Book Busters Book Club

Books Inc. in Palo Alto
Town & Country Village
Palo Alto, CA
650-321-0600

Calling all kids (and all those who are kids at heart)! Due to popular demand, Books Inc. Palo Alto is hosting its first ever Middle Reader Book Club. Welcome to Book Busters!

Launched in March, 2009,  this is the readers' club we've all been waiting for!  Featuring some of our most prominent titles such as Fablehaven by Brandon Mull & 39 Clues by Rick Riordan, we'll be meeting the 2nd Tuesday of every month for snacks, giveaways & a fascinating discussion of each featured title. So please don't be shy & join our children's host, Steven, as he jumps head first into the intriguing world of children's literature. Adult readers welcome too!

Follow along with what's happening on facebook!

 http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Official-Book-Busters-Book-Club-Profile/222642178610



 

$8.99
ISBN-13: 9780142416426
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Firebird, 4/2012
June 2013 Selection: Alison Goodman's first novel - in a very special new edition!
Seventeen-year-old Joss is a rebel, and a student of time travel at the prestigious Centre for Neo-Historical Studies. This year, for the first time, the Centre has an alien student: Mavkel, from the planet Choria. And Mavkel has chosen Joss, of all people, as his roommate and study partner. Then Mavkel gets sick. Joss quickly realizes that his will to live is draining away. The only way she can help Mavkel is by breaking the Centre's strictest rules - and that means going back in time to change history. This new Firebird edition of Alison Goodman's acclaimed first genre-bending adventure features a short story about Joss and Mav's after-book adventures, originally published in "Firebirds Rising."

The Emerald Key (Paperback)

$12.99
ISBN-13: 9781459705340
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Dundurn, 1/2013
May 2013 Selection:

In 1847, after a confrontation with British soldiers, Jamie Galway awakens from a coma to find his brother, Ryan, and the ancient Irish text they had sworn to protect are missing. Jamie learns that his brother has been forced onto a ship bound for Canada. The ancient script, one of the keys to the secret location of a priceless treasure, has gone with him. On the advice of a secretive band of priests called the Brotherhood, Jamie crosses the Atlantic to find his brother and the lost key.

Unaware that Jonathon Wilkes, a ruthless treasure hunter is also on the trail, Jamie must find Ryan first, before Wilkes, in his desperation to find the elusive treasure, resorts to murder. Jamie, followed by Wilkes, must race across an ocean and throughout Canada to see who will be the one to claim the Emerald Key.

Neverwhere (Paperback)

$13.99
ISBN-13: 9780060557812
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: William Morrow Paperbacks, 9/2003
April 2013 Selection: Richard Mayhew is a young man with a good heart and an ordinarylife, which is changed forever when he stops to help a girl he finds bleeding on a London sidewalk. His small act of kindness propels him into a world he never dreamed existed. There are people who fall through the cracks, and Richard has become one of them. And he must learn to survive in this city of shadows and darkness, monsters and saints, murderers and angels, if he is ever to return to the London that he knew.

$6.99
ISBN-13: 9781849904773
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: BBC Books, 8/2012
February 2013 Selection: The world is in the grip of a second Ice Age. Despite a coordinated global effort, the glaciers still advance. But they are not the only threat to the planet. Buried deep in the ice, scientists at Britannicus Base have discovered an ancient warrior. But this is no simple archaeological find. What they have found is the commander of a spaceship that crashed into the glacier thousands of years ago. Thawed from the ice, and knowing their home planet Mars is now a dead world, the Ice Warriors decide to make Earth their own. Can the Doctor and his friends overcome the warlike Martians and halt the advance of the glaciers?

$14.95
ISBN-13: 9781402780424
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Sterling, 2/2012
January 2013 Selection: "I am forced into speech because men of science have refused to follow my advice without knowing why." H.P. Lovecraft's terrifying horror story gets an illustrated interpretation by one of today's finest graphic novel artists. Geologist William Dyer--the narrator of this novella--is desperate to stop a research team planning a journey to Antarctica. He himself led a disastrous mission there, only to discover evidence of blood-chilling evil from beyond Earth. Will the new expedition continue its plans? And what will happen if they go? Once again, as he did in "The Picture of Dorian Gray" and "The Hound of the Baskervilles," Ian N. J. Culbard has created an unforgettably powerful retelling of a classic tale.

Shadow and Bone (Hardcover)

$17.99
ISBN-13: 9780805094596
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR), 6/2012
November 2012 Selection: Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.

Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life--a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.

Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha...and the secrets of her heart.

