Winner: Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction, Amazon First Novel Awards, Kobo Emerging Author Prize. Finalist: Scotiabank Giller Prize, Atwood Gibson Writers Trust Prize, BC & Yukon Book Prize. Shortlist: Indigenous Voices Awards. Finalist: Kobo Emerging Author Prize. National Bestseller, a Globe and Mail Top 100 Book of the Year, a CBC Best Book of the Year, an Apple Best Book of the Year, a Kobo Best Book of the Year, an Indigo Best Book of the Year.
Taken from their families when they are very small and sent to a remote, church-run residential school, Kenny, Lucy, Clara, Howie and Maisie are barely out of childhood when they are finally released after years of detention.
Alone and without any skills, support or families, the teens find their way to the seedy and foreign world of Downtown Eastside Vancouver, where they cling together, striving to find a place of safety and belonging in a world that doesn’t want them. The paths of the five friends cross and crisscross over the decades as they struggle to overcome, or at least forget, the trauma they endured during their years at the Mission.
Fuelled by rage and furious with God, Clara finds her way into the dangerous, highly charged world of the American Indian Movement. Maisie internalizes her pain and continually places herself in dangerous situations. Famous for his daring escapes from the school, Kenny can’t stop running and moves restlessly from job to job—through fishing grounds, orchards and logging camps—trying to outrun his memories and his addiction. Lucy finds peace in motherhood and nurtures a secret compulsive disorder as she waits for Kenny to return to the life they once hoped to share together. After almost beating one of his tormentors to death, Howie serves time in prison, then tries once again to re-enter society and begin life anew.
With compassion and insight, Five Little Indians chronicles the desperate quest of these residential school survivors to come to terms with their past and, ultimately, find a way forward.
The tenth book in the Six-Word Memoir series tells the story of a world we never expected to be in and can’t stop talking about. Told through the lens of students, teachers and parents around the world, A Terrible, Horrible, No Good Year offers hundreds of inspirational, playful and profound takes on life during the pandemic. For some, this book will be a window. For others, a mirror of their own experience. For all of us, A Terrible, Horrible, No Good Year is a time capsule to be read, shared and discussed and is certain to prompt friends, family and neighbors to ask each other: "What's your six-word pandemic story?"
A mysterious will launches the Math Kids into their riskiest adventure yet! When FBI Special Agent Carlson is kidnapped while investigating the plane crash of Willard Howell, an eccentric billionaire inventor, the Math Kids spring into action. If Catherine, Stephanie, Justin, and Jordan can figure out the Great Triangle mentioned in Howell's will, they might just uncover who's behind the crash and Agent Carlson's kidnapping―if they don't get caught themselves!
This middle grade book introduces readers to mathematical patterns, features an action-packed plot with international intrigue and includes an appendix for hands-on learning.
Life’s a pitch for teen football star Adrian "Colombian Cannon" Molina. With his powerful shot, he seems a shoe-in for the European junior league. When a Regents United elite prep school scout offers him a full scholarship, the news seems too good to be true. Adrian's celebration is short lived thanks to his meeting with team star, Titan Evans. Titan is everything Adrian is not; rich, powerful and connected. Despite that, Titan sees the Colombian Cannon as a threat to his domination on the pitch. Hallway brawls, threatening notes and constant bullying from Titan and his cronies consume Adrian’s new life along with crippling anxiety attacks thanks to the fear of losing his spot on the team.
Soccer and graphic novel fans will love the excellent illustration and high-action story.
They’ll also smile over some good lines like an announcer’s “Someone ring the Royal Air Force. Regent’s captain just turned the ball into a UFO!”
Thirteen-year-old Houston Williams is smart. Very smart. So no one is surprised when he earns a scholarship to attend a prestigious NASA space camp. At the training facility he immediately bonds with his new team, including a girl named Teal. He also clashes with a girl on a rival team named Ashley, who matches or beats him in every exercise. The three of them impress the directors so much they are invited to join a top-secret research project that studies how space travel affects people of different ages. But only two of them will actually be going into space. Houston will do whatever it takes to make sure he's picked.
Eric Walters’s newest series opens with a contest disguised as a space camp. The premise—young teens training for and unknowingly competing for an opportunity to become an astronaut—is obviously appealing, especially to readers who like high-stakes adventure and stories about space. Through Houston’s eyes we get to see all the different elements of astronaut training, from puzzle building underwater to zero-gravity simulations in airplanes. These aspects of training are brought realistically and believably to life by Walters, who actually attended such a space camp as part of his research for this book. The concepts of commitment and teamwork carry throughout the novel.
