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Past Featured Books Age: Young Adults, Q to
Z
Q R S T
U V W X Y Z
Books
are listed Alphabetically by Title:
 
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Racing the White Silence: On the Trail
of the Yukon Quest |
| Following the Yukon Quest race of 2001, Killick, hired as an assistant dog-handler, describes graphically the race from Whitehorse, Yukon to Fairbanks, Alaska. Not nearly as well-known nor as well-paid as the Iditarod, the Yukon Quest alternates directions depending on weather conditions, and follows the difficult terrain of the North. Killick wanted to know what drew the best mushers to this test by ordeal. While following the trail, he found that “the spirit of community and sharing is at the heart of the Yukon Quest.” Moreover, “the community of the North stands on a realization that, whatever one’s creed, religion, ethics or circumstances, there will come a time when you’ll need someone else’s help.” This exploration of human effort echoes the observations of Jack London and Robert Service. | |
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Rapture
of Canaan, The |
| Ninah Huff lives in a communal family who make up the Church of Fire and Brimstone and God's Almighty Baptizing Wind. In this isolated community, nearly everything is forbidden, and most actions and thoughts are sinful. Ninah learns to grow and deal with her circumstances in this story of courage, sensitivity and naiveté, told structurally in two to four stories and events that use quantities of dialogue in plain and simple language. | |
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Raven’s
End: A Tale from the Canadian Rockies |
| Raven Colin arrives in Raven’s End with loss of memory. In fact, he remembers only falling from the sky but cannot recall who he is or where he came from. So begin years in the Yamnuska with the Raven’s End flock where he develops deep friendships and learns how to survive as a raven through the seasons. He participates in Flaps, where the flock exchanges daily information about food, weather, births and deaths. Among the flock is Greta, the wise elder, parents Molly and Zack who are raising hilariously a pair of hungry nestlings, feisty teenagers Sarah and Brendan, and two rascals, Dolus and Garth. Through the lives of the ravens, we see a metaphor for human community. | |
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Redemption
of Althalus, The |
| A thief and sometime murderer, Althalus is hired to steal The Book and take it to the House at the End of the World. There he meets a sleek feline named Emmy who is in actuality the fertility goddess Dweia. Together they enlist an assortment of characters to help them foil the sorcerer Ghend who wants to usurp the worship of Dweia good god-brother, Dweios for their evil sibling Daeva. Spiced with wry humour , time travel and much action, this is a fantasy fan’s pleasure read. | |
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Reversible
Errors |
| “Squirrel” Gandolph has been sentenced to death for murder. His last-ditch appeal is launched by Arthur Raven, a middle-aged lawyer more comfortable in corporate work than criminal court. Nonetheless, Arthur diligently represents his client’s interests, and discovers evidence that might exonerate Squirrel. This is a masterful telling of a compelling story by an author with exceptional gifts. | |
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Robinson
Crusoe
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| Told in autobiographical voice, this is the tale of a sailor marooned for 26 years on a deserted island. With courage, perseverance and ingenuity. Crusoe builds a life for himself. Defoe wrote this in the latter part of his life, after a career during which it has been estimated that he wrote at least 550 published works, as a poet pamphleteer and economist. It is written in a style and vocabulary almost three centuries old, but is an outstanding study of character. This is a challenging story for avid readers willing to persevere as Crusoe did. From the author of Moll Flanders. | |
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Rooster |
| Rooster, born Roy Cobb, is in danger of repeating grade 12, not because he lacks the ability to do well academically, but because he is indifferent to the expectations of the adults in his life. When he is given a choice between dropping out and working with a group of special needs adults, he reluctantly agrees to the latter. As Rooster works with the Strikers, four of these adults who love to bowl, he gradually comes to recognize some important truths about them and about himself, including his long-suppressed grief over the death of his father. Rooster and his friends are dynamic individuals with realistic goals and attitudes. Rooster’s transformation is a little too pat, but this story will appeal to those readers who see themselves as challenges to authority. | |
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Rosemary's
Baby
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| A young couple moves into an apartment building in Manhattan. She is a contented house wife planning to get pregnant. He is a charismatic and ambitious actor. Their elderly neighbours appear to be eccentric. Odd occurrences puzzle, then bother her. When she realizes she is pregnant, she is disturbed by the fact that she can't remember much after the dinner that she and her husband had the night she apparently conceived. As the pregnancy progresses, and her neighbours intrude more and more upon her, she becomes gradually frightened, then terrified about their intentions. But the reality is far worse. One of the first truly modern horror stories, this is perhaps the best by the author of The Stepford Wives; The Boys from Brasil; and A Kiss Before Dying. | |
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Russlander |
