Books in Readers Circle series

One rainy afternoon in Istanbul, a woman walks into a doctor's surgery. 'I want an abortion', she announces. She is nineteen years old, and unmarried. What happens that afternoon is to change her life, and the lives of everyone around her. Twenty years later, Asya Kazanci lives with her extended family in Istanbul. Due to a mysterious family curse all the men die by age 41, so it is a house of women, among them her beautiful, rebellious mother, Zeliha, clairvoyant Auntie Banu and bar-brawl widow, Auntie Cevriye. But when Asya's Armenian-American cousin Armanoush comes to stay, long-hidden family secrets and Turkey's turbulent past begin to emerge.

★ “A captivating read.”—School Library Journal, Starred One night Sophie and her parents are called to a hospital where Pedro, a six-year-old Mexican boy, is recovering from dehydration. Crossing the border into Arizona with a group of Mexicans and a coyote, or guide, Pedro and his parents faced such harsh conditions that the boy is the only survivor. Pedro comes to live with Sophie, her parents, and Sophie's Aunt Dika, a refugee of the war in Bosnia. Sophie loves Pedro—her Principito, or Little Prince. But after a year, Pedro’s surviving family in Mexico makes contact, and Sophie, Dika, Dika’s new boyfriend, and his son must travel with Pedro to his hometown so that he can make a heartwrenching decision.An IRA Award WinnerAn Américas Award Honor BookAn ALA-YALSA Best Book for Young AdultsA Colorado Book Award WinnerA Cybil Award FinalistA School Library Journal Best BookA Richie’s Pick

High in his attic bedroom‚ twelve–year–old David mourns the death of his mother. He is angry and alone‚ with only the books on his shelf for company. But those books have begun to whisper to him in the darkness‚ and as he takes refuge in his imagination‚ he finds that reality and fantasy have begun to meld. While his family falls apart around him‚ David is violently propelled into a land that is a strange reflection of his own world‚ populated by heroes and monsters‚ and ruled over by a faded king who keeps his secrets in a mysterious book . . . The Book of Lost Things.

Most Westerners now working in Afghanistan spend their time tucked inside the wall of a military compound or embassy. Deborah Rodriguez is one of the very few who lives life smack in the middle of Kabul. Now, Rodriguez tells the story of the beauty school she founded and the vibrant women who were her students there. When Rodriguez opened the Kabul Beauty School, she not only empowered her students with a new sense of autonomy--in the strictly patriarchal culture, the beauty school proved a small haven--but also made some of the closest friends of her life. Woven through the book are the stories of her students. There is the newlywed who must fake her own virginity, the twelve-year-old bride who has been sold into marriage to pay her family's debts, and the wife of a member of the Taliban who pursues her training despite her husband's constant beatings. All of these women have a story to tell, and all of them bring their stories to the Kabul Beauty School, where, along with Rodriguez herself, they learn the art of perms, of friendship, and of freedom.

FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. Since her mother's suicide, 13-year-old Isabel finds herself taking responsibility for her younger brother and sister while their father spends long hours on his boat. Isabel's determination to keep going in the face of overwhelming loss and responsibility and the help she ultimately receives from concerned adults, distinguish this beautifully written story of sorrow and recovery.

FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. Having escaped from their orphanage on a raft, Erin, January, and Mouse float down into another world of abandoned warehouses and factories, meeting a strange old man and an even stranger girl with webbed fingers and little memory of her past. A Reader's Circle discussion guide is included at the end of the book.

Fourteen-year-old Harold Kline is an albino. Folks call him Ghost Boy. When the circus comes to town, Harold runs off to join it. The circus seems like the answer to his loneliness. He's eager to meet a sideshow attraction who's an albino, too. Even at the circus, though, two groups exist--the freaks, and everyone else. Fitting in comes at a price, and Harold must recognize the truth beneath what seems apparent.

Simon Gray is the ideal teenager -- smart, reliable, hardworking, trustworthy. Or is he? After Simon crashes his car into The Liberty Tree, another portrait starts to emerge. Soon an investigation has begun into computer hacking at Simon's high school, for it seems tests are being printed out before they are given. Could Simon be involved? Simon, meanwhile, is in a coma -- but is this another appearance that may be deceiving? For inside his own head, Simon can walk around and talk to some people. He even seems to be having a curious conversation with a man who was hung for murder 200 years ago, in the branches of the same tree Simon crashed into. What can a 200-year-old murder have to do with Simon's accident? And how do we know who is really innocent and who is really guilty? "From the Hardcover edition."