YA SF LAW Lawrence, Michael A Crack in the Line (Withern Rise v. 1)

YA SF LAW Lawrence, Michael A Crack in the Line (Withern Rise v. 1)

A Crack in the Line (HarperCollins, 2004), the first book in this trilogy, introduced Alaric and Naia Underwood, 16-year-olds who share the same surname, birthday, and residence as well as similar physical characteristics, yet live in separate, distinct, parallel realities. They were unaware of one another's existence until they passed through a portal and began living the other's life. This second title finds the teens still caught in the wrong realities, but they now are repeatedly transported to yet another reality in the mid-1940s, when their family home is inhabited by the Underwoods of two generations past. In this reality, they witness their grandfather and his siblings as children, and Alaric is presented with the opportunity to prevent his great-uncle's untimely death. The "small eternities" are closed segments of time in history that continue on forever, unchanging. Throughout the book, Alaric, Naia, and the mysterious vagrant Aldous make numerous forays into an assortment of small eternities, each time witnessing an alternative reality.

There is a magical element to the house known as Withern Rise. A large tree in the yard serves as a portal to transport members of the Underwood family to parallel realities that all revolve around the homestead but in greatly different circumstances. Readers were first introduced to this intriguing world of parallel realities in A Crack in the Line (Greenwillow, 2004/VOYA October 2004), in which two Underwood teens, Alaric and Naia, find that they can trade places and inhabit the other teen's life. Their worlds are very similar and yet quite different-Naia's mother survived a train accident that killed Alaric's mother. At the end of that book, Naia was forced to stay in Alaric's bleak world. The story continued in Small Eternities (2005/VOYA December 2005), which included other Withern Rises and other family tragedies. By the time this third book in the series begins, there are so many versions of Withern Rise and Underwood families that the author codes each reality with a number. It is still very difficult to follow, probably impossible if the reader has not developed a determined interest in the series. Characters from one Withern Rise reality interact with similarly named characters from other realities as the author plays with concepts of time and space.

Trapped in a superstore by a series of escalating disasters, including a monster hailstorm and terrifying chemical weapons spill, brothers Dean and Alex learned how to survive and worked together with twelve other kids to build a refuge from the chaos. But then strangers appeared, destroying their fragile peace, and bringing both fresh disaster and a glimmer of hope. Knowing that the chemical weapons saturating the air outside will turn him into a bloodthirsty rage monster, Dean decides to stay in the safety of the store with Astrid and some of the younger kids. But their sanctuary has already been breached once. . . .Meanwhile, Alex, determined to find their parents, heads out into the darkness and devastation with Niko and some others in a recently repaired school bus. If they can get to Denver International Airport, they might be evacuated to safety. But the outside world is even worse than they expected. . . .

The day Finn Maguire discovers his dad bludgeoned to death in a pool of blood, his dreary life is turned upside down. Prime suspect in his father’s murder, Finn must race against time to clear his name and find out who hated his dad enough to kill him. Scouring the sordid, brutal London underworld for answers, exposing dark family secrets, and facing danger at every turn, Finn is about to learn that it’s the people you trust who can hit you the hardest. . .

Someone at Winchester High thought it would be fun to make up creepy poems about certain seniors and get them printed in the yearbook. Everyone figures it's a joke . . . until the selected seniors start turning up dead.

Reese can't remember anything from the time between the accident and the day she woke up almost a month later. She only knows one thing: She's different now. Across North America, flocks of birds hurl themselves into airplanes, causing at least a dozen to crash. Thousands of people die. Fearing terrorism, the United States government grounds all flights, and millions of travelers are stranded. Among them are Reese and her debate team partner and longtime crush David, who are in Arizona when the disaster occurs. On their drive home to San Francisco, along a stretch of empty highway in the middle of the Nevada night, a bird flies into their headlights. The car flips over. When they wake up in a military hospital, the doctor won't tell them what happened, where they are-or how they've been miraculously healed. Things become even stranger when Reese returns home. San Francisco feels like a different place with police enforcing curfew, hazmat teams collecting dead birds, and a strange presence that seems to be following her. When Reese unexpectedly collides with the beautiful Amber Gray, her search for the truth is forced in an entirely new direction-and threatens to expose a vast global conspiracy that the government has worked for decades to keep secret.

Welcome to Bard Academy, where a group of supposedly troubled teens are about to get scared straight. When Miranda, a slightly spoiled but spirited fifteen-year-old from Chicago, smashes up her father's car and goes to town with her stepmother's credit cards, she's shipped off to Bard Academy, a boarding school where she's supposed to learn to behave. Gothic and boring and strict, it's everything you'd expect of a reform school. But all is not what it seems at Bard....

Miranda Tate and her closest friends have been let in on a powerful secret: their teachers are famous dead writers. After a heroic first semester, Miranda's got Bard Academy's ghost faculty in her debt, a new boyfriend in hot basketball player Ryan Kent, and she's just turned in a paper about The Scarlet Letter that she's sure is A material. But when the Bard Queen Bee, Parker Rodham, claims she's attacked in the woods, Ryan is all too happy to play bodyguard. Then teachers start disappearing and the campus is abuzz with news of the Hooded Sweatshirt Stalker -- not to mention sightings of a monster in the woods. But it's Miranda who feels like a moving target when she is accused not only of plagiarism but of suspicious involvement in the attacks!

