A series of unexplained murders on the Darkside of London has Jonathan tangled up in another dangerous mystery. With the help of his ally, private detective (and werewolf) Elias Carnegie, the pair discover that Jonathan's mother was investigating similar murders before she vanished. Jonathan becomes obsessed with solving the crimes and finding his mother. Meanwhile, the Ripper family is involved in a deadly scandal that goes right to the heart of Darkside society and they're watching Jonathan. In his desperation, can Jonathan solve the murders and find his mother before the Rippers find him?

At last, Jacky Faber is reunited with her beloved Jaimy?in a French jail. Though she escapes, he remains imprisoned. Jacky is forced into a treacherous deal: the British authorities will trade prisoners and free Jaimy, but only if Jacky spies for the British in Paris, the heart of Napoléon?s empire. Jacky?s sharp mind and stunning looks are more than a match for the French intelligence service, but then she meets a dashing Frenchman named Jean-Paul. Will her heart lead her to ruin?

In a post-apocalyptic future, North America has become Panem?a collection of twelve districts surrounding a prosperous Capitol City. Each year, as punishment for a long-ago rebellion, the Capitol selects one boy and one girl from each district to compete in the Hunger Games, a televised fight to the death. When Primrose, Katniss?s younger sister, is among the two names called from District 12, Katniss volunteers to take her sister?s place. After all, it?s her skill with a bow and arrow that has put food on the family table since their father?s death. But can Katniss, who is willing to risk her life to save her sister?s, learn to kill humans the same way she hunts?without mercy?

Seeker's power has grown immensely, and he has nearly fulfilled his destiny-to destroy the Savanters, the sworn enemies of his clan. As Seeker pursues some of the final remaining Savanters in distant lands, a charismatic figure, the Joy Boy, rises in his absence. The Joy Boy's message of peace and happiness mesmerizes everyone who comes in contact with him, including Seeker's old friends Morning Star and the Wildman. When Seeker's destiny places him at odds with his friends and the Joy Boy, Seeker must question all he believes.

When American teenagers die, some of them don't stay dead. No one is sure why, and this strange phenomenon has led to a growing population of "living impaired" teenagers who walk, slowly, down the halls of American high schools. Sixteen-year-old goth girl Phoebe is fascinated with Tommy Williams, the undead leader of the town's "differently biotic" kids. But not everyone is so happy with the idea of living with "dead" people. Soon Tommy and his friends begin to face serious threats, and Phoebe is caught in the middle.

The newspaper boy delivers tissues instead of newspapers because the news is too sad; a batch of cookies brings together strangers at an airport; and a hopeful explanation for the disappearance of the world's bees is offered: "They are sick of the word .' They are on strike." In these poems and narratives about contemporary life, assumptions are questioned, surprises are common, and everything-and everyone-is interconnected.

When Charlotte Miller inherits her family's troubled woolen mill, she is determined to make it a success-and to ignore the rumors of the curse that haunts it. But strange accidents frighten the workers and threaten to sink the business. One day, a mysterious man named Jack Spinner arrives and offers his assistance. "You'd have to be able to make gold appear from thin air to be much help to us now, I'm afraid," Charlotte says. With straw, not air, Jack Spinner obliges. Though he hasn't yet named his ultimate price. . . .

"John Ford Kang. She was finally going to talk to him." Joyce is determined to impress her crush, but when she gathers the courage to actually speak to him, he confuses her with another Korean girl, whom Joyce considers "the ugliest girl in school." Joyce is devastated, especially when she discovers John has a crush on her beautiful older sister, Helen. Then her aunt offers to pay for cosmetic eyelid surgery. "You will never be as pretty as your sister," her aunt says, "but with my doctor's help, you can look very nice."

As rumors of civil war circulate in Ngala, Chanda travels to her extended family's village, hoping to reconcile with them. Chanda's family welcomes her and her younger brother and sister, but soon they demand she marry a surly (if somewhat charming) tracker named Nelson. Chanda refuses and prepares to leave town. Before she can flee, the brutal guerrilla General Mandiki attacks and kidnaps all the children, including Chanda's siblings. Now Chanda and Nelson must join together to try to save what remains of their families. Author's note.

Fourteen-year-old Jonathan Starling isn't sure how to help his father, Alain, who suffers mental breakdowns. Jonathan only knows that Alain's sickness originated in Darkside-whatever or wherever that might be. When a family friend helps him enter Darkside, Jonathan's amazed: it's a seedy underbelly of London stuck in a Victorian-era time warp, inhabited by criminals, monsters, and combinations of the two. Even if Jonathan does manage to stay alive on Darkside's mean streets, can he ever unearth Alain's secret? And if he does, will anyone in London believe him?

