Samira is only nine years old when the Turkish army invades northwestern Persia in 1918, and she and her family are driven from their tiny village. Taking only what they can carry, they flee into the mountains, but the journey is so difficult that only Samira and her older brother, Benyamin, survive. When Samira finally arrives in a refugee camp run by the British army, it is her friendship with another orphan, Anna, that pulls her out of her sadness. And when the two girls are given a toddler named Elias to care for, they form a new kind of family.

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When Ethan arrives at summer camp for the first time, he has just three modest goals. First, to survive. Second, not to be hated. Third, not to be the worst at anything. But these goals turn out to be relatively easy to achieve. Instead, his real challenge comes in the form of a new cabin mate. Zachary arrives at camp late, surrounded by a cloud of rumors, and Ethan finds himself intrigued and somehow envious of the new arrival. Zach doesn't seem to care what anybody thinks of him. He doesn't even seem upset when he is forced to miss the Big Swim, the legendary camp event where a select few try to swim across the lake and back.

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When Ben Tomlin’s mother brings home his “new baby brother,” an eight-day-old chimpanzee, Ben is far from thrilled. His father, a renowned behavioural scientist, has uprooted the family and moved them halfway across the country, to Victoria, B.C., so he can pursue a high-profile experiment -- to determine whether chimpanzees can learn human sign language.

The chimp, named Zan, must be raised exactly like a human. He’s dressed in clothes and fed in a high chair and has a room full of toys. Ben is soon smitten. Joining the team of students who are helping with the experiment, Ben becomes both researcher and adored older brother.

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The Dark Deeps
The Hunchback Assignments II
By: Arthur Slade
Grades 4-8

While searching for the cause behind the sinking of several ships, Modo and Octavia sail to the exact coordinates of the attacks. Is it a sea monster? Or something else? They aren't alone in their pursuit: the beautiful and mysterious French agent Colette has been researching this phenomenon for some time.

Upon reaching the site, Modo and Octavia's ship is rammed, and Modo is plunged into the icy sea... and disappears from sight. As he faces certain death, Modo is saved by a most unlikely underwater rescuer and discovers the mechanical truth behind the attacks. But the Clockwork Guild closes in. How will he get back to the surface?

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Life’s not easy for Sami Sabiri, especially since his dad stuck him at a private boys’ school where he’s the only Muslim kid. But it’s about to get a whole lot worse.

When Sami catches his father in a lie, he gets suspicious. Unfortunately, he’s not the only one. In a whirlwind, the FBI and RCMP descend, and Sami suddenly finds his family at the centre of an international terror plot. Everything he’s ever known comes into question as Sami fights to keep his world from unravelling.

Borderline is an action-packed page-turner about loyalty and identity, starring a funny and gutsy 15-year-old determined to save his father, his family and his life.


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Fresh off his success in solving the Marco Polo murders, Neil heads to Mexico City to take part in the Azteca Cocina—a two-week battle of the chefs. With a huge prize for the winner, and the final cook-off held in the Azteca Stadium, Neil will finally be able to prove that he’s more than an oddity; he’s the best chef in the world!

But things start to go wrong at the very first battle. Neil’s box of secret ingredients contains more than he bargained for. There’s a note inside, telling him that Isabella has been kidnapped. He must lose in the final, or else she’ll be killed.

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Grail
By: John Wilson
Grades 7+

In Crusade (The Heretic’s Secret, Book I), John Wilson introduced readers to a world literally on fire. As childhood friends John and Peter struggled to make sense of the upheaval around them, zealous Catholic knights rampaged across France, burning Cathar heretics and the cities they called home. Torn apart by their increasingly different beliefs, the two young men found themselves on opposite sides of a search for a secret that has the power to change the world.
 
In Grail (Book II) the search continues. Cities are falling to the brutal northern Crusaders and the smoke of the Cathar funeral pyres drifts across the land as Peter, John, and John’s friend Adso set off on journeys into the unknown. Adso takes to the hills with a band of soldiers, intent on revenge against Oddo and the Falcons. John and Isabella travel to Al-andalus in search of peace and the ancient wisdom preserved by the Moors. Peter travels to Rome, following a clue that Arnaud Aumery believes might lead to the mysterious Cathar treasure.

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PIECE BY PIECE
STORIES ABOUT FITTING INTO CANADA
By Teresa Toten
Grades 7+

This new anthology features stories by some of Canada's finest authors who were born in another country and who went through the experience of trying to "fit in." Exploring the time and incidents, dating from the shock of first impressions to the author's first stirrings of "becoming Canadian" and what that meant to them, the young adult audience is a perfectly tuned readership for this collection. Whether the teens were born in Canada or not, both the newly arrived and young adults share a powerful desire to fit in, to be accepted.

