Teacher Assignments: Hallam - English 9 - Stellar Awards - Fiction

REEF IS AN EMBITTERED YOUNG OFFENDER, hardly able to contain his anger at the world over the death of his grandmother, the only person who had shown him any love. Seventeen-year-old Leeza is mourning the death of her older sister. A stone hurled in rage shatters both their lives and throws them together in the most unexpected way—and offers them a chance at healing.

All Ethan Palmer wants is wheels of his own, and he's finally saved enough money to buy his dream car... when he accidentally rams his dad's Volvo into their garage. It’s not like his lawyer/politician father can’t afford to pay for the damage, but of course his old man is going to turn this into another Big Life Lesson. With all his hard-earned cash going into repairs, Ethan won't be sliding behind the wheel of that Mustang Cobra anytime soon. Or will he? He thinks he's found a way to make some easy money, and suddenly nothing is more important. Not school, not the girl he loves, not even the secrets that divide his family. For Ethan, it's all about payback. But he has no idea what his choices will cost him.

Maya Delaney's paw-print birthmark is the mark of what she truly is - a skin-walker. She can run faster, climb higher, and see better than nearly everyone else. Experiencing intense connections with the animals that roam the woods outside her home, Maya knows it's only a matter of time before she's able to Shift and become one of them. And she believes there may be others in her small town with surprising talents.
Now Maya and her friends have been forced to flee from their homes during a forest fire they suspect was deliberately set. Then they're kidnapped, and after a chilling helicopter crash, they find themselves in the Vancouver Island wilderness with nothing but their extraordinary abilities to help them get back home.

After a childhood cut short by war and the harsh strictures of Nazi Germany, sixteen-year-old Wilm is finally tasting freedom. In spite of the scars World War II has left on his hometown, Leipzig, and in spite of the oppressive new Soviet regime, Wilm is finding his own voice. It's dangerous, of course, to be sneaking out at night to leave messages on police buildings. But it's exciting, too, and Wilm feels justified, considering his family's suffering. Until one mission goes too far, and Wilm finds he's endangered the very people he most wants to protect.Award-winning author Karen Bass brings readers a fast-paced story about a boy fighting for self-expression in an era of censorship and struggle.

Clouds McFadden is definitely different. With his shock of red hair, his disarming manner and an opening greeting of “Good day, fellow proletariats,” this transfer student to Laverton Junior High looks ready to shake the boredom from his adopted Grade 8 class. Which is fine with Chris, who, quite frankly, is tired of tyrannicalteachers, cool-girl cliques and boring work. When Clouds proposes to Chris and a select group of classmates that they can change their school world for the better with a little revolutionary zeal, everyone gets into the act. Inspired by historical figures, the group manages to humiliate a nitpicking teacher through the use of a secret tape recorder (known as Operation “Code: Nixon”), infiltrate the cool-girls’ club (“Code: Queen Elizabeth”) and stage a passive resistance to tedious note-taking (“Code: Gandhi”). But then Clouds goes too far in his desire for revenge on Principal Dorfman—and the revolution takes a frighteningly real turn.

Luaine is daughter to the greatest of Irish warriors, the legendary Cuchulainn. Although known throughout Ireland as the most fearsome of killers, to Luaine he is a loving playful father who amuses her with his exciting tales and marvelous feats. When the unthinkable happens--Cuchulainn returns from war injured nearly to the death--it is the first intimation of the hero's downfall, and Luaine's first painful step toward an adult life unlike anything she has imagined. As she faces loss, betrayal, suffering and fear, Luaine must find a strength that comes neither from the sword nor from her proud parentage, but from her own courageous spirit.

Stunned by the blistering heat, the noise, the sea of faces crowding in upon her in the teeming Egyptian market, Angeline cannot believe that she is being sold as a slave to one of the great princes in Cairo. Only a short time ago she left her small village in France to follow Stephen, a shepherd boy whose vision led him to mount a children's Crusade to the Holy Land. But they were decieved by those who offered to help. Now it seems they are doomed to a life of slavery in a foreign land and even Stephen has lost all hope.
Somehow, Angeline mist find the strength to survive, as well as to help Stephen overcome his despair. But first she must learn to understand and respect the ways of a culture so very different from her own.

It is the summer of 1950–and at the once-grand mansion of Buckshaw, young Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison, is intrigued by a series of inexplicable events: A dead bird is found on the doorstep, a postage stamp bizarrely pinned to its beak. Then, hours later, Flavia finds a man lying in the cucumber patch and watches him as he takes his dying breath.
For Flavia, who is both appalled and delighted, life begins in earnest when murder comes to Buckshaw. “I wish I could say I was afraid, but I wasn’t. Quite the contrary. This was by far the most interesting thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life.”

In this novel by Margaret Buffie, 16-year-old Bernice Dodd feels lucky. Her mother's inheriting Black Spruce Lodge means no more roach-infested apartments or bullies in the hallways. No more avoiding the landlord or sneaking away in the middle of the night because the rent is overdue. But some things will probably never change. Bernie will still have to take care of her younger siblings. Her mother will keep disappearing on drinking binges and find yet another creep of a boyfriend. And Bernie's anger toward her mother will continue to grow. Could Black Spruce Lodge be the family's last chance to get their lives in focus? Will Bernie find some perspective -- on her emotions, on Jack, the boy next door, and on Tony, the goodlooking novelist across the lake? One thing is very clear, though: rage doesn't let go without a fight.

Fifteen-year-old Francis’s father has committed suicide and nothing will be the same again. Suicide is ugly, unglamorous, and it is never a solution. Its aftermath is dreadful. At first, Francis feels a terrible guilt. Could he have been a better son? What if he hadn’t left his home in Montreal to go on a brief holiday in New York the weekend it happened? Soon the guilt turns to anger and then to a sadness so profound that he thinks he can’t bear it. After is the map of a year following the suicide of a family member. In the course of months, with the love of his mother, with counseling, and with the balm of time, Francis takes his first steps toward coming to terms with his father’s – and his family’s – tragedy. After is intensely personal, but it will resonate with anyone who has faced the loss of a loved one. This brilliant autobiographical first novel is an acute analysis of the grieving process. Although it is steeped in Francis’s sadness, it is ultimately a story of hope.

Nigel is a 16-year-old high school student who writes a class assignment about a world in which teenagers become the leading actors in society, politically, economically, socially and medically. Unexpectedly, a publisher expresses interest, the book is published, and very quickly Nigel becomes an unwitting celebrity, subject to praise and sometimes violent opposition. Nigel's a loner, not a social animal, and to his surprise a mysterious new classmate fastens onto him - and strongly encourages him to complete his novel. Where she's from is unknown, but Michelle is beautiful and intelligent and as it turns out, from the future, and the book Nigel's written has become in her time a guidebook for the youth of her day. Complicating Nigel's life is the fact that Michelle has to return to her own time - and it's left to him to decide whether he must say goodbye to her forever or else join her in the future. If he does, he can never return to his own world, in a time where teenagers remain outside the realms of power and control. Classic Lesley Choyce, Living Outside the Lines is a fast-paced, edgy novel that continually challenges readers on the meanings of human life, power, control and love.

Josh Saunders knew his troubles weren’t over. He just never thought that everything would blow up as hard and fast as it has. Sure, he’s got a mountain lion living under his skin, but he still thought he could keep his head down and get a few days of respite.
But life is still complicated in the once-quiet beach town of Santa Feliz. While Josh and the other teens-turned-Wildlings would love nothing more than to keep their identities hidden, others have different ideas. The FBI still have questions for Josh—and a bully is out to make sure that he doesn’t even think about trying to return to normal life, let alone keep his public façade up at school. In the meantime, several Wildling Elders view Josh as their prospective leader and ambassador between the human and Wildling communities … but unbeknownst to almost everyone, including Josh, another formidable Wildling Elder is determined to have him secretly murdered—by the hand of one of Josh’s friends.

Martin's been diagnosed with ADHD, but he feels something about his diagnosis isn't right. The Ritalin he's prescribed doesn't seem to make a difference. When Martin's grades continue to sink no matter how hard he tries, his father writes him off as lazy and just plain stupid. His dad is convinced that Martin just needs to focus more on his studies and less on making movies. One night while out pursuing his passion on the city streets with his camera, Martin meets Stick and is introduced to the energetic and exciting pastime of parkour -- free-running. While filming Stick's flips and tricks, Martin begins to see a connection between how his brain interprets the world, all jumbled and fast-moving and out of order, and what the free-runners see. Camera in hand, Martin sets out to make a video that will show his dad what he sees, and hopefully get him to understand that Martin's real learning disability, dyslexia, has never been properly diagnosed.

Truth and rumour, fantasy and reality, love and prejudice. I'm up here, in front of God, the priest, and the congregation listening to EVERY SINGLE AMPLIFIED BREATH, of every person in front of me, unable to say a God-damn word about the guy who was my best friend for eight years. All I can do is stand silent, and think about how it all began. Barbara Jean (BJ) Belanger has always suffered from low self-esteem: she has a portwine birthmark on her face, she feels overweight, and has repeatedly suffered the taunts of others her age for which she is a natural target, a victim. One of the very few who have treated her with respect, understanding and affection is Alex, who becomes her best friend. And what's ripping her apart as the story opens is that she knows she has betrayed him in the worst possible way. She didn't realize that he needed her support just as much as she needed his. The real agents behind her betrayal are two other girls at school, Victoria and Rachel, gorgeous creatures who like flirting with Alex and who pretend that they want to be BJ's best friend. When Alex takes on a new member of his garage band, David, the balance of all their lives is upset, as Alex seems to display more affection for David than for her. Drifting away from her close friendship with Alex, BJ gets drawn into the glamour girls' orbit, and people start gossiping about Alex's close friendship with his new singer. Disaster comes when BJ is persuaded that she should steal Alex's journal of poems, in which he reveals the dark secret of his real feelings for David. Very quickly, BJ's life is turned upside down in a terrible moment in which the meanness of the world proves too much to bear. Alma Fullerton brings fresh twists to the meaning of love and betrayal in her uncompromising portrayal of two lonely souls whose profound regard for each other isn't enough to save their friendship.

