Young Adult Fiction

TV stardom – fame, fortune, and Hollywood! It’s the chance of a lifetime for Kate Merriman when she lands a small role in a new TV series called Backbeat.

But it’s less fun when Kate finds out her best friend Maria has turned down the part she’s been offered in the show. They’re always there for each other. How can Kate succeed when Maria’s not there to share this new adventure. And why doesn’t their friendship seem to work any more?

In her first novel in the Backbeat series, Kathryn Ellis provides a lively look into the world of TV shows – and close friendships.

The Emerald Key is lost, and James must leave Ireland for Canada to rescue his brother and the treasure.

In 1847, after a confrontation with British soldiers, Jamie Galway awakens from a coma to find his brother, Ryan, and the ancient Irish text they had sworn to protect are missing. Jamie learns that his brother has been forced onto a ship bound for Canada. The ancient script, one of the keys to the secret location of a priceless treasure, has gone with him. On the advice of a secretive band of priests called the Brotherhood, Jamie crosses the Atlantic to find his brother and the lost key.

Unaware that Jonathon Wilkes, a ruthless treasure hunter is also on the trail, Jamie must find Ryan first, before Wilkes, in his desperation to find the elusive treasure, resorts to murder. Jamie, followed by Wilkes, must race across an ocean and throughout Canada to see who will be the one to claim the Emerald Key.

Rosemary Watson and Peter McAllister think their future is clear: they’re finally heading off for university. They’re thinking about finding apartments, picking courses, living like adults.

But what happens when the future becomes the past? While helping Rosemary’s brother move into an apartment in Toronto, Peter and Rosemary fall into an underground river and are swept back in time, to Toronto in 1884. It’s a struggle to survive and adapt to the alien culture of the late nineteenth century. Peter and Rosemary are forced to work together, to live together, and to become the adults they’ve only been pretending to be.

As the days stranded turn to weeks, then months, Rosemary and Peter begin to wonder if they’re really ready for a future together - and what they will do if they can’t get back.

Then someone brings them a watch, powered by a battery, made in Taiwan.

Fourteen-year-old Jennifer Bannon cannot face another boring summer in Springhills. She convinces her mother to let her spend July at her grandmother’s cottage in Hawk’s Creek. She does not reveal that her plan is to live with her grandmother forever in order to avoid the problems back home. But Hawk’s Creek holds dark secrets, and Jennifer is soon drawn into the troubled world of Audrey Musquash, a Native girl accused of stealing and being out of control. In this tale of suspense and haunting friendship, Jennifer must face truths that will change her perspective on life forever.

In the fourth and final instalment in the Jennifer Bannon mystery series, Jennifer begins Grade Eleven at Springhills High, where her life is far from settled. Her mother has moved to L.A. with her new husband, Jennifers boyfriend moves to McGill to study pre-med and Jennifer fears their relationship will not survive the separation. She’s worried about her best friend Ambie who has been secretly e-mailing the biological father she has never met. This story deals with themes of belonging, friendship and loss. While Jennifer struggles to find her place in a family separated by divorce and with friendships marked by change, she must learn how to rely on herself.

In this dark and moving young adult novel, sixteen-year-old Naomi’s best friend has moved away, and Naomi herself is starting at a new high school. Curtis, the artistic guy she likes, seems to be avoiding her, making her feel alone and lonely. On top of lots of difficult homework and an awful part-time job, she also has problems at home. Her dying aunt has come to live with her family, Naomi’s mother seems to be on the verge of a breakdown, and her Polish father is absent and unsupportive. How can Naomi overcome all these negatives in her life? Over three harrowing months on the eve of the new millennium, the story emerges of a young woman finding strength and of a broken family mending. The action and circumstances of the book are laid bare in a series of diary entries, not only by Naomi, but also by her boyfriend, her mother, her mothers boyfriend, and Naomi’s employer, giving the reader a much fuller understanding of what brings Naomi and her mother to the brink of despair - and back.

A coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of "peace, love, rock and roll," and the Vietnam War.

It’s the summer of 1971, and fifteen-year-old Darlene travels with her mother to cottage country. This year her wild cousin, Elizabeth, is staying with them in the hopes that time away from Toronto will straighten her out – but Elizabeth has other plans. It’s her summer mission to torment Darlene by manipulating her friends and seducing every eligible male in her path. Meanwhile, Darlene is captivated by the mysterious strangers who rent the cottage down the road, particularly free-spirited Candy, who tells stories of traipsing across the United States with rock stars. Darlene is also friends with a reclusive journalist who will stop at nothing to pen the ultimate anti-war story. She, too, secretly dreams of becoming a writer, but knows that her father will never allow it. When the connections between the young strangers and the war start to become clear, Darlene is presented with more choices than she would like.

