BREAKING DAWN by Stephenie Meyer (Horror/Romance)
Pulled in one direction by her intense passion for vampire Edward Cullen, and in another by her profound connection to werewolf Jacob Black, a tumultuous year of temptation, loss and strife have led Bella Swan to the ultimate turning point. Her imminent choice to either join the dark but seductive world of immortals or to pursue a fully human life has become the thread from which the fates of two tribes hang. Now that Bella has made her decision, a startling chain of unprecedented events is about to unfold with potentially devastating, and unfathomable, consequences. Reviewed by Norah Piehl.

» Click here to read our review of BREAKING DAWN.
» Visit the official website of the Twilight series, www.TheTwilightSaga.com.

Emily and Sarah Buder, and Barbara Coloroso
In LETTERS TO A BULLIED GIRL, Olivia and the Buder sisters share an inspiring selection of messages that arrived from across America --- the personal, often painful remembrances of former targets, remorseful bullies and sympathetic bystanders. LETTERS TO A BULLIED GIRL examines our national bullying epidemic from a variety of angles and perspectives, and includes practical guidance from bullying expert Barbara Coloroso, author of THE BULLY, THE BULLIED, AND THE BYSTANDER. Though addressed to Olivia, the letters speak to all young people who have been bullied, offer advice and hope to those who suffer, and provide a wake-up call to all who have ever been involved in bullying.

» Read the interview and the review.

LETTERS TO A BULLIED GIRL: Messages of Healing and Hope, written by Olivia Gardner with Emily and Sarah Buder, and Barbara Coloroso (Self-Help)
Olivia Gardner, a northern California teenager, was severely taunted and cyber-bullied by her classmates for more than two years. News of her bullying spread, eventually reaching two teenage girls from a neighboring town, sisters Emily and Sarah Buder. The girls were so moved by Olivia's story that they initiated a letter-writing campaign to help lift her spirits. It was a tender gesture of solidarity that set off an overwhelming chain reaction of support, encouragement and love.

In LETTERS TO A BULLIED GIRL, Olivia and the Buder sisters share an inspiring selection of messages that arrived from across America --- the personal, often painful remembrances of former targets, remorseful bullies and sympathetic bystanders. LETTERS TO A BULLIED GIRL examines our national bullying epidemic from a variety of angles and perspectives, and includes practical guidance from bullying expert Barbara Coloroso, author of THE BULLY, THE BULLIED, AND THE BYSTANDER. Though addressed to Olivia, the letters speak to all young people who have been bullied, offer advice and hope to those who suffer, and provide a wake-up call to all who have ever been involved in bullying

» Click here to read a review of LETTERS TO A BULLIED GIRL.
» Click here to read an excerpt from LETTERS TO A BULLIED GIRL.
» Click here to read our interview with Emily and Sarah Buder, and Barbara Coloroso.
» Click here to see bios of Olivia Gardner and Emily and Sarah Buder.

The Clique Summer Collection

CLAIRE: The Clique Summer Collection #5 by Lisi Harrison (Fiction)
After returning to Florida for the summer, Claire Lyons's vacation isn't the roaring good time she had hoped it would be. Her Florida friends make catty remarks about her and the Westchester Pretty Committee, especially Massie. The one ray of hope for the summer is Kissimmee's annual Miss Kiss pageant. But when competition heats up, friendship and loyalty are put to the test. Reviewed by Donna Volkenannt.

» Click here to read The Clique series feature.