When the fearless Zoe breaks her arm in a fall, Anna must brave summer camp -- and her debut as a Counselor In Training -- without her best friend. Going it alone is not something Anna is ready for. Cruising along in Zoe's shadow had been comfortable, but now Anna is out in the full glare of the sun. There's no hiding from harsh truths and plenty of people to point them out. Take Karim, the swim instructor, who has suddenly turned gorgeous but obviously hates Anna. And Anna's new friend and cabinmate Isabel -- rainbow hair, sharp tongue and no boundaries. Sooner or later Anna will have to face another hard truth: things have changed between her and Zoe and there's no going back into the shadows. But where can Anna hide when just being herself isn't nearly enough?

Royce (aka Rolly) is having a bad year. Not only has his mother dragged him across the country in order to be close to her aged father Arthur, a celebrated cellist, but he's also recovering from mono. When he convinces his mother to let him finish the school year by correspondence, he's left feeling isolated and lonely, and spends his time watching TV and plotting ways to get back to his friends in Nova Scotia. But before his plans can be implemented, his grandfather has a small stroke. Suddenly Arthur needs more care than Royce's mother can provide and, after a couple of hired care aides quit, Royce is pressed into service. Looking after a ninety-five-year-old--especially one as cantankerous, crafty and stubborn as Arthur--is a challenge. But as Royce gets to know the eccentric old man--who loves the Pussycat Dolls, hates Anderson Cooper and never listens to the kind of music that made him famous--he gradually comes to appreciate that his grandfather's life still has meaning. Even if Arthur himself seems to want it to end.

Sophie is in a lot of trouble. She is on probation for stealing and is doing poorly at school. Her mom doesn't really talk to her, and the other adults in her life are pressuring Sophie to talk about her bruises. Sophie worries that if she tells, she will be sent to live in a group home. Her friend Jujube is the only person who knows the truth, and now Jujube, too, wants Sophie to speak up.

My fingers search the cardboard container, but I’ve finished the fries. I squirt ketchup on my fingers and lick it off. I’m never full. I think it was one of the reasons I had to leave, or, rather, my mother kicked me out. Jenna’s a runaway, but I’m a throwaway. Tossed out. Like garbage.
Keep your wits about you. Check your back.
Do what it takes to survive on the streets.
Dylan is living on the streets not through any choice of his own, unlike some of the teenagers he meets in the same situation. He’s been cut loose by his unstable mother, and lost most contact with his two younger brothers. He has nothing but his backpack stuffed with a few precious belongings and the homeless kids he meets. At least he has his theories. No one can take those away from him. Like how every fourth person throws him spare change; how no one does anything for anyone without a price; and how he just might be able to find a place in this complicated world.
Disturbing, gritty, painful, hopeful—this is a story of a sixteen-year-old determined to survive against all odds

I must admit that when I first started losing weight I was pleased. I dropped from a pudgy hundred and twenty-five down to one-eighteen in a month, and kept on going. One hundred and five, and my breasts disappeared. By the time they hauled me off to the Sanatorium, a feverish, weepy, ninety-pound weakling, I was out of love with elegant bones and scared that I was coming out through my skin. A teenager in the 1970s, Gwen is stuck in a tuberculosis sanatorium with only her journal and the occasional illicit cigarette to keep her sane. Her twisted sense of humour helps her deal with invasive medical procedures, oversensitive friends, and dictatorial nurses, but nothing can spring her from prison. Not that life outside would be much better. Gwen is haunted by the dark and violent turn her life took just before she got sick. Her family has been shattered, and Gwen is fighting hard--with all the stubbornness and humour she can muster--not to be shattered too.

SHIFTING BETWEEN MULTIPLE REALITIES A teenage girl consumed by guilt over her brother's death tries to find a universe in which he is still alive.   Sticky notes rim the mirror in rainbow colors.  REMEMBER.  DON'T FORGET HIM.  READ THE NOTEBOOK.  Remember what?  Remember who?  And what's this about a notebook?  There's another note, bottom center of the mirror.  THE DREAMS ARE REAL.   In an unconscious effort to find her dead brother, Kathleen slips between universes. Choices begins in one dimension, then fractures into four distinct voices with every deision Kathleen/Kay/Kate/Kathy makes.

deAR gooSE,
Thank you for your letter. Too bad you won't be able to write. I guess you'll be too busy moving on. Me too. First of all, I'm quite busy socially. Very busy socially. Plus, my screenwriting is really taking off. I'm basically in discussions with some people. Producer-types. You know. They say moviemaking is the new novel writing. I'm pretty much on the vanguard of that whole thing.Thanks for the memories.
Alice
I'm not sure that quite captures my emotional state. A more accurate reflection of how I feel would have been:
Dear Goose,
AAAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Alice Heart-Torn-into-Small-Pieces-and-Then-Thrown-Away MacLeod
Oh Goose, Goose! Why hast thou forsaken me?

Alice enters the Miss Smithers pageant to claim the $400 clothing allowance, and comments on the whole experience in a zine.

There is a mysterious new student at Fitzgerald High, Jake Garret. He seems to have it all figured out. He looks like he just stepped off the cover of the J. Crew catalog, he is the best kicker the football team has ever had, and best of all, he hosts the party to go to every Friday night. All the guys want to be like him and all the girls want to date him, but Jake only has eyes for Didi, the girlfriend of alpha male and quarterback, Todd Buckley . As Jake's friend Rick gets to know him, he at first admires him, then starts to like him, but soon grows to fear for him as he learns Jake's dangerous secret.

A recovered friendship, a dark secret, and a love triangle with a deadly angle…
Callie is shocked when her friend Ivy reappears after an unexplained three-year absence, but the girls pick up where they left off, and suddenly Callie’s summer is full of parties, boys and fun. Beneath the surface, things aren't what they seem, however, and when a handsome boy with a dark past gets tangled up with Ivy, the girls’ history threatens to destroy their future.

Fifteen-year-old Henry Holloway isn't immoral, he's just hungry. His mother died when he was nine, leaving him to be raised by his Uncle Andy and his friends, all amiable small-time crooks. When Uncle Andy is sent to prison, Henry takes up residence in an abandoned tree house in order to escape the notice of Social Services. His mission? To survive on his own while preserving his cherished independence. Fortunately, Henry possesses all the skills it takes to be a successful house burglar. Henry is an unusually resourceful and considerate burglar--often tidying up the places he robs--until he's caught. The terms of his probation? He must live with the Wingates, a strange family in a small town called Snowflake Falls. Henry is just getting used to his temporary family when the newly liberated Uncle Andy and his criminal friends draw him into a plan to rob the citizens of Snowflake Falls. Will Henry be loyal to his uncle or will he break with the past and do the right thing?

Clarinet Reid is a pretty typical teenager. On the surface. She's smart, but a bit of a slacker; outgoing, but just a little insecure; not exactly a mischief-maker ... but trouble tends to find her wherever she goes. Also? She unwittingly carries a centuries-old Druid Blood Curse running through her veins. Now, with a single thoughtless act, what started off as the Summer Vacation in Dullsville suddenly spirals into a deadly race to find a stolen artifact, avert an explosive catastrophe, save a Celtic warrior princess, right a dreadful wrong that happened centuries before Clare was even born, and if there's still time-- literally--maybe even get a date. This is the kind of adventure that happens to a girl once every ... never.

Brianne is having a bad dream. The thing is, when Brianne has a bad dream, it usually means horrible things are about to happen. Things go from bad to terrifying when her dead aunt contacts her in a dream with a dire warning. To prevent her family and friends from perishing in a raging wildfire, Brianne must find a way to stop the wulfdraigles - ancient enemies to humanity that are growing in power, one evil dream at a time.

Fifteen-year-old Greta Kovachi travels with her brilliant father to a laboratory habitat in a submarine on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. Her father has created the first man-made black hole to prove that all matter in the universe is made up of infinitesimal particles of time. Greta was looking forward to this adventure, but she gets more than she bargained for. What was supposed to be a trip of a few days turns into a nightmare when an accident with the black hole spins them billions of years into the future, trapping her dad along with the other scientists in a particle of time. Three other kids live on the habitat, and, calling themselves the Aquanauts, they band together with Greta to travel through layers of time in a frantic attempt to save their parents and themselves from being locked under the sea for eternity.

Twin brothers Seth and Eli Maddox are Keylanders brought up within the privileged and protected Eastern Key. Keylanders, the boys are told, must keep within their walls to avoid the filth and disease spread by the Droughtlanders--those who struggle to survive on the parched land between the Keys. But when Eli sees their mother helping one of the wretched Droughtlanders, a chain of terrible events begins to unravel the life they've all known and will pit brother against brother in a life-or-death struggle between two worlds. The first book in the Triskelia trilogy, The Droughtlanders is a brilliant blend of futuristic fantasy and gritty social realism, with unforgettable characters and a compulsively readable story.

