Winter Town by Stephen Emond

Winter Town by Stephen EmondTitle: Winter Town
Author: Stephen Emond
Genre: , , ,
Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: December 5, 2011

Summary (from Goodreads):

Every winter, straight-laced, Ivy League bound Evan looks forward to a visit from Lucy, a childhood pal who moved away after her parent's divorce. But when Lucy arrives this year, she's changed. The former "girl next door" now has chopped dyed black hair, a nose stud, and a scowl. But Evan knows that somewhere beneath the Goth, "Old Lucy" still exists, and he's determined to find her... even if it means pissing her off.
Can opposites attract? Or does growing up mean having to grow apart?

Told from two perspectives, this funny and honest novel by Stephen Emond ( Happyface ) is a unique combination of text, comic strips, and art. It's an indie movie in a book, perfect for the inner outcast and lovelorn nerd in us all.

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Last updated on May 13, 2024

Winter Dreams, Christmas Love by Mary Francis Shura

Winter Dreams, Christmas Love by Mary Francis ShuraTitle: Winter Dreams, Christmas Love
Author: Mary Francis Shura
Genre: , , ,
Publisher: Scholastic
Publication Date: October 1, 1992

Summary (from Goodreads):

Everyone tells her she's crazy to fall in love with Michael. He may be gorgeous, but he's older than Ellen - what could he possibly see in her?

But from the first day she meets him, Ellen can't get Michael out of her mind. She knows he might be dangerous, she knows she might get hurt - but she can't stop wanting him...

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About Mary Francis Shura

Mary Francis Young was born on 23 February 1923 in Pratt, Kansas, the daughter of Jack Fant and Mary Francis (Milstead) Young. When she was very young, her family moved to the Pacific Northwest, where she raised. She studied at Maryville State College. On 24 October 1943, she married Daniel Charles Shura, who died in 1959. They had two children: Marianne Francis Shura (Spraguc) and Daniel Charles Shura. On 8 December 1961, she married Raymond C. Craig, they had a daughter Alice Barrett Craig (Stout), before their divorce.

Since 1960, she wrote over 50 books of various genres: children's adventures and teen-romances as Mary Francis Shura, M. F. Craig, and Meredith Hill; gothic novels as Mary Craig; romance novels as Alexis Hill, Mary Shura Craig and Mary S. Craig; and suspense novels as M. S. Craig.

Her children's novel "The Search for Grissi" received the Carl Sandburg Literary Arts Award in 1985, and she also was nominated to the Young Hoosier Book Award. In 1990, she was elected president of the Mystery Writers of America.

She lived in Hinsdale, Illinois, where her apartment burned on 13 December 1990. At 67, she died of injuries suffered in the fire on 12 January 1991 in Loyola University Medical Burn Center in Maywood.

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Last updated on May 17, 2024

The Sullivan Sisters by Kathryn Ormsbee

The Sullivan Sisters by Kathryn OrmsbeeTitle: The Sullivan Sisters
Author: Kathryn Ormsbee
Genre: , , ,
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Publication Date: June 23, 2020

Summary (from Goodreads):

Time changes things.

That painful fact of life couldn't be truer for the Sullivan sisters. Once, they used to be close, sharing secrets inside homemade blanket castles. Now, life in the Sullivan house means closed doors and secrets left untold.

Fourteen-year-old Murphy, an aspiring magician, is shocked by the death of Siegfried, her pet turtle. Seventeen-year-old Claire is bound for better things than her Oregonian hometown—until she receives a crushing rejection from her dream college. And eighteen-year-old Eileen is nursing a growing addiction in the wake of life-altering news.

Then, days before Christmas, a letter arrives, informing the sisters of a dead uncle and an inheritance they knew nothing about. The news forces them to band together in the face of a sinister family mystery…and, possibly, murder.