You don’t need to be a diehard fan of the Twilight series to figure out the major highlight of August’s Cool New Books roundup. The publisher estimates that an astounding 1.3 million copies of BREAKING DAWN, the fourth and final book in Stephenie Meyer's vampire love saga, were sold on August 2nd after being released at 12:01 a.m. Although not coming anywhere close to achieving such astronomical numbers, the titles in this month's feature are sure to captivate and entertain readers just as much. They include IDENTICAL by Ellen Hopkins, the story of a father's twisted obsession for one of his twin daughters; THE GHOSTS OF KERFOL, an enthralling work of Gothic suspense from Deborah Noyes; CLAIRE, the last entry in Lisi Harrison's Clique Summer Collection; and ALL WE KNOW OF LOVE, Nora Raleigh Baskin's young adult debut about a girl who journeys through love and loss to find her mother --- and discovers that everyone has a story to tell, including herself. » Click here

August’s roundup of New in Paperback titles includes AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES by John Green, the story of a child prodigy who has been dumped by 19 girls named Katherine; ENDYMION SPRING, Matthew Skelton's debut work of fiction in which an unlikely hero finds a long-lost book with the power to change the world; NAOMI AND ELY'S NO KISS LIST, the second collaboration between Rachel Cohn and David Levithan following NICK & NORAH'S INFINITE PLAYLIST; SONG OF THE SPARROW by Lisa Ann Sandell, a brilliant, gripping retelling of Arthurian legend; and DOES MY HEAD LOOK BIG IN THIS?, Randa Abdel-Fattah's funny and poignant first novel about a girl who decides to embrace her faith and all that it is, even if it does make her a little different from everyone else. » Click here

THE DANGEROUS DAYS OF DANIEL X by James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge (Science Fiction)
Daniel X is the protector of the earth, the Alien Hunter, with a mission beyond what anyone could imagine. From the day that his parents were brutally murdered, he has used his unique gifts to hunt down their assassin. Finally, with the help of The List bequeathed to him in his parents' dying breath, he has located the killer. Now, on his own, he vows to take on his father's mission --- and to have vengeance in the process. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub and excerpted.

BLACK RABBIT SUMMER by Kevin Brooks (Mystery)
In this eerily suspenseful thriller, Pete and his old buddies get together for one more night. Their reunion leads to hurt feelings, resentment and disequilibrium --- not to mention missing persons, police investigations, murder and the uncovering of exceedingly dark secrets. Readers should hang on tight and prepare for an unsettling but irresistible ride. Reviewed by Terry Miller Shannon and excerpted.

CRUEL SUMMER by Alyson Noël (Fiction)
Having recently discarded her dorky image --- and the best friend who went with it --- Colby Cavendish is looking forward to a long hot season of parties, beach barbeques and, hopefully, more hookups with Levi Bonham, the hottest guy in school. But her world comes crashing down when her parents send her away to spend the summer in Greece with her crazy aunt Tally. Reviewed by Amy Alessio and excerpted.

STOP IN THE NAME OF PANTS!: Confessions of Georgia Nicolson #9 by Louise Rennison (Fiction)
Three maybe-boyfriends is a lot for any girl to handle --- red-bottomed or not. Robbie the Sex God is back from Kiwi-a-gogo land wanting to "get coffee", Masimo the Luuurve God says things like "Ciao, Georgia, see you later" and her mate Dave the Laugh snogs her in a pond. It's enough to make any girl mad. Now that she has tearfully eschewed Robbie the Sex God with a firm hand, Georgia is left with two potential snoggees to choose from. Reviewed by Sarah Hannah Gómez and excerpted.

THE MIDNIGHT TWINS by Jacquelyn Mitchard (Mystery)
Meredith and Mallory Brynn are identical twins who even share the same dreams --- that is, until recently. Now Mallory's dreams are predicting the future, and Meredith dreams of the past. It sounds like an awesome talent to have, but then the dreams begin to reveal frightening, evil deeds performed by someone they know. Interfering could possibly save a life but would most definitely endanger their own. Reviewed by Chris Shanley-Dillman.

THE GHOSTS OF KERFOL by Deborah Noyes (Gothic Suspense/Short Stories)
A beautiful young woman is accused of murdering her jealous husband when he is found dead on the stairs of his ancestral home. His body has been savaged by dogs, though there are no living canines at Kerfol. THE GHOSTS OF KERFOL reveals revenants and reverberations of these events in five new tales based on Edith Wharton's ghostly classic. Reviewed by Sarah A. Wood.