Although it is 1969 and the end of a decade that has brought tremendous social change even in southweatern Ontario, 14-year-old Annie Ward has experienced little of "love, peace, and understanding." A diehard Beatles fan and highly intelligent but lacking in social graces, Annie is still grieving over the death of her father and also misses Zoe, the one "best" friend she ever had, who has moved away due to less-than-friendly circumstances.

Lonely but proud, Annie has distanced herself from everyone, even her mother. then, amid highschool rumours of her supposed homosexuality, Annie is challenged by her guidance counsellor to confront her "problems" by writing about them. In an awkward attempt to make friends, she is drawn to a group of ragtag local hippies. One of them, Sweet William, is even more bereft than Annie, and not by choice. The 1960s may have jump-started a cultural revolution, but for many people the old prejudices are slow to let go. Still, perhaps "all you really need is love ..."

Eleven-year-old Josie Grun escapes from Communist East Germany with her mother and father one dark night in 1989 just months before the Berlin Wall comes tumbling down. Braving border guards, barbed wire, and rifle shots, Josie reluctantly turns her back on her best friend, Greta, and all that was once familiar. She crosses the ocean to join her uncle in Calgary, attempts to learn a foreign language, and overcomes the prejudices of her schoolmates in order to forge a new life. Clinging to the passion that has always been a comfort, her figure skating, she enters a local competition to prove that she is free on the ice and off.

The students of VIBA face a new ballet, potential scholarships, and increasing drama within the academy.

The students of Vancouver International Ballet Academy are preparing to perform the ballet Coppelia. A ballet about dolls, love, and trickery, Coppelia doesn’t have a moral, and neither do the rehearsals. If Taylor, Julian, Alexandra, and Kaitlyn don’t rise to meet the challenges this ballet is putting them through, they might not make it on stage. The dancers might be fully alive, but they have more than enough real-life drama to keep them busy. The casting of the principal role of Swanhilda keeps getting changed, but is it really about who’s the best dancer right now, or is something else influencing the casting decisions?

Summer school acceptances and rejections are in, but who’s telling the truth about where they’re going? And who’s coming back to VIBA after the summer?

After a shipwreck in 1809, Peter finds himself the victim of amnesia. The sea captain who finds the teenager gives him the only name he knows, while others derisively dub him Peter No-Name. Eventually, Peter finds employment in a Montreal tavern where he meets a French voyageur called Boulard who changes his life irrevocably.

Boulard works for fur trader David Thompson, soon to become one of the world's most famous explorers and mapmakers. Thompson is impressed with the teenager and enlists him in his obsessive quest to establish an overland "northwest" passage to the Pacific Ocean via the Columbia River.

With Thompson, Peter embarks on an amazing series of adventures that brings him face to face with hostile Natives and exposes him to the hardships and life-threatening challenges of formidable mountains and primeval forests as the intrepid outdoorsmen canoe, ride, and sled across a continent still largely untouched by European civilization.

On the surface, Peter McAllister has a good life: a good school, good friends, good times. So what if his best friend is a girl — and sort of a geek? And so what if she might be more than a friend.

Underneath, it's a different story. It's been years since the death of his parents landed him in this small town with his hardly-there uncle, but he still feels as if his life in Clarksbury is just an inch deep. Does he really belong? Only Rosemary seems real. But that reality comes crashing down the first time he kisses her — and she rejects him.

Then a mysterious woman named Fiona appears. She tells him he's a changeling — a fairy child left to live in the human world — and that it's time to come home. Can Rosemary convince him that Fiona is lying? Or is it possible that Fiona is telling the truth?

In The Ruby Kingdom, readers were captivated as Amelia Hammer and her cousin, Simon, and friend, Ike, discovered a secret gate leading from the small, southern-Ontario town of Dunstone to the extraordinary land of Mythrin - a world populated by dragons. Now, dragon leader, Mara, seeks the help of Amelia and her friends again. This time, a peculiar race of humans from a world called Cassar is searching for the Prism Blade - a legendary weapon forged at the beginning of time. Both the dragons and the Casseri seek the Prism Blade for their own protection; both the dragons and the Casseri fear the Blade falling into each others' hands.