Ashlyn Baptiste is falling. One moment she was nothing--no memories, no self--and then suddenly, she's plummeting through a sea of stars. Is she in a coma? She doesn't remember dying, and she has no memories of the life she left behind. All she knows is that she's trapped in a consciousness without a body and she's spending every moment watching a stranger. Breckon Cody's on the edge. He's being ripped apart by grief so intense it literally hurts to breathe. On the surface, Breckon is trying to hold it together for his family and his girlfriend, but underneath he's barely hanging on. Even though she didn't know him in life, Ashlyn sees Breckon's pain, and she's determined to find a way help him. As her own distressing memories emerge from the darkness, she struggles to communicate with the boy who can't see her, but whose life is suddenly intertwined with hers. Told in alternating voices of the main characters, My Beating Teenage Heart paints a devastatingly vivid picture of both the heartbreak and the promise of teenage life--a life Ashlyn would do anything to recover and Breckon seems desperate to destroy.

After the shocking murder of her husband, 19-year-old Ros and her one-year-old son relocate to her childhood home to live with her parents. Palm Springs--full of sunlight, small and safe--should be the perfect place to bring up a child. But things aren't always as they appear. When the father of one of Ros's friends is shot in front of her house--an incident that also lands Ros in the hospital--it marks the beginning of a terrible string of events. Someone is out to get her, and they seem determined not to stop until her friends and family are also drawn in. As she struggles to uncover the identity of her mysterious enemy, Ros finds herself looking for answers in the most unusual places. Could the attacks have something to do with her increasingly disturbing dreams? And if so, how can she make them stop? In Past Crimes, bestselling author Carol Matas once again asks her readers to question their assumptions about the world around them. Are we capable of fully understanding the lives we lead, or do the things we fail to understand far outnumber those that we do? Growing out of her work in books like The Freak, Past Crimes offers an innovative twist on the mystery/thriller genre, and is a must-read for fans of Matas's work. Veteran novelist Carol Matas knows that a fast-paced plot is mandatory for youth raised on television. In Ros [the protagonist], Matas has created a heroin who will appeal to teenage girls Canadian Review of Materials Ive read Past Crimes and its interesting that shes tackled something typically new. Shes gone from one genre to another and not many writers can. Shes willing to challenge different kinds of writing, and shes incredibly productive.

Seventeen-year-old Sadie is in love: epic, heartfelt, and utterly one-sided. Garrett Delaney has been oblivious to Sadie's feelings ever since he sauntered into her life two years ago and wowed her with his passion for Proust (not to mention his deepblue eyes). A heartbroken Sadie has finally had enough. It's time for total Garrett detox! Aided by a barista job, an eclectic crew of friends, and a customized self-help guide, Sadie embarks on reinvention full of laughter, mortifying meltdowns, and a double shot of love.

It's a hot summer and in the depths of the Toronto Transit Authority's lost and found, 17-year-old Duncan is cataloging misplaced belongings. And between Jacob, the cranky old man who runs the place, and the endless dusty boxes overflowing with stuff no one will ever claim, Duncan has just about had enough. Then he finds a little leather book filled with the dark and dirty secrets of a twisted mind, a serial killer stalking his prey in the subway. And Duncan can't stop reading. What would you do with a book like that? How far would you go to catch a madman?

A cloud has descended over the household of Lady Jeanette Avenel.
The year is 1162. Sixteen-year-old Jenny has always enjoyed her freedom as second daughter of a Norman nobleman in Teviotdale, Scotland. But when Jenny's sister, Isabel, disgraces the family by running away with a dangerous suitor, Jenny is thrust reluctantly into the role of elder daughter. While Jenny worries about her sister's future, her father's attention turns keenly toward Jenny, and finding her a worthy suitor.
When Jenny is chosen as a potential bride for William de Warenne, brother of the king of Scotland and heir to the crown, redemption of her family's name seems within reach. Amid formal banquets and jousting tournaments, she struggles to impress the aloof Earl William. At the same time, however, she finds herself drawn to Tam Lin, a mysterious young man. Rumored to have been kidnapped by fairies, Tam harbors a dark secret from his past that threatens everyone close to him . . . including Jenny.

Beauty's back - with a bound! Liz and her best friend Alicia are determined: this year, no boys! It doesn't take long, though, before Liz falls off the wagon. She's irresistibly drawn to Kyle, and Kyle is drawn to Liz - dragged to her, actually, by Beauty Two, who is so glad to see her old friend that she starts to forget the finer points of her dog guide training. Kyle doesn't care. Every time he hears Liz's voice, he feels like he's flying. But the reasons for Kyle and Liz to stay away from each other just keep piling up. Kyle's got a teacher with a grudge who's loading him down with work. Liz's parents think she's too young, and sneaking around behind their backs certainly doesn't make her feel mature. As for Beauty, she needs correction, or she'll be taken away; and that, Kyle just can't stand to think about. Whatever happens, he knows his future depends on having Beauty by his side. The final book in the trilogy of Elizabeth and Beauty, her seeing eye dog, will have you in tears-of laughter and of pain.

13-year-old Henry's happy, ordinary life comes to an abrupt halt when his older brother, Jesse, picks up their father's hunting rifle and leaves the house one morning. What follows shatters Henry's family, who are forced to resume their lives in a new city, where no one knows their past. When Henry's therapist suggests he keep a journal, at first he is resistant. But soon he confides in it at all hours of the day and night. Susin Nielsen has created a fantastic new character in Henry, whose journal entries are infused with humour and provide a riveting read.

Matt Cruse is a cabin boy on the Aurora, a huge airship that sails hundreds of feet above the ocean, ferrying wealthy passengers from city to city. It is the life Matt's always wanted; convinced he's lighter than air, he imagines himself as buoyant as the hydrium gas that powers his ship. One night he meets a dying balloonist who speaks of beautiful creatures drifting through the skies. It is only after Matt meets the balloonist's granddaughter that he realizes that the man's ravings may, in fact, have been true, and that the creatures are completely real and utterly mysterious.

For thirteen years, Ben Tomlin was an only child. But all that changes when his mother brings home Zan — an eight-day-old chimpanzee. Ben’s father, a renowned behavioral scientist, has uprooted the family to pursue his latest research project: a high-profile experiment to determine whether chimpanzees can acquire advanced language skills. Ben’s parents tell him to treat Zan like a little brother. Ben reluctantly agrees. At least now he’s not the only one his father’s going to scrutinize.
It isn’t long before Ben is Zan’s favorite, and Ben starts to see Zan as more than just an experiment. His father disagrees. Soon Ben is forced to make a critical choice between what he is told to believe and what he knows to be true — between obeying his father or protecting his brother from an unimaginable fate.

When his grieving father orders the destruction of the Dark Library, Victor retrieves a book in which he finds the promise of not just communicating with the dead, but entering their realm, and soon he, Elizabeth, and Henry are in the spirit world of Château Frankenstein, creating and growing a body.

When Caitlyn is with Tyler all of her problems seem to disappear. But as things get serious, she discovers Tyler's jealous side. Once she realizes her "perfect" boyfriend is as controlling as he is caring, Caitlyn is faced with a choice: she can either let this relationship define her, or find the courage to break away.

On her first voyage as a stewardess aboard the Empress of Ireland, Ellie is drawn to the solitary fire stoker who stands by the ship’s rail late at night, often writing in a journal.
Jim. Ellie finds it hard to think of his name now. After their wonderful time in Quebec City, that awful night happened. The screams, the bodies, the frigid waters … she tries hard to tell herself that he survived, but it’s hard to believe when so many didn’t. So when Wyatt Steele, journalist at The New York Times asks her for her story, Ellie refuses. But when he shows her Jim’s journal, she jumps at the chance to be able to read it herself, to find some trace of the man she had fallen in love with, or perhaps a clue to what happened to him. There’s only one catch: she will have to tell her story to Steele and he’ll “pay” her by giving her the journal, one page at a time.

Haley Andromeda is 16, and in her last year of high school - "The Greatest Year of My Life," or TGYML. Haley likes to think she's just a normal girl, plagued with all the normal doubts of a too-smart-for-her-own-good, slightly hypochondriac, hickey-prone teenager. But part way through the year, disaster strikes: Haley comes down with chickenpox; her best friend Jules won't speak to her; the object of her affections, a boy named J. T., won't even look at her; and worst of all, her harmless hippie Dad is in some mysterious trouble with the law. In desperation, Haley turns to the Ouija board and tries to communicate with the Other Side, but this leads to a further, unexpected complication: Why does the dead boy she channels seem more attractive than the real boy who wants to spend time with her? The Healing Time of Hickeys, written in diary form, takes the reader on a compelling, wryly funny journey to discover the answer to this question, and several more that Haley thinks she keeps hidden from everyone.

When her mother died two years earlier, Izzy thought the world would change in some identifiable way, but it didn't. It didn't even slow down. Along with constantly watching her brother, Jason, to ensure he didn't repeat his involvement with drugs, Izzy has managed to get through school and the rest of her life using her mother's endless "rules" as guidance, even making up some of her own as she goes along. When her father starts dating again and then decides to get married, Izzy is unprepared. She is convinced she will hate this intruder in her ordered life and is certain that their family is complete as it is. When her father's new girlfriend becomes pregnant, and her health is threatened, Izzy finds that there might just be room in her family for Anne. And while trying to save her brother and stay true to the "rules," Izzy realizes that family involves more than blood and that rules aren't always absolute. A touching, often funny, story of love and acceptance, Rules for Life is a reminder that while we can't choose the family we are born with, we can choose the people we take along for the ride.