THE EYES OF A KING by Catherine Banner (Fantasy)
Fifteen-year-old Leo North's prospects in life are limited. He attends military school, lives with his fearful grandmother and looks after his brother Stirling. He resists his innate powers, because those who demonstrate any sort of magical ability are considered enemies of the state. But when he finds a blank book in the snow, his typical indifference melts away. Reviewed by Sarah Sawtelle.

DREAM GIRL by Lauren Mechling (Fiction)
Claire Voyante has had strange visions ever since she was little. They never led to anything but silly stuff, like imagining her brother holding an umbrella with a frog on it and then later actually seeing him with that same umbrella. But on her 15th birthday everything changes when Claire's fashionista grandmother Kiki gives her a special black-and-white onyx cameo necklace. Reviewed by Kristi Olson.

SHADOWS IN THE TWILIGHT by Henning Mankell (Fiction)
Joe will soon be 12, and he thinks nothing is going on in the small community where he lives. But he's wrong. One day, an incident that could easily have been a catastrophe turns into a miracle. Now Joel believes he owes the world a good deed, to prove that he deserved what might have been divine intervention. Reviewed by Amy Alessio.

THE POSSIBILITIES OF SAINTHOOD by Donna Frietas (Fiction)
Fifteen-year-old Antonia has two great goals in her life so far. First, she wants to become the first living saint in the history of the Catholic Church, and she diligently writes to the Pope every month to make suggestions in areas that are lacking saint representation. Her second goal is to finally get her first real romantic kiss. Reviewed by Chris Shanley-Dillman.

Welcome to Teenreads.com's Japanese manga section! Japanese manga, or Japanese print comics, are fast becoming the most popular comics for teens. Full of wacky humor, intense action, blossoming romance and true observations on everyday life, manga covers every kind of genre and taste. Manga tells their stories in their own unique combination of text, images and symbols (half the fun is figuring it all out). Aside from the stereotypical giant robots and cute schoolgirls, you'll find everyone from stealth government agents to spacy classical musicians to historical legends brought to life in these titles.

The reviews we're posting are courtesy of the graphic novel review website for teens No Flying No Tights. We update this feature every month with new manga reviews, so be sure to check back to see what's new!

ATOMIC ROBO: Atomic Robo and the Fightin' Scientists of Tesladyne, by Brian Clevinger, Scott Wegener, Ronda Pattison and Jeff Powell
Atomic Robo, a robot created by Nikolas Tesla in 1923, tangles with everything from a marauding pyramid to Nazis. He and his colleagues are just the kind of folks anyone would want to see out there defending us from nefarious inventions. Reviewed by Robin Brenner.

OH MY GOD!, Volume 1 by Natsuho Shino
Yuto's family may have been powerful sorcerers in the past, but the present generation is made up of hacks and charlatans. So imagine Yuto's surprise when not only does he find a god trapped in a sword, he discovers he has the power to set the god free. Reviewed by Eva Volin.

RUNAWAYS: DEAD END KIDS by Joss Whedon, Michael Ryan and Christina Strain
When a heist goes horribly awry, the Runaways end up struggling with the Punisher, Kingpin and ninjas(!). Just when things couldn't get any worse, the time-travel device they were meant to collect activates, and the whole team ends up stranded in 1907. Reviewed by Robin Brenner.

THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY: APOCALYPSE SUITE by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bà
When their harsh adoptive father Hargreeves dies, his funeral is the one thing that will bring all seven superpowered children, once known as the Umbrella Academy, home to pay their respects (or to make sure he's dead). A new threat is already growing, however, and one of their own siblings is smack at the heart of it. Reviewed by Robin Brenner.

