Another entry in a beloved series about a high school Everygirl, the follow-up to a novel about two very different characters and their unlikely attraction, and the gripping sequel to a futuristic science fiction thriller are books teens will want to get their hands on.



In Incredibly Alice, the twenty-sixth book in Phyllis Reynolds Naylor’s Alice series, Naylor works toward a major milestone in her beloved character’s life — high school graduation. There are plenty of hurdles to jump before that event, not the least of which is a familiar rite of passage for high school seniors — the wait for college acceptance letters. Alice fans will see her through this installment’s tumult of emotions as Alice attempts to sort out who she is and what she wants. (12 years and up) 

Ron Koertge revisits the appealing odd couple from Stoner and Spaz in Now Playing: Stoner & Spaz II. High-school filmmaker Ben is freshly wounded by another flake-out by on-again/off-again girlfriend Colleen, who ditched his debut documentary’s gala opening to be with her dealer ex-boyfriend. Ben is powerfully attracted to heavily tattooed and super hot Colleen, the first girl to look past his cerebral palsy, despite the promises he knows she can’t keep. These two dramatically different but equally hurting teens give one another something each desperately needs. Readers will be pulling for them despite the odds. (12 years and up) 

Mary E. Pearson’s The Fox Inheritance is set 260 years after the accident that allegedly killed Locke and Kara in The Adoration of Jenna Fox. But Locke and Kara aren’t actually dead: their minds were copied by the scientist father of their best friend, Jenna Fox, whose illegal resurrection was the focus of the previous book. When their minds fall into the hands of an unethical scientist, the two are restored to new, improved bodies and they escape into an alien future world. Through Locke, we experience the confusing futuristic world, a suspenseful chase, the emotional reunion with Jenna, and the complex playing out of the issues of trust, ethics, and betrayal. (12 years and up) 

—Kitty Flynn

From Notes from the Horn Book, August 2011