We have all been there: those sublime and ordinary moments in growing up that create the evolution of change, or as Cheeseburger Subversive's Dak Sifter would call it, a "shifting of gears". Scarsbrook's novel captures the weird logic of self discovery that marks the explorations of boy becoming man, and in its noise and thrashing, explodes the maturity myth.

I am prey, caught in a spider's web. Every time the spider creeps, he makes me whirl around and around. My life is spinning without me. I cling to the web with my hands and feet. I look for a place to leap. Nana's future is certain, and she dreads it. Daughter of a proud Kwakiutl chief, she will become a weaver, marry the son of a chief from another tribe, and leave her beloved home forever. Nanolatch, Nana's twin brother, will be chief one day, and he welcomes it. He will be a warrior and a strong leader, just like his father. Together, the twins will enter their initiation to adulthood, and fulfill the roles that have been determined for them since the day they were born. But when the chief leads a warring party to destroy another tribe's village and capture a slave, the fortunes of the Kwakiutl tribe begin to turn. Convinced that they must make amends, the chief casts about for a way to undo the curse that has descended on their people. The young slave, Noh, has been mute since the day she was torn from her village. Daughter of a shaman, she has already seen visions of the twins. Only gradually does she understand that her own emergence as a shaman is inextricably linked with the twins and their approaching initiation. Through her sympathy for Nana and her growing love for Nanolatch, she understands that she must help them fulfill their true destiny. But can she save them, knowing that it will take a terrible sacrifice to restore them all to their rightful place?

Alex is seventeen years old, and she feels her life has come to an end. After being involved in an accident that killed her best friend, she doesn't see why anyone would want her around. Sentenced to community service, she is assigned to spend time with Joanie, a severely disabled girl who is trapped in a body she can't control and seemingly unable to communicate. Alex comes to believe that maybe Joanie can be reached, and that together they can find a way to connect with the world around them--Alex from her self-imposed exile, and Joanie for the first time. Joanie has been listening and watching as the world goes on around her for all of her seventeen years. But she is so full of words and thoughts and images that if she ever could figure out a way to let them loose, they would come swirling out in a torrent of syllables. She would fill every room with the colors of her dreams until the whole world became a rainbow of her making. If only she could figure out a way...

Almost thirteen, Morgan plans to spend her summer training for an all-star track meet, playing rep softball and hanging out with her friend Jade. Instead, she is stuck at her grandma's farm for the summer. She and her cousin Dulcy are drawn to the mystical place they call Seraphina's Circle, under the protective branches of an ancient fir tree.

Danny has survived everything life has thrown at him: being abandoned at birth, multiple abusive foster homes, life as a con man in training. But when his latest "protector" dies suddenly, Danny has to think fast or he'll be back in foster care again. He decides to assume the identity of a boy who disappeared three years before. If nothing else, he figures it will buy him a little time. Much to his astonishment, his new "family" accepts him as their own--despite the fact that he looks nothing like their missing relative. But one old cop has his suspicions about Danny--and he's not about to declare the case closed. Inspired by a true story, Who I'm Notis a powerful portrait of a boy whose identity is as fluid as a river and as changeable as a chameleon's skin.

Chanda's mother is not herself, her younger sister is acting out, and her best friend needs help. A powerful story set amid the African HIV/AIDS pandemic. In this sensitive, swiftly paced story, readers will find echoes of To Kill a Mockingbird as Chanda, a 16-year-old, astonishingly perceptive girl living in the small city of Bonang in Africa, must confront the undercurrents of shame and stigma associated with HIV/AIDS.

Kyla's memory has been erased, her personality wiped blank, her memories lost forever. She's been slated. The government claims that she was a terrorist and they are giving her a second chance--if she plays by their rules. But scenes from the past haunt her as she tries to adjust to a new life, family, and school, leaving her unsettled. Who is she really? And if only criminals are meant to be slated, why are so many other teens disappearing? As she and her friend Ben seek answers, Kyla is torn between the need to know more and her instinct for self-preservation.

"How did your poor husband pass away?" Make it simple, Mama, I tried to bore into her, simple, simple... "His brains exploded."  I heard a gasp. It was me. "An aneurysm?" "Okay," said Mama.  "I'm sorry, hon," said Mrs. Haver. "At least it was fast."  "It vas?" Mama looked puzzled. I nodded furiously at her. "Ya. It vas. Yours?" "Heart attack." "Oooo, dat's good too." I could've killed her. Sophie Kandinsky has spent the last six years trying to keep her crazy family life secret. The devil is in the details. The first detail is her larger-than-life, eccentric, Bulgarian mother. The slightly larger detail is the fact that her gentle, poet-father has been charged with murder. All Sophie wants is to be adored and invincible, which is really hard once people find out her father's in prison. But this time, after yet another move to another new school, and another opportunity to wipe the slate clean, Sophie has devised a plan. On her first day of school, she will locate The Blondes--that clique of perfect, confident girls who are beyond gossip and reproach--and she will make them her friends. This time, no one will find out the truth. This time, everything will be brilliant.

Quebec, 1703. In this rough town, Indian slaves are routinely mistreated. As C?cile Chesne watches the branding iron burn into young Lesharo's flesh, she knows she must act. Defying convention, the headstrong girl buys the slave's freedom and treats him as an equal. Lesharo is Pawnee -- the People of the Wolf. Sworn to protect C?cile, he accompanies her and her father, a coureur de bois, as they leave Quebec for a perilous journey to the new fort at D?troit. Fort society, however, makes C?cile and Lesharo miserable. Torn between two worlds, they can only be free in the wild. But freedom will not come easily. One terrible night, C?cile is forced to make a dreadful choice ?

Kas fights to conceal her dangerous secret. Kas has everything a teenager could possibly want. Away from home for the first time, and attending a prestigious art school, she makes friends with a model and aspiring actress, Marin, and meets Jacob, a handsome young musician. Her future is bright and promising. But Kas is hiding a secret--a secret so dangerous that it threatens to destroy not only her friendships, but also her own future.

Truth and Skye are just like all their high-school friends. They love to drive cars, they love to party, and they booze it up whenever they can. And when the two girls find summer jobs at the local pizza shop, they see no reason to change their habits. They befriend Vale, a co-worker who is grateful for their attention. But the two really only have eyes for Vale's car, which she will get as soon as she passes her driving exam. Cars mean freedom - freedom to go where they want and do what they please. Truth doesn't know why, but she can't seem to get what she really wants. And she wants Ryan, the seriously handsome guy who works at the pizza oven. Truth's reckless behavior does catch his attention, but not in a good way. And as the summer progresses, Truth watches herself gradually lose control in a series of self-destructive acts. One day she'll be able to stop but will that day come too late?

Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction.Amy is in love with Alexander Banks, a brooding, handsome vampire hunter. There's just one problem: He doesn't exist. Alexander is the hero in a series of popular vampire novels, and Amy has breathlessly followed all his fictional adventures.Then, late one night, fiction becomes reality. Amy meets a boy who bears an eerie resemblance to Alexander Banks. In fact, he IS Alexander, come to life from the pages of the book. And he's in hot pursuit of Vigo, the ruthless vampire who has also crossed over into Amy's city. As Amy struggles to unravel the mystery behind Alexander's arrival, she must help him track down Vigo before too many lives are at risk. But attraction, danger, and dark secrets soon collide, leaving Amy to wonder if the greatest thing at stake . . . is her heart.

No one is who they seem to be in Charlie's world. Not her father, the boy she likes, or even the mysterious man from her mother's funeral. Sixteen-year-old Charlie, an ambitious and dedicated writer who thinks her small-town life doesn't offer any material for her work, is sure of three things: That her blow-up at her tactless creative writing teacher must have contributed to his heart attack, That she doesn't want to spend her summer with her father's girlfriend and her triplets, And that she has to get away. She decides to spend the summer with her grandmother on remote Lake Ringrose in northern Ontario, where she thinks she can laze on a hammock all summer and get in touch with her mother's roots. Instead, she steps into a series of unexpected adventures that will alter her view of what seemed a dull and tedious existence. For one thing, she agrees to compete in the gruelling Four Islands Race. Then she falls for Kerry, a handsome local hunk, and wants to tell him how she feels. As revelation upon revelation builds, she discovers the unthinkable: Kerry is her half-brother and the man she's always taken to be her father isn't after all. And then there's the mystery of the Chocolate Moose Man, an almost mythical figure who turned up at her mother's funeral thirteen years before. It's all rich grist for a keen-eyed young writer's mill, as Charlie learns that the best material comes not from exciting travels and circumstances, but from journeys to new places inside herself.

“You’ re going to spend some time on the power play, on penalty kill, and start right off as the second line centre,” he told me.
I didn’ t question why he was putting me on the second line. I’ d show him the first line was the place I belonged.
“The important thing is that you’ ve been drafted,” he said. “You’ ve going to play Junior A, and you’ re going to be on my team. You’ re my player.”

In this novel by John Wilson, Jim Hay is fifteen, thinks war is a glorious adventure and cannot wait for his turn to fight. But as his father boldly marches off to battle in August, 1914, Jim must be content to record his thoughts and dreams in his journal. Gradually, Jim's simple life begins to unravel. His father is killed in action, his mother suffers a breakdown, and when he does at last join up, it is as much to find a refuge as it is to seek glory. What Jim discovers in the trenches of France is enough to dispel any romantic view of war. And while his longing for adventure is replaced by a basic need to survive, the final tragic outcome is one he never dreamed of.