Caught in the middle, Amelia, Simon, and Ike are also caught by surprise when they discover that the Prism Blade has been hidden for centuries in their own town ... and is one of the most treasured objects in all of Dunstone.

Fifteen-year-old Rowan, the daughter of foreign correspondents in Africa, finds herself beached for a summer with her cousins near Tofino, British Columbia. Desperate for a summer project, she camps on a neighbouring island to monitor the progress of an endangered group of sea otters, further threatened by the development plans of a real estate agent trying to sell the property for tourism.

Short-listed for the 1997 Canadian Children's Book Centre Our Choice

On the run from the authorities and the angry townspeople of Weasel City, British Columbia, in the early 1940s, teenage Loretta and her younger brother, Teddy, travel with their gambling stepfather, "Bean-Trap" Braden, as he strikes out in search of a good poker game in the Canadian and American West.

Loretta and Teddy try to adjust to life on the run as they shuttle from ghost town to ghost town, jumping borders and stowing away on trucks, sleds, and trains. As the children make friends in places like Butte, Montana; Spokane, Washington; and Ferguson, British Columbia, Bean-Trap creates enemies wherever they go. Loretta and Teddy try to persuade their father to keep on the straight and narrow, but instead Bean-Trap schemes to stay one step ahead of all the sore losers who are right behind him and hot on the trail of his gold.

When Shelby Belgarden's peaceful hometown of Little River is shaken by a series of robberies, suspicion falls on Amber Chapman, a new girl in town who has alienated others with her standoffish attitude. Shelby's own dislike of the newcomer is fed by jealousy as she begins to suspect a relationship growing between Amber and Greg Taylor.

But as evidence against Amber mounts, leading to her eventual arrest, new clues cause Shelby to question her own judgement. Shelby races against time to free her, and soon realizes that in order to do so, she must uncover a dark secret known only to the thief.

Lexie Malton is an average Vancouver teen with fairly typical issues. Her stepmother is far from her favourite person, she has a sister with special needs, and life outside the home is the usual mix of school, friends, and social events.

But Lexie has a secret. Her ex-boyfriend, Devlin Mather, is now a heroin addict living on the street, and only Lexie knows that she’s the one who put him there. Guilt makes her give in to Devlin’s demands for money time and time again, even though she knows how dangerous his drug use is.

Lexie finally gathers the strength to stop enabling Devlin. But when he seeks treatment for his addiction, Lexie finds herself drawn back to him, never guessing what a dark and deadly path she has just chosen.

Devlin relapses, and his desperation leads to an act that will change both of their lives forever.

Eric Zweig is a managing editor with Dan Diamond & Associates, consulting publishers to the National Hockey League. He has written about sports and sports history for many major publications, including the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail His non-fiction sports books for young people include Star Power: The Legend and Lore of Cyclone Taylor and Crazy Canucks. He lives in Owen Sound, Ontario.

Short-listed for the 2006 Red Maple Award Tom Blake is a likeable but shy high school student, who fantasizes about adventure, romance, and discovering "portholes" to the past. Little does he know that all are about to come his way. Tom discovers that a local computer company is conditioning his fellow students for what he suspects is some evil purpose. He soon finds himself up against a corrupt organization with an agenda of genetic experimentation. Mercury Man evokes all the excitement of the best scifi, fantasy, and hero myths while never losing touch with ordinary urban contemporary reality.

Short-listed for the 2005 Snow Willow Award and for the 2006 Manitoba Young Readers' Choice Award

Cole Fennety doesn't know it, but he is about to have the strangest summer of his life. His little sister, Jessie, is driving him crazy, his mother is too wrapped up in the world of daytime soaps to intervene, and his best friend, Wayne, is out of control. Worst of all, his boss, Sam Kerrigan, is the meanest man in town. But beneath Sam's crusty exterior lies a kind heart -- as well as a terrible secret that forces Cole to face questions to which there are no easy answers.

Legend has it that a paymaster lost his gold during the War of 1812, and Sam, Eadie, and Ben are determined to find it.

The Jackson family has moved into an old house on Commissioners Road near London, Ontario, and twins Sam and Eadie discover an exciting legend that involves their new home. Their neighbour, Ben, tells them that a skirmish in the War of 1812 took place right in front of their house, and that, during the fight, it is thought that an army paymaster lost a chest of gold that has never been recovered.