| Katya Vogt, now an old woman living in Winnipeg, tells how she and some of her family came to Canada. The story begins in 1910 in Russia, on Mennonite Abram Sudermann's vast estate, where her father was the overseer. While her family waits for Abram to fulfil his promise of a parcel of land, they live in the shadow of Sudermann's big house. In the wake of World War I, the tensions that have been engulfing the country begin to intrude on the community, leading to violence. An evocative story of family, courage, and perseverance. | |
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Samurai
William: The Adventurer Who Unlocked
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| William Adams was an English mariner aboard a Dutch ship that landed in 1600 in Japan after a perilous twenty-month journey. Adams has learned Japanese and embraced the culture of the country. He eventually gained the confidence and respect of the Japanese shogun, Ieyasu, who lavished riches upon him, and sought his advice in trade negotiations with the Europeans. Adams was never to leave Japan, but his impact on the Japanese politics and trade was important. his story is the basis of the novel, Shogun by James Cavell. An enlightening and entertaining examination of a little-known person whose impact was profound. | |
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Sari Shop, The |
In the narrow confines of his work as a shop assistant in Amritsar, India, Ramchand’s view of the world changes when he is sent with stacks of saris to the home of the Kapoors, a wealthy family preparing for the wedding of their daughter. He decides that he must better himself by learning English. As opportunities come his way, he is exposed to the underbelly of his community, and lashes out at what he perceives to be injustices and cruelty. After his outburst passes, he reverts to his compliant self, at least economically secure. The atmosphere of the story, the strong sensory descriptions, and the biting humour of the circumstances Ramchand must endure make for a poignant tale. |
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Saturday |
Henry Perowne is a successful neurosurgeon in a hospital in London. His life is orderly and predictable within the confines of his work. His beloved wife Rosalind is an equally successful corporate lawyer, mother of their daughter Daisy, a published poet and their blues musician son Theo. Rosalind’s father John is a highly respected poet who lives in France. Early on one Saturday morning in February, as the American invasion of Iraq is about to begin, Henry observes an aircraft on fiery approach to the airport. It becomes the uneasy precursor of his day that will include a squash game with his anaesthetist colleague, a visit to his dementia-afflicted mother, and errands for supper with his family. His life, and ultimately their lives, intersect with three thugs whose chance encounter with Henry early in the day, is the violent juxtaposition to Henry’s plan for his day off. An elegantly written rumination on the fragility of life, this will challenge readers to think about assumptions and personal values |
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Saving Francesca |
| When her vibrant mother spirals down into clinical depression, just as sixteen-year old Francesca enters a newly co-ed school, the challenge becomes how to cope without her mother’s direction, counsel and support. Francesca’s taciturn father does not want his wife on medication, but he is not available to either his daughter or her younger brother. As Francesca adapts to a new environment, trying to make new friends and dealing with a crush on a classmate, she struggles to maintain her equilibrium. A compelling coming-of-age story with an authentic voice, this is a humourous, clever story that deals with difficult issues. |
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Secret Sacrament |
| As a young boy, Gabriel witnessed the murder of a girl, turning through fear from her cries for help. Upon his father's death, he refuses to take up the family merchant business and prefers to go into training as a healer. His talents soon win him a coveted place among the selected healer-priests in the Citadel. His skill in interpreting dreams brings him to the attention of the Empress of the Navoran Empire. Gabriel is drawn unwillingly into the court intrigues that threaten the Empress' reign and the fragile peace of Navora. A complex tale of guilt and redemption, fulfillment and sacrifice, death and hope. Highly recommended by senior high school readers. | |
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See You Down the Road |
| Sixteen-year old Bridget Daughtery is a Traveler, a member of a community that moves from one place to another in their trailers. Traveler culture is sustained by scams and thievery, though the Travelers themselves would not describe it thus. Bridget is in conflict with her family’s and the Travelers’ expectations: that she join their cons, that she leaves school, and that she marry Patrick Murphy, a likeable young man her family has chosen for her. When she and family become involved in a major scam, Bridget’s guilt and anxiety about the consequences for everyone, including the victims of the scam, force her into some truly difficult, life-altering decisions. Caution: there is a fair degree of cursing in the text. | |
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Seven for a Secret
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| Three cousins, Melinda, Kate and Rebecca, have spent their summers together in Cook's Cove, Newfoundland for as long as they can remember. Melinda is outspoken and loves to provoke the village gossips with her smoking and drinking, and potential to do something dangerous with her boyfriend down by the fishing shack. Kate is a serious student who lives in the city and is determined to have a future that does not include a boyfriend. Rebecca is a well-trained homemaker under the strict supervision of her mother, Grace, who is Melinda's mother's sister. Then a stranger comes to the cove to offer Rebecca the chance to study art in Boston. When Grace absolutely refuses, Melinda is determined to find out why. What the girls discover requires some difficult choices. A surprisingly complex story about a time when life in the outports was still thriving and stifling. | |
