Cutter Boy
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 …
One Night
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 …
Creep Con
Feeling like an outsider in a new city and at a new school, Mariam finds that her love of comic-book superheroes overlaps with the interests of a new friend who is otaku, crazy about manga and anime. Together, Mariam and Tya plan their costumes for the big fan convention. Mariam is comfortable with her choice of character, partly because as Haruhi, …
Shot in the Dark
Eighth-grader Micah is psyched to have made the BC junior goalball team -- even though he gets the news while dealing with a flare-up of his degenerative eye condition. What he's not happy about is his parents' decision to get him a guide dog, and the possibility of losing his independence.
When Liam, a new, first-rate player, joins the goalball tea …
Rookie Season
Leigh Aberdeen is a proud young Métis woman who wants to take on the whole league with her all-girl hockey team, the Chinooks.
Leigh's dream is threatened when her best friend Tina, the team's star goalie, mysteriously starts missing practices. To make matters worse, the coach adds a smart-aleck boy to the team roster. At the end of the season, as …
Runaway Gran
Rosy's grandmother keeps vanishing. Where does she go when she disappears? And does Gran really know, as she claims, where a secret treasure can be found? Rosy unravels these persistent puzzles in this touching, offbeat mystery about the joys and sorrows of family life. Originally published as Rosemary for Remembrance, Runaway Gran was a Canadian …
A Piece of Forever
A Piece of Forever begins where Catching Forever ended, with the story of Rose and her experiences being of Mennonite faith in a public school. In A Piece of Forever, Rose is forced to address the issue of warfare, and to examine her own feelings about violence and peace for the upcoming Remembrance Day assembly. While doing research for a school p …
The Ginger Princess
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 …
Catching Forever
It's awkward enough for any kid going to a new school, but Rose, whose family belongs to a Mennonite community, feels even more out of place. Then, one day, she picks up a baseball.
Inspired by her own childhood memories, Laurel Dee Gugler paints a touching portrait of a young girl throwing herself into a new game and fresh possibilities.
Hoop Dreams
Playing ball is what keeps Podium Sports Academy's basketball captain going when things get rough. When there's trouble back home, Allie turns to basketball. Ditto when her relationship is in trouble or when she's at odds with her friends. But then tragedy strikes when an old knee injury resurfaces and Allie is told she might not be able to play a …
Power Hitter
Connor might need a pinch runner, pinch catcher, and pinch thrower, but can he ever hit a baseball out of the park! So when Connor ends up staying with his baseball-loving relatives in Winnipeg for the summer, he allows his cousin to talk him into trying out for the baseball team. Connor isnt surprised when he doesnt make it, but he is disappointe …
Stupid
Martin's been diagnosed with ADHD, but he feels something about his diagnosis isn't right. The Ritalin he's prescribed doesn't seem to make a difference. When Martin's grades continue to sink no matter how hard he tries, his father writes him off as lazy and just plain stupid. His dad is convinced that Martin just needs to focus more on his studies …
Spiked
Eighth-grader Emma is the tallest person in her class. While she used to be into sports in a big way, now that she's hanging out with her new best friend, other things have become more important -- like clothes and makeup and fitting in. When Emma gets roped into volunteering for the girls' volleyball team, she feels the urge to play again. First, …
Skinner's Banks
Cale Finch has just won second place in a skateboarding competition when he's ambushed on his way home by a member of a rival crew, the Mental Posse. They steal the money that Cale was going to use to replace his broken skateboard. Cale feels embarrassed by what happened, so he doesn't tell anyone right away.
Eventually, Mark Skinner, an older skat …
Klepto
It seems like Kat's parents have done little but prepare for her sister Hannah's return since she was sent away to a home for troubled teens. Everyone is determined to find out what went wrong with Hannah and make things right again -- everyone except Kat, that is.
Kat dreads going back to a life dominated by her sister's tantrums and rule-breakin …
Not Out
Since Dexter's parents' death, he's been living with his aunt in her Scarborough apartment. Even though it's been two years, Dexter is still struggling to control his anger and so far the best way for him to do this is through sports. Then one day he snaps and attacks the pitcher during a baseball game, and Dex suddenly finds himself off the team. …
Shut-Out!
