What makes for a bad day? It all depends on who you are. If you’re a teenage girl, maybe having ultra-conservative parents who never let you do anything might do it. Or maybe having your almost boyfriend make a drunken fool of himself. Then, there’s the rumor that the same almost boyfriend cheated with your best friend, that’s a bad one too, almost as bad as a killer geometry test. Then there is the granddaddy of them all, being marked as a vampyre—forced to turn into a blood-sucking freak or die a horrible death. All in all, really sucky day for almost any teenage girl—definitely for Zoey Montgomery, heroine of Marked, which is P.C. & Kristin Cast’s first book in the House of the Night series.

Ever been the new kid at school? You know everyone is looking at you, talking about you, speculating on everything from your clothes to your face. They all are trying to figure out where you fit in, while you’re trying to do the same. It sucks to be the new kid, especially when the school is one for vampyres and you don’t have a clue how to be one. Enter, Zoey Montgomery, our heroine of Betrayed, Book 2 in the House of Night series by P.C. and Kristin Cast.

As the new kid, Zoey does the unthinkable and knocks the current reigning leader of the Dark Daughters, Aphrodite, out of place. Can anyone say enemy for life? Or would that be unlife? No matter, Zoey knows she has to watch her step because good ol’ Ap will be gunning for her. That’s her plan: to watch her step, be the model student, model leader, the whole bit -- except there are some unexpected problems.

Ready for something different from the usual horror tale or overly clever teens solving mysteries? Maybe you need to check into the writings of R.R. Smythe, a writer who works with an unusual twist, and things that go bump in the night. Nothing is what it seems at first, but rather something much more sinister and with a sprinkling of magic—voila, you've got the literary stylings of R.R. Smythe.

I'm a soccer mom right now, though I will eventually become a baseball mom. Now that I've read this book, I know a bit more of the sports world my son will soon inhabit.

We're introduced to the Base Stealers Club in the prequel of the same name. Ryan, Chevis, Dillion, Colby, and Shane, members of the Jonesville Chargers baseball team, band together to solve problems and mysteries surrounding their team. They formed the club when they solved the mystery of who was stealing money from their lockers during the regular season in The Base Stealers Club. The Case of the Missing Coach picks up the story as they get ready for the National Regional playoffs on their way to playing in the National Championship.

"Wow, what a great vacation I had. That place was so much fun, I'll never forget it. I'd love to go back there… someday." How many of us have said that? And how many of us have, over time, forgotten what a great time we had in such a wonderful place? It seems that Ivy Peterson has that problem. She was only eleven when she first visited Zandria and now, three years later, in the midst of a bad morning, she remembers how much she loved being there… instead of here.

Are you a fan of wizards, riddles and things that go bump in the night? Do you ever imagine yourself with supernatural powers or hope for a guardian who does have those powers? Instead blaming the vagaries of everyday life on simple coincidence, do you see a pattern? If you do, then Marc E. Robling’s latest novel, Trigon: The Riddle of the Keys is the book for you. Powerful wizard Emit is the guardian of his world for the last 1500 years. He has kept it safe, but his power is waning and the demon is creeping closer, ready to devour the planet. He creates a trigon riddle, a three-part puzzle, to mystify the demon while leaving instructions for three future champions to save the world.

Sir Henry, The Knight In Space is a charming story. Only forty-five pages long, it is written, it seems, for the younger audience. While it does not say so in the description I received, I am guessing it was intended for an audience of youth ages six through ten. But the audience this story would seem most suited for is those who still watch Barney and Friends, or maybe those edging out from TeleTubbies. This could also make a great illustrated book. But the story lacks too much to highly recommend.

For centuries, some of the best stories have been handed down from generation to generation as the family sat beside a cheery fire on a cold day. The tradition has kept personal family history alive, allowing the young to relive the adventures of their forefathers and relatives that endured the hardships of life in early America. Watch for the Raven is one such tale, the adventure of personal growth through the hardship of great-great uncle, Joshua Avery, as shared by a grandmother.