Meanwhile, rumors are flying about what it really means that Miranda's wearing Ryan's varsity letterman jacket. And she just can't shake her nagging feelings for Heathcliff, who entrusted her with the locket that keeps him in the "real" world even though every one else thinks he's back where he belongs, in the pages of Wuthering Heights. Is he the campus stalker? Does she like him more than she likes Ryan? And how is that possible if he's only a character from a book?
YA FIC LOC Lockwood, Cara Moby Clique

Her summer reading assignment is Moby-Dick, but Miranda's vacation hasn't exactly been smooth sailing. Between working at her stepmother's hideous all-pink boutique, and having broken up with her basketball champ boyfriend Ryan, not to mention snoozing her way through one of literature's heaviest tomes, she's almost looking forward to returning to Bard Academy. That was before her kid sister Lindsay smashed up their dad's Land Rover and got shipped off to Bard herself. Is the punishment Lindsay's -- or Miranda's?

What was once the western United States is now home to the Republic, a nation perpetually at war with its neighbors. Born into an elite family in one of the Republic's wealthiest districts, fifteen-year-old June is a prodigy being groomed for success in the Republic's highest military circles. Born into the slums, fifteen-year-old Day is the country's most wanted criminal. But his motives may not be as malicious as they seem. From very different worlds, June and Day have no reason to cross paths - until the day June's brother, Metias, is murdered and Day becomes the prime suspect. Caught in the ultimate game of cat and mouse, Day is in a race for his family's survival, while June seeks to avenge Metias's death. But in a shocking turn of events, the two uncover the truth of what has really brought them together, and the sinister lengths their country will go to keep its secrets.

A biological bomb has just been discovered in the air ducts of a busy suburban mall. At first nobody knows if it's even life threatening, but then the entire complex is quarantined, people start getting sick, supplies start running low, and there's no way out. Among the hundreds of trapped shoppers are four teens. These four different narrators, each with their own stories, must cope in unique, surprising styles, changing in ways they wouldn't have predicted, trying to find solace, safety, and escape at a time when the adults are behaving badly.

Fourteen-year-old Billy Harriman can feel the changes. The sharpening of his senses. The incredible strength. The speed, as though he can textmessage himself across miles. The confidence and the strange need to patrol Central Park at night. His dad had been a hero, a savior to America and a confidante of the president. Then he died, and the changes began in Billy. What Billy never knew was that his father was no ordinary man—he was a superhero, battling the world's evil. This is a battle that has been waged for generations and that knows no boundaries. And now it's Billy's turn to take on the fight. It's Billy's turn to become a hero.

What if the world's worst serial killer...was your dad? Jasper (Jazz) Dent is a likable teenager. A charmer, one might say. But he's also the son of the world's most infamous serial killer, and for Dear Old Dad, Take Your Son to Work Day was year-round. Jazz has witnessed crime scenes the way cops wish they could—from the criminal's point of view. And now bodies are piling up in Lobo's Nod. In an effort to clear his name, Jazz joins the police in a hunt for a new serial killer. But Jazz has a secret—could he be more like his father than anyone knows?

When a desperate New York City detective comes knocking on Jazz's door asking for help with a new case, Jazz can't say no. The Hat-Dog Killer has the Big Apple--and its police force running scared with no leads. So Jazz and his girlfriend Connie hop on a plane to the big city and get swept up in a killer's murderous game. Meanwhile, Jazz's dad Billy is watching...and waiting.

All Daniel wants to do is spend one last summer with his grandfather before he moves away for college and his grandfather’s dementia pulls them apart. But when his dear old Da starts to let things slip about the job he used to hold—people he’s killed, countries he’s overthrown—old work “friends” show up to make sure he stays quiet. Was his grandfather really involved in a world of assassinations and coups, or are the stories just delusions of a crumbling mind? On the run from the police (and possibly something worse) before he has time to find out, Daniel may have to sacrifice everything to protect his grandfather from those who would do him harm.

Seventeen-year-old Ginny unexpectedly gets help from her father's new tenant while struggling to cope with her guilt and confusion over the death of her daredevil boyfriend.

Shortly after her runaway brother is declared dead, thirteen-year-old Maxine begins receiving phone calls from someone claiming to be her brother.

Col McCann becomes a local hero when he saves a boy from drowning but, when his older brother is suspected of a serious crime, Col must decide if he should be loyal to his family or tell the truth about what he saw while under the water.

