On May 18, 1860, William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase, Edward Bates, and Abraham Lincoln waited in their hometowns for the results from the Republican National Convention in Chicago. When Lincoln emerged as the victor, his rivals were dismayed and angry.

Throughout the turbulent 1850s, each had energetically sought the presidency as the conflict over slavery was leading inexorably to secession and civil war. That Lincoln succeeded was the result of a character that had been forged by life experiences that raised him above his more privileged and accomplished rivals. He won because hepossessed an extraordinary ability to put himself in the place of other men, to experience what they were feeling, to understand their motives and desires.

This capacity enabled President Lincoln to bring his disgruntled opponents together, create the most unusual cabinet in history, and marshal their talents to preserve the Union and win the war.

I don’t get my hands on ARCs very often, but occasionally my friends in the colleciton development and children’s departments will send something along–possibly because I beg, and possibly because they know I’m particularly looking forward to something. Such was the case with The Enemy by Charlie Higson (author of the Young Bond series). This one was released in May, so I got to read it just a bit early. It should be available at your local library by now, and I’m thinking it will be pretty popular with anyone who enjoyed The Hunger Games.

London. Could be the near future, could be now. Most adults have succumbed to a wasting, terrible disease, leaving the city’s children to fend for themselves. This is complicated by the fact that some of the adults have turned in to zombie-like creatures who survive by eating the children. Some kids have found each other and banded together, living in supermarkets, parks, and any other safe place they can find, trying to forage for food and stay one step ahead of the grownups. Some groups are bigger than others, some are having better luck finding food and fighting for their lives than others. Can society be rebuilt? Do they want it to be?

The Enemy follows some of the kids as they fight for their survival. Two rival factions who have been living in different grocery stores come together to make their way across the city when they are told of a refuge and much better life at Buckingham Palace. Their journey across London is full of action and peril. One kid who was dragged off by the grownups manages to escape them, and we also follow him as he is on his own, learning that the grownups he fears are not the only danger in the city. Rival leaders, different ideas about what the right thing is, and hard decisions are inescapable. This book is fast paced, action packed, and no one is truly safe. You’ll be left rooting for these kids to survive and figure out what they’re going to do next (and while this book does have an ending, there’s lots of room left for a sequel). Zombie, apocalypse, and survival lovers, get your hands on The Enemy!
From Guys Lit Wire
http://guyslitwire.blogspot.com/2010/06/enemy.html

Fans of The Twilight Saga will be enthralled by this riveting story of Bree Tanner, a character first introduced in Eclipse, and the darker side of the newborn vampire world she inhabits. In another irresistible combination of danger, mystery, and romance, Stephenie Meyer tells the devastating story of Bree and the newborn army as they prepare to close in on Bella Swan and the Cullens, following their encounter to its unforgettable conclusion.

Train.

Car.

Plane.

Boat.

Feet.

He’ll get there.

Won’t he?

Ry is traveling by Amtrak train to a summer  ArcheoTrails camp. If only he had opened his mail before he left the house. If he had, then he would have read, “Do not come to camp. There is no camp. Camp is a concept that no longer exists in a real place or time.” Of course, Ry finally realizes the camp has been canceled after he’s left home and traveled halfway across the country by train. He tries to call home. No cell reception. He jumps off the train at the next stop. He runs up a hill for better cell reception. No luck.  He turns around just in time to see the train pulling away from the station with his stuff still on board. Can Ry make it home? What else could possibly go wrong?

“Relentlessly entertaining…an absolute delight.” Booklist (starred review)

Happyface is a nerdy, shy, artistic high school sophomore.  When tragedy strikes his family, he is forced to move to a dumpy apartment with his mother and attend a new high school. Determined to make a fresh start,  Happyface becomes the class clown. “Yes, I’m the cool guy.  The big shot.  The one girls geek out to.  That’s me.  Happyface.”  Written in journal form, Happyface is filled with pencil-and-ink sketches, doodles and comics.  So, can Happyface keep up the act? Will his new school see him for the dork he is?