"I have the gift of vision. It was given to me by my grandma, handed to me in a lotus seed, a pod that felt as big as my five-year-old hand." Lin is a young child when her grandmother, Obaachan, moves from Japan to live with her family. Obaachan is mysterious and distant, but shy Lin soon feels closer to her than anyone else. As Obaachan helps Lin discover her gift of second sight, Lin must figure out what these strange visions will mean for her and her family.

Someday, Jaiden Beale hopes to tell the world "what it was like to be the first kid raised by a corporation." For now, though, his secret identity is pretty embarrassing. NECorp, a global firm that adopted Jaiden after one of its products accidentally killed his parents, controls Jaiden's life. After fourteen years of "corporate existence," Jaiden finally rebels, hanging out with an "unapproved" girl and running away on his bike. Then Jaiden discovers damaging information about NECorp and has to decide what his "family" really means to him.

"Denmark, Tennessee, stank. Bad. Like dead fish fricasseed in sewer water." Horatio Wilkes is visiting his friend Hamilton Prince in Denmark, but the sulfurous air created by the Elsinore Paper Plant isn't the only thing that smells fishy. Hamilton's father is dead, and Hamilton's mother just married Hamilton's uncle. Horatio detects murder, but the killer is harder to determine when there are several possible suspects and motives. Can Horatio figure out whodunit before anyone else falls prey to rotten deeds?

Michael wants nothing more than to be Sir[ital Sir] Michael. But the knighthood has been dead for two hundred years, his squire is a rogue named Fisk, and his damsel in distress turns out to be an escaped murderess. As Michael says, "The life of a knight errant wasn't quite what I had expected." However, when Michael and Fisk set out on quest involving angry sheriffs, cudgel-crewers, and magical beasts, the knight and his squire could finally live out their own legendary adventure-or die trying.

"And westward we do thunder," says Jacky Faber. On the run from the British authorities, west is the only way she can go. As she heads along the Allegheny River to the Ohio and finally captains a riverboat down the mighty Mississippi, Jacky makes friends and enemies with a wild assortment of larger-than-life characters who introduce her to tall tales, folk songs, and frontier adventures. But as Jacky approaches New Orleans, she wonders how her darling Jaimy will ever find her.

What's to be done when the dearly departed refuse to depart? In these ten stories, which take place in a variety of historical and contemporary settings, the dead refuse to stay buried. They return to haunt the living, deliver warnings, and settle scores from beyond the grave. This anthology features the work of some of today's most popular young adult authors, including Chris Wooding, Libba Bray, and M. T. Anderson. Includes a short author'snote for each story.

Seeker has grown more powerful than he ever dreamed possible-perhaps too powerful. Some of the Nomana want to "cleanse" him and erase all that he has learned. Others believe he is the last and only hope to save their one true god. As an old enemy and a fearsome new warlord team up to launch a final assault on the Nomana's home of Anacrea, Seeker is not sure where the real threat lies. Is it from the outside or from within Anacrea itself?

As if getting dumped isn't embarrassing enough, Jen also has to deal with a humiliating gift from her grandmother: The Breakup Bible, a cliché-ridden heap of self-help nonsense. It might be fine for getting over an arrogant, thoughtless slob, but Max is wonderful. So wonderful that Jen can't stop thinking about him, especially since he's her editor at the school paper. When Jen sees him with another girl, will she finally be reduced to following The Breakup Bible's advice?

The Woolworth Building isn't the first skyscraper fourteen-year-old Peak Marcello has climbed, but this time he's caught and arrested. Now his father-who has always been more interested in climbing than in his son- suddenly arrives in New York and bargains with the judge to take Peak out of the country until the publicity dies down. Before long, Peakis at base camp on Mt. Everest, where his father is leading an expedition. Of course, Peak is interested in climbing to the summit, but what's in it for his father?

For the first time since becoming a samurai, Seikei, a sixteen-year-old living in eighteenth-century Japan, is heading home to Osaka. His reunion with his family is interrupted by two murders at the puppet theater. When the lazy magistrate arrests aninnocent man, Seikei vows to find the real killer, questioning the puppeteers and chasing down a group of charismatic smugglers. As he digs deeper into the mystery, Seikei begins to suspect that his own brother and sister may be involved.