From the author of Off Trail comes a hilarious mystery about what happens when a chilling trip leads to a lost fortune.
Nate and Lily knew their mother was different. All it took was a hunch or a bad feeling and the family would be uprooted and moving to a different apartment or even a different town. But when the two are torn out of their life in the ritzy North Bay for the summer and dropped in "the Mississippi of California" on the Sacramento River Delta, Nate Caldwell and his sister Lily see it as one more move in a series of lurching disruptions driven by their mother's suspicion that something or someone is after them.
When they settle into life around their uncle's House of Illusion roadside attraction, Nate meets Mia—who makes all the girls he knew in the North Bay seem shallow and dull—and begins to connect with local teens who couldn't be more different than the privileged classmates he left behind.
It's not until they learn that the story behind the attraction is more than just a tale for the tourists, that Nate begins to figure out what drove his mother's suspicious nature.
Here’s a novel with all the elements of a thriller, from hulking, slow-witted antagonists who believe in conspiracy theories, to an abduction, car chases and a teen dragnet op. There’s also a would-be psychic, a legend of lost treasure and a carnival-style house of mirrors-plus.
Quinn’s illusions are as good as those in any Vegas act—but can he win a spot at a prestigious magic camp despite an upstaging partner, a cute rival and a con-artist mentor?
Fifteen-year-old Quinn Purcell wants only one thing: to win a coveted spot at the Masters of Magic Fantasy Camp. But the competition is stiff, including Dani Darling, an incredibly talented, and incredibly attractive, rival magician who prestidigitates her way into Quinn’s heart—unless that’s just another of her tricks. To make matters worse, Quinn and his best friend, Perry, have always performed their magic as a team, but the judges want solo acts, and a two-man audition might disqualify them. When Quinn meets his idol, the Dazzling Lazlo, at a diner, it seems like a sign. If he can convince Lazlo to spill the secrets to his greatest trick, then the spot at the camp is all but Quinn’s. But is the washed-up magician just using Quinn to run a few scams? When the chips are down, what will Quinn risk—his best friend, his new crush, or his career as a magician? Hilarious and fast-paced, Don Calame’s latest novel is full of complicated magic tricks and equally complicated friendships.
I love the humorous lines in this book, and the main characters: three budding magicians vying against one another to win an audition. (You learn tons about magic tricks.)
The protagonist is Quinn, who has always performed magic shows alongside his best friend Perry. Now it appears the upcoming audition is going to require them to perform separately. Is that good or bad, because not so secretly, Quinn is insanely jealous of his friend, given that Perry is handsome, kind, debonair, etc. And has his pick of girls.
Empower teens to take charge of their digital lives. Without avoiding the dark side of technology, this interactive and comprehensive reference book empowers teens to take charge of their digital life and improve their mental health and well-being. Quizzes and exercises guide readers through the process of evaluating their relationships with their screens, social media and tech in general. With a frank and humorous approach to a timely topic, award-winning author Alex J. Packer, Ph.D., pulls back the curtain on the hidden aspects of the digital world and shares:
Bugz is caught between two worlds. In the real world, she's a shy and self-conscious Indigenous teen who faces the stresses of teenage angst and life on the Rez. But in the virtual world, her alter ego is not just confident but dominant in a massively multiplayer video game universe.
Feng is a teen boy who has been sent from China to live with his aunt, a doctor on the Rez, after his online activity suggests he may be developing extremist sympathies. Meeting each other in real life, as well as in the virtual world, Bugz and Feng immediately relate to each other as outsiders and as avid gamers. And as their connection is strengthened through their virtual adventures, they find that they have much in common in the real world, too: Both must decide what to do in the face of temptations and pitfalls, and both must grapple with the impacts of family challenges and community trauma.
We already know what climate change is and many of us understand the human causes. But what will climate change do to our world? Who will be affected (spoiler: all of us!) and how will our lives change in the future? Topics include sea levels, extreme weather, drought, animal and plant extinction, and human and animal migration. Drawing on real-life situations and stories, journalist Jeff Fleischer takes an informed, approachable look at how our world will likely change as a result of our actions, including suggestions on what we can still do to slow down these unprecedented effects.