In this novel by John Wilson set during the Battle of Stalingrad, three participants -- two fighters and a boy -- are caught in its horrors. Their story is told over seven days of fierce and deadly street-by-street fighting. Vasily is a patriotic Russian soldier determined to rid his country of the hated Nazi invaders -- if he can stay alive long enough. Conrad is a German tank officer, part of the seemingly unstoppable force sweeping eastward over the steppe, expecting a quick victory over Stalin's ill-trained and badly equipped army. Between them is eight-year-old Sergei, whose home is the maze of rubble that used to be the city of Stalingrad. None of them can know that their fates will be intertwined as the cataclysm engulfs them.

Saba has spent her whole life in Silverlake, a dried-up wasteland ravaged by constant sandstorms. The Wrecker civilization has long been destroyed, leaving only landfills for Saba and her family to scavenge from. That's fine by her, as long as her beloved twin brother Lugh is around. But when four cloaked horsemen capture Lugh, Saba's world is shattered, and she embarks on a quest to get him back.
Suddenly thrown into the lawless, ugly reality of the outside world, Saba discovers she is a fierce fighter, an unbeatable survivor, and a cunning opponent. Teamed up with a handsome daredevil named Jack and a gang of girl revolutionaries called the Free Hawks, Saba's unrelenting search for Lugh stages a showdown that will change the course of her own civilization.

All 11-year-old Jared St. George can think about is making hisschool basketball team. What Jared refuses to think about is math, and the factthat he’s failing it. The problem is tough: a poor math grade plus anunsympathetic coach equals no basketball team. Jared’s only hope is peertutoring from Ellie Brejovic, the weirdo classmate whom everyone teases. To hissurprise, Ellie makes math make sense, except that Jared would rather admit to cheating than let the guys know about her. Turns out that’s the really big mistake, one that could cost Jared not just a spot on the team, but something far more valuable.

Just dumped by his girlfriend, Jace Antonakos has recorded a proclamation in a notebook his English teacher made him take on his winter vacation to the Mayan Riviera: I’m going to Mexico to get laid. The fact that he’s only days away from turning 18 and still a virgin has Jace spooked, and he figures that Playa del Carmen’s golden beaches draped with equally golden girls should increase his odds of success. On the other hand, the fact that he’s travelling with his mother, his aunt and his nine-year-old autistic brother just about kills that bet. Then he meets Kate, who he thinks might be just the person to help him with his “problem.” If only he knew what to say to her. Nothing new there—no one in his family has been talking much after what happened to his older brother, Stefan. Until now, the no-talking thing has been working for Jace, who has kept a secret from everyone—including himself—for nearly a year. Opening up to someone may be way more than he can handle.

Chloe Saunders used to have a relatively normal life.
But now she finds herself in the middle of some really strange situations because:
~She suddenly starts seeing dead people.
~She gets locked up in a group home for unstable teens.
~The group home isn't what it seems.
My name is Chloe Saunders and my life will never be the same again.
All I wanted was to make friends, meet boys, and keep on being ordinary. I don't even know what that means anymore. It all started on the day that I saw my first ghost—and the ghost saw me.
Now there are ghosts everywhere and they won't leave me alone. To top it all off, I somehow got myself locked up in Lyle House, a "special home" for troubled teens. Yet the home isn't what it seems. Don't tell anyone, but I think there might be more to my housemates than meets the eye. The question is, whose side are they on? It's up to me to figure out the dangerous secrets behind Lyle House... before its skeletons come back to haunt me.

This young adult historical novel focuses on Charlotte and her family, Loyalists who are forced to flee their home in the Mohawk Valley as a result of the violence of the "Sons of Liberty" during the American Revolution. At the beginning, fifteen-year-old Charlotte Hooper is separated from her sweetheart, Nick, who sympathizes with the Revolutionaries. The war has already taken the lives of her three brothers, and it is with a sense of desperation that Charlotte and her parents begin the long trek north to the safety of Fort Haldimand (near present-day Kingston).The novel portrays Charlotte's struggle on the difficult journey north, and the even more difficult task of making a new home in British Canada. In her relationship with Nick, the novel explores how the ideals of the American Revolution were undermined by a revolutionary ethos of violence. In the flight north, the Mohawk nation plays an important role, and Charlotte learns much about their customs and way of life, tothe point where she is renamed "Woman of Two Worlds." Later in the novel she is able to repay her Native friends when she plays an important part in helping the Oneidas to become once again members of the Iroquois confederacy under British protection.The story of Charlotte's journey north is a tale of paradise lost and a new world gained. Strong and capable, Charlotte breaks the stereotype of the eighteenth-century woman, while revealing the positive relationship between the Loyalists and theNative peoples.

In The Bonemender, Gabrielle took her talent for healing into battle where her father died in her arms; she fell in love with a man who turned out to be an Elf, with a lifespan many times that of a Human, and she learned that she was not whom she had believed herself to be. Now, the war is over, but the threat from across the mountains has only withdrawn for the time-being, and danger lurks closer to home. Both Gabrielle and her brother Tristan must fight for their lives and for those they love, as Gabrielle struggles to save a young man who thinks himself her enemy.

That's all Callum Harris remembers from his tumble over the waterfall. But when he wakes up in a hospital bed and finds his best friend trying to kill him, Callum knows something is seriously wrong. Unfortunately for him, the mysteries are just getting started.
Why are his parents acting like he's some big sports star all of a sudden? And why are all the buildings in town more run-down than Callum remembers? Worst of all... what happened to Callum's brother? Either Callum has gone seriously crazy or something happened when he went over the edge of the falls. Something impossible. Callum needs answers, and now. Because in this twisted new version of the life Callum knew, his former best friend isn't the only one who wants to see him dead.

The new novel by the author of two award-nominated books, Dead Reckoning and Adrift. With this work, Julie Burtinshaw returns to her forte: fastidiously researched and gripping historical fiction. The story revolves around Jenny Estes, who is born into slavery in the 1840s in Missouri. Through Jenny and her family, Burtinshaw tells the true story of the immigration of a small group of African Americans from the banks of the Mississippi to Saltspring Island, British Columbia, in the 1860s. This first fictional treatment of a fascinating and important piece of our history follows in the tradition of Barbara Smucker's classic Underground to Canada.

Sixteen-year-old Ben Larsson is angry. His mother is dead. His estranged father has dragged him to England, hoping that a fresh start in a new country will repair their damaged relationship. Ben is determined that this will never happen. Then, Ben's life is consumed by unexplained events. A complete stranger attacks him. The school outcast, a strange girl named Y vonne who talks to herself, follows him around like a stray puppy, insisting that Ben has been marked. He finds a bizarre twig image of himself on his doorstep. What is happening? Who or what is behind this? Meanwhile, an ancient force is luring Ben into the woods nearby. Will the knowledge he finds there bring back order to his life or complicate it in ways unimaginable?

"I hate the world and everything in it. And that includes me." Asked to write something for English class that expresses who he really is, 16-year-old Carson takes pleasure in blistering the page with hate for everything in his life. Stuck in a private school for kids who have repeatedly flunked out elsewhere, Carson knows he's got nowhere lower to sink to. "Flunk Out Academy" is the last resort for Carson and his classmates, in a small town where its deeply troubled students are decidedly unwelcome. Then Carson meets someone who is even less optimistic than he. Christine struggles to get by, living in a trailer by herself, abandoned by her mother and father, so desperate that she has become almost immune to the pain and loneliness. Confronted by her deep sadness, Carson starts to care for her and she for him. Once focused on someone other than himself, he begins to notice the world around him and realize that there is beauty as well as hopelessness, love as well as hate. Together the two teenagers struggle to work out how they are going to live in an imperfect world. There are no easy happy endings, but somehow the journey eventually makes the pain worthwhile.

Sixteen-year-old Simon has always been considered odd. Three years ago, a skateboarding accident caused some minor brain damage and made him a little stranger. His career-driven parents mostly leave him alone, and he spends much of his time living in his imagination. When Andrea, whom no one else can see, appears to Simon in class, he is fascinated by her and strikes up a friendship, even though he knows she may be pure hallucination - he's had imaginary friends before. Andrea says she is there to "help" him, but before the story ends, Simon discovers that it is he who needs to help Andrea, not the other way around.

Based on interviews with a young woman forced to flee Iran because of her sexual orientation, Moon at Nine is a tense and riveting novel that shines a light on an issue of social injustice that continues to this day. Fifteen-year-old Farrin has grown up with secrets: ten years after the overthrow of the Shah, her aristocratic mother is still working against Iran's conservative revolutionary government. But when Farrin befriends Sadira, the intriguing and outgoing new student at her school for gifted girls, her own new secret is even more dangerous. Because the girls discover their relationship is more than just a friendship--and in Iran, being gay is punishable by death.

Kat is alone with a secret she doesn't want to keep but can't risk telling. A victim of longtime sexual abuse at the hands of her family's trusted friend, Kat is torn between trying to protect herself and safeguarding her little sister, whom she fears might be next. Greg is a clever and manipulative abuser who has Kat convinced that she is as much to blame for his behavior as he is. Caught in a tangled web of deception and self-loathing, Kat believes Greg when he says that no one will accept her word over his. Thanks to him, Kat is already isolated from her parents and at risk of losing her best friends. With no one to turn to, Kat keeps a secret journal where she writes the truth about everything that has been going on since she was a little girl. But now the journal is missing, and Kat's secret is about to unravel.

