November 4, 2022
I Can't Do What?: Strange Laws and Rules from Around the World

I Can’t Do What?: Strange Laws and Rules from Around the World

Did you know that you can’t keep a goldfish in a round goldfish bowl in Rome? That you can’t take a selfie while running with the bulls in Pamplona? That you can’t climb a tree in a Toronto city park? This book is a look at some of the more curious rules and laws that have been created around the world over many years. Some of these rules and laws may make us laugh. Some may make us angry or frightened for the people they influence. All of these rules and laws will make us think. How did they come […]
October 8, 2022

The Spirit of Denendeh

No one knows how a suit of samurai armour ended up in the Fort Smith, Northwest Territories, Canada museum. When a mysterious stranger turns up to claim it, Sonny, a young Tłı̨chǫ Dene boy, is eager to help. Shinobu has travelled to Fort Smith to reclaim his grandfather’s samurai sword and armour. But when he discovers that the sword was lost in a poker game, he must confront the man known as Benny the Bank. Along the way, Shinobu must rely on unlikely heroes ― Sonny, his grandmother and a visitor from the spirit world. Together, they face Benny and […]
October 8, 2022

The Life and Crimes of Hoodie Rosen

The Chosen meets Darius the Great in this irreverent and timely story of worlds colliding in friendship, betrayal and hatred. Hoodie Rosen’s life isn’t that bad. Sure, his entire Orthodox Jewish community has just picked up and moved to the quiet, mostly non-Jewish town of Tregaron, but Hoodie’s world hasn’t changed that much. He’s got basketball to play, studies to avoid and a supermarket full of delicious kosher snacks to eat. The people of Tregaron aren’t happy that so many Orthodox Jews are moving in at once, but that’s not Hoodie’s problem. That is, until he meets and falls for […]
October 7, 2022

Murder at the Hotel Hopeless

Helping his mother run the family hotel doesn’t usually offer much excitement. The only other people around are Penny Price, a spoiled child actor and star of the hit TV series Little Miss Murder being shot in town, and Mr. Ignato, an elderly resident at the hotel. When Mr. Ignato dies from a fall down the stairs, Charlie suspects foul play. Nobody believes him except for Penny, who jumps at the chance to solve a real murder. The two of them discover that Mr. Ignato was once a famous international jewel thief who stole a million-dollar diamond that was never recovered. Is […]
October 7, 2022

Forging Silver into Stars

  Magic has been banished in the land of Syhl Shallow for as long as best friends Jax and Callyn can remember. They once loved the stories of the powerful magesmiths and mythical scravers who could conjure fire or control ice, but now they’ve learned that magic only leads to danger: Magic is what killed Callyn’s parents, leaving her alone to raise her younger sister. Magic never helped Jax, whose leg was crushed in an accident that his father has been punishing him for ever since. Magic won’t save either of them when the tax collector comes calling, threatening to […]
October 7, 2022
secret schools

Secret Schools: True Stories of the Determination to Learn

  Education goes undercover in this compelling look at some of the world’s most secretive schools through history. Can you keep a secret? What if it meant hiding from your loved ones, sneaking out late at night or risking imprisonment? And what if that secret was that you were going to school? From covert classrooms created by enslaved Africans in the United States, to academic schools disguised as “sewing lessons” for women in Afghanistan, to espionage schools run by powerful governments, Secret Schools explores the hidden classrooms that have opened their doors so children and adults could learn. Vivid linocut […]
September 2, 2022

Falling Shadows

Growing up, Cori, Maz and Sam were inseparable best friends, sharing their love for Halloween, arcade games and one another. Now it’s 1992, Sam has been missing for five years, and Cori and Maz aren’t speaking anymore. How could they be, when Cori is sure Sam is dead and Maz thinks he may have been kidnapped by a supernatural pinball machine?

These days, all Maz wants to do is party, buy CDs at Sam Goody and run away from his past. Meanwhile, Cori is a homecoming queen, hiding her abiding love of horror movies and her queer self under the bubble-gum veneer of a high school queen bee. But when Sam returns—still twelve years old while his best friends are now seventeen — Maz and Cori are thrown back together to solve the mystery of what really happened to Sam the night he went missing. Beneath the surface of that mystery lurk secrets the friends never told one another, then and now. And Sam’s is the darkest of all.

Award-winning author of If You Could Be Mine and Here to Stay, Sara Farizan delivers edge-of-your-seat terror as well as her trademark referential humor, witty narration and insightful characters.

September 2, 2022

Big Lies : From Socrates to Social Media

Growing up, Cori, Maz and Sam were inseparable best friends, sharing their love for Halloween, arcade games and one another. Now it’s 1992, Sam has been missing for five years, and Cori and Maz aren’t speaking anymore. How could they be, when Cori is sure Sam is dead and Maz thinks he may have been kidnapped by a supernatural pinball machine?

These days, all Maz wants to do is party, buy CDs at Sam Goody and run away from his past. Meanwhile, Cori is a homecoming queen, hiding her abiding love of horror movies and her queer self under the bubble-gum veneer of a high school queen bee. But when Sam returns—still twelve years old while his best friends are now seventeen — Maz and Cori are thrown back together to solve the mystery of what really happened to Sam the night he went missing. Beneath the surface of that mystery lurk secrets the friends never told one another, then and now. And Sam’s is the darkest of all.

Award-winning author of If You Could Be Mine and Here to Stay, Sara Farizan delivers edge-of-your-seat terror as well as her trademark referential humor, witty narration and insightful characters.

August 5, 2022

The Faraway Paladin: The Torch Port Ensemble

 4/5   Author: Kanata Yanagino Publisher: J-Novel Club  Genres: young adult, fiction, fantasy, action, adventure  After returning from the battle at the Rust Mountains, what awaited Will was not a fairy-tale ending or another terrifying threat, but the commonplace events of his everyday life. Also, his friendship and a fierce battle with his dependable ally, the swordsman Reystov. An adventure in a snow-filled forest with the troubadour Bee. A battle with an ancient indomitable giant. And prayers and conversation with the god of the flame. Penned by the Paladin, these are the stories of a single winter.  This adventure is […]
August 5, 2022

Taproot: A Story About a Gardener and a Ghost

 4/5 Author: Keezy Young Publisher: Oni-Lion Forge Publishing Group, LLC Genres: young adult, fiction, graphic novel, LGBTQ+, romance “It’s a pleasure to lose yourself in the beautiful artwork, and one of the loveliest queer romances I’ve ever read.” — K. O’Neil, author of The Tea Dragon Society  Blue has been living as a ghost for a year when he meets Hamal, a beautiful and sweet gardener who has the ability to see and communicate with ghosts. Together, their friendship develops into something more, but being a ghost, Blue can never truly be connected with Hamal.  When Blue realizes Hamal’s […]