environment.

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Miranda is pretty unconcerned when she first hears about the meteor that’s supposed to hit the moon. But when it happens, the moon gets knocked out of orbit, causing massive tsunamis, the total disappearance of coastal cities, loss of electricity and phone service, and other horrors. As the months stretch on, things get worse and worse until finally her family is simply struggling to survive. The story, told in Miranda’s increasingly desperate diary entries, is riveting.

CCBC Choices - 2004
Philip Reeve is a first novel set in a dark world fueled by "Municipal Darwinism."

""EVERY WAR HAS turning points and every person too."
Fifteen-year-old Daisy is sent from Manhattan to England to visit her aunt and cousins she's never met: three boys near her age, and their little sister. Her aunt goes away on business soon after Daisy arrives. The next day bombs go off as London is attacked and occupied by an unnamed enemy.
As power fails, and systems fail, the farm becomes more isolated. Despite the war, it's a kind of Eden, with no adults in charge and no rules, a place where Daisy's uncanny bond with her cousins grows into something rare and extraordinary. But the war is everywhere, and Daisy and her cousins must lead each other into a world that is unknown in the scariest, most elemental way.
A riveting and astonishing story.

Set during a dark period of the Middle Ages, this adventure tells how a war between kingdoms results in one king mired in treachery and imprisoned, while his son is forced to work with an unpredictable jester, Mimus.

It is 1969, and Ruba has just moved to Mississippi from Haiti to live with her grandmother. It isn't long before Ruba finds herself threatened by the KKK and drawn into the fight for civil rights. But a hurricane barreling toward the coast changes everything. Young Adult.

2007-2008 Sunshine State Young Reader's Book
In the year 2083, five teenagers try to re-create Robert F. Scott's doomed 1912 expedition to the South Pole as part of a reality television show. This exciting combination of science fiction and historical fiction brings to life a heartbreaking drama from the past while providing a disquieting glimpse into the future.

The prim and proper world of Regency England is crossed with the wizardly doings of high fantasy in this tale, told in the correspondence of Kate and Cecelia, two young ladies who become inadvertently involved in various magical scandals in London and the country.

2007 Virginia Readers' Choice
2006 ALA Young Adult Top Ten Selection
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Elsewhere is where 15-year-old Liz Hall ends up, after she has died. It is a place so like Earth, yet completely different. Here Liz will age backward from the day of her death until she becomes a baby again and returns to Earth. However, Liz wants to turn 16, not 14 again in this moving, often funny book about grief, death, and loss.

2007 Virginia Readers' Choice
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Set during World War II in Germany, Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich, scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids. This is an unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul.

A BookPage Notable Title
Ed Kennedy is an underage cabdriver, pathetic cardplayer, and useless at romance. When Ed inadvertently stops a bank robbery, that's when he becomes the messenger. Winner of the 2003 Children's Book Council Book of the Year Award in Australia.