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Seventh Heart, The |
| In the aftermath of devastating earthquakes that ravage contemporary San Francisco, Gillian’s best friend, Melanie, vanishes under bizarre circumstances. When Gillian tries to find Melanie, she meets two very unusual people loitering near the remains of Melanie’s home. One is Dagon who claims to be part of the spirit of the earth, as he says Melanie was. Her disappearance without the requisite ceremony and ritual is the source of the earth’s anger. Gillian must engage the spirits of the earth to heal the breach and prevent worldwide catastrophe. | |
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Short
History of Tractors in Ukrainian, A |
| When 83-year old Nikolai announces to his middle-aged daughters that he is marrying Valentina, a 36-year old gold digger from Ukraine, Vera and Nadezhda panic. They have not spoken to each other since their mother’s funeral two years before, but now make common cause to prevent their father from squandering what little he has to buy the Western luxuries Valentina believes she is entitled to have. As their campaign to remove Valentina progress, Nadezhda begins to piece together the life her parents had in the old country during World War II. As much a story of family, this is also a social commentary. | |
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Sign of the Book, The (A Cliff Janeway “Bookman”
Novel) |
| Former police officer Cliff Janeway now runs an antiquarian bookshop. When his lover, power attorney Erin D’Angelo asks him to investigate a murder, he knows that there is more to the death of Robert Marshall than is initially public. Marshall’s wife, Laura, has confessed to his killing and wants Erin to defend her. But Robert was Erin’s first love and before she will take the case, she wants Cliff to investigate. He leaves his bookshop in Denver to travel to Paradise, Colorado, where Robert’s massive collection of autographed, first edition books presents its own problems. A clever whodunit that also includes minutiae about the book business, this is sure to appeal to avid mystery readers. | |
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Skinny |
| Giselle, a 22-year old former medical student, is the older daughter of Hungarian immigrant parents. Her younger sister, Holly, is a junior high school track star who pushes her body to physical extremes in pursuit of excellence. Giselle is anorexic, an irony not lost upon her, understanding as she does the damage she is inflicting upon her body in an effort to reach some ideal of perfection. This examination of the convergence of the immigrant experience, family dysfunction, sibling rivalry and parental rejection probes the emotional well-being of these two young women with astute and profound intensity. | |
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Skystone, The |
| Set in the fifth century, this takes the Arthurian legend back to its roots in Roman Britain. It tells the story of Pablius Varrus, a British-born Roman soldier, invalided out of service. He returns to take over the family forge and cope with local intrigue and enemies. Varrus searches for the "skystones" which yield "harder-than-iron" metal that will, in the future, make "the famous sword". This is the first volume in the Dream of Eagles sequence. It is followed by The Singing Sword (1993); Eagles' Brood (1994); The Saxon Shore (1995); The Sorcerer: Ford at the River's Bend (1997); The Sorcerer: Metamorphosis (1997); and Uther (2000). A dynamic retelling of the legend of Arthur. | |
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Slave |
| Mende Nazer was born into the Karko tribe in the Sudan. When she was twelve, she was abducted by Arabs and sold into slavery to a wealthy family in Khartoum. There she is subjected to abuse and beatings for seven long years, before she is sent to London as a slave of a diplomat. Eventually, she manages to escape with the help of other Sudanese living in England. Hers is a harrowing story about a practice that degrades humans. A cautionary note: some aspects of this story are graphic. | |
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Sky Burial: An Epic Love Story of Tibet
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| Shu Wen was a dedicated student who attended medical school in her native China in the 1950s. There she met Kejun, the love of her life, and married him. Shortly after their wedding, he joined the army and went with his unit to Tibet. After just a few weeks, Wen received a message that Kejun was dead. Without details about his death, she joined a militia unit headed to Tibet, to search for him. Once in Tibet she was separated from the unit. Without language skills and knowledge of the area, she wandered aimlessly until, near death, she was taken in by a nomadic family who treated her as a relative. It was the beginning of a three decade-long odyssey to find out what happened to her husband. Told in spare language, it is a haunting saga of love and endurance. |
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Sojourn, The |
| Set in the Ypres Salient of World War I, this is the story of Ramsay Crome, a young Vancouver artist, who has joined the war effort as a trench digger. His experiences on the Front are contrasted with the respite of leave at the home of relatives he had only just met. Complicating his life is a new-found love interposed with a visit from his influential and influencing father who has strong opinions about the morality of the war and the politics of those directing the Allied cause. Ramsay is torn in many directions, not the least of which is his commitment to his comrades-in-arms. An excellent study of the cost of war. | |