When Uncle Victor whisks Sym away to Paris, she is delighted. He's been so kind and attentive, preparing her a special diet, teaching her all about advanced science and the Antarctic, and taking good care of her and Mum ever since her father died. When the short jaunt turns into a surprise trip to Antarctica, Sym is even more thrilled at the chance to visit the final resting place of her secret confidant, the doomed polar explorer Titus Oates. But the trip soon becomes a struggle against a deadly wilderness and a lunatic's ambitions.

Eighteen-year-old Nadira is spoiled goods, beaten for a crime that her older brother allegedly committed and left with a moon-shaped scar that only her youngest brother, Umar, finds beautiful. When Uncle Rubel secretly sells Umar to smugglers who intend to use him as a camel rider, Nadira follows him to the desert and becomes a camel rider herself. Her only protection against the brutal life she finds in the smugglers' camp are a bit of chai tea and the legendary stories of Shahrazad. Author's note.

"Secretly, I admit, I find many of my classmates annoying. I've often thought to myself, 'Good grief, these people are five-year-olds. Why must I spend my day amongst them?' But have I ever said such things aloud? No. I have been nothing but generous to them, and have kept these thoughts to myself. And how have they repaid me? Have they been grateful or kind? Ho NO!" Bindy Mackenzie, academic superstar, is surprised when she learns that someone wants to kill her. She's the only one.

When Mary "Jacky" Faber returns to the Lawson Peabody School for Girls, she has more trouble fitting in than ever. Then a school field trip goes awry, and Jacky finds herself trapped on a slave ship with her classmates. Jacky has survived the streets of London, pirates, finishing school, and the Battle of Trafalgar-but can she get thirty teenage girls to listen to someone they've branded a "shameless hussy"?

Never talk back. Fear is good. Pretend you're having fun, even when you aren't. These are some of the rules that Matt has learned about living with Nicole Marie O'Grady Walsh, his often neglectful, sometimes sadistic, always unpredictable mother. At thirteen, Matt is used to protecting his younger sisters from the worst of Nikki's moods and knows better than to ask any adults for help. Then one night, a man named Murdoch appears in his life, and Matt starts to hope that there is a way out.

Seventeen-year-old Sissy and her younger brother, Boy, have been shuffled from one foster home to another for most of their lives. Now they're with Aunt Lannie and Uncle Daddy, trash collectors whose lives are filled with "old moldy bread, an oozing apple core / green iridescent meat & maggot stink." Can Sissy take the trash that surrounds her and turn it into treasure?

"Nothing bad could happen to Justin Case because he did not exist." Average schoolboy David Case becomes convinced that he's doomed, and devises a plan to elude Fate by changing his identity. But as Justin Case-a brooding track star who hangs out with beautiful older women and has an imaginary dog-David finds it difficult to remain anonymous for long.

Bo Marsten is falsely accused of starting an epidemic at school by the sniveling rival for his girlfriend. In this satire of a safety-obsessed future, that's enough to get Bo sent away to a forced-labor pizza factory on the tundra. He's picked by the sadistic warden to play on an illegal football team, where winners get early parole and losers become polar bear food. Bo's only hope for escape is an artificial intelligence program he developed for class that's taken on a mind of its own.

Last year, slacker Evan Macalister flew to France, protected his father and friends Ruben and Erika from an evil plot, and saved the world. This year, all he wants to do is have fun. When Evan's tightwad father unexpectedly takes a weeklong trip and leaves Evan with five hundred dollars, he decides to throw a huge party-but on the eve of the big night, Evan gets a phone call telling him that his father and friends are in danger again.

Seventeen-year-old Sasha has a secret: She can see the future. In England during World War I, however, Sasha's gift is a terrible burden. Working in the wards as a nurse, Sasha is beset with premonitions of the battlefields where the soldiers she tends to will die. When her beloved brother Thomas begins to appear in her visions, she makes her way to the front lines to try to save his life.

"I speak carefully, separating each syllable. If I take my time and people pay attention, I'm not that hard to understand." Despite her cerebral palsy, Jean has led a pretty normal life. She excels at her regular high school and hangs out with normal kids. Then, when she is seventeen, she spends ten days at Camp Courage, a summer camp for disabled kids. There she meets Sarah, an outspoken and political girl who makes Jean reconsider whether "normal" is what she really wants to be.

Seeker desperately wants to join his older brother, Blaze, in the Nomana, an elite band of warrior-monks who live and train on his island home. Just when he turns sixteen and is old enough to apply, though, his brother is publicly humiliated and cast out of the order. Convinced that there's been a mistake, Seeker sets off to find the truth and clear Blaze's name. On his way, he meets Morning Star, a girl with secret powers, and Wildman, a violent river bandit-two outsiders on quests of their own.