Sam, Eadie, and Ben decide to solve the legend and find the lost gold. But almost two hundred years have passed. How will they know where to look? What clues are there to follow? With the help of the Internet, Dave at the library, and some clever sleuthing with maps and a metal detector, they make some progress. But why are all the most likely places to find the gold off-limits?

Mountains, travel, adventure — Amelia Hammer wants it all. Instead, her globe-trotting parents have dumped her in tiny, boring Dunstone, Ontario, in the middle of winter with her grandmother and her geeky cousin Simon. Simon isn't having much fun either, saddled with a sulky stranger in black leather and with neon hair.And he has to be nice to her.

But life in safe little Dunstone turns dangerously exciting when Mara comes to town. Amelia is enchanted by this tall, proud, fearless girl, but Simon worries that Mara might be mixed up in something weird. He’s right. Mara is not what she seems, and neither is the shape-shifting assassin who’s tracking her. When the cousins take Mara's side in a war for an alien world, Amelia has to spread her wings — literally — and Simon must find out how far he will go to save a cousin who has become a friend.

"I knew one thing -- I wasn't going to be rotting in that place for the rest of my life. I was getting out of there. That place turned people into the living dead. In that neighbourhood, it was hard to hear anything that didn't carry the sound of defeat."

Sixteen-year-old Porter Delaney has his future figured out, but his nice, neat plans are shaken when a man he believes may be his father suddenly appears in his Toronto neighbourhood. Porter knows that he wants nothing to do with the deadbeat dad who abandoned him and his sister twelve years earlier, but curiosity causes him to re-examine the past.

Unfortunately, actual memories are scarce and confusing, and much of what he knows is based on things his mother told him. As Porter looks for answers, it begins to seem that all he's ever going to find are more questions.

Short-listed for the 2004 Rocky Mountain Book Award and for the 2003 Manitoba Young Readers' Choice Award and long-listed for the 2002 CBC Canada Reads People's Choice Book

Kataryna Baliuk, a gifted fine arts student, is hoping to have a fresh start at Cawthra School for the Arts after a less-than-successful year at the neighbouring Catholic high school.

But her hopes for a peaceful Grade 10 are shattered when she comes home from her first day at Cawthra and finds the RCMP interrogating her grandfather, Danylo Feschuk. Kat learns that Danylo is accused of being a policeman for the Nazis in World War II Ukraine, and what's worse, he is suspected of having participated in atrocities against civilians.

When the story is exposed in the local newspaper, Kat and her family become the centre of a media storm. Her grades in school and her relationships with friends suffer. Her only support comes from her family and Ian, a classmate with whom she discovers she has more in common than just artistic promise.

Fifteen-year-old Paula's perfectionism drives every facet of her life, from her marks in Grade 10 to the pursuit of a "perfect body." A history project brings her face to face with her grandmother's early life and, as she delves deeper, she is disturbed to find eerie parallels between her own struggles and what she learns of the past.

Mike Watson's team has just won the Alberta Bantam Provincial box lacrosse championships. The euphoria of victory and plans for next season are short-lived when Mike's father, a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, is transferred to Inuvik, Northwest Territories.

The transition to life inside the Arctic Circle is a tough one. With temperatures of -30 Celsius, a hulking monster named Joseph Kiktorak threatening him at every turn, and not a lacrosse ball in site, Mike's resentment at moving north escalates.

As his friendships with local youth develop, Mike is introduced to the amazing spectacle and athleticism of traditional "Arctic Sports." When his father witnesses the natural talent of Mike's new friends, the idea of an Inuvik lacrosse team is born! With hearts full of desire, the motley group of athletes heads south to participate in the Baggataway Lacrosse Tournament, and to face Mike's former team, The Rams.

Sarah Martin is bored. Thanks to her father's transfer from an inner-city police division to a small-town detachment, she is forced to to live in Muskoka - no friends, no mall, no life.

But when Sarah does make a new friend - Mindi - life gets considerably more interesting, as the two become aware of suspicious activity surrounding Mindi's mother's boyfriend and an old barn on his property. When Sarah discovers that the barn actually holds a dozen wild black bears, she will stop at nothing to save them from their fate at the hands of an organized poaching ring. But in her efforts, she puts lives in peril.

An unexpected delivery from the florist points to a secret admirer for Shelby Belgarden, but when an ominous phone call and a disturbing email follow, the teenaged sleuth and her family realize that the dangerous obsession of a stalker lies behind them. While the messages become increasingly sinister, the police are unable to uncover the culprit’s identity, and Shelby finds her world has turned into a nightmare of fear and betrayal.