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Son of the Mob |
| Vince, 17, who wants nothing more than a normal, lawful life, is the son of a New York mob boss. Vince, while rejecting his father's "business", has a comfortable lifestyle that is financed by that business. He falls in love with the daughter of the FBI agent who is trying to connect his father to a mob murder. Vince tries to avoid the girl's family, rescue two con men from themselves, keep his best friend happy, succeed in school and deal with normal teenage issues. A very funny, fast-paced and entertaining story from a master of this style. | |
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Sons of Heaven |
One of the most compelling images from the 1989 student uprising in Tiananmen Square was that of a lone man standing his ground in front of a line of tanks. His identity and fate remain unknown to this day. This is the fictional story of that young man, a university student in the United States, who returns to Beijing to his fiancée. When the engagement sours, Xiao-Di is blackballed by her family. Isolated, living with elderly grandparents, and apparently abandoned by his elder brother, a foot soldier in the People’s Army, he gravitates to the students’ hunger strike. Told as well from the perspective of Xiao-Di’s soldier-brother, Lu and China’s leader, Deng Xiaoping, this resonates with the emotion of the time. |
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Stone Carvers, The |
| Siblings Klara and Tilman Becker grow up in a small village in Ontario in the years leading to World War I. Klara’s great love Eamon joins the army and dies in the trenches. Tilman, having been driven from the family home, has lived his life as a tramp until he joins the military to serve in France, where he loses a leg in combat. In 1934, they travel to France to work on the Vimy memorial, the grand vision of Walter Allward. In a story of love and redemption, these two souls come to terms with the loss in their lives while helping to carve from stone the iconic symbols of this monument to Canada’s war dead. | |
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Stone
Monkey, The |
| Lincoln Rhyme is a handicapped forensics expert recruited along with his protégé Amelia Sachs, by the FBI, to find and capture a notorious smuggler of Chinese families desperate to enter the United States. Known as “The Ghost”, he is also a murderer. When trapped on a ship with several illegal immigrants, he blows up the vessel and escapes. Two families survive the explosion and swim to shore where they go to ground to hide not only from The Ghost who is trying to kill them, but from the FBI who wants to deport them. This is told in a fast-paced style with many surprises and twists. Appropriate for sophisticated young adult readers. | |
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Stones from
the River |
| The fictional town of Burgdorf in Germany is the setting for the story of Trudi Montag, the town librarian and local gossip who longs for a life of normality. Instead, she collects stories of the townspeople from 1915 to 1951. Because she is a dwarf, she is invisible to many. Her stature enables her to observe the frailties and heroism in the lives of her neighbours as Germany struggles through two world wars and economic ruin. This is a complex and rich tale of life in difficult circumstances. | |
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Sunbird, The |
| The third installment of the Arthurian-Aksumite saga (after The Winter Prince and A Coalition of Lions), this adventure takes Telemakos on a quest into Afar to find those responsible for infecting the salt mines of Aksum with a deadly plague. Travelling through the desert as a deaf-mute slave, he is taken prisoner, suffers terrible indignities and nearly loses his life. In a story that includes the sanctity of family, love, loyalty, betrayal, brutality and hate, this is a richly-told tale that will impress readers with its characters and themes. | |
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Suspect |
| A young nurse is found brutally stabbed to death near the London home of psychologist Joe O’Loughlin. When the police solicit his help in solving the case, Joe is horrified to discover that the victim was a former patient who had once accused him of sexual assault. Recently diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, O’Loughlin is struggling with the implications for his life of this disease. Although he has an alibi for the night of the murder, he does not share it with police. As he tries to sort out the clues that point to one of his patients as the murderer, he comes to realize how easy it is to destroy someone’s life while trying to understand what is going on in his head. | |
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Sweetblood |
| Lucy Szabo has been an insulin-dependent diabetic for ten years. Now sixteen, she has developed the theory that vampires were actually insulin-deprived diabetics. She explores this thesis on web chat rooms, but when she submits a creative writing assignment with this hypothesis, her worried parents send her to a therapist. After her computer is removed from her bedroom, Lucy decides that a real-life adventure is in order. She becomes part of a goth subculture where her diabetes spirals out of control. This vivid story’s imagery imprints the difficulties of living with such challenges. | |
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Switchers