Marie Curie was born in Poland, the youngest daughter in a poor family suffering under Russian rule. She was a brilliant student and graduated at the top of her high school class-but had to wait eight years before saving enough money to attend the Sorbonne in Paris. There, she devoted her life to scientific research, overcoming poverty and sexism to make one of the most significant discoveries of the twentieth century. Source notes. Bibliography. Recommended Web sites. Index.

When Penn Swayne starts to hear other people's thoughts, his mother insists it's schizophrenia. Penn is not so sure. The voices in his head-of his world-weary parents, his jaded algebra teacher, his lonely neighbor-seem so real. Then Uncle Hewitt tells him a secret: What Penn has is not an illness but a gift. Author's note.

On a cold November morning in 1811, a stable boy named Adam is conscripted into Napoleon's Grande Armée, the "invincible" force that is about to march across Europe to conquer Russia. Adam suffers under a sadistic sergeant until an aristocratic young lieutenant requisitions him as his personal valet. A surprising friendship flourishes and the war that introduces Adam to so many terrible things also shows him the possibility of a happier life.

Before Miranda was born she was promised to the goblins. Her mother resented the bargain and treated her cruelly. Miranda found her only solace in visits from the goblin king, who secretly taught her the goblin language and promised she'd grow up to marry a king, his son. Then on her wedding day Miranda gets devastating news: Her fiancé will marry someone else.

"It had now been four days since Mitchell John Blake had inhaled the particles of a smallpox scab." While researching the lethal virus for a term paper, Mitty discovers an envelope in an old book-with 102-year-old smallpox scabs inside. Could he be infected? If he is going to spare his beloved New York City from an epidemic, Mitty has to act fast. Author's note. Sources.

Sixteen-year-old Serena is half Gorgio, and half Yulang, but neither race accepts her. To the ruling class Gorgio, she is just another Yulang. To the gypsy-like Yulang, she is an outcast-shunned because her sister had a child out of wedlock. A run-in with a cruel Gorgio child welfare agent ends with her niece in custody and Serena on the run from thelaw. She turns to the Yulang for help, but first she must redeem herself in their eyes.

He is known in legend as the traitor who betrayed King Arthur and destroyed Camelot. Sir Mordred, however, was once a great Knight of the Round Table whose exploits have been lost to history-until now. Mordred rescues Kiera, a young enchantress kidnapped for her power to see the future, and helps Nimue, Merlin's former lover, defeat an evil wizard. Against the backdrop of a Camelot in decline, a complex, enigmatic, and ultimately tragic Mordred is revealed.

Jacky Faber has been a ship's boy and a midshipman in the British Royal Navy, and has attempted to become a lady at a finishing school in Boston. Now she returns to London to look for Jaimy, her true love. She dresses as a boy so that she can travel unescorted, but when she sees him with another girl she dashes away brokenhearted. Suddenly she is snatched by a press gang and taken aboard a British Naval ship run by a lecherous captain.

Evan Macalister's father is a millionaire but refuses to give his son any money. To get some spending cash, Evan steals equipment from his father's office and sells it on eBay. When Evan's father is framed for murder, Evan has only two choices: He can submit some evidence that might save his father but incriminate himself, or he and his two best friends can set off for Paris to find the mysterious man named Lubchenko who may be able to help them.

It is 1741. Someone is setting fires in New York City. Before long, slaves are being held responsible and accused of planning to revolt. Fourteen-year-old Phoebe, one of Assemblyman Philipse's slaves, bears witness to the mass hysteria that ensues as slaves make false confessions and point fingers at others to save themselves. Based on historical events. Author's note.

Like all Israeli youth, Valérie has been drafted into the army. But even though she's waking up at 4 A.M., wearing fatigues, and learning how to shoot an automatic rifle, Valérie still has civilian matters on her mind, such as the latest films and her ex-boyfriend in Jerusalem. This true account of life in the Israeli army chronicles Valérie's experiences in basic training and as an intelligence specialist.

Can Adam, a tongue-tied slacker, win the heart of Louisa, the beautiful Employee of the Month? Should Rahel lie to her traditional Muslim family and her husband-to-be about what she does at work? Is that pasta really 97-percent fat free? In these interconnected stories set in the aisles of a supermarket, drama and intrigue abound.

The buzz at Carceras High is that a teacher stole the prom funds, and the dance is off. Ashley, a jaded senior who considers herself too cool for school (and way too cool for dances) reluctantly agrees to help her best friend save the prom. Somehow, while juggling prom committee, a wacky family, a humiliating job at the EZ-CHEEZ-E, the ups and downs of first love, and a growing list of detentions-she starts to believe in herself.

