After a chance encounter with assassin Yassen Gregorovich in the South of France, teenage spy Alex Rider investigates international pop star and philanthropist Damian Cray whose new video game venture hides sinister motives involving Air Force One, nuclear missiles, and the international drug trade.

Hidden Talents is the first novel in a hit supernatural duology for young readers by award-winning author David Lubar. This hilarious coming-of-age-with-powers story starring the misfits at Edgeview Alternative School was shortlisted for the Printz Award and is now available in trade paperback. When thirteen-year-old Martin Anderson arrives at the Edgeview Alternative School, it's the end of the road. Literally. He's been expelled from every other school. Edgeview is the last stop. A warehouse for the system's rejects. Martin fits right in. Everyone has given up on Martin. Even Martin. But at Edgeview Martin falls in with a group of five outsiders who make the other Edgeview rejects appear gifted by comparison. He makes a remarkable discovery: each of his friends possesses a remarkable talent. One is telekinetic. Another is empathic. Others have psychic abilities. Martin thinks these talents make them special. They think it makes them freaks. Martin has one shot to convince them otherwise. " Hidden Talents provides us with a glimpse of David Lubar as a writer whose comic talent is matched by his ability to write with sensitivity and power about adolescents." — The Alan Review

A desperate orphan turned pirate and a rebellious imperial daughter find a connection on the high seas in a world divided by colonialism and threaded with magic. Aboard the pirate ship Dove, Flora the girl takes on the identity of Florian the man to earn the respect and protection of the crew. The brutal life of a pirate is about survival: don't trust, don't stick out, don't feel. When the pirates prepare to sell their unsuspecting passengers into slavery, Flora is drawn to the Lady Evelyn Hasegawa, who is en route to a dreaded arranged marriage with her own casket in tow. The pair set into motion a wild escape that will free a captured mermaid (coveted for her blood, which causes men to have visions and lose memories) and involve the mysterious Pirate Supreme, an opportunistic witch, and the all-encompassing Sea itself.

A fast-paced contemporary thriller in the vein of James Patterson and Anthony Horowitz set against the bustling backdrop of Hong Kong, Vietnam, and the border of China. This heart-pounding adventure takes place as two teens, an American teenage boy and his friend, a Chinese girl from his Washington, DC-area high school, must find her father who has been kidnapped—and they only have nine days. Although the characters in the novel are fictionalized, they are based on a real Chinese family who were part of the Chinese Democracy Movement and inspired this story. "Few mysteries combine cultural diversity, politics and physical danger with a lighthearted friendship. This engaging mix will have great appeal."— Kirkus Reviews "A captivating thriller grounded in real-world problems."— Publishers Weekly "A rollicking and fast-paced young adult adventure novel."— South China Morning Post "Hiatt...offers middle-school-aged readers an appealing mix of action and friendship, with lessons about world events and human rights woven throughout."— Washington Post Book World “A compelling, teen-centric political thriller . . . inspired by actual events.”— BooklistOnline.com A NCSS/CBC Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies

It is late 1903, and Rachel and her family are leaving Russia to escape the murderous riots against Jews. They travel cross country on the Trans-Siberian Railway to the coast and board a ship for Shanghai. China offers refuge, but life for them there is difficult and strange. The opportunity to write for a Jewish newspaper may help Rachel ensure her family's survival while not giving up her dreams for her future. Still in Russia, Rachel's friend Sergei leaves home for a factory job in St. Petersburg, soon joining the rebelling workers, but realizing he has traded one source of danger for another. Separated by so much, the two teenagers try to make their way in the turbulent political times of the early twentieth century--their only connection the letters they write, and their fierce hope for the future.

A boy sent by an African god to tend the spirits of the dead struggles to fulfill his duty from within the bonds of slavery in Time's Memory , by National Book Award finalist Julius Lester . Amma is the creator god, the master of life and death, and he is worried. His people have always known how to take care of the spirits of the dead – the nyama – so that they don't become destructive forces among the living. But amid the chaos of the African slave trade and the brutality of American slavery, too many of his people are dying and their souls are being ignored in this new land. Amma sends a young man, Ekundayo, to a plantation in Virginia where he becomes a slave on the eve of the Civil War. Amma hopes that Ekundayo will be able to find a way to bring peace to the nyama before it is too late. But Ekundayo can see only sorrow in this land – sorrow in the ownership of people, in the slaves who have been separated from their children and spouses, in the restless spirits of the dead, and in his own forbidden relationship with his master's daughter. How Ekundayo finds a way to bring peace to both the dead and the living makes this an unforgettable journey into the slave experience and Newbury Honor author Julius Lester's most powerful work to date. Time's Memory is a 2007 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.