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| Minds are taken over, and mysterious forces of evil are evident. Tess and Kevin's world seems "normal", but is not. Both possess the ability to "switch" to any animal form, an ability which will be their weapon of choice as they set out on a mission from Ireland, across the North Sea, and into the frozen Arctic, where strange slug-like life forms of ice are threatening to take over the world. The literary value and impact Switchers has on the reader's mind is similar to Margaret Mahy's The Changeover, and Peter Dickinson's Eva. | |
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Sword
in the Stone, The |
| Wart is apparently the younger son of Sir Ector, who is raising him with his older son, Kay. Wart's education includes instruction from the magician Merlyn, who endeavours to mold the boy into a strong and forward thinker. It is an entertaining and enlightening educational experience for them both, especially since Merlyn uses extraordinary means to show Wart the world. Only as the boy reaches adolescence does it become apparent to others that the boy is far more than the younger son of a minor nobleman. This is the first volume of the classic retelling of the Arthurian legend, The Once and Future King, that includes The Witch in the Wood; The Ill-Made Knight; The Candle in the Wind; and The Book of Merlyn. It has been in print since its publication at the outset of World War II. | |
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Sylvanus
Now |
| Set in the 1950s in Newfoundland, when the salt-water fishery was on the verge of collapse, Sylvanus Now is a young fisherman intent on capturing the heart of the beautiful Adelaide, an older daughter of an ever-increasing family. Adelaide wants a different life than a fisherman’s wife, but too soon finds herself married to her young suitor and expecting her first child. This is a story of powerful emotion against the backdrop of an unrelenting environment. | |
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Taf |
| Frightened that she has accidentally killed her infant half-brother, almost-thirteen year old Taf flees her home. With bits of memory and chance, she travels from her family home in Idaho to Pendleton, Oregon to search for her own father. She meets an intriguing array of characters, including a half-Chinese, half-Nez Perce artist. Throughout the story, she struggles with her addiction to alcohol, which seems to give her some release. Set in 1915, this story requires the sophistication of older readers to appreciate the growth in this resilient character. | |
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Tamarind
Woman |
| Told in the voices of a mother and her daughter, this is the tale of intergenerational conflict. The mother, Saroja, had ambitions to be a doctor, but was thwarted by her family's insistence on a pre-arranged marriage to a man fifteen years her senior. He was a railway man usually away from home and family. She had two daughters with him. The elder daughter, Kamini, travels to Calgary from India, to go to school. Lonely in her basement suite, she savours the memories of India, its colours, textures and smells. Unable to contact her mother who is travelling across India without an Itinerary, Kamini's concerns echo her childhood sense of isolation and abandonment. This is a challenging story that does not offer pat resolutions to the mother-daughter issues that drive it. | |
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Tangerine |
Paul Fisher’s family has just moved from Houston, Texas to Tangerine, Florida, where Paul’s father has taken an engineering position in the local community. Paul’s older brother, Erik, is a star football player. It is their father’s expectation that Erik will do so well in his new school that colleges will line up to offer him placements in their schools. Paul is not only an excellent academic student, he is a strong soccer player, not something his father particularly values. Paul has problems with his eyesight—something that mysteriously developed when he was about four. As he adapts to life in this new community, odd occurrences happen to him, to his brother, to his new friends. Nothing is as it seems on the surface, and the secrets harboured by his parents and his brother finally erupt in a dramatic fashion. A fast-paced story with well developed characters and challenging situations. |
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Telling
Tales |
Nobel Laureate Gordimer has collected short stories from twenty other authors, who each donated a story, the profits from the sale of this collection going to HIV/AIDS work in southern Africa. Included are four other Nobel Laureates (Gunther Grass, Jose Saramago, Kenzaburo Oe, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez); three Booker Prize winners (Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie, and Gordimer); two National Book Award winners (John Updike and Susan Sontag); two Pulitzer Prize winners (John Updike and Arthur Miller) and contributions from Paul Theroux , Woody Allen, Christina Wolf, Amos Oz, Njabulo Ndebele and Chinua Achebe. As could be expected, the stories are serious in nature, with the only humourous contribution from Woody Allen who describes the reaction of an affluent Manhattan couple whose child is rejected for entrance into an exclusive preschool. This is a rich collection by some of the world's best authors at the peak of their form. |
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Ten Trusts, The: What We Must Do to
Care for the Animals We Love |
| Told
in alternating chapters, Jane Goodall, internationally renowned
chimpanzee expert, and Marc Bekoff, a biology professor from the
University of Colorado, explain why they believe that the survival
of the animal life and the planet’s environment is the business
of all of us. Among the trusts are “Rejoice that we are part
of the animal kingdom; “Refrain from harming life in order
to learn about it”; and “Have the courage of our convictions”.