When Roan's parents and the people of Longlight perish in a raid, Roan is filled with rage. Torn between his desire for revenge and the legacy of peace he has inherited, he is taken in by a sect of warriors. Here he learns he has exceptional talent as a fighter. But Roan is haunted by visions he can't understand. When he commits his first act of violence, he flees in disgust into the most wasted lands of all, the Devastation. It is only when Roan meets the strange girl Alandra that he begins to understand his life's purpose and why the village of Longlight was destroyed. Dennis Foon has created an immensely powerful and disturbing look at a wasted world. Through the character of Roan, hope and the promise of renewed life seem possible.

When Chris finds a wallet on the street he tries to return it to its owner. In trouble at home and at school, he is struggling to do the right thing. However, as circumstances slowly start unraveling and his whole life appears headed down the drain, Chris realizes that the person who owns the wallet looks a lot like him and has a life he would do almost anything for. What if he switched identities? What if he became someone else?

Robin has everything a girl could want. Thanks to her mother—the internationally beloved talk show host Mimi Schwartz—Robin’s got the money, the means and the connections to make even her wildest dreams come true. So why, then, does she choose to sit alone in a dark room watching endless reruns of you, you and Mimi?
Don’t ask Robin. She doesn’t know—not, at least, until the bizarre discovery of an old high-school ring propels her to ditch New York for a tiny Nova Scotian fishing village. In her quest to solve the mystery behind the ring’s origin, Robin finds more than a renewed joie de vivre. She discovers love, the truth of her own background— and the shocking secret that helped make her mother a star.

Teresa Tolliver (fourteen, middle child, and for the most part Normal) would do almost anything to be come Above-Normal. She just needs the right clothes, the right friends, and most importantly, a popular (Above-Normal) boyfriend...

It's "bead season" at slippery rock high. This year the bead-snatching grad game called "Gotcha" has been banned as an official school activity because the teachers have decided to put an end to a dangerous tradition. After paying an entry fee the players are given a bead and someone's name. The object of the game is snatch the bead of your victim and take their name. The winner ends up with all the beads--and all the money. After the game is banned it becomes even more appealing. The game goes underground and more grads than ever are participating. Katie is reluctant to join in, but as a member of grad council she feels she has to go along. The game quickly spins out of control. Katie finds herself losing friends and falling victim to her classmates' obsession with the game. She considers dropping out of the game but then devises a better way of getting even with her classmates. Katie finds herself sliding further and further down the chute that leads to disaster. Can she bring a safe end to this deadly game?

Fourteen--year--old social misfit Philip Reddy, still struggling with the death of his father, doesn't know what he's in for when he decides to dig up an unidentified mound of earth near his island summer cottage. Beneath the earth lies the restless Anishinaabe spirit Tikumiwaewidung who once lived and hunted on the lake. The spirit despises the white man for decimating his people, and drives Philip like a slave to properly lay to rest the Ojibway people who had died during the colonisation of the lake area. Philip has prejudices of his own, which do not ingratiate him with the already enraged spirit. At first, Philip is driven to exhaustion by the spirit, but the two develop a symbiotic relationship through their work, and the spirit helps Philip to rise above his grief. Set in the lush Canadian Shield country of northwestern Ontario, Digging for Philip is a dark but compelling adventure novel about racism and prejudice and coming to terms with loss.

Rosalind Kemp is the youngest in a family of sisters. She lives a comfortable life in a small town in Ontario. Ros is active, loving, and artistic. And, she has second sight. It is a part of her nature with which she has trouble coming to terms: sometimes it is nothing more than a pleasant parlor trick, like knowing that King Edward will abdicate; sometimes it is a curse that makes her feel freakish; and sometimes it is just plain terrifying. Ros tries everything she can to suppress the gift, and subsequently herself, but nothing works. If she is going to live her life fully, she will have to come to terms with every part of her being, just as everyone must. This brilliant novel is Julie Johnston at her very best: it is funny, frightening, and painfully insightful.

Alex Ford wishes his father had seen the movie Brokeback Mountain. Because then he might understand that it’s possible to be a gay cowboy. Trouble is, Alex doesn’t even want to be a cowboy; his dream is to ditch Western-style riding and take up dressage. But with his mother long gone, his father ensconced in an RV in the driveway, his messy Aunt Grace the Hair Stylist installed in the kitchen (whose cooking tastes like her hairdressing smells), and his Kung Fu–obsessed younger twin sisters, Alex knows that his dream is highly unlikely. So when he does get the chance to try the meticulously intricate art of dressage riding and then bumps into the supremely self absorbed Cleo at a competition, it’s a whole new world for Alex.
Cleo’s been sent to a very posh, very horsey boarding school nearby because of an unfortunate incident with her handsome chauffeur. Cleo doesn’t get why Alex is so serious about everything, especially when his family is so…interesting. But now Alex is about to lose even the slender hold he has on his dream—and on the secret he’s not yet ready to reveal. Meanwhile, Cleo has fallen in with the party crowd, forgetting all about her precious horse. Does this mean Alex and Cleo’s fledgling friendship is doomed from the start?

Sunglasses. Check.
Binoculars. Check.
Notepad.
Check.
Mom's pink bike.
Check. Check?
Meet Sherman Mack. Short. Nerdy. Amateur P.I. and prepared to do anything for Dini Trioli.
Nobody knows who began it or when it became a tradition, but every girl at Harewood Tech fears being D-listed, a ritual that wipes her off the social map forever. When Sherman believes Dini is in danger of being D-listed, he snatches up his surveillance gear and launches a full-scale investigation to uncover who is responsible.
Could it be the captain of the lacrosse team?
The hottest girls in school, the Trophy Wives?
Or maybe their boyfriends?
One thing is for sure: Sherman Mack is on the case. And he's not giving up.

Vince Luca is in heaven . . . he's off to Los Angeles, to attend the University of Santa Monica's film school. College should be fantastic, but he is more thrilled about being 3,000 miles away from his mob family.
But as it turns out, college brings its own problems: from other film students moving in on his girl, to a kleptomaniac roommate, to having to get a job on campus to help pay tuition. It's a fair amount to handle, though nothing Vince couldn't easily manage - if he didn't keep finding himself with unexpected guests from the East Coast. It seems Vince's dad may just be ready to expand operations to L.A.

Amy (a.k.a. Bird) seems to have the perfect life: loving parents, a hot boyfriend, the best friend ever. She even writes an online advice column, full of Top Tips, to help other teens take control of their lives. But after a new guy shows up at school, Bird can’t seem to follow her own wisdom.
Pete is the consummate bad boy. He’s everything Bird is not: wild, unambitious and more than a little dangerous. Although she knows he’s trouble, Bird can’t stay away. And the more drawn she is to Pete, the more cracks are revealed in her relationship with Griffin, her doting boyfriend. Meanwhile, her parents’ marriage is also fracturing, possibly for good.
Bird is way out of her comfort zone. All it takes is one mistake, one momentary loss of control, for her entire future to be blown away . . .

Seventeen-year-old actress Kelley Winslow always thought faeries were just something from childhood stories. Then she meets Sonny Flannery. He's a changeling—a mortal taken as an infant and raised among Faerie—and within short order he's turned Kelley's heart inside out and her life upside down.
For Kelley's beloved Central Park isn't just a park—it's a gateway between her ordinary city and the Faerie's dangerous, bewitching Otherworld. Now Kelley's eyes are opening not just to the Faerie that surround her, but to the heritage that awaits her . . . a destiny both wondrous and strange.

Johnny Van Der Zee is a talented hockey player and seems to have everything going for him in the town of Iqaluit, Nunavut. But his friend Kathy knows something is very wrong. Why did Johnny deliberately crash his snowmobile? Why do mysterious accidents befall anyone Johnny gets close to? What is the secret Johnny is so desperate to tell, if only someone would listen? And who is the stranger with the cold eyes and silver hair? The one Johnny knows only as Frost . . . In this supernaturalthriller, Johnny's friends and brother must piece together the reason for his strange behaviour to save him - and all of mankind - from Frost's plan for a new ice age.

When her mother suddenly moves them to a new town, Zoe is unhappy about leaving behind what passes for a normal life. And when the first person she meets turns out to be Beck, who rules her new school with a mixture of intimidation and outright violence, she is dismayed. But she has no idea how bad things will get. Unsure of herself and merely trying to fit in, Zoe is initiated, painfully, into the Beckoners, a twisted group of girls whose main purpose is to stay on top by whatever means necessary. Help comes from unlikely quarters as Zoe struggles to tear loose from the Beckoners without becoming a target herself, while also trying to save April--or Dog, as she is called--from further torment. A chilling portrait of the bullying and violence that is all too common in schools, The Beckoners illustrates the lure of becoming tormentor rather than victim, and the terrible price that can be exacted for standing up for what is right.

Phoenix envies her brother Gryphon. The daredevil and sports hero has all of his recons left: three more chances at life. But she is left with only one, and learns that her beloved brother is responsible for one of her deaths. When Gryphon himself has an accident, the governing body Chrysalis refuses to recon him, deeming his death to be a suicide. His friends' code of silence makes it difficult to find out what happened, but Phoenix is determined to unravel the mystery and save her brother.