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Fifteen-year-old Steven needs to explain something— everything—to his sister, Sam. She needs to know about Jenny from his new high school, and how the freckles on her arm make his synapses go crazy. She needs to know about eighteen-year old dropout Byron, all his fascinating ideas about chaos and coolness and trying to keep it together. And she definitely needs to know about what drastic measures Steven is now considering and why. He needs to get this all down, so that some day Sam'll know what happened to him—to all of them—last December.

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Zombiekins
By: Kevin Bolger
Grades 4-6

Fourth-grader Stanley Nudelman is about as wimpy as they come—he’s cowardly, shy, and spends most of his time hiding from the school bully, Knuckles Bruzkowski! Then Stanley stumbles upon the yard sale of his neighbor, Old Lady Imavitch, where he buys a mysterious stuffed animal. But this isn’t any old toy . . . it’s Zombiekins! He’s a little bit teddy, a little bit bunny, and a whole lotta ZOMBIE! And he’s coming this way!

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Many of the things in Alya's life have been unexpected: She never anticipated receiving a full scholarship to the private school she attends; she never thought she would end up as a member of Hydra Force, the hottest all-girl breakdancing crew around, or that she would be "discovered" and asked to be part of a cool new girl group called EnChantay... But that's what happens to her, and overnight, Alya's life changes. She moves to Montreal and begins voice lessons, practicing choreography with the two other members of EnChantay, and filming a video for their single. Yet, of all the unexpected things in her life, Alya is most surprised when she finds herself questioning the person she is, and feeling things that she never imagined feeling...all for one of her friends.

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When Jake Blanchard gets a job as a student set designer at the York School of Arts, it's an exciting first step towards realizing his dream of making movies. But soon enough he finds himself starring in a drama of his own creation. Nothing in Jake's life is the same after Vanni, a whip-smart, wisecracking Indian-Irish-Canadian joins his class, and after Jake meets the unforgettable Alba, who is as stunning as she is unattainable. Jake is tongue-tied around Alba and enlists Vanni's help. All of a sudden — like the Shakespeare play Jake's school is putting on — Jake finds himself entwined in a love triangle of sorts, complete with secrets and suppressed passions, contrived plots, miscues and misunderstandings. By the end, as in any good comedy, tensions are resolved and Jake's world has been re-made, though in a way he could not have anticipated.

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Plain Kate lives in a world of magic and curses, where cats can talk and shadows can bring back the dead. As the wood-carver’s daughter, Kate held a carving knife before a spoon, and her wooden talismans seem to reveal hidden truths about their owners. But she and her village have fallen on hard times: Kate’s father dies, crops fail, and a strange sickness is spreading across the countryside. The village is looking for someone to blame, and for her skill with a knife, Kate is accused of witchcraft. Enter Linay, a stranger with a proposition: If Kate gives him her shadow, he’ll grant her heart’s wish, and he’ll also find a way for her to escape the angry townspeople. Kate reluctantly agrees, not realizing that she’s given a powerful tool to a man driven mad with grief. Aided by new friends and armed with the carving knife that has never failed to show her the truth, Kate must stop Linay in his terrible plan of revenge and become the heroine she knows is within her.

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Brilliant. Best-ever. That was how grade seven was supposed to be, but so far things aren't turning out as well as Clarissa Delaney had planned. It's hard enough being the unexceptional daughter of a bona-fide beauty queen, but lately her best friend Benji can't seem to stand up for himself, Michael Greenblat keeps giving her strange gifts and Mattie Cohen, world-class goody-two-shoes, seems to think they are friends. Things can't possibly get any worse . . . Or can they?

 

In this year of surprises, you'll laugh as Clarissa tackles boys, bullies and the one B word she can't bring herself to say.

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Alistair "Allie" Morrison lets his friend Mackie talk him into enlisting for WWII, even though he’s only 18. After months of endless training, Allie is eager for battle. But his first action is not just any battle . . . it’s the disastrous raid on the German-held port of Dieppe.

 

All told, almost a thousand Canadian soldiers died that day. In the resulting chaotic evacuation, Allie and Mackie are captured as POWs and sent to Stalag VIIIB in Germany. Still shell-shocked from their fighting, the soldiers struggle to maintain their courage. Some, like Mackie, are determined to plot an escape and outwit their captors, at any cost.