Using these trusts, both scientists forcefully argue for respect
for the environment and those creatures who share it with us. |
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Thorne
Maze, The |
| A body is found in a maze at Hampton Court during the reign of Elizabeth I. The queen herself, a woman of formidable intelligence and stubborn will, leads the investigation. Not surprisingly, it leads her into a web of deceit, disloyalty and treachery. An intriguing approach that also details the customs and traditions of that time period, this is a challenging story whose understanding is amplified by a knowledge of Elizabethan England. | |
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Three
Weeks with My Brother |
| When a brochure describing a round-the-world tour arrives on his desk, Nicholas Sparks has little trouble convincing his brother Micah to join him in exploring some mythic sites in the Americas, Asia and Africa. Having lost their parents, their sister and Nicholas’ first-born son in a short time span, this journey became less a travel adventure than a journey to rediscover self. | |
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Thursday's Child |
| Told in an elegant style, this innovative story concerns Harper Flute, who reflects on her childhood and youth growing up in poverty in Australia during the Great Depression. Her younger brother, Tin, "born on a Thursday and so fated to his wanderings", is compelled to dig tunnels in the earth beneath the family shanty. He builds several subterranean tunnels which eventually cause the collapse of the family home. Much of Harper's life at that time is filled with hunger, disappointment and frustration, but is nevertheless filled with hope. An evocative tale of pathos and suspense. | |
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Tiger
in the Attic: Memories of the Kindertransport and Growing Up English |
| On the eve of World War II, two Jewish sisters, Edith Cohn and her sister Ruth are sent to live in England with a kindly, generous Anglican family. They live for the next seven years in Leeds, outsiders in a strange land, where they come to terms with being German in a world at war with Germany. In 1945, Edith is sent to New Jersey to be reunited with the mother she did not miss. In this powerful memoir, Edith examines the life she had in England and what she denied for so long. | |
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Thura's Diary |
Begun in the time period immediately before and following the American-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, this is the diary of nineteen-year old Thura Al-Windawi, a motivated young woman with ambitions to live a meaningful life. She describes vividly the sounds, smells, and impact of the aerial bombardment of Baghdad on her family, friends and neighbours. Writing the diary is one way she has of “controlling the chaos” while she and her family try to live as normally as they can in a war zone. Thura writes about her anger at the religious zealots who target women who do not wear headscarves, while at the same time, stating her belief that men should make the decisions in the family. Her voice resonates with the reality of post-Saddam Iraq , and the joins the tradition of personal records that illuminate the particularly difficult circumstance of living through war. |
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Twenty-six |
| Shattered by the deaths of 26 men in a coal-mining accident, a small Nova Scotia community struggles to come to terms with its tragedy. This is especially true for the Burrows brothers, Ziv and Arvel; their father, a former union organizer; Ziv’s ex-girlfriend living in Japan; and Arvel’s wife looking for a better life in the city. Based in part on the Westray mining disaster, this evokes the human drama such tragedy causes. | |
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To
Dance at the Palais Royale |
| This is an historical fiction and a sweet love story set in the early 1900's, during a time when many young women immigrated to Canada to work as domestic servants for the nouveau riche of the post-war Roaring Twenties. Agnes Maxwell is sent to Canada, away from the security of her small Scottish mining town to be a live-in maid with a family. Aggie faces adversity and hardship with an ever-increasing strength of character and determination, and comes to realize the possibility of a future she'd never considered for herself back in Scotland. Winner of the Geoffrey Bilson Award for historical fiction. | |
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To the Summit |
| Sarah, who is seventeen, hopes that accompanying her father on an expedition to climb Mount McKinley will help bridge the gap that has widened between them since her parents' divorce. In the vivid description of the climb is an exciting story of survival, with a strong, spirited young woman looking for answers in her life. | |
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Tomorrow,
When the War Began |
| When Ellie and her six friends return from a camping trip, they discover that Australia has been invaded and their families and friends are being held captive. The tense survival story proceeds as the teenagers hide from the enemy soldiers and eventually fight back. The novel is a riveting adventure through which Marsden explores the capacity for evil and the necessity of uniting to oppose it. Finally, here is a book, told through the eyes of Ellie, a thoughtful, down-to-earth protagonist, who allows us to see that teens are much more adult than many give them credit for. A must read and the first in one of the best series ever written for young adults: Tomorrow When the War Began, The Dead of the Night, The Killing Frost, Darkness Be My Friend, Burning For Revenge, and The Night is For Hunting. |
