The Chalk Girl

Carol O'Connell

Putnam Publishing 

The little girl appeared in Central Park: red-haired, blue-eyed, smiling, perfect-except for the blood on her shoulder. It fell from the sky, she said, while she was looking for her uncle, who turned into a tree. Poor child, people thought. And then they found the body in the tree. For Mallory, newly returned to the Special Crimes Unit after three months' lost time, there is something about the girl that she understands. Mallory is damaged, they say, but she can tell a kindred spirit. And this one will lead her to a story of extraordinary crimes: murders stretching back fifteen years, blackmail and complicity and a particular cruelty that only someone with Mallory's history could fully recognize. In the next few weeks, she will deal with them all . . . in her own way.

Extra Yarn

Mac Barnett, Jon Klassen

Balzer and Bray

With a supply of yarn that never runs out, Annabelle knits for everyone and everything in town until an evil archduke decides he wants the yarn for himself.

"There's nothing to say but--perfect."--Lane Smith, New York Times bestselling author of IT'S A BOOK.

The Flame Alphabet

Ben Marcus

Knopf

A terrible epidemic has struck the country and the sound of children's speech has become lethal. Radio transmissions from strange sources indicate that people are going into hiding. All Sam and Claire need to do is look around the neighborhood: In the park, parents wither beneath the powerful screams of their children. At night, suburban side streets become routes of shameful escape for fathers trying to get outside the radius of affliction. With Claire nearing collapse, it seems their only means of survival is to flee from their daughter, Esther, who laughs at her parents' sickness, unaware that in just a few years she, too, will be susceptible to the language toxicity. But Sam and Claire find it isn't so easy to leave the daughter they still love, even as they waste away from her malevolent speech. On the eve of their departure, Claire mysteriously disappears, and Sam, determined to find a cure for this new toxic language, presses on alone into a world beyond recognition.

The One and Only Ivan

Katherine Applegate

HarperCollins

Ivan is an easygoing gorilla. Living at the Exit 8 Big Top Mall and Video Arcade, he has grown accustomed to humans watching him through the glass walls of his domain. He rarely misses his life in the jungle. In fact, he hardly ever thinks about it at all. Instead, Ivan thinks about TV shows he's seen and about his friends Stella, an elderly elephant, and Bob, a stray dog. But mostly Ivan thinks about art and how to capture the taste of a mango or the sound of leaves with color and a well-placed line. Then he meets Ruby, a baby elephant taken from her family, and she makes Ivan see their home-and his own art-through new eyes. When Ruby arrives, change comes with her, and it's up to Ivan to make it a change for the better.

Ruins of Us

Keija Parssinen

Harper Perennial

Saudi-born author Keija Parssinen's stunning debut offers the intricate, emotionally resonant story of an American expatriate who discovers that her husband, a Saudi billionaire, has taken a second bride-an emotionally turbulent revelation that blinds them both to their teenaged son's ominous first steps down the road of radicalization. Readers of The Septembers of Shiraz will be captivated by Parssinen's story of love and betrayal, fundamentalism, family and country in the Middle East. Anthony Swofford, author of Jarhead, hails Parssinen's characters as "richly conceived, and her evocative petrol universe of wealth, privilege, and intrigue is unforgettable," characterizing The Ruins of Us as having "powerful storytelling that is refreshing and entertaining."

Revolution 2.0: The Power of the People Is Greater Than the People in Power: A Memoir

Wael Ghonim

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

The revolutions that swept the Middle East in 2011 surprised and captivated the world. Brutal regimes that had been in power for decades were overturned by an irrepressible mass of freedom seekers. Now, one of the figures who emerged during the Egyptian uprising tells the riveting inside story of what happened and shares the keys to unleashing the power of crowds. Wael Ghonim was a little-known, thirty-year-old Google executive in the summer of 2010 when he anonymously launched a Facebook page to protest the death of one Egyptian man at the hands of security forces. The page's following expanded quickly and moved from online protests to a nonconfrontational movement. The youth of Egypt made history: they used social media to schedule a revolution. The call went out to more than a million Egyptians online, and on January 25, 2011, Cairo's Tahrir Square resounded with calls for change. Yet just as the revolution began in earnest, Ghonim was captured and held for twelve days of brutal interrogation. After he was released, he gave a tearful speech on national television, and the protests grew more intense. Four days later, the president of Egypt was gone.

This year, the United States joins in celebrating World Book Night on April 23, 2012. We need 50,000 Book-Loving Volunteers to fan out across America on April 23, 2012! Just take 20 free copies of a Book to a location in your community, and you just might change someone's life for the better. The goal is to give Books to new readers, to encourage reading, to share your passion for a great Book.  The entire publishing, Bookstore, library, author, printing and paper community is behind this effort with donated services and time.  And with a million complimentary World Book Night paperbacks! 

Learn more at the US World Book Night Website.  Sign Up to become a Book Giver today!