New releases for week of Jan. 13

 There are a couple of books hitting shelves this week that are geared toward younger readers.
  Ann Brashares, author of “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants,” introduces a new group of girls with “3 Willows: The Sisterhood Grows.”
  Polly, Jo and Ama have been friends since grade school. With high school approaching, the girls find themselves drifting apart, spending the summer separated from each other.
  Each girl faces her own challenges. Polly sets her sights on a more glamorous future, heading off to modeling camp. Jo, staying at her family’s beach house, tries to make inroads with the cool crowd and has a fling with an older boy. Ama heads off to a camp that will give her school credit, but instead of doing research, she ends up on a wilderness trip.
  Another book of interest to kids is “Last Straw” by Jeff Kinney. Book three in the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series finds Greg Heffley under threat of being sent to a military academy if he doesn’t get with the program after his father, in an effort to toughen him up, enlists him in some sporting activities.
  Other books being released this week: “Mounting Fears (Will Lee Series)” by Stuart Woods; “The Best of Everything” by Kimberla Lawson Roby; “Kisses and Lies” by Lauren Henderson; “The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death” by Charlie Huston; “The Rules of the Game” by Leonard Downie Jr.; “Water Dogs” by Lewis Robinson; “Return to Sender” by Julia Alvarez; and “Mr. Lincoln’s High-Tech War” by Roger MacBride Allen and Thomas B. Allen.
  I'll have a review of "The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death" sometime soon.