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Framed: made to look guilty, even when you’re innocent…
When a much revered Super Bowl ring goes missing from the display case at Cedarville Middle School all fingers point to Griffin Bing. Not only because Griffin’s reputation precedes him but because his retainer is in the locked display case in place of the ring. “The Man With the Plan” is in big trouble but this time he didn’t
actually do anything! Is someone setting Griffin up? There are many suspects, including the new principal, but with no hard evidence, Griffin might end up going to juvenile detention. With Griffin under court ordered house arrest, it’s up to Ben, Savannah, Logan and the rest of the gang to devise a plan, recover the ring and
prove that Griffin is innocent. Griffin and his friends, both human and animal, are together for another action-packed caper but this time there is a twist. Griffin must sit back and rely on his friends to figure out the best course of action. Fans of
Swindle and Zoobreak will be thrilled with this exciting third installment in a special, hardcover edition!

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Sometimes a guy just can’t mind his own business, no matter how hard he tries, and sometimes that guy gets mired in predicaments which are not of his making.
That’s what happens to Jas, a Grade Seven boy who is putting all his energy into completing the artwork for an adventure comic he hopes will be his ticket into an elite summer art program. But when he meets Wren, an eccentric, crusading classmate, his efforts are derailed. Initially, Jas has no interest in getting involved.

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What if your best friend was a naughty 400-year-old gargoyle? And what if he just happened to be in terrible danger?

It’s not always easy, but thirteen-year-old Katherine Newberry is friends with a gargoyle. His name is Gargoth of Tallus, and he lives in her backyard. Gargoth has lost the only creature on the planet who can help him. Her name is Ambergine, and she’s been his greatest friend for hundreds of years.

What Katherine and Gargoth don’t know is that Ambergine is searching for him too. But she is not alone. Gargoth’s greatest enemy is prowling the city, and it’s a race against time to find him first!

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Treated like an enemy in her own country!

Nine-year-old Michiko Minagawa bids her father good-bye before her birthday celebration. She doesn’t know the government has ordered all Japanese-born men out of the province. Ten days later, her family joins hundreds of Japanese-Canadians on a train to the interior of British Columbia.

Even though her aunt Sadie jokes about it, they have truly reached the “Land of No”. There are no paved roads, no streetlights and not streetcars. The house in which they are to live is dirty and drafty. At school Michiko learns the truth of her situation. She must face local prejudice, the worst winter in forty years and her first Christmas without her father.

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In Christopher Dinsdale's third historical adventure for young readers, Connor MacDonald and his mother have encountered Henry Sinclair, Norwegian prince and Earl of Orkney, who rescues them from highwaymen.

   
Prince Henry is an adventurer who has sailed to the farthest reaches of the known world. On a dark Egyptian beach, he was given a treasure so precious that kings would sacrifice everything in order to acquire it. But unlike the warmongering monarchs of Europe, Prince Henry intends it to become an everlasting beacon of peace and devises a plan so bold that only the exiled Order of the Knights Templar could even dare conceive of it.

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Joy Wells isn’t like most other girls—not that she much cares. Obsessed with famous horror writer E. A. Peugeot, Joy spends her time dressing up in a dead woman’s tweeds and investigating paranormal activity around her hometown of Spooking.

 

Meanwhile the mayor’s assistant Mr. Octavio Phipps has also trained his sinister sights on the mysterious asylum. As Joy already knows, the embittered ex-punk rocker will stop at nothing in his nefarious quest to destroy her beloved town.

When her pet frog Fizz becomes trapped behind the walls of a mental asylum, Joy must mount a rescue operation that brings her into conflict with Mr. Phipps again. Along with her brother Byron and their strange playmate Poppy, Joy soon uncovers mind-bending secrets straight from the pages of her favorite author. Can Joy get everyone out alive, or will they be trapped in the unearthly asylum forever?

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A heartbreaking history of prejudice, family ties, and the loss of innocence.When twelve-year-old Titus Sullivan decides to run away to join his Uncle Amos and older brother, Lem, he finds an alien and exciting world in Oil Springs, the first Canadian oil boomtown of the 19th century.

 

The Enniskillen swamp is slick with oil, and it takes enterprising folk to plumb its depths. The adventurers who work there are a tough lot of individuals. In this hard world, Titus becomes friends with a young black boy, the child of slaves who came to Canada on the Underground Railroad. When tragedy strikes in the form of a race riot, Titus's loyalties are tested as he struggles to deal with the terrible fallout.

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