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Tree
Girl |
| Her penchant for climbing trees saves Gabriela, a Guatemalan Mayan from the same fate as most of her family. When soldiers come to her village, she is in the forest and escapes the massacre. As she makes her way north to a Mexican refugee camp, she witnesses the murders of an entire village, from the safety of the treetops. In spite of these traumas, when she reaches the camp, Gabi cares for two elderly women and her only surviving sibling. She finds the courage to cope with survivor guilt and work towards improving her life and those in her community. Based on a true story in the Guatemalan civil war, this demonstrates the resiliency of the human spirit, in the midst of graphic violence and death. By the author of Touching Spirit Bear. | |
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Turnabout |
| Told in diary form, this is the story of Melly and Anny, both about 100 years old. They join a project designed to reverse the aging process, where participants "unage" to their twenties, and remain at that age indefinitely. The drug that initiated this process works to "unage" them to their teens, but the drug that is to stop the "unaging" is not successful. Each year, they become a year younger. Who will take care of them? A compelling story of medical ethics, youth and age. | |
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Two
Years Before the Mast |
| At only nineteen years of age, Dana had forsaken the life of a patrician to take an arduous journey from his home in Boston around Cape Horn into the Pacific to the gold fields of California in the early nineteenth century. He lived among rough sailors, endured terrible storms, experienced extraordinary sights at sea, and observed the behaviour of a mad captain. His descriptions of these experiences are vivid and memorable. This is a powerful story of the sea and how it shapes people. | |
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V for Vendetta |
Set in 1997, this dystopian perspective on society in Britain after a nuclear apocalypse is the tale of vengeance wrecked on those who imposed order in the aftermath of chaos. A masked figure who looks remarkably like Guy Fawkes systematically targets the department heads of the agencies in government responsible for the current state of society. Each of these agencies is named for a body part (finger, nose, ear, eye); each charged with surveillance and order on the populace of London. Each department head is connected in some way to a detention camp that operated in the early years of the current government. The reader must decide whether the avenger is an anarchist/terrorist or a freedom fighter determined to restore individual liberty. Although its setting in the past, dates the story somewhat, parallels to more recent events are apparent and evocative. Starkly illustrated, this challenging story deals with how civilized and uncivilized a society can be. |
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Virtual
History: Alternatives and Counterfactuals |
| Nine eminent historians examine how history might have happened had certain events not transpired: England without Cromwell (What if Charles I had avoided the Civil War?); British America (What if there had been no American Revolution?); British Ireland (What if Home Rule had been enacted in 1912?); the Kaiser’s European Union (What if Britain had “stood aside” in 1914?); Hitler’s England (What if Germany had invaded Britain in May, 1940?); Nazi Europe (What if Nazi Germany had defeated the Soviet Union?); Stalin’s War or Peace (What if the Cold War had been avoided?); Camelot Continued (What if John F. Kennedy had lived?); 1989 without Gorbachev (What if Communism had not collapsed?). In erudite and convincing argument, these challenging essays present a world that might have been. | |
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Vote
for Larry |
| The sequel to The Gospel According to Larry, where seventeen-year old Internet guru Josh Swenson faked his suicide to avoid the controversy surrounding his anti-consumerism message, this satirical adventure in presidential politics is especially apropos. Josh is persuaded by Beth, his friend and supporter, to run for the presidency of the United States. His campaign inspires young people searching for the opportunity to realize their ideals, to vote for a truly young candidate. A provocative novel that will expect young adults to understand the machinations of the political process, and that they can indeed make a profound impact. | |
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Warrior
Class |
| A newly inaugurated president of the United States withdraws all of his armed forces from abroad, and refuses to assist other countries in their conflicts and disputes. The opportunity to foment his own agenda drives a Russian drug lord to take over the Balkans and push through an oil pipeline, which will make him even richer. Certain elite military men believe he must be stopped, with or without their president’s approval. Rich in military context, this is a demanding story for those readers who are politically astute. | |
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Water: Tales of Elemental Spirits
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| This collection of six short stories from these well-known authors, who are husband and wife, collaborating for the first time, uses the theme of water to tell some remarkable tales of the sea. From Pitiable Nasmith whose life in a seaside community turns on help for a sea-girl, to Tamia the apprentice to the Guardian unable to control the Water Horse, these stories are rich in character, detail and lyrical resonance. | |
