New arrivals!

  • Airman by Eoin Colfer
  • Alex Rider: The Gadgets by Anthony Horowitz
  • Anthony Horowitz's Point Blank by Antony Johnston (graphic novel)
  • Anthony Horowitz's Stormbreaker by Antony Johnston (graphic novel)
  • Ashleys by Melissa de la Cruz
  • Beastly by Alex Flinn
  • Before I Die by Jenny Downham
  • Beowulf by Gareth Hinds (graphic novel)
  • Big Fat Manifesto by Susan Vaught
  • Body Type: Intimate Messages Etched in Flesh by Ina Saltz
  • Bone: Ghost Circles by Jeff Smith
  • Bone: Old Man's Cave by Jeff Smith (graphic novel)
  • Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
  • Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
  • Bratfest at Tiffany's: A Clique Novel by Lisi Harrison
  • Click one novel by ten authors including Eoin Colfer, Nick Hornby, and Deborah Ellis
  • Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy by Ally Carter
  • Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules by Jeff Kinney
  • Dragonhaven by Robin McKinley
  • Driving Book: Everything New Drivers Need to Know but Don't Know to Ask by Karen Gravelle
  • Eulalia! by Brian Jacques
  • Faerie Path by Frewin Jones
  • Faith & Doubt: An Anthology of Poems by Patrice Vecchione
  • Fake Boyfriend by Kate Brian
  • Field Guide to High School by Marissa Walsh
  • First Kiss (Then Tell) short story authors include Deb Caletti, Sarah Mlynowski, Lauren Myracle, and Scott Westerfeld
  • Flip: Turn Your World Around! by Jared Rosen & David Rippe
  • Game Walter Dean Myers
  • Girl Overboard by Justina Chen Headley
  • Good Girls by Laura Ruby
  • H.G. Wells's The Time Machine by Terry Davis (graphic novel)
  • Harry Sue by Sue Stauffacher
  • Houdini: The Handcuff King by Jason Lutes & Nick Bertozzi (graphic novel)
  • I Love You, Beth Cooper by Larry Doyle
  • Icecore: A Carl Hobbes Thriller by Matt Whyman
  • If a Tree Falls at Lunch Period by Gennifer Choldenko
  • Kissing Diary by Judith Caseley
  • Laika by Nick Abadzis (graphic novel)
  • Land of the Silver Apples by Nancy Farmer
  • Lessons from a Dead Girl by Jo Knowles
  • Leven Thumps and the Eyes of the Want by Obert Skye
  • Lost Colony Book 2: The Red Menace by Grady Klein (graphic novel)
  • Lost Queen by Frewin Jones
  • Luxe by Anna Godbersen
  • Middle School is Worse than Meatloaf by Jennifer L. Holm
  • Mistik Lake by Martha Brooks
  • Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
  • Perfect You by Elizabeth Scott
  • Prey by Lurlene McDaniel
  • Princess Mia by Meg Cabot
  • Red Thread by Roderick Townley
  • Secrets of My Suburban Life by Lauren Baratz-Logsted
  • Skinny by Ibi Kaslik
  • Someday this Pain will be Useful to You by Peter Cameron
  • Sweet 16 by Kate Brian
  • Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray
  • Tall Tales by Karen Day
  • Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
  • Trigger by Susan Vaught
  • True Notebooks: A Writer's Year at Juvenile Hall by Mark Salzman
  • Tweak by Nic Sheff
  • Undercover by Beth Kephart
  • Violet on the Runway by Melissa Walker
  • Your Own, Sylvia by Stephanie Hemphill
  • Zen and the Art of Faking It by Jordan Sonnenblick

Thursday, January 31, 2008

The Ashleys by Melissa de la Cruz

The Ashleys: There's a New Name in School by Melissa de la Cruz
Reviewed by Suzanne, Teen Services Librarian


The movie "Heathers" meets "My Super Sweet 16" in a junior high version of beautiful, rich, powerful, and deliciously mean girls. In Melissa de la Cruz's new series, appropriately named The Ashleys, Ashley Spencer, Ashley Li, and Ashley Alioto rule Miss Gamble's Preparatory School for Girls. Set in San Francisco, the girls vie over clothing, boys, and whose sprawling mansion has the best view of the Golden Gate Bridge.

In There's a New Name in School we meet the Ashleys on the first day of 7th grade where they soon discover that dowdy scholarship student Lauren Page has completely transformed over the summer. Lauren's family is now extremely wealthy, and Lauren has undergone a stunning makeover. Along with her new bank account and her new looks, Lauren is determined to join the Ashleys... and then destroy them.

The Ashleys promised to be a lively new series. Although not terribly original and at times blatantly over the top, it offers all the flash and fun of the Gossip Girl and It Girl series without the, ahem, questionable extracurricular activities. For those readers (like me) who got totally sucked into the glamorously spoiled and can't wait for the second installment, Jealous? due out April 2008, author de la Cruz offers a sneak peak in the back of book 1.

To learn more about author Melissa de la Cruz visite her website and MySpace page. The Lewiston Public Library owns one copy of The Ashleys; it can be reserved through NIOGA.

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