(3) YA In the not-too-distant future, high schooler Sam and his friends pool their knowledge to build a lie detector that they hope will bring an end to a corrupt leadership. Of course, the powers that be catch wind of this invention and will stop at nothing to get it for themselves. The teens find themselves in a fight for their lives and at the center of a burgeoning revolution in this action-packed (if somewhat overstuffed) dystopian thriller.

Reviewer: Kristy Pasquariello

(3) 4-6 Homeless thirteen-year-old twins Vick and Tara survive by scavenging junkyards. Tara, an autistic technical wizard, designs robot dog Daisy, which catches the eye of villainous crime boss Ms. Alba. In this dystopian world, the siblings must rely on help from other downtrodden individuals to save themselves and Daisy from a disastrous end. McIntosh combines science fiction and action in a thrilling yet heartwarming tale.

Reviewer: Antonio Trujillo

(2) YA Brightly colored spheres have begun to appear on Earth; when "burned," they give humans enhanced abilities. After high schooler Sully is cheated out of a valuable Cherry Red by businessman Alex Holliday, he joins forces with tough sphere-hunter Hunter, whose actions mistakenly lead to an unimaginable horror being unleashed. Three parts heist and one part alien invasion, this is an exciting, fast-paced sci-fi thriller.

Reviewer: Kazia Berkley-Cramer | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2016

(4) YA Getting the Edge: Conditioning, Injuries, and Legal & Illicit Drugs series. From historical overviews to mental preparation, this series provides details about the title sports for young athletes. Chapters address the treatment of common injuries; nutrition; and the dangers of performance-enhancing drugs. The crowded pages include lots of photographs (some instructive, some decorative) and occasional sidebars. There's good information here, but the volumes try to cram in a little too much. Reading list, websites. Bib., glos., ind. Review covers these Getting the Edge: : Conditioning, Injuries, and Legal & Illicit Drugs titles: Extreme Sports, Football, Gymnastics, Baseball and Softball, and Hockey.

Reviewer: Nancy Hull

(4) YA Getting the Edge: Conditioning, Injuries, and Legal & Illicit Drugs series. From historical overviews to mental preparation, this series provides details about the title sports for young athletes. Chapters address the treatment of common injuries; nutrition; and the dangers of performance-enhancing drugs. The crowded pages include lots of photographs (some instructive, some decorative) and occasional sidebars. There's good information here, but the volumes try to cram in a little too much. Reading list, websites. Bib., glos., ind. Review covers these Getting the Edge: : Conditioning, Injuries, and Legal & Illicit Drugs titles: Extreme Sports, Football, Gymnastics, Baseball and Softball, and Hockey.

Reviewer: Nancy Hull

(4) YA Daily Life in America in the 1800s series. Everyday life for nineteenth-century Americans was fraught with great change and shifting influences. For the report-driven reader, these titles provide straightforward, chronological discussions highlighting the significant people and events that affected family life, work, political ideology, and spirituality. Primary sources, archival photographs and drawings, and maps offer further detail but do little to alter the textbooklike impression. Reading list, websites. Glos., ind. Review covers these Daily Life in America in the 1800s titles: Scandals and Glory, The Sweat of Their Brow, Buggies, Bicycles, and Iron Horses, Outlaws and Lawmen, and Reviving the Spirit, Reforming Society.

Reviewer: Tamara DePasquale

(4) YA Daily Life in America in the 1800s series. Everyday life for nineteenth-century Americans was fraught with great change and shifting influences. For the report-driven reader, these titles provide straightforward, chronological discussions highlighting the significant people and events that affected family life, work, political ideology, and spirituality. Primary sources, archival photographs and drawings, and maps offer further detail but do little to alter the textbooklike impression. Reading list, websites. Glos., ind. Review covers these Daily Life in America in the 1800s titles: Scandals and Glory, The Sweat of Their Brow, Buggies, Bicycles, and Iron Horses, Outlaws and Lawmen, and Reviving the Spirit, Reforming Society.