David dreams of soccer glory, and is willing to suffer hours of monotonous practice drills to achieve it. His asthma might slow him down a little, but he works every day to be a better player.
The coach of his Winnipeg team has a different formula for success: play the best players, and let the rest spend the season warming the bench. When the fi …
Truth and Lies
When Erin arrives for class at Oshawa Secondary, she learns that her friend Marcel has been badly beaten up. She immediately wonders whether it was a gay-bashing, or whether he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Marcel is in a coma, so she has no clues to help her. As far as she knows he doesn't have any enemies, but there are plenty …
Power Play
When Zach Thomas broke his wrist going into the boards early in the hockey season, he thought he was done for the year. But as his Cochrane, Alberta, Pee Wee team gets ready for the play-offs, his doctor tells him he's healed-up enough to pay. Zach isn't so sure.
His fear of being checked hard in the corner makes him very reluctant to head back o …
Lightning Rider
When January Fournier arrives at the Foothills Hospital in Calgary, her brother Grey is barely clinging to life in intensive care after a horrible motorcycle crash. She's devastated--but things get worse when the police accuse Grey of a string of bike thefts, claims he's in no condition to dispute.
Jan decides she's the only person who can uncover t …
Racing Fear
Trent and Adam were best friends and rally racing buddies until a terrible accident, when Adam was at the wheel, puts Trent in the hospital. After a long separation, the teens try to pick up their friendship where it left off, but Adam's guilty feelings and Trent's odd behaviour make it tough. Why is Trent hanging around Marcus, a guy he says he c …
Roberta Bondar
"The feeling in space flight is like hanging by your heels...with all the blood rushing to your head. ...You feel as though you are at the top of a roller coaster when your stomach feels like it is going to lift off." - Dr. Roberta Bondar. This book will be especially fascinating for all readers interested in: biography or space exploration. From t …
Dream Racer
Zoë's caught the racing bug. Not only is she following in the tire tracks of her older brother as a rally racer, she thinks she might even have the stuff to become a racecar engineer one day. But Zoë's mother has another dream for her daughter, and it's called "Zoë Kendall, M.D." In this fast-action sequel to Racing Fear, Zoë must learn to stan …
Vegas Tryout
Toronto synchro swimmer Carrie Munroe is Podium Sports Academy's team flyer and the school's best prospect for making it at the upcoming Vegas tryouts -- fulfilling her dreams of being in a glitz-and-glamour professional show. Carrie feels there's only one thing holding her back -- the weekly poolside weigh-ins. Her coach agrees, and Carrie is put …
Off Limits
Fifteen-year-old Birmingham has a hot girlfriend who wants to "do it" anytime, anywhere. But to his (and his best friend's) surprise, it just leaves him feeling hollow, and he finds himself longing for something more. Then his school hires a substitute music teacher, and Birm feels an instant connection with her. They both share a deep love for mus …
Rink Rivals
When twin brothers Evan and Brynley Selkirk move with their family from the remote Cree community of Whapmagoostui to bustling Calgary, their worlds turn upside-down. In place of the grey, frigid waters of Hudson Bay, they see the downtown canyons of a modern city.
Bryn, a musical prodigy, trades piano practice for hockey practice to impress a ne …
Home Court Advantage
When Debbie is on the basketball court she feels free and alive. But while she's a good player she's also an aggressive one, and rough tactics get her in trouble more than once.
Off the court she's different from other girls, a foster child without "real" parents of her own. When Debbie learns she's going to be adopted, her world is turned upside …
Two Minutes for Roughing
Les Lewchuck is a rink rat--he loves hanging around his neighbourhood park in East End Toronto, playing hockey whenever and with whom ever he can. He's keen to hit the ice, then, when he finally gets to join a real team, the Metro Cats.
He soon finds, however, that Roddy and Lenny Smith, a couple of tough, bullying brothers, run the team. When Le …
Danger Zone
Jason loves playing for his Calgary hockey team, but everything changes when he accidentally checks an opposing player from behind.
