Fiction by Continent and Country
North American Continent
Canada
J & YA FIC BAN Banerjee, Aniali Maya Running
Maya Mukherjee doesn't fit in. She was born in India and her parents moved to Canada when she was a baby. Now it's the 1970s, and she's a middle schooler in Manitoba, land of moose and snow. She wants to run on the tundra beneath the Northern Lights, make igloos or snow-angels, see John Travolta, and ride elephants through the Bengal jungle the way her great-grandfather did. Then her gorgeous cousin Pinky comes from India for a visit, bringing a statue of the god Ganesh, the Remover of Obstacles. Maya asks Ganesh to remove all obstacles to her dreams. Like most wishes, it backfires in hilarious and painful ways. Maya must journey across continents to restore the truth and find out who she is.
YA FIC BEA Beam, Matt Last December
This coming-of-age story is in the form of a diary written by fifteen-year-old Steven to his unborn sister Sam. Plagued with the all-too-common situations of a teenager—being new to a school, girls, trying out for a sports team, drinking, and family issues—Steven chooses to write to the one person who cannot judge him, at least not yet.
YA FIC BUF Buffie, Margaret Winter Shadows
Cass feels the long winter shadows on her heart. Her mother died of cancer and her father has remarried a woman who has moved into their old Manitoba house with her nasty, babyish daughter and an attitude that's very hard to take. Christmas promises to be a miserable time. More than a century earlier, Christmas is proving to be difficult for Beatrice, too, for she has shadows of her own. Some are cast by her circumstances. She sees the growing prejudice against people like her who are of mixed Cree and Scottish backgrounds. And like Cass, she has a stepmother. Her father's new wife is threatened by Beatrice and is driving a wedge into the family. Beatrice can only be sure of her beloved Cree grandmother, relegated to a room upstairs. When a way of escape presents itself to Beatrice by way of an eligible bachelor, she is torn by the choice it offers her. Should she settle for a man she doesn't love or address the problems at home? Through her journal, she explores the answer and, at the same time, inspires Cass to find the strength she needs to face her own situation.
YA MYS COT Cotter, Charis The Swallow
In 1960s Toronto, two girls retreat to their attics to escape the loneliness and isolation of their lives. Polly lives in a house bursting at the seams with people, while Rose is often left alone by her busy parents. Polly is a down-to-earth dreamer with a wild imagination and an obsession with ghosts; Rose is a quiet, ethereal waif with a sharp tongue. Despite their differences, both girls spend their days feeling invisible and seek solace in books and the cozy confines of their respective attics. But soon they discover they aren't alone--they're actually neighbors, sharing a wall. They develop an unlikely friendship, and Polly is ecstatic to learn that Rose can actually see and talk to ghosts. Maybe she will finally see one too! But is there more to Rose than it seems? Why does no one ever talk to her? And why does she look so... ghostly? When the girls find a tombstone with Rose's name on it in the cemetery and encounter an angry spirit in her house who seems intent on hurting Polly, they have to unravel the mystery of Rose and her strange family... before it's too late.
YA FIC FRI Friesen, Gayle The Isabel Factor
The sunny expectations of a counselor-in-training at her childhood camp on a Canadian island become overcast when teen Anna's best buddy, Zoe, can't make the trip. In years past, Anna had traveled the path of least resistance, the one right behind Zoe; but now her experiences give her new strength and insight. Venturing forth on her own, she meets Isabel, an enigma with rainbow-colored hair, whose blunt approach to life doesn't fit in with perfectionist Jennifer's ambitions for their cabin to be the best at all costs. She befriends Isabel, assists the cute but infuriating swim coach, and helps a struggling young camper. Then Zoe shows up, throwing Anna's world out of balance, as she faces a test of character, and friendship.
YA FIC HEN Heneghan, James Payback
Thirteen-year-old Charley Callaghan is coping with some difficult changes in his life. His family has recently moved to Vancouver from Ireland, and his mother has died of cancer. Now he is desperately trying to fit in --in a new school, a new city, a new country--while holding a part-time job and keeping an eye on his little sister, Annie. Charley's red hair and Irish accent at first make him a target of the class bullies, but he is tough enough--just--to keep them at bay. So it is almost a relief to him when the bullies find a new target, Benny Mason. As the bullying intensifies, Charley keeps hoping that Benny will defend himself, but he fails to intervene. When the situation turns tragic, Charley must face some difficult questions about his own part in the events. His search for atonement leads to an unusual friendship, and an unexpected opportunity to pay back.
YA FIC HUG Hughes, Gregory Unhooking the Moon
Meet the Rat: A dancing, football-playing gangster