In a dying Australian town, high school dropout Satchel O'Rye helps to keep his family afloat by drifting from one small carpentry job to the next. When he spies a supposedly extinct animal at the base of a nearby mountain, Satchel slowly comes to realize that the discovery could change his life.

Fifteen-year-old Annie Sinclair feels the North has no right to criticize the South for owning slaves, especially since racism abounds in the free states. When the Civil War comes to her farm in northern Virginia, Annie risks her life to help the South, even as her brothers are drawn into battle and her mother falls ill. Meanwhile, a bond with a handsome Union soldier helps Annie to see that there is right and wrong on both sides. Author's note. Bibliography. Time line. by Laura Malone Elliott

This Cinderella retelling is set in rural China during the Ming Dynasty. Stepmother forces Xing Xing to work all day while she grooms her own daughter, Wei Ping, for marriage. This means binding Wei Ping's feet, a painful ritual which Stepmother believes will make her more attractive to suitors. Xing Xing is sympathetic, but she is also lonely. A spiritual connection to her mother gives her the confidence to find happiness. Postscript.

Francesca Spinelli is a new student at St. Sebastian's, a formerly all-boys' school. Surrounded by hundreds of indifferent boys and a few oddball girls, Francesca longs for last year--when she knew where she belonged. As she struggles to find her way, her mother, who has always been the driving force in the family, inexplicably stops getting up in the morning. Things seem hopeless until Francesca makes some unlikely new friends.

Marco is excited--and nervous--about finally being old enough to accompany Papá across the U.S.-Mexico border to find work. Maya looks forward to the school dance, but first she must convince her strict Kazakh parents to let her go. Ameen knows he can play just as well as his team's star quarterback--if only his teammates would give him a chance. Ten authors, including Pam Muñoz Ryan and Rita Williams-Garcia, write stories about teenagers whose American lives are colored by their ties to other cultures. Scheduled Shipping Date: 2004/11

Thomas Peaceful has looked up to his older brother, Charlie, for as long as he can remember. Even when their relationship suffers from jealousy, Thomas does not hesitate to follow his brother to the battlefield during World War I. Tonight, however, Thomas is alone as he stands watch at the edge of no-man's land, counting the hours until dawn and the moment when an unavoidable tragedy will change his life forever. Postscript. Author's note.

After Midshipman Jacky Faber is revealed to be a girl, she is forced to leave the HMS Dolphin. Jacky enrolls in a finishing school in Boston, hoping to become a lady. She tries hard to fit in with the other girls, but her high spirits get her into trouble, and the headmistress expels her. Distraught but not discouraged, Jacky works as a maid at the school while she tries to figure out how to get back to England.

The Gold sisters-Brooks, May, and Palmer-find their world shattered when their father dies while sitting in the garage at the wheel of his beloved Pontiac Firebird. In the year that follows, as Brooks drinks and Palmer withdraws, sixteen-year-old May is forced to shoulder her sisters' responsibilities even as she copes with high school, driving lessons, and an unexpected romance.

Music can provide emotional release, be a creative outlet, and offer solace to those who listen to and play it. These twelve stories invite readers to consider the many powerful effects that music can have on members of a high school band, a Native American boy who cannot find his musical voice, and other teens. Authors include Joseph Bruchac, David Levithan, and Sarah Ellis.

"Some people probably waste a lot of time wondering if they are destined to lead fabulous and exciting lives. I am not one of those people." Jan Miller is a high school senior contending with college applications, embarrassing parents, complicated crushes and a best friend who has been named a "New York 'It Girl' " by Chic magazine. While Jan's real life often falls short of her fantasies, she is about to discover that being a self-declared "Not It Girl" can sometimes have its advantages.

Josie Taylor was born on Leap Day, and today, February 29, officially her "fourth" birthday, she turns sixteen. Josie celebrates with her family, takes the driver's test, tries out for the school play, competes in the annual sophomore scavenger hunt, and nervously anticipates an evening sweet-sixteen initiation hosted by close friends. Chapters that alternate between Josie's point of view and those closest to her allow the reader to leap into the minds of all concerned as many secrets are revealed.

When Lord Inaba is murdered, Judge Ooka, the legendary Samurai official, investigates the crime. The only evidence left behind by the assassin is a blood-stained origami butterfly. Judge Ooka sends fourteen-year-old Seikei, his eager protégé and adoptive son, and an unwilling companion, Tatsuno, a skilled ninja, on a mission to search for clues. Set in eighteenth-century