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Warlord’s Son, The |
Skelly (Stan Kelly) is a burned-out correspondent who has spent the last three years covering inane events in the mid-western United States. He is given an assignment that he is certain will be his last chance at an important story when he is sent to Afghanistan to report on events there in the aftermath of the invasion to topple the Taliban. His guide and translator is Najeeb Ajam, a Pushtan exile who has his own problems. Living with Daliya who is punished for resisting an arranged marriage, Najeeb was banished seven years before by his warlord father for betraying his family, and is now under pressure to inform the secret police about Skelly. Harrowing adventures, plot twists, adroit characterizations and attention to detail finally bring these two to place of\ redemption for one and condemnation for the other in this remarkable tale that could come out of today’s news. |
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What Happened
to Lani Garver |
| Claire McKenzie, cheerleader, musician, cancer survivor, is struggling with an alcoholic mother. Compounding her problems is her own eating disorder, and the terror that leukemia has returned. Into her world comes Lani Garver, whose androgynous looks and behaviour make him a target for the fishermen’s sons whose horseplay is brutal and on the edge of danger. Claire finds that Lani is the only person in whom she can confide. He introduces her to his artistic friends, speaks sensibly about her eating disorder and convinces her to see a therapist. But the fish frat is determined to net Lani. When their behaviour becomes lethal, Lani shows a side of himself Claire did not suspect. | |
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When Grownups Play at War: a Child's Memoir |
Ilona was nine when Germany invaded Poland. As Jews, her family fled first to Lithuania, then to the Soviet Union and on to Uzbekistan. Seeking work, food and shelter on communal farms and in villages, their lives were in turmoil, disrupted by the German military advances and in constant fear of discovery. Separated for a time from her father, she and her mother survived by tending pigs and chickens. Her formal education sporadic, Ilona adapted by learning new languages and making new friendships. She details the difficulties of that tumultuous time, including observations about the behaviour of Polish Jews who became commissars in the government after the war. Little is known of the experiences of those refugees who lived a transient life in eastern occupied Europe. This is an important addition to the collection of memoirs about the impact of war on children. |
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Whiteout |
The biochemical laboratory protected by former police officer Antonia Gallo has developed a potent anti-viral treatment for a virulent mutation of Ebola. When some samples of it are found to be missing, there are several promising candidates for the guilty party. Complicating Gallo’s investigation are the gambling-addicted son of the pharmaceuticals’ owner; the psychotic daughter of the mobster who holds the son’s markers; her ex-husband; her addled mother; and a snooping journalist. They all eventually end up at the family estate where they battle each other over the stolen goods during a fierce blizzard. This is told in Follett’s smoothly high-octane style that keeps readers riveted to the last page. |
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Witch
in the Lake, The |
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his best friend, Merilee, knows that Leo is a wizard. In their
sixteenth-century village, many dark and disturbing events are
associated with the lake nearby. Leo and his father are believed
by their neighbours, to be responsible for the evil in the village. Frustrated, Leo is determined to find out if the witch in the lake is real or merely a local superstition. He taunts the witch to reveal herself, and finds himself locked in a fateful battle to release the village from its century-old curse. This is a story of courage and redemption told in an evocative style. |
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Within Reach: My Everest Story |
| In this personal diary, Mark Pfetzer, who is the youngest person to attempt to climb Everest, describes his efforts from ages 13 to 16 to reach the summit of the mountain. Both attempts were unsuccessful, and one attempt resulted in the death of a friend. Like Krakauer's Into Thin Air, this is a raw telling of the hard work, perseverance and commitment needed to succeed in mountain climbing at its most challenging. | |
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Witness |
| The Ku Klux Klan tries to infiltrate a small Vermont town in the 1920s. At first, Klan members seem to be contributing to the community, but gradually they single out the ambitious and the weak, encouraging them to hate those who are different. The narrative is told in the first person from multiple points of view and in the poetic structure of free verse which gives emphasis to words and phrases that would not be as forceful in prose. A compelling study of human frailty and courage. | |
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Yesterday's
Shadow |
| Scobie Malone, an Australian police officer is investigating a double murder, one of the victims being the wife of the American ambassador. A difficult investigation is made even tougher with the involvement of the FBI, CIA and a former girlfriend bent on destroying his marriage. An entertaining and adventurous story, this is highly recommended by senior high school readers. | |
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