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Fern & Newt and the Lost Loot 

Middle Grade Fiction 

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As Sam, Otter, Atim, and Chickadee take care of the cast and crew, a truck filled with specialty props and equipment disappears. Filming is halted—a disaster for everyone, including Mavis—and Windy Lake’s reputation is suddenly at stake. It’s up to the Mighty Muskrats to find the culprits and get the filmmaking back on track!

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Danica dela Torre has a new case on her hands—and this time, it’s personal. Danica has lost her relikaryo, a powerful amulet that keeps her safe from evil spirits. With the help of her best friends and fellow kid detectives, Jack and Kennedy, she follows the trail into a parallel realm where she hopes a ghostly presence on the other side will help reunite her with the precious talisman. Instead, she encounters the mysterious Detective Gray, author of her favorite investigator’s handbook—and Dani’s hero. The master sleuth needs Danica’s detecting skills to solve another mystery, one with deep roots in Filipino lore. As Danica pursues her biggest case yet, she discovers more about her family's deeply buried past, their connections to the shadowy detective, and her newfound ability to probe people’s memories by stealthily infiltrating their dreams.

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Young Adult Fiction 

1506, Joseon. The people suffer under the cruel reign of the tyrant King Yeonsan, powerless to stop him from commandeering their land for his recreational use, banning and burning books, and kidnapping and horrifically abusing women and girls as his personal playthings. Seventeen-year-old Iseul has lived a sheltered, privileged life despite the kingdom’s turmoil. When her older sister, Suyeon, becomes the king’s latest prey, Iseul leaves the relative safety of her village, traveling through forbidden territory to reach the capital in hopes of stealing her sister back.

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In the city of Puck's Port, where motorized vehicles fill the streets and new technological marvels abound, something rotten is lurking under the surface. A violent murder at the docks seems to point to a fey killer, igniting a powder keg of distrust between the city's humans and its fey inhabitants — folks who wield wonderful but often uncontrollable magical power. 

Gristle Senan Maxim Junior finds himself caught in the middle. Forced into the reluctant role of private investigator, like his late father, he's working to solve the mystery of this fiery murder . . . mainly because his sister, Hawthorne Stregoni, is a fey herself with an unfortunate penchant for setting things ablaze.

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At Wilberton Academy, few students are more revered than the members of the elite Wilberton Theatrical Society—a.k.a. the WTS—and no one represents that exclusive club better than Elizabeth Woodward. 

Breathtakingly beautiful, beloved by all, and a talented thespian, it’s no surprise she’s starring as Juliet in the WTS’s performance of Shakespeare’s classic tragedy. But when she’s found dead the morning after opening night, the whole school is thrown into chaos. 

Transfer student Abby Kita was one of the last people to see Elizabeth alive, and when local authorities deem the it-girl’s death a suicide, Abby’s not convinced. She’s sure there’s more to Wilburton and the WTS than meets the eye. As she gets tangled in prep school intrigues, Abby quickly realizes that Elizabeth was keeping secrets. Was one of those secrets worth killing for?

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Aspiring journalist Noa has a secret she's been keeping. Ever since her sister's tragic death, she's felt almost...relieved. Noa and Leah had been locked in competition with one another since childhood, and things came to a head when her sister scored a glitzy internship at a New York society newspaper. Noa can't help but revel in her new found autonomy. 

But when she gets a lead about the sketchy circumstances surrounding her sister’s untimely death, she knows she needs to investigate−she owes it to Leah. 

Noa sets out to infiltrate the seedy underbelly of Manhattan high society to investigate her sister’s final days. Along the way she finds herself entangled with the glamorous Avalons and their close-knit circle of friends and frienemies. But will Noa be able to resist the allure of the Avalons' world and uncover a shocking scandal. Or will she find herself in over her head...like Leah?

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Book list curated by Spencer Miller