BOOKS: A Memoir, by Larry McMurtry (Memoir)
In Larry McMurtry's memoir, the Pulitzer Prize and Academy Award winner describes not his writing life, but his life as a book dealer. For half a century, he has worked as an antiquarian bookseller when not producing bestsellers of his own. BOOKS gives readers a behind-the-scenes look at this little known world of rare books. Reviewed by Tom Callahan.

ROME 1960: The Olympics That Changed the World, by David Maraniss (Sports History)
Critically acclaimed and bestselling author David Marannis, who knows his sports as well as his history and politics, has painted a magnificent portrait of the 1960 Rome Olympics --- the precursor to the modern Olympic Games --- and their place in sports history. Reviewed by Stuart Shiffman.

THE BEST GAME EVER: Giants vs. Colts, 1958, and the Birth of the Modern NFL, by Mark Bowden (Sports)
Whether the December 28, 1958 championship battle between the Baltimore Colts and the New York Giants is the greatest football game ever played is a subject for debate. Regardless of one's view, there is no question that it changed the way Americans viewed professional football. THE BEST GAME EVER recounts in glorious detail that game and many of its participants, a veritable who's who of professional football. Reviewed by Stuart Shiffman.

A FEW SECONDS OF PANIC: A 5-Foot-8, 170-Pound, 43-Year-Old Sportswriter Plays in the NFL, by Stefan Fatsis (Sports)
As players report to training camp for the 2008 National Football League season, sportswriter Stefan Fatsis offers gridiron fans a penetrating and insightful look behind the scenes. He portrays the modern NFL as a multi-billion dollar industry in which players, coaches and owners work towards one goal: winning. Reviewed by Stuart Shiffman.

One of our goals each month is to inspire you to read --- and to keep reading. We have found that required reading lists for school --- especially summer reading lists --- are not exactly inspiring. Thus we have created what we think is the Ultimate Teen Reading List --- close to 300 titles that we believe are perfect choices for reading and discussing. Our dream is that schools will use this list to help them make their own for summer reading or, even better, suggest that students just read what they want from this list.

Just in time for summer, we have added to our list to reflect those books that have been released since our last update in June 2007. Among our most recent additions are THE ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY OF A PART-TIME INDIAN by Sherman Alexie, THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN by Garth Stein, ECLIPSE by Stephenie Meyer, EXTRAS by Scott Westerfeld, MEMOIRS OF A TEENAGE AMNESIAC by Gabrielle Zevin, THE REST OF HER LIFE by Laura Moriarty, THE SECRET BETWEEN US by Barbara Delinsky, THE SWEET FAR THING by Libba Bray, THINGS I WANT MY DAUGHTERS TO KNOW by Elizabeth Noble and WHAT I WAS by Meg Rosoff.

» Click here to see our complete list.

Those of us who weren't quite ready to say goodbye just yet to Bridget, Carmen, Lena, Tibby and their magical pair of jeans are in for a treat this summer, as The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 arrives in theaters on August 6th. This highly anticipated sequel to the 2005 adaptation of Ann Brashares's hugely popular novel is actually based on the fourth and final installment in the series, FOREVER IN BLUE (while showing flashbacks of events from books two and three). Catch up with the famous denim-clad quartet as they tackle new challenges in life and love while moving on to newer, unfamiliar paths toward adulthood.

» Click here for more details about this film.

APPETITE FOR DETENTION written by Sloane Tanen and photographed by Stefan Hagen (Fiction)
How do you like your chicken? In this Monty-Python-meets-Mean-Girls sendup, hilarious and poignant dioramas featuring toy chickens in high school evoke the day-to-day anxieties and dilemmas of a group of teens. Unrequited crushes, unsympathetic gym teachers, schoolyard bullies, unfortunate incidents with self-tanners, squirm-inducing parental behavior --- they're all in this delightful picture book by Sloane Tanen. Reviewed by Usha Reynolds.

» Click here to read a review of APPETITE FOR DETENTION.

