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Hotlists 2008
Crime Fiction - embedded
Booklists
Lists of books, many of which received at least one starred review (indicating a work of unusual merit) from the following review sources: Booklist , Publisher's Weekly (PW), Kirkus and Library Journal (LJ). Additional titles of interest may be included on the lists. Titles are generally listed alphabetically by author.
Overbooked specializes in providing timely information about fiction (all genres) and readable nonfiction. Overbooked has been online since 1994. Overbooked is a work in progress . . .
Overbooked is the winner of the 2008 Louis Shores - Greenwood Publishing Award: to recognize excellence in book reviewing and other media for libraries. The award recipient is selected for significant achievement related to a reviewing process that helps librarians make selection decisions.
Booklists and Suggested Reading
Summer 2008 - summer is coming soon...
Page Modified: August 19, 2008
Selected titles for summer reading pleasure
Fiction | Nonfiction | Teens, Tweens and All Ages
Teens, Tweens and All Ages
Teens | YA's
- Little Brother
Author: Doctorow, Cory
Publisher: Tor $ 17.95 ISBN: 9780765319852 Date: 2008
Booklist PW SLJ VOYA Best Speculative Fiction
BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU. WHO'S WATCHING BACK?
Ages: 13+ Category: Speculative Fiction
Updated 6.3.08
- The Adoration of Jenna Fox
Author: Pearson, Mary E.
Publisher: Holt $ 16.95 ISBN: 9780805076684 Date: 2008
Bulletin Kirkus PW SLJ
Who is Jenna Fox? Seventeen-year-old Jenna has been told that is her name. She has just awoken from a coma, they tell her, and she is still recovering from a terrible accident in which she was involved a year ago. But what happened before that? Jenna doesn't remember her life. Or does she? And are the memories really hers?
This fascinating novel represents a stunning new direction for acclaimed author Mary Pearson. Set in a near future America, it takes readers on an unforgettable journey through questions of bio-medical ethics and the nature of humanity. Mary Pearson's vividly drawn characters and masterful writing soar to a new level of sophistication. www.whoisjennafox.com
Ages: 14-17 Category: Speculative Fiction
Updated 6.3.08
- Me, the Missing and the Dead
Author: Valentine, Jenny
Publisher: Harperteen $ 16.99 ISBN: 9780060850685 Date: 2008
Booklist PW SLJ
Me: Lucas Swain--I'm nearly sixteen years old and live in London. I was fairly normal until the night I found Violet. Then everything changed. The Missing: Dad. He disappeared five years ago. Nobody knows what happened to him, and nobody cares except me. It's enough to drive you crazy. The Dead: That's Violet . . . in the urn. Speaking of crazy--I know she's trying to tell me something, and I think it's about my father. . . . A dead lady may not be much to go on, but my dad's out there somewhere, and it's up to me to find out where.
Ages: 14+ Category: Fiction | Mystery
Updated 6.3.08
Tweens
- The Seer of Shadows
Author: Avi
Publisher: HarperCollins $ 16.99 ISBN: 9780060000158 Date: 2007
Bulletin PW SLJ
Newbery Medalist Avi weaves one of his most suspenseful and scary tales--about a ghost who has to be seen to be believed and must be kept from carrying out a horrifying revenge. - Publisher Marketing
Ages: 8-12 Category: Fiction| Horror
Updated 11.6.07
- The Penderwicks on Gardam Street
Author: Birdsall, Jeanne
Publisher: Knopf $ 15.99 ISBN: 9780375840906 Date: 2008
Booklist
PW SLJ
THE PENDERWICK SISTERS are home on Gardam Street and ready for an adventure! But the adventure they get isn't quite what they had in mind. Mr. Penderwick's sister has decided it's time for him to start dating--and the girls know that can only mean one thing: disaster. Enter the Save-Daddy Plan--a plot so brilliant, so bold, so funny, that only the Penderwick girls could have come up with it. It's high jinks, big laughs, and loads of family warmth as the Penderwicks triumphantly return. - Publisher Marketing
Ages: 8-12 Category: Fiction
Updated 11.6.07
- The London Eye Mystery
Author: Dowd, Siobhan
Publisher: David Fickling $ 15.99 ISBN: 9780375849763 Date: 2008
Booklist Bulletin Horn Book Kirkus PW SLJ
Ted and Kat watched their cousin Salim board the London Eye. But after half an hour it landed and everyone trooped off-except Salim. Where could he have gone? How on earth could he have disappeared into thin air? Ted and his older sister, Kat, become sleuthing partners, since the police are having no luck. Despite their prickly relationship, they overcome their differences to follow a trail of clues across London in a desperate bid to find their cousin. And ultimately it comes down to Ted, whose brain works in its own very unique way, to find the key to the mystery. This is an unput-downable spine-tingling thriller-a race against time.
Ages: 8-12 Category: Mystery
Updated 6.3.08
- Bird Lake Moon
Author: Henkes, Kevin
Publisher: Greenwillow $ 15.99 ISBN: 9780061470769 Date: 2008
Booklist PW SLJ
Ages: 10-14 Category: Fiction
The whole time Spencer and Mitch hang out together at Bird Lake, there are secrets keeping them apart--and maybe a secret knowledge keeping them together. This latest novel by Newbery Honor author Henkes tells a story about that pivotal growing-up moment when one stops telling everything and starts holding some things in.
Updated 6.3.08
- Rex Zero, King of Nothing
Author: Wynne-Jones, Tim
Publisher: FSG $ 16.95 ISBN: 9780374362591 Date: 2008
Booklist Horn Book SLJ
In sixth grade now, the wildly imaginative Rex Zero and his friends hatch a plan to replace Miss Garr, the substitute teacher from hell, and Rex takes on the persona of none other than "Dr. Love." Of course, events spin hilariously out of control. Miss Garr's cruel behavior is a mystery to Rex. But then, Rex's world is full of mysteries! There's the beautiful woman in white. Why does she have a black eye? There's the little black book filled with names. Who could it belong to? And why has Rex's father hidden a letter that begins: "Mein Liebchen"? Could all these things have something to do with the mystery of love? Underneath all of this is the age-old question of how to stand up and be a man. For if, as Rex's dad says, "a man's got to do what a man's got to do," how does Rex know what to do and when to do it? - Publisher Marketing
Ages: 8-12 Category: Fiction
Updated 6.3.08
All Stars - All Ages
- The Willoughbys
Author: Lowry, Lois
Publisher: Walter Lorraine $ 16 ISBN: 9780618979745 Date: 2007
Booklist Bulletin Kirkus PW
Abandoned by their ill-humored parents to the care of an odious nanny, Tim, the twins, Barnaby A and Barnaby B, and their sister, Jane, attempt to fulfill their roles as good, old-fashioned children in this hilarious parody that pays playful homage to classic works of children's literature.
Ages: 6-10 Category: Fiction
Updated 11.6.07
Hotlists
African American Fiction | Christian Fiction
2008 Excel Files: (download - print, sort, etc.)
Crime Fiction | Fiction | African American Fiction | Christian Fiction | Nonfiction Notables
Stars
Fiction: Jan-June | July-Dec Crime Fiction: Jan-June | July-Dec
Speculative Fiction Romance Historical Nonfiction | YA
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