Reviewer: Tamara DePasquale

(4) YA Daily Life in America in the 1800s series. Everyday life for nineteenth-century Americans was fraught with great change and shifting influences. For the report-driven reader, these titles provide straightforward, chronological discussions highlighting the significant people and events that affected family life, work, political ideology, and spirituality. Primary sources, archival photographs and drawings, and maps offer further detail but do little to alter the textbooklike impression. Reading list, websites. Glos., ind. Review covers these Daily Life in America in the 1800s titles: Scandals and Glory, The Sweat of Their Brow, Buggies, Bicycles, and Iron Horses, Outlaws and Lawmen, and Reviving the Spirit, Reforming Society.

Reviewer: Tamara DePasquale

(4) YA Celebrities with Heart series. These celebrity biographies reflect on the philanthropic efforts of famous people. Each volume focuses on its subject's rise to fame and fortune, beginning with childhood and not shying away from difficult situations (e.g., McGraw's biological father, Winfrey's rape). The stock photos and choppy texts aren't all that inspiring, but the stories are. Reading list, timeline, websites. Ind. Review covers these Celebrities with Heart titles: Avril Lavigne, Hilary Duff, Oprah Winfrey, Adam Sandler, Angelina Jolie, and Tim McGraw.

Reviewer: Ashleigh Finn

(4) YA Crime Scene Club: Fact and Fiction series. High school students assist police using forensic technology in this action-filled series, a mix of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Sweet Valley High. Each tale is followed by a guide to its vocabulary, technology, and background. The factual information is more engaging than the credulity-straining stories with hokey comic-style illustrations. There are six other spring 2009 books in this series. Reading list, websites. Bib., ind. Review covers these Crime Scene Club: Fact and Fiction titles: Close-Up, Devil's Canyon, Face from the Past, Over the Edge, Poison and Peril, and The Trickster's Image.

Reviewer: Beth L. Meister

(4) YA Crime Scene Club: Fact and Fiction series. High school students assist police using forensic technology in this action-filled series, a mix of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Sweet Valley High. Each tale is followed by a guide to its vocabulary, technology, and background. The factual information is more engaging than the credulity-straining stories with hokey comic-style illustrations. There are six other spring 2009 books in this series. Reading list, websites. Bib., ind. Review covers these Crime Scene Club: Fact and Fiction titles: Close-Up, Devil's Canyon, Face from the Past, Over the Edge, Poison and Peril, and The Trickster's Image.

Reviewer: Beth L. Meister

(4) YA Crime Scene Club: Fact and Fiction series. High school students assist police using forensic technology in this action-filled series, a mix of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Sweet Valley High. Each tale is followed by a guide to its vocabulary, technology, and background. The factual information is more engaging than the credulity-straining stories with hokey comic-style illustrations. There are six other spring 2009 books in this series. Reading list, websites. Bib., ind. Review covers these Crime Scene Club: Fact and Fiction titles: Close-Up, Devil's Canyon, Face from the Past, Over the Edge, Poison and Peril, and The Trickster's Image.

Reviewer: Beth L. Meister

(4) YA Crime Scene Club: Fact and Fiction series. High school students assist police using forensic technology in this action-filled series, a mix of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Sweet Valley High. Each tale is followed by a guide to its vocabulary, technology, and background. The factual information is more engaging than the credulity-straining stories with hokey comic-style illustrations. There are six other spring 2009 books in this series. Reading list, websites. Bib., ind. Review covers these Crime Scene Club: Fact and Fiction titles: Close-Up, Devil's Canyon, Face from the Past, Over the Edge, Poison and Peril, and The Trickster's Image.

