Jaffy leaves behind his life on the streets of 19th century London for an adventure to the Pacific Islands aboard a whaling ship in search of a mythical - yet far too real - dragon in this enormously satisfying novel of friendship, survival, and redemption.
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Imagine if Willie Wonka had been a video-game designer. Now imagine a world in which most people spend their time as avatars in a virtual reality. The founder of this virtual reality leaves his fortune to the first to win a contest, comprised of puzzles and tasks based on 1980s popular culture. Three teens compete to win against an evil conglomerate.
Alternate chapters weave Victoria's past as a foster child and her present as a semi-homeless 18-year-old. Victoria finds her first job in a florist shop, putting to use the language of flowers she first learned from her only real family, the foster mother she lost 10 years earlier.
The Magician King by Lev Grossman
Fillory is a magical utopia. With little for a monarch to do, Quentin goes on a quest. Alternating chapters relate his old friend Julia's backstory. While the king enjoys life at Brakebills, Julia learns magic on the streets. Her journey is powerful and horrifying in this followup to The Magicians.
Alice Bliss by Laura Harrington
Alice's idyllic small-town life is interrupted when her father's army reserve unit is called up for active duty in Iraq. After he is declared missing in action, she turns to her best friend, the boy next door, for support.
Le Cirque des Rêves appears without warning on the outskirts of cities around the world. Only open at night, it is filled with magic and theater, each tent a sensory experience, manipulated and sustained by two young people locked in a mysterious competition.
Swamplandia! by Karen Russell
Mere months after their mother dies, the Bigtree family's alligator-wrestling theme park and cafe, Swamplandia!, goes out of business, sending the abandoned siblings on individual perilous journeys away from home in this dazzling, affecting, funny novel.
Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson
In this artificial intelligence blockbuster, the heroic actions of a handful of characters are told in the form of briefing reports recovered after the Robot Wars that nearly exterminated humanity. This format with its emphasis on survival in battle and full-throttle action will appeal particularly to those who enjoy science-gone-wrong thrillers.Kimberly
From School Library Journal
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