Jade is having nightmares. It's been a few months since she discovered her amazing new powers, as she's also pretty sure that what she is experiencing is no 'dream'. But when the subject of her vision is murdered, she agrees to use her paranormal abilities to help the investigation.

When his step-father Phil is shot dead in an apparent robbery, David becomes the prime suspect. Where was David that night, and what does he know about Phil?

Told as fiction, Esther portrays the remarkable, nearly incredible life and times of Esther Brandeau, a young girl who lived in the eighteenth century, and who was the first Jew to set foot in New France. That she did so disguised as a boy, and that the eventual discovery of her deceit became an international incident, is but one part of Esther's dramatic story. With an emerging Canadian nation as its backdrop, Esther's story encompasses the quest for gender equality and the larger quest for freedom--as real to a teenager in 1735 as it is today.

Blake Raintree, the heroine of The Secret Under My Skin, is now 18, returning to the city of her birth as an aide to a justice council charged with trying to address the wrongs of the technocaust. While in the city, Blake submits the ID code from the microchip that was implanted in her arm in infancy by her parents, hoping to find out more about her past, and especially her father. What she learns will cause her to question everything she knows about herself. Torn between a terrible anger and a search for the love and acceptance she has been denied all her life, Blake faces a harsh choice.

Seventeen-year-old Violet Dancey has been left at home in Mississippi with a laudanum-addicted stepmother and love-crazed stepsister while her father fights in the war-a war that has already claimed her twin brother. When she comes across a severely injured Union soldier lying in an abandoned lodge deep in the woods, things begin to change. Thomas is the enemy-one of the men who might have killed her own brother-and yet she's drawn to him. But Violet isn't Thomas's only visitor. Someone has been tending to his wounds-keeping him alive-and it becomes chillingly clear that this care hasn't been out of compassion. Against the dangers of war and threatening powers of voodoo, Violet fights to protect her home, her family, and the man she's begun to love.

Twelve-year-old Ambrose is a glass-half-full kind of guy. A self-described "friendless nerd," he moves from place to place every couple of years with his overprotective mother, Irene. When some bullies at his new school almost kill him by slipping a peanut into his sandwich -- even though they know he has a deathly allergy -- Ambrose is philosophical. Irene, however, is not and decides that Ambrose will be home-schooled. Alone in the evenings when Irene goes to work, Ambrose pesters Cosmo, the twenty-five-year-old son of the Greek landlords who live upstairs. Cosmo has just been released from jail for breaking and entering to support a drug habit. Quite by accident, Ambrose discovers that they share a love of Scrabble and coerces Cosmo into taking him to the West Side Scrabble Club, where Cosmo falls for Amanda, the club director. Posing as Ambrose's Big Brother to impress her, Cosmo is motivated to take Ambrose to the weekly meetings and to give him lessons in self-defense. Cosmo, Amanda, and Ambrose soon form an unlikely alliance and, for the first time in his life, Ambrose blossoms. The characters at the Scrabble Club come to embrace Ambrose for who he is and for their shared love of words. There's only one problem: Irene has no idea what Ambrose is up to. In this brilliantly observed novel, author Susin Nielsen transports the reader to the world of competitive Scrabble as seen from the honest yet funny viewpoint of a boy who's searching for acceptance and for a place to call home.

"I never thought about being white. I didn't have to. I was transparent;no colour at all. I hung out, was a good enough student and no one paid any special attention to me at all. Then I became a white girl." Until she was fourteen, Josie was pretty ordinary. Then her Mom meets Martin, "a real ponytail Indian," and before long, Josie finds herself living on a reserve outside town, with a new stepfather, a new stepbrother, and a new name;"Blondie." In town, white was the ambient noise, the no-colour background. On the reserve, she's White, and most seem to see her only for her blond hair and blue eyes. Her mother's no help. She never leaves the house, gripped by her fear of the "wild Indians" beyond Martin's doorstep. But Josie can't afford to hide out forever. She has to go to school, and she has to get herself a life, one way or another. So bit by bit, she finds a way through the minefields. She makes a friend, Rose, with whom she tries to bridge the chasms between out and in, white and Indian, town and reserve. She finds a family in Martin, Luke, and Grandma. And bit by bit, the place itself, the reserve;the run-down houses, the way the people live in them and around them, the forest and the sea; finds its way into her, like nothing else ever has, or ever will.

Pilot-in-training Matt Cruse and Kate de Vries, expert on high-altitude life-forms, are invited aboard the Starclimber, a vessel that literally climbs its way into the cosmos. Before they even set foot aboard the ship, catastrophe strikes:
Kate announces she is engaged—and not to Matt.
Despite this bombshell, Matt and Kate embark on their journey into space, but soon the ship is surrounded by strange and unsettling life-forms, and the crew is forced to combat devastating mechanical failure. For Matt, Kate, and the entire crew of the Starclimber, what began as an exciting race to the stars has now turned into a battle to save their lives.

In this prequel to Mary Shelley’s gothic classic, Frankenstein, 16-year-old Victor Frankenstein begins a dark journey that will change his life forever. Victor’s twin, Konrad, has fallen ill, and no doctor is able to cure him. Unwilling to give up on his brother, Victor enlists his beautiful cousin Elizabeth and best friend Henry on a treacherous search for the ingredients to create the forbidden Elixir of Life. Impossible odds, dangerous alchemy and a bitter love triangle threaten their quest at every turn.
Victor knows he must not fail. But his success depends on how far he is willing to push the boundaries of nature, science, and love—and how much he is willing to sacrifice.

A supernatural mystery series set in a town where werewolves live in plain sight. Mackenzie Dobson's life has been turned upside down since she vowed to hunt her best friend Amy's killer: a white werewolf. Lupine syndrome--also known as the werewolf virus--is on the rise across the country, and bloodlust is not easy to control. But it soon becomes clear that dangerous secrets are lurking in the shadows of Hemlock, Mac's hometown--and she is thrown into a maelstrom of violence and betrayal that puts her in grave danger.

Teen violence, bullying and the burning quest to fit in are presented in the poems of 4 unforgettable high school students.High School. Four lives caught up in a game. The problem with games like this is that there may be winners, but there are always losers.Teen violence, bullying and the burning quest to fit in are presented in the poems of four unforgettable high school students: Natalie, Kyle, Tricia, Miguel. Their stories unfold in this explosive new book, told in free verse. A story of teen angst like no other, it is based on fictional characters but is rooted in the realities of the teen experience.When Natalie moves to a new high school she befriends 3 unwitting victims into her spider-web of manipulations, lies and deceit. Through the poetry and assignments of an English class we glimpse the world of the 4 teens. Natalie, whose alcoholic parents, years of neglect and ultimate rape by her father's friend has shaped her into a cruel and manipulative teen; Tricia, dealing with her blended family is drawn into Natalies's forbidden world of partying and rebellion; Kyle, a would-be musician is in love with Tricia and Miguel who lusts for Natalie while hiding the secrets of his family.The story weaves us through their poetry, their lives and culminates at a party where the four lives fishtail out of control.English class will never be the same.

Already a young offender, Eddie runs away from his abusive father and takes up residence at the Calgary Zoo. There he meets a middle aged man named Jack who has been coming to the zoo's playground every day for years. When Eddie breaks into Jack's house to see what he can find, it changes Eddie's life forever.

Haley Andromeda Harmony is now in her final months of high school and must face the inevitable question: What happens next? Finding the answer isn't easy. For one thing, having a real boyfriend is causing a strange reaction: Haley has crushes on nearly every other boy she meets. As well, her dad gets a job and starts dating, and Haley misses the life they had before he moved his Much Younger Girlfriend (MYG) into their ramshackle house. From bungee-jumping in winter to supporting best friend Jules at auditions for the TV show "Who's the Prettiest of Them All?," Haley's TGYML 2 ("the greatest year of my life, part two") has more than its fair share of mishap-filled adventures.

It's junior prom night. Andrea is grounded for getting her older brother to buy booze for her, Paul is having panic attacks, Roemi has been stood up by his Internet date, and Candace is busy tagging a building (before she gets collared by a particularly tenacious cop). By happenstance, the four near-strangers end up together, getting into more trouble, arguing and ultimately helping each other out over the course of eight madcap hours.

There is no distorting the unwavering pull of guys to rock _n_ roll bands, and when Dak Sifter builds his band, the Featherless Bipeds, he has every intention of enjoying every wild, raunchy, ear-splitting moment of the ride. But as readers know from Dak_s experiences in Cheeseburger Subversive, life is wrought with perils, and now his band with its lure for girls, the quirky demands of band members, and the mercurial shifting values of youth culture - well, he still loves Zoe Perry doesn't he? And he still wants to do well at university, and still believes in some code of ethics - well, doesn't he?

When Maddie comes across pro-anorexia website thinandbeautiful.com, she finally finds the respect and support she feels she doesn't get from her family and friends. But when they send her to a rehab facility, Maddie refuses to believe she needs help.

Set in Newfoundland, One for Sorrow chronicles a pivotal year in the life of Issy Heffernan, one of the most complex and appealing young heroines in YA fiction. Saddled with a mean and bedridden mother; an older, increasingly bitter schoolmarm of a sister; and a lovely but mainly absent father, Issy dreams of leaving her miserable life behind for a life on the mainland, maybe even in a big city such as Toronto.What reason is there for her to stay? But there's one thing holding her back: Issy is illiterate. She can't read at all and never could. How far can she really go?