Drawing Conclusions or Drafting Disaster? Other than harboring a somewhat obsessive fondness for Crispix and completely swearing-off boys after a bad date (don't ask), sixteen-year-old Kate Carter is about as ordinary as they come, except for her two notable talents: art and sarcasm. After an introduction to forensic sketching in her elective art class, Kate discovers a third and most unexpected gift: criminal profiling. Her photo-quality sketch helps the police catch a wanted murderer and earns her celebrity status in South Woodhaven Falls. But when that murderer appears to be using his friends to exact revenge, Kate goes from local hero to possible target. Will she manage to survive? Will life ever be normal again? And will local news anchor Ted Deffle ever stop sending her flowers?

Cam Stewart is the perfect seventeen-year-old-smart, good looking, a personable athlete-who wakes up as the victim of a kidnapping. His captors are strangers, their motive unknown, but Cam's instincts scream, "Escape!" Once free, he realizes that he is in Washington state, hundreds of miles from his home in San Diego, and not only must he find a way to get back, he also must determine who the good guys and bad guys really are. That line becomes even more blurred when a call to his father results in what looks like a setup, and Cam barely avoids being recaptured. With the help of Jax and especially Tee, who give him a lift and ultimately a place to crash while he figures things out, Cam discovers information about his family and about himself that makes the past a lie and the future unclear.

Seventeen-year-old Michael and his baby brother, five-year-old Patrick, have managed to stay alive by following the Instructions of a mysterious Games Master. They spend their nights fighting the Bellows, grotesque, flesh-eating creatures. But the brothers may not survive much longer. The Bellows are evolving. And the others in The Game don’t always follow the rules.

After the murder of her husband, 19-year-old Ros and her one-year-old son relocate to live with her parents. Palm Springs — full of sunlight, small and safe — should be the perfect place to bring up a child. But things aren't always as they appear. When the father of one of Ros's friends is shot in front of her house — an incident that also lands Ros in the hospital — it marks the beginning of a terrible string of events. Someone is out to get her, and they seem determined not to stop until her friends and family are also drawn in. As she struggles to uncover the identity of her mysterious enemy, Ros finds herself looking for answers in the most unusual places.

This was supposed to be the best summer of Maggie’s life. Now it’s the one she’d do anything to forget. Maggie remembers hanging out at the gorge with her closest friends after a blowout party. She remembers climbing the trail with her perfect boyfriend, Joey. She remembers that last kiss, soft, lingering, and meant to reassure her. So why can’t she remember what happened in the moment before they were supposed to dive? Why was she left cowering at the top of the cliff, while Joey floated in the water below–dead? As Maggie’s memories return in snatches, nothing seems to make sense. Why was Joey acting so strangely at the party? Where did he go after taking her home? And if Joey was keeping these secrets, what else was he hiding?

A charming tale about Pepper Roux, whose jealous and cruel Aunt Mireille foretells, at his birth, his death at age 14. A devout Catholic, she insists that he learn Last Rites rather than nursery rhymes. When his 14th birthday arrives, Pepper runs away to sea in an attempt to stay a step ahead of death. He steps into many different lives, largely because, as the author repeatedly points out, people see what they expect to see. Pepper becomes the captain of a coffin ship, has a brief career as a journalist who will only write good news, and joins the Foreign Legion (until he realizes that he'll have to kill people). Each role is an adventure that leaves chaos in its wake and good-hearted Pepper one step ahead of getting caught.

Sym is not your average teenage girl. She is obsessed with the Antarctic and the brave, romantic figure of Captain Oates from Scott's doomed expedition to the South Pole. In fact, Oates is the secret confidant to whom she spills all her hopes and fears. But Sym's uncle Victor is even more obsessed--and when he takes her on a dream trip into the bleak Antarctic wilderness, it turns into a nightmarish struggle for survival that will challenge everything she knows and loves.

Dual perspectives reveal the aftermath of seventeen-year-old Michael MacKenzie's birthday celebration during which he discharges an antique Winchester rifle and unknowingly kills the father of high school classmate Jenna Ward.

Seventeen-year-old Anne always thought her mother was kind of quirky. In fact, her mom’s taste in 70s-esque furniture and mysterious frequent business trips were just the tip of the quirky iceberg. When her mom doesn’t come home on time from one of her long jaunts, Anne isn’t too surprised. But when a day late turns into a few days late, Anne knows something is very wrong. She tries the hotel number that her mother left her, but it has been disconnected. Then a strange man keeps leaving messages on their answering machine, looking for a woman who doesn’t even live there. However, when Anne discovers a lengthy letter from her mother explaining why she has disappeared, the fabric of Anne’s relatively normal life is torn to pieces. Despite her shock, Anne must pull herself together and protect herself—from people who want to find and hurt her mother, and the strange new boy who may change everything.

When high school seniors Emery and Jake are taken hostage in the classroom where they tutor, they must work together to calm both the terrified children and the gunman threatening them—a task made even more difficult by their recent break-up. Brian Stutts, a soldier suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after serving in Iraq, uses deadly force when he's denied access to his son because of a custody battle. The children's fate is in the hands of the two teens, each recovering from great loss, who now must reestablish trust in a relationship damaged by betrayal. Told through Emery and Jake's alternating viewpoints, this gripping novel features characters teens will identify with and explores the often-hidden damages of war.