New Releases by Josh Berk

A long-abandoned—and long-haunted—summer camp sets the stage for the sequel to Camp Murderface, perfect for fans of old school scare masters like R.L. Stine and Christopher Pike. There’s no such thing as an uneventful summer at Camp Sweetwater. Now that the Vampire Devils beneath the lake have been awakened, the camp is in big trouble. The first victims? Tez and Corryn’s counselors, Gavin and Scary Mary. The Camp Director insists that the missing counselors are just quitting and going home, but Tez and Corryn don’t believe it. They know something much more eeeeeeevil is afoot. With the help of their cabinmates, Tez and Corryn set out to investigate the disappearances. But what they find is a horror closer than the bottom of the lake... and it might just spell the end for all of them.

Summer camp turns sinister in Camp Murderface, a spooky middle grade read perfect for fans of scare masters like R.L. Stine and Christopher Pike. The year: 1983. The place: Ohio. The camp: Scary as heck. Camp Sweetwater is finally reopening, three decades after it mysteriously shut down. Campers Corryn Quinn and Tez Jones have each had more than enough of their regular lives—they’re so ready to take their summer at Sweetwater by storm. But before they can so much as toast one marshmallow, strange happenings start…happening. Can they survive the summer? Or will Camp Sweetwater shut down for good this time—with them inside?

Lenny, Mike, and Other Mike are back in school for the glory that is seventh grade, and this year, Mike is determined to make catcher on the middle-school team. When Mike''s hard work pays off and he wins the coveted postition, Lenny is a little jealous, but he''ll settle for being the team''s unofficial announcer. The team has a brilliant new pitcher, Hunter Ashwell, and though he''s a bit of a jerk, he and Mike have a great pitcher/catcher dynamic that could make the team champions. But things take a strange turn when Hunter''s perfect pitching streak goes downhill, and Lenny suspects foul play—specifically, someone stealing Mike''s catcher signals. But who could be responsible, and why?

Guy Langman can''t be bothered with much. But when his friend Anoop wants Guy to join the forensics club with him in the (possibly misguided) hopes of impressing some girls, Guy thinks why not. They certainly aren''t expecting to find a real dead body on the simulated crime scene they''re assigned to collect evidence from. But after some girlish, undignified screaming, the two realize it is indeed a body. Which means they have stumbled across a real, dead murder victim. Meanwhile, Guy has been looking into the past of his father—a larger-than-life character who recently passed away. He was much older than Guy''s mom, and had a whole past Guy never even knew about. Could his father''s past and the dead body be linked? Does Guy want to know? He''s going to need all his newfound forensics skills to find out. . . .

Lenny Norbeck and his friends The Mikes set out to investigate the suspiciousdeath of a young pitcher at a Philadelphia Phillies game.

Being a hefty, deaf newcomer almost makes Will Halpin the least popular guy at Coaler High. But when he befriends the only guy less popular than him, the dork-namic duo has the smarts and guts to figure out who knocked off the star quarterback. Will can’t hear what’s going on, but he’s a great observer. So, who did it? And why does that guy talk to his fingers? And will the beautiful girl ever notice him? (Okay, so Will’s interested in more than just murder . . .) Those who prefer their heroes to be not-so-usual and with a side of wiseguy will gobble up this witty, geeks-rule debut.