Jessica Abel and Matt Madden
Between the two of them, Jessica Abel and Matt Madden have created numerous graphic novels and comic series, including MIRROR, WINDOW, SOUNDTRACK, BLACK CANDY and ODDS OFF. Together, they recently published an instructional guide on writing graphic novels called DRAWING WORDS & WRITING PICTURES, based on classes they teach at Manhattan's School of Visual Arts. In this interview with Teenreads.com's Contributing Editor John Hogan, Abel and Madden explain what inspired them to write this textbook, and highlight what both aspiring cartoonists and artists in general will be able to take away from these lessons. They also describe one of the exercises they conduct with their students that involves creating a comic strip without the use of pictures, share their thoughts on the use of computers over traditional hand-lettering and pen-and-ink techniques, and discuss their future projects --- including what to expect from their next book.

» Read the interview.

Sarah Dessen
Sarah Dessen is the author of eight novels for teens, including SOMEONE LIKE YOU, KEEPING THE MOON, THE TRUTH ABOUT FOREVER, JUST LISTEN and the newly released LOCK AND KEY. In this interview with Teenreads.com's Amy Alessio, Dessen describes what makes the protagonist of her latest work of fiction different from her others, and discusses the ideas of home and family that she presents in the book. She also explains how her Southern roots have affected her writing, how she deals with criticism and rejection, and --- in the absence of sequels --- how she envisions her characters after their stories have ended.

» Read the interview and the review.

Holly Lisle
Though Holly Lisle has written numerous fantasy, science fiction and romance novels for adults, her latest work of fiction, THE RUBY KEY, is the first book in a fantasy series aimed towards younger readers called Moon & Sun. In this interview with Teenreads.com's Sarah Rachel Egelman, Lisle discusses the similarities and differences between writing for the two age groups and describes who and what inspired her to create her main characters and complex plot. She also reveals what aspects of the writing process she found most challenging, talks about the resurgence in popularity of the fantasy genre, and offers advice for young aspiring writers.

» Read the interview and the review.

Cory Doctorow
In this interview, science fiction author Cory Doctorow discusses what inspired LITTLE BROTHER, his first book for young adults, and explains how his concerns about vanishing civil liberties in the face of advancing technology in a post-9/11 society fed the plot of the novel. He also describes some of the seemingly unrealistic technologies featured in the book, elaborates on the story's overall message and reveals what he hopes readers will take away from it.

» Read the interview and the review.

Stephenie Meyer
After writing three installments of the very successful young adult series The Twilight Saga, Stephenie Meyer has penned THE HOST, her stephenie foray into adult fiction. In this interview, Meyer explains what inspired this "science fiction novel for people who don't like science fiction" and shares how she knows her characters are headed in the right direction as she writes them. She also discusses the crossover appeal of her work, describes how much (or how little) the unexpected success of her books has changed her life, and reveals what she has in store for readers who are rooting for Edward and Bella.

» Read the interview and the review.

Christina Meldrum
Lawyer-turned-novelist Christina Meldrum's debut work, MADAPPLE, combines elements of science and faith in a rich and provocative tale about a young woman who is torn from her isolated existence upon the unexpected death of her mother. In this interview, Meldrum discusses how the idea for this book sprung from her interest in the dichotomy between the natural and the supernatural, and explains the unusual circumstances under which her protagonist, Aslaug, was created. She also elaborates on the story's themes of confinement, shares her thoughts on the strengths and limitations of language, and names some of the "smart mysteries" to which she looked for inspiration.

» Read the interview and the review.

Thinking about starting a Book Club? Trying to find new ideas for your Club? Wondering what the heck a Book Club is? Never fear, Teenreads has all the answers to your Book Club questions, and some guides to help you lead a good discussion with your friends. Book Clubs are easy to start and lot of fun, so if you love books, this is for you!

» Click here for more

• July: What book are you planning to take with you on vacation? Name up to three.
  
  
• June: If you wanted to impress people, what book would you carry with you?
  
  
• May: Name up to five books on your "summer catch-up" reading list.
  
  
• Click here for more past questions of the month.
  
  

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