When an arrest is made, it seems that life can return to normal for the Belgarden family, but the stalker proves more cunning than anyone could have imagined. Just when it seems she is safe again, Shelby finds herself at the mercy of a twisted but brilliant mind. Time is running out, and with no one to help her, Shelby must outwit her captor before he can carry out his deadly plan.

Angela Wroboski has recently moved with her mother from their small hometown into the city to rid them of a dark past. Now, Angela must deal with the fact that her home will be anything but "normal." Her dad, the infamous Nick "The Weasel" Wroboski, has served three jail terms for various crimes, including robbery, during her lifetime, and on June 5, Angela's fifteenth birthday, he's released from a two-year sentence in Fort Gavin Prison.

Arriving home with an attitude and attire that's sure to mess up her friendships and future, The Weasel tries in his own way to prove that this time he's going straight. But the influence of the old gang, led by notorious Uncle Al who's now operating an enigmatic "business" that's more than a little shady, remains a constant threat to Nick's future as a family man. When Angela learns that a crime is being planned that could blow apart her family, she must quickly decide how to intervene without breaking her father's code to "never discuss family business outside the home."

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.

Saskatchewan Book Award —Shortlisted

Strategy is everything when it comes to gaming — and girls.

Zach is used to living in a world of legendary battles, epic journeys, and life-or-death situations. As a gamer, he is hard-wired for adventure, even though it’s from the comfort of his parents’ couch. But nothing has prepared him for battling the biggest storm in Saskatchewan’s history while trapped in the local mall.

On top of everything, Zach has finally met the girl of his dreams, but he finds himself helping everyone else stay safe while his best friend spends time with her. What Zach doesn’t realize is that love always finds its way when you’ve found the right person and are ready to risk it all to save the day.

Little Jane encounters treachery and adventure on her voyage to the Nameless Isle in search of her parents’ buried treasure. Second book in the Little Jane Silver Adventure series.

Only two people have ever survived a trip to the Nameless Isle: Long John Silver the Second and Bonnie Mary Bright, the parents of aspiring pirate Little Jane Silver. They thought the volcanic caves on the island would be great places to store their treasure, but they were mistaken.

Pirate hunter Fetzcaro Madsea and his crew have taken Long John and Bonnie Mary prisoner and are now forcing the pirates to guide them across the island to the treasure. Hoping to use their secret knowledge of the island’s dangers to thin out their foes, Long John and Bonnie Mary take a deadly risk. Meanwhile, Little Jane rushes to intercept them by taking a secret route.

Do Little Jane and her friends have what it takes to brave the terrors of the island? Will she reach her parents in time to save them from the vengeful Madsea? And what strange horror lies in wait for them all in the lair of the island’s peculiar orange birds?

Hold fast to your courage and read on!

Robin Starveling, aka Noah Vaile, is scooped off the streets of seventeenth-century Bristol, England, and dragged onboard a ship bound for Virginia by the murderous William Thatcher, who needs a servant with no past and no future to aid him in a nefarious plot to steal gold. Starveling fits the bill perfectly since he lives nowhere and has no parents. Aboard the ship, Starveling makes friends with a young cabin boy, Peter Fence.

Together the two boys suffer through a frightening hurricane and are shipwrecked on the mysterious Isle of Devils. They solve the ciphers embedded in emblems found in Thatcher’s sea chest, which has washed up with the wreck, then make their way through gloomy forests and tortuous labyrinths to a cave on the shore that houses a wizard-like old man. Beset by danger and villainy on every side, they finally discover the old man’s identity and unearth a treasure that is much rarer and finer than gold.

Meet Little Jane Silver, the twelve year-old granddaughter of notorious Treasure Island pirate Long John Silver. Growing up on the Pieces of Eight, the pirate ship of her parents, Captains Bonnie Mary Bright and Long John Silver II, Little Jane is increasingly frustrated with being thrust below decks whenever any real pirating action takes place.

Desperate to be taken seriously as a member of the crew, Little Jane vows to become a real pirate, but every attempt she makes to prove herself onboard seems to backfire. As the Pieces of Eight is pursued by a mysterious pirate hunter, Little Jane tries to alert the crew to a devious saboteur on the ship, but by the time someone pays attention, its too late.

On her own for the first time, Little Jane must grow up fast and find the courage to undergo the most important test of her young life a quest to save her family.