“The illustrations range from comics to more fleshed-out drawings. Just like Happyface’s writing, they can be whimsical, thoughtful, boyishly sarcastic, off-the-cuff, or achingly beautiful.” Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Ok everyone, I have added a couple of links, over on the right there, to LibraVox and Project Gutenberg.  Each on offers free editions of books in the public domain.  LibraVox specializes in the audio formats, and Project Gutenberg has mostly text ebooks, along with some audio ebooks as well.

Have fun finding some of your favorites!

Twelve-year-old Percy Jackson is about to be kicked out of boarding school . . . again. No matter how hard he tries, he can’t seem to stay out of trouble. But can he really be expected to stand by and watch while a bully picks on his scrawny best friend? Or not defend himself against his pre-algebra teacher when she turns into a monster and tries to kill him? Of course, no one believes Percy about the monster incident; he’s not even sure he believes himself.

Until the Minotaur chases him to summer camp.

Suddenly, mythical creatures seem to be walking straight out of the pages of Percy’s Greek mythology textbook and into his life. The gods of Mount Olympus, he’s coming to realize, are very much alive in the twenty-first century. And worse, he’s angered a few of them: Zeus’s master lightning bolt has been stolen, and Percy is the prime suspect.

Now Percy has just ten days to find and return Zeus’s stolen property, and bring peace to a warring Mount Olympus. On a daring road trip from their summer camp in New York to the gates of the Underworld in Los Angeles, Percy and his friends–one a satyr and the other the demigod daughter of Athena–will face a host of enemies determined to stop them. To succeed on his quest, Percy will have to do more than catch the true thief: he must come to terms with the father who abandoned him; solve the riddle of the Oracle, which warns him of failure and betrayal by a friend; and unravel a treachery more powerful than the gods themselves.

The seventh son of the seventh son, aptly named Septimus Heap, is stolen the night he is born by a midwife who pronounces him dead. That same night, the baby’s father, Silas Heap, comes across a bundle in the snow containing a new born girl with violet eyes. The Heaps take this helpless newborn into their home, name her Jenna, and raise her as their own. But who is this myster ious baby girl, and what really happened to their beloved son Septimus?

The first book in this enthralling new series by Angie Sage leads readers on a fantastic journey filled with quirky characters and magykal charms, potions, and spells. magyk is an original story of lost and rediscovered identities, rich with humor and heart.

Book #2 Flyte

Book #3 Physik

Book #4 Queste

Book #5 Syren

The year is 1902—it’s been twenty-three years since Peter and the Lost Boys returned from Rundoon. Since then, nobody on the island has grown a day older, and the Lost Boys continue their friendship with the Mollusk tribe and their rivalry with Captain Hook. Meanwhile, in London, Molly has married George Darling and is raising three children: Wendy, Michael, and John. One night, a visitor appears at her door; it’s James, one of Peter’s original Lost Boys. He is now working for Scotland Yard and suspects that the heir to England’s throne, Prince Albert Edward, is under the influence of shadow creatures. These shadow creatures are determined to find a secret cache of starstuff, which fell to London many centuries ago. The starstuff is hidden in an underground vault, which has only one key: the Sword of Mercy, a legendary weapon kept with the crown jewels. Molly is determined to locate and protect, but when she suddenly goes missing, it is up to her eleven-year-old daughter, Wendy, to keep it out of the Others’ clutches. Wendy has heard her mother’s stories of a flying boy named Peter Pan, and he may be her only hope of saving the world from a shadowy doom. . . .

Who knows where the time goes?

There never seems to be enough time in Kinvara, or anywhere else in Ireland for that matter. When J.J.’s mother says that what she really wants for her birthday is more time in her day, J.J. decides to find her some. But how can he find time for her, when he barely has enough time to keep up with school and his music? And where will he get time to find out if the shocking rumor is true—that his great-grandfather was a murderer?

It seems as though J.J.’s given himself an impossible task. But then a neighbor reveals a secret to him—there is a place where time stands still. J.J. realizes he’s the only person who can make the journey, but to do so he’ll have to vanish from his own life.

And when J.J. disappears from the village, enter the new policeman. . . .