The inner-city Blues baseball team is having a lousy year. Shortstop Nash and the Blues can't seem to win. They especially hate losing to their archrivals, the rich kids of the Parkhill Pirates. When all-star player Jock joins the team, it looks like the Blues might be able to turn the season around. The only problem? When the Pirates find out that …

Bullied at school and ignored at home, Travis has a secret: cutting himself with a razor blade is the only thing that lets him control the pain in his life and find some peace. When he becomes friends with Chyvonne, a new girl at school, he doesn't know how to get close to her without revealing his secret and making himself even more vulnerable. Sp …

Luna Begay is as studious and serious about her Aboriginal heritage as her sister, Issy, is outgoing and fun. When Issy convinces Luna to go with her to a party full of rich kids, Luna is surprised to end up talking with Jon, who is charming, sophisticated, and very good-looking. But the night turns bad when Jon drugs and rapes Luna.

Feeling guilty …

Ashley Rivera's single mom can't afford to buy her new basketball shoes -- she does't even have enough for the registration fee when Ashley makes the city basketball team. So Ashley takes on extra work to make the money she needs to play basketball. Soon Ashley's overloaded schedule makes her too tired for school and her friends, and she can't take …

Mimi Kiguchi is friends with every cat on her street, including a pretty orange kitten she calls the Ginger Princess. Mimi is horrified when the neighbourhood bully kidnaps the Ginger Princess for what he darkly calls "an experiment." But what can a small nine-year-old do against a big, tough, eleven-year-old like Ricky? Then Mimi gets an idea that …

Edgy and suspenseful young adult fiction that explores topics teens want to read about.

It begins with a chance encounter: teenage Emily and her friends come to the aid of a stranger who is being bullied by a gang. Emily forgets about the incident, but the young man she helped becomes fixated on her. Only when her real love interest is attacked does …

Fresh off the plane from Vancouver, sixteen-year-old hockey player Aaron Wong is excited to be starting his first year at Podium, the Calgary school for top teen athletes. Aaron has to make friends and fit in at a new high school, while also adjusting to a new home and a family with a different culture than his own. Luckily, he finds a tight-knit g …

When the Grade Four teacher at Trillium Elementary in Toronto assigns a new project, Jude Bhandari is sure that he'll be paired up with his best friend Sanjay. Everyone knows they both love everything to do with outer space. But instead Jude is paired up with the tough new kid from England who likes to pick fights. Will Jude be able to find common …

Toby's always had a weight issues, thanks in part to the free food his team gets from his friend Maddie's dad's restaurant and their soccer team's sponsor, Vinnie's. But Vinnie's sponsorship also provides the kids with team shirts, equipment, even cleats for some of the players. So when a city-wide ban is placed on sponsorship of teams by companies …

Renna Rashad is not only captain, she's also de facto coach of her basketball team. But when a rival from an opposing team takes a vacant spot on the team, Renna faces some tough choices she wasn't prepared for. It starts with a shove in the hall, then a slight on the team's on-line blog, followed by exclusion from a team social event, and finally …

There are some things a teen can take for granted, or so Penny thinks. Beautiful girls get all the breaks. An eccentric old woman is going to be the target of every kid in the 'hood. But what if things are not all they seem? Lori Weber's talents are on full display in this in this remarkable, insightful story of beauty's fleeting power and the effe …

This dark and gritty new story from New Brunswick author Robert Rayner examines the moral choices of one teen with a childhood filled with emotional neglect and social bullying, and how haunting real-life choices made when you're young can be when you're older.
Life was never easy for Julian, aka Scab. After years of being tormented by his peers an …

Do you race home to log in on your computer and chat? But what can you do when that user comes on, the user that won't go away and is getting nastier by the day? Now it seems you can't go to any of your favourite sites without finding something nasty posted about you.
This volume in the "Deal With It" series examines the issues of online name-call …