Reviewer: Beth L. Meister

(4) YA Crime Scene Club: Fact and Fiction series. High school students assist police using forensic technology in this action-filled series, a mix of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Sweet Valley High. Each tale is followed by a guide to its vocabulary, technology, and background. The factual information is more engaging than the credulity-straining stories with hokey comic-style illustrations. There are six other spring 2009 books in this series. Reading list, websites. Bib., ind. Review covers these Crime Scene Club: Fact and Fiction titles: Close-Up, Devil's Canyon, Face from the Past, Over the Edge, Poison and Peril, and The Trickster's Image.

Reviewer: Beth L. Meister

(4) YA Crime Scene Club: Fact and Fiction series. High school students assist police using forensic technology in this action-filled series, a mix of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Sweet Valley High. Each tale is followed by a guide to its vocabulary, technology, and background. The factual information is more engaging than the credulity-straining stories with hokey comic-style illustrations. There are six other spring 2009 books in this series. Reading list, websites. Bib., ind. Review covers these Crime Scene Club: Fact and Fiction titles: Close-Up, Devil's Canyon, Face from the Past, Over the Edge, Poison and Peril, and The Trickster's Image.

Reviewer: Beth L. Meister

(4) 4-6 People to Know Today series. Opening with a highlight or turning point in the subjects' lives (rough-and-tumble George's first experience being moved by music, "The Donald"'s first season of The Apprentice), these biographies then go back to provide information about childhood, early accomplishments, and successes in later life. Sidebars and stock photographs enhance these adequate but unexciting introductions to well-known personalities. Reading list, timeline, websites. Ind. Review covers these People to Know Today titles: George Gershwin and Donald Trump.

Reviewer: Tamara DePasquale

(4) YA Brain Works series. Focusing mainly on neuropsychology (Love also delves into social psychology), this series gives an effective introduction to the brain's development and its functions. The writing is accessible, using examples geared toward teen life (though it occasionally misses the mark). Clear diagrams, illustrations, sidebars, and activities further elucidate these complex topics. Reading list, websites. Bib., glos., ind. Review covers these Brain Works titles: Inside Your Brain, How the Brain Grows, A Day in the Life of the Brain, The Brain and Love, and Seeing, Hearing, and Smelling the World.

Reviewer: Rachel L. Smith

(4) YA Antidepressants series. This coherent series relates the basics about depression. It spotlights personal experiences, sometimes in the form of formulaically written running narratives (e.g., in Advertising, teenager Annette considers using antidepressants to help cope with her mother's death) and often accompanied by stiff staged photos. Each spread features a sidebar, chart, or photo to help break up the text. There are eight other fall 2006 books in the series. Reading list, websites. Bib., glos., ind. Review covers these Antidepressants titles: Antidepressants and Advertising, Antidepressants and Social Anxiety, Antidepressants and Suicide, The History of Depression, and "Natural" Alternatives to Antidepressants.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(4) YA Antidepressants series. This coherent series relates the basics about depression. It spotlights personal experiences, sometimes in the form of formulaically written running narratives (e.g., in Advertising, teenager Annette considers using antidepressants to help cope with her mother's death) and often accompanied by stiff staged photos. Each spread features a sidebar, chart, or photo to help break up the text. There are eight other fall 2006 books in the series. Reading list, websites. Bib., glos., ind. Review covers these Antidepressants titles: Antidepressants and Advertising, Antidepressants and Social Anxiety, Antidepressants and Suicide, The History of Depression, and "Natural" Alternatives to Antidepressants.

Reviewer: Nell Beram

(4) YA Incarceration Issues series. Each of these books explores an issue, examining history, case studies, and arguments for and against different types of punishment. Accounts of prisoners on death row and their executions are presented in graphic detail. Though there are occasional typos in the text, sidebars and photographs (many staged) help clarify and extend the information. There are five other fall 2006 books in this series. Reading list, websites. Bib., glos., ind. Review covers these Incarceration Issues titles: Women in Prison, Alternatives to Prison, Incarceration around the World, The History of Incarceration, Prisoners on Death Row, and Youth in Prison.

Reviewer: Luther B. Clegg