Teachers these days have lot to deal with, a lot more than the teachers of twenty years ago. Now, teachers have to deal with weapons and uncontrolled anger issues that can escalate with just the wrong word from the wrong student. In The Witch of Agnesi, Bonnie Pinkwater has to deal with the most intelligent of the eighth grade class, the geniuses. Unfortunately, they begin to turn up dead.

Did you ever wonder what became of the dragons? How about the trolls or the elves? Where are all of the magical creatures that stories are filled with but the Earth, as we know it, is not? I, for one, would love to be sitting in a forest, resting from my labors, to find a small fairy flitting about or see a woodland elf passing by. Even the flight of the occasional dragon would be something to see – from a distance, of course. But who can answer the question of where the magic went? K. Osborn Sullivan in her young adult fantasy Stones of Abraxas, that's who.

Swing. It was a dance. It was music. It was a way of leaving behind the drudgery and sadness that enveloped America in 1939. Most adults saw it as perfectly sinful. Most youth saw it as pure escape. Swing is the one year diary of an eighteen-year-old girl who lives for the escape that swing gives her and her friends.

Follow Margo, her sister, and her friends as they travel through their senior year of high school, looking forward to where they will go next and looking back at where they've been. From her father's depression at not getting to travel to her mother caring for the occasional hobo passing through their town, Margo's life is full of ups and downs that she handles one at a time. She sees the need to break away from small town life, as well as her longtime boyfriend, in order to get on with her life after graduation. But no matter what happens, the music and the dancing is always there, ready to sweep her into another world where life is wonderful.

We all know how much fun it can be to sit on your porch and watch for the mailman to deliver something that you have ordered through a catalog or on the Internet. It's the excitement of finally having the three dimensional item in your hands after too long of a wait between ordering and receiving. Of course, when you’re expecting a letter from a friend or a new pen pal, and a large purple truck drops off a crate instead, you have to wonder what went wrong. That's exactly what Skye Jones wants to know in Mail Order Monster by Linda Joy Singleton.

Imagination: the world where anything can happen, most especially in the mind of a child. But what would happen if imagination disappeared? What would happen to the world of dreams? The world of fiction? The world in general?

Mashu is recruited by Big Tulie to restore his image in the dreams of children. Without that image, the world of dreams and the world of Big Tulie will cease to exist. Mashu, along with his friend Cassi and his trusty old teddy bear, Softy, embark on an adventure through many planes of reality and fantasy in their quest to restore the image of Big Tulie. Aiding them in their quest are hundreds of smaller creatures known as Little Tulies, childlike creatures that love to play and have fun, no matter what is going on around them. They have a logic that is sometimes ridiculous and, every now and then, profound.

A book should be entertaining and, for the Young Adult age group, it’s a plus if it’s also educational. Golden Wings fulfills both criteria. By the end of the book, the reader is well versed on several species of birds and their habitats as well as their plight in surviving man's ignorance.

Geoffrey and his mum live in Tazmania. His Uncle Thomas and Auntie Steffie run an animal sanctuary so Geoffrey has many opportunities to see creatures up close. While Geoffrey and his mum are visiting his aunt and uncle, a woman shows up with an injured bird. It appears that the bird has a broken wing but on further examination, it turns out the bird has been shot. This is very serious as the bird is a wedge-tailed eagle, an endangered species. The woman leaves quickly without leaving her name or any information. Geoffrey's aunt and uncle provide the emergency care for Goldie, as Geoffrey dubs her, before sending her to the Wildlife Service Hospital for further care.

I can't say that I was hooked with the first line of Allan Serafino's Blood Jaguar. Interestingly enough, while it was very descriptive, it wasn't until I was toward the end of the first chapter that I thought, okay, this is going to be an enjoyable read. As the protagonist, Hugh Falkins, endures a bumpy prop plane ride into an archeological site managed by his father, he experiences a vision of sorts that left me wanting to know more. In fact, it was difficult to put the story down from that moment on in the prose.