The player hits the boards hard and is seriously hurt, and Jason faces suspension from the league. Against tough odds, Jason must find a way to prove himself -- to his family, his friends, his teacher and to his team …
Making Select
Hockey is all Tyler ever wanted to do. But when he finally makes the Select team, things aren't how he imagined it. Tyler divides his time between playing for fun in house league and playing high-stakes hockey in Select. But trying to succeed at both is wearing him down: the house league team accuses him of holding back, and the pressure to win dur …
Trapped
Nothing seems to be going right for Jane's soccer team this year. Then, to make things worse, some of the girls' stuff starts going missing. Everyone points the finger at the new girl, but Jane is determined to find the real culprit . . . and get her team back on track.
Trapped is a story that shows how tiny rumours can have huge consequences, and h …
Fast Break
Jeff is not impressed when his family moves from Toronto to small-town Nova Scotia. He doesn't know anyone and there isn't much to do--until he joins his new school's basketball team.
Jeff is fast on the court and has a sharp jump shot, and soon he's hanging out with with his new teammates. Some of them are pretty rough, though, and when they sta …
Falling Star
The Brunswick Valley kids are back, and this time they're taking it on the road. In order to secure the top spot in the league, the gang is playing a series of away-games at schools around the province. With their teenage coach, Ice, at the wheel of the van, victory, hilarity, and complications are sure to follow! [Fry Reading Level - 5.0
Ceiling Stars
Christine and Danelle have been best friends forever, a relationship as seemingly infinite as the glow-in-the-dark stars they have affixed to their bedroom ceilings. Lately, though, the girls have been drifting apart, as Danelle's quirky moods turn into wild and reckless acts. At first Christine wonders if her friend is on drugs, but what kind of d …
Off the Wall
Indoor soccer is what Lizzie does best. At school other kids bug her and her teacher thinks she's a troublemaker, but during a game she feels focused, free.
Lately, however, her younger sister Shelby has taken up the game. Shelby's a nice kid, but she leads a charmed life--she copies everything Lizzie does, then does it better. Soon Shelby is a s …
Strange Beauty
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 …
Extreme Edge
Jay is determined to make his name by climbing a tough rock face known as "The Wall" -- solo. No partner, no ropes, no equipment. Little does Jay suspect that it's his own life that will one day hang in the balance.
In this exciting rock-climbing adventure, Kellerhals-Stewart looks at the desire to break barriers and the questionable role of the m …
Delaying the Game
For the first time, Kaleigh is playing on an all-girls hockey team. Never a "girlygirl," she misses her former teammates, has trouble following the different rules of girls' hockey, and gets frustrated when her fellow players get distracted from their game. That is, until Shane comes along. Soon the attention of this older boy is taking up too much …
Hat Trick
Leigh Aberdeen is one of the top players on her Alberta hockey team, the Falcons. But as a Métis and the only girl on the team she's different--and not everyone is happy about that.
To top it off, she doesn't think her mother wants her to play hockey, so Leigh hasn't told her about the Falcons. Soon she's getting threatening messages on the phon …
Fighting Deal With It
Schoolyard fights used to be viewed as an inevitable part of growing up, especially for boys. But escalating violence in schools--including many incidents involving weapons--has made conflict resolution among young people a serious issue across the country.
All people experience feelings of anger and hostility, but as we mature we learn how to cont …
Hockey Night in Transcona
Cody Powell has graduated from playing pick-up hockey on the streets of Winnipeg to skating with his community club team, the Transcona Sharks. Coach Brackett is impressed with Cody's speed and stickhandling ability, and promotes him to the team's first line.
Unfortunately, Cody takes Stu, Coach Brackett's son's, spot. Cody is worried that coach …
Image Deal With It
What are you looking at, punk? Or are you a jock, a goth, or an indie rock guy? The image we project sends signals to others about who we are. But image can also be a prison and the source of many conflicts. This latest volume in the Deal With It series looks at the costs of conforming to social images and the very real dangers of judging a book by …
Lying Deal With It
Who hasn't told a fib or two? Whether trying to spare someone feelings or get out of a whole heap of trouble, everyone bends the truth now and then. But lying is usually a way of avoiding the types of everyday conflicts that people have to deal with throughout their lives. This book will help kids deal straight up with conflict and lying, whether t …
Racism Deal With It
A brand new series to help adolescents cope with conflicts in everyday life and promote peaceful homes, schools, and communities.
Few people would identify themselves as racist and yet we all hold attitudes and beliefs about cultures that are different from our own which affect the way we behave towards others
.Using realistic examples and sensitive …