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About Kathryn Ormsbee

Kathryn Ormsbee

Kathryn Ormsbee is the author of books for children and young adults, including Tash Hearts Tolstoy and The House in Poplar Wood. Her novels have been critically acclaimed, translated into seven languages, selected for the Indie Next List and Junior Library Guild, and made “best of” lists at Amazon, BuzzFeed, and the Chicago and New York Public Libraries. She lives in Oregon with her wife and their dog, where she writes, podcasts, and composes music.

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Last updated on March 25, 2026

Winterspell by Claire Legrand

Winterspell by Claire LegrandTitle: Winterspell
Author: Claire Legrand
Genre: , ,
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: September 30, 2014

Summary (from Goodreads):

Darkly romantic and entirely enchanting, this reimagining of The Nutcracker from Claire Legrand brims with magic, love, and intrigue. New York Times bestselling author Marissa Meyer (Cinder) says “this is not your grandmother’s Nutcracker tale.”

After her mother is brutally murdered, seventeen-year-old Clara Stole is determined to find out what happened to her. Her father, a powerful man with little integrity, is a notorious New York City gang lord in the syndicate-turned-empire called Concordia. And he isn’t much help.

But there is something even darker than Concordia’s corruption brewing under the surface of the city, something full of vengeance and magic, like the stories Clara’s godfather used to tell her when she was a little girl. Then her father is abducted and her little sister’s life is threatened, and Clara accidentally frees Nicholas from a statue that has been his prison for years. Nicholas is the rightful prince of Cane, a wintry kingdom that exists beyond the city Clara has known her whole life.

When Nicholas and Clara journey together to Cane to retrieve her father, Clara encounters Anise, the queen of the faeries, who has ousted the royal family in favor of her own totalitarian, anti-human regime. Clara finds that this new world is not as foreign as she feared, but time is running out for her family, and there is only so much magic can do...

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About Claire Legrand

Claire Legrand

Claire Legrand is the New York Times-bestselling author of a dozen novels, including the Empirium Trilogy, A CROWN OF IVY AND GLASS, SAWKILL GIRLS, SOME KIND OF HAPPINESS, and THE CAVENDISH HOME FOR BOYS AND GIRLS. She is one of the four authors behind THE CABINET OF CURIOSITIES, an anthology of dark middle grade fiction.

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Last updated on May 6, 2025

The Death of Bees by Lisa O’Donnell

The Death of Bees by Lisa O'DonnellTitle: The Death of Bees
Author: Lisa O'Donnell
Genre: , , ,
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication Date: March 1, 2012

Summary (from Goodreads):

Today is Christmas Eve. Today is my birthday. Today I am fifteen. Today I buried my parents in the backyard. Neither of them were beloved.

Marnie and her little sister Nelly are on their own now. Only they know what happened to their parents, Izzy and Gene, and they aren’t telling. While life in Glasgow’s Hazlehurst housing estate isn’t grand, they do have each other. Besides, it’s only one year until Marnie will be considered an adult and can legally take care of them both.

As the new year comes and goes, Lennie, the old man next door, realizes that his young neighbors are alone and need his help. Or does he need theirs? But he’s not the only one who suspects something isn’t right. Soon, the sisters’ friends, their other neighbors, the authorities, and even Gene’s nosy drug dealer begin to ask questions. As one lie leads to another, dark secrets about the girls’ family surface, creating complications that threaten to tear them apart.

Written with fierce sympathy and beautiful precision, told in alternating voices, The Death of Bees is an enchanting, grimly comic tale of three lost souls who, unable to answer for themselves, can answer only for each other.

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About Lisa O'Donnell

Lisa O'Donnell

Lisa O’Donnell winner of The Orange Prize for New Screenwriters with her screenplay The Wedding Gift in 2000. Lisa was also nominated for the Dennis Potter New Writers Award in the same year. She moved to Los Angeles with her family in 2006, penning her first novel The Death of Bees in 2010. Published to critical acclaim by Windmill Books in 2012 The Death of Bees will be published in the US by Harper Collins January 2013. The author is very excited!

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Last updated on May 13, 2024