Seraphina (Hardcover)

$17.99
ISBN-13: 9780375866562
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Random House Books for Young Readers, 5/2012
October 2012 Selection: Four decades of peace have done little to ease the mistrust between humans and dragons in the kingdom of Goredd. Seraphina Dombegh has reason to fear both sides. An unusually gifted musician, she joins the court just as a member of the royal family is murderedNin suspiciously draconian fashion.

Starters (Hardcover)

$17.99
ISBN-13: 9780385742375
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 3/2012
September 2012 Selection: "Readers who have been waiting for a worthy successor to Suzanne Collins' "The Hunger Games" will find it here. Dystopian sci-fi at its best, "Starters "is a terrific series kickoff with a didn't-see-that-coming conclusion that will leave readers on the edges of their seats . . ." raves the "Los Angeles Times. "In the future, teens rent their bodies to seniors who want to be young again. One girl discovers her renter plans to do more than party--her body will commit murder, if her mind can't stop it. Sixteen-year-old Callie lost her parents when the genocide spore wiped out everyone except those who were vaccinated first--the very young and very old. With no grandparents to claim Callie and her little brother, they go on the run, living as squatters, and fighting off unclaimed renegades who would kill for a cookie. Hope comes via Prime Destinations, run by a mysterious figure known only as The Old Man. He hires teens to rent their bodies to seniors, known as enders, who get to be young again. Callie's neurochip malfunctions and she wakes up in the life of her rich renter, living in her mansion, driving her cars, even dating Blake, the grandson of a senator. It's a fairy-tale new life . . . until she uncovers the Body Bank's horrible plan. . . .

$8.99
ISBN-13: 9780545222112
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Scholastic Press, 6/2012
August 2012 Pick: Welcome to the astounding world of Mortal Engines!
London is hunting again. Emerging from its hiding place in the hills, the great Traction City is chasing a terrified little town across the wastelands. Soon, London will feed.
In the attack, Tom Natsworthy is flung from the speeding city with a murderous scar-faced girl. They must run for their lives through the wreckage--and face a terrifying new weapon that threatens the future of the world.

The Scorpio Races (Hardcover)

$17.99
ISBN-13: 9780545224901
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Scholastic Press, 10/2011
July 2012 Selection: Some race to win. Others race to survive.
It happens at the start of every November: the Scorpio Races. Riders attempt to keep hold of their water horses long enough to make it to the finish line.
Some riders live.
Others die.
At age nineteen, Sean Kendrick is the returning champion. He is a young man of few words, and if he has any fears, he keeps them buried deep, where no one else can see them.
Puck Connolly is different. She never meant to ride in the Scorpio Races. But fate hasn't given her much of a choice. So she enters the competition - the first girl ever to do so. She is in no way prepared for what is going to happen.
As she did in her bestselling Shiver trilogy, author Maggie Stiefvater takes us to the breaking point, where both love and life meet their greatest obstacles, and only the strong of heart can survive. The Scorpio Races is an unforgettable reading experience.

Inheritance (Paperback)

$15.99
ISBN-13: 9780375846311
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Knopf Books for Young Readers, 10/2012
June 2012 Selection: Not so very long ago, Eragon--Shadeslayer, Dragon Rider--was nothing more than a poor farm boy, and his dragon, Saphira, only a blue stone in the forest. Now the fate of an entire civilization rests on their shoulders. Long months of training and battle have brought victories and hope, but they have also brought heartbreaking loss. And still, the real battle lies ahead: they must confront Galbatorix. When they do, they will have to be strong enough to defeat him. And if they cannot, no one can. There will be no second chances. The Rider and his dragon have come further than anyone dared to hope. But can they topple the evil king and restore justice to Alagaesia? And if so, at what cost?

Nightshade: Book 1 (Paperback)

$9.99
ISBN-13: 9780142419809
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Speak, 6/2011
May 2012 Pick:

The Alchemyst (Paperback)

$9.99
ISBN-13: 9780385736008
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Ember, 6/2008
April 2012 Pick: Scott's "New York Times" bestseller--the first in his riveting fantasy series

$18.99
ISBN-13: 9780316134026
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 10/2011
March 2012 Pick: Seventeen-year-old Karou, a lovely, enigmatic art student in a Prague boarding school, carries a sketchbook of hideous, frightening monsters--the chimaerae who form the only family she has ever known.

Dark Is Rising (Paperback)

$5.99
ISBN-13: 9780689829833
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Margaret K. McElderry Books, 10/1999
February 2012 Pick: On his 11th birthday, Will Stanton learns that he is the last born of the Old Ones. At once, he is plunged into a quest for the six magical Signs that will one day aid in the final battle between the Dark and Light.