At last, Shelby Belgarden has put her crime-solving behind her and has returned to the life of an ordinary teenager. Now 16, she has taken her first job: working at a new local restaurant called The Steak Place. But when one of her co-workers -- a waitress named Nadine -- goes missing, Shelby suspects foul play. The police won't believe her. Neither will Shelby's boyfriend, Greg, who grows frustrated with her search for a criminal who may not exist.

Life is very grave for Anise. Hospitalized for anorexia, she wonders about the point of it all. Her frigid mother and ineffectual father seem oblivious to her struggle. Her beloved brother is too busy screwing up his own life to take note of hers. Living on the loony ward seems not to be making any difference at all, and Anise feels like a prisoner. Her only free choice is to turn to her journal - the place where she can dream, and where she can decide whether to live or die.

Coltan, or "blue gold," is a rare mineral used in making cell phones and computers. Across continents, the lives of three teen girls are affected by the "blue gold" trade. Sylvie's family had to flee the Democratic Republic of the Congo after her father was killed by a rogue militia gang in the conflict for control of coltan. The refugee camp where she now lives is deplorable, and Sylvie yearns for a way out--to save not only herself, but her remaining family. Laiping labors in a Chinese factory, soldering components for cell phones. She had left her small village to make her fortune, but the factory conditions are crushing, and the constant pressure to send money home adds to her misery. Yet when Laiping tries to improve her situation, she sees what happens to those who dare question the electronics company's policies. Fiona is a North American girl who, in one thoughtless moment, takes a picture on her cell phone she comes to regret. In the aftermath, she learns not only about trust and being true to oneself, but the importance of fighting for what is right. All three teens are unexpectedly linked by these events.

The tale of a musician who leaves school for a life on the road. Flynn Robinson is eighteen years old and has just made the most important decision of his life. Excited by an offer to play guitar in a top club band, he's decided to drop out of his last year of high school. Naturally, his parents aren't too thrilled. Neither is his girlfriend, Julianne. But Flynn is driven by his passion for music, and his fear of ending up bored and boring -- a regular guy in a suit and tie. His hero is his uncle and namesake, Ray Flynn, a musician who has defied convention his whole life. Flynn can't bring himself to tell Julianne they're finished. He resents anyone giving him advice, and finds that he's really burned when the bandleader won't let him play his original tunes. When Flynn is offered a hot guitar, he is confronted by the first of his moral dilemmas. Flynn is getting his first look at the world of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. But a time for deep reflection arrives when Flynn discovers that his idol, Ray, isn't the man he imagined. Tanner reaches into his own experience as a musician to create the authentic universe of a club band.

Marty Black has retreated from a difficult family situation into the area she can best control, her own appetites. She may not be able to control her parents' behavior, but she can decide what she will and will not eat. Eventually, she stops eating altogether. Marty is close to death when she finally asks for help and finds herself in a psychiatric institution. But recognizing her need for help is only the first tenuous step on a long road to recovery.Marty's ability to find a way to live, despite the powerful lure of anorexia, is the core of this fine, insightful novel.

Rooster Cobb is in trouble--with his school, with his mother, with his girlfriend. He smokes too much and he hates his stepfather. In fact, he might not graduate from high school. But he just doesn't seem to care. That is until the guidance counselor and the principal come up with a plan to get Rooster through grade twelve, out of their lives forever and possibly on the right track with his life. The last thing Rooster wants to do is coach The Strikers, a bowling team of special-needs adults, especially when he finds out he's going to be mentored by the most unpopular girl in school, the principal's daughter, Elma. When he starts to take coaching seriously, his friends make fun of him, and his girlfriend accuses him of taking the easy way out. But when one of The Strikers dies unexpectedly, Rooster discovers there are as many ways to be a hero as there are ways to mess up.

Fourteen-year-old Libby didn't want to go on a year long sailing adventure with her mother and her stepfather, Duncan, and she isn't about to let them forget it. Traveling through the Red Sea, Libby causes them to be late and make a dangerous crossing alone. When modern-day pirates attack, Duncan is killed and Libby's mother is left seriously injured and unconscious. Libby is left alone on a crippled boat to find safety and help for her mother. Libby must call on all her strength and face some hard truths about herself if she is to survive and reach land.

Tej and Liam are going snowboarding. When they take a shortcut over a treacherous logging road and have an accident, their adventure becomes more about survival than fresh powder. Tracked by a hungry bear, while trying to outrun the weather without any food, Tej and Liam learn about their friendship and what it will take to survive. When Tej is hurt, Liam decides he has to go for help--alone.

Jessie has left the close friendships she's had since her childhood and isn't having an easy time fitting into her new Grade Nine class. An older girl, Kim, takes a disliking to her, pushing her around and setting her up to be attacked by a group of really rough kids who land her in jail. It looks like life is going to be downhill from now on. Then, because she used to play ringette, Jessie is invited to try out for the girls hockey team. She doesn't expect to like it, but as her skills grow, she makes new friends--girls who respect each other and rely on each other's strength and hard work. Some even help her resist the bullies, until she can stand up for herself--stand up to Kim, who's a pretty good hockey player herself, although not as good as she thinks she is. A fast-paced story about hockey, peer pressure and finding yourself.

Theresa "Tee" Stanford figures her life is smooth sailing, but everything changes when a drunk driver hits her father, leaving him mentally disabled. With her last year of high school looming, Tee can no longer rely on her old dreams for the future.

For Alexandria Hyatt having a fabulous life is easy: she knows what she wants and she knows how to get it. Being glamorous and rich is simply what she was born to be. When Alexandria is arrested for shoplifting, having to drag herself into court to face a judge just seems like a major inconvenience. But Alexandria has been in trouble before–and this time she can’t find a way to scheme out of the consequences. Before she knows it, she’s on a plane headed to Kenya where she has been ordered to work for an international charity. Over 7,000 miles away from home with no hot water, no cell phone reception, no friends or family, Alexandria is confronted with a land as unfamiliar as it is unsettling. Over the course of her month in Africa, Alexandria will face a reality she could never have imagined, and will have to look inside herself to see if she has what it takes to confront it.

As this apocalyptic trilogy hurtles to a chilling conclusion, Adam is pushed to the edge of his endurance and sanity.
Adam has killed again. It had to be done, part of him knows that, but murder changes a person. It can certainly change a teenager who's already grown up too quickly, too harshly, in the wake of the catastrophic global blackout five months ago. In the name of safety and survival, Adam and his neighbors have turned their middle American suburban neighborhood into a fortress, defending against countless enemies. But what's lurking in the dark is a greater danger than ever before: somebody who wants to destroy the neighborhood and Adam at any cost. Soon, the hunted will have to become the hunter . . . and Adam hates himself for what he will have to do. Because sometimes even the dark is not cover enough for things that would never happen in the light.

In this novel by John Wilson, Dieter is seduced by the pomp and circumstance of war as a boy growing up during Hitler's rise to power. But as global hostilities intensify, Dieter is called upon to fight for his country in a conflict that he doesn't fully understand. With most of his family dead, Berlin in ruins and the Russian army closing in, Dieter can no longer naively cling to his childhood beliefs. The world he is facing is brutal, dirty and unforgiving, and the most he can hope for is the chance to survive.

Set in the harsh desert world of the Arizona Territory and northern Mexico during the 1870s, Written in Blood, the first installment of the Desert Legends Trilogy, follows young Jim Doolen as he attempts to find some trace of the father who abandoned his family ten years earlier. As he travels through a scorched landscape very different from the lush West Coast forests of his home, Jim crosses paths with an assortment of intriguing characters, including an Apache warrior, a cave-dwelling mystic, an old Mexican revolutionary and a mysterious cowboy. And with each encounter he learns something more of the strange world he has entered and adds one more link in a chain that leads back to his father-and back to a dark, violent past. As his story approaches its thrilling conclusion in a ruined Mexican hacienda, Jim comes to realize that his father's life was much more complex than he had imagined, and that, in discovering his past, he has opened the way to his future.

Saba thought her world would return to normal after they defeated the Tonton and rescued her kidnapped brother Lugh. The family head west for a better life and a longed-for reunion with Jack. But a formidable enemy is on the rise. What is the truth about Jack? And how far will Saba go to get what she wants?

Fourteen-year old Bing-wing Chan resents his father, not only because the man gambles away all the family's money, but also because he forces Bing to help him in his gruesome job. Ba is the bone collector, the one who digs up skeletons of deceased Chinese so that they can be sent home to China for permanent burial. Sinister things start happening soon after Bing acompanies his father to the graveyard.

Kanada. The name meant untold riches and promise to Jutka, a young Hungarian girl who was captivated by stories of a vast, majestic country where people were able to breathe free of hatred and prejudice. Freedom was in short supply, but hatred was everywhere in Hungary as hundreds of thousands of Jews were deported to concentration camps during the last year of WWII. Jutka, her friends, and her family are sent to Auschwitz. In that hellish place, there was another Kanada. It was the ironic name given to the storehouse at Auschwitz where the possessions -- clothing and jewelry -- stripped from the victims were deposited, and where Jutka was put to work. The war may have ended, but it did not end the suffering of many of the inmates of concentration camps. Many had no homes to go to, and if they did, they were not welcome. Hundreds went back to Poland and were murdered. Famished, diseased, and homeless, they lived in the hopelessness of camps, wondering if they could ever find a home in the world. Some went to Israel, but for Jutka there was only one dream left her -- the dream of a country full of hope, where she would no longer have to live in fear. Eva Wiseman's powerful novel describes the war and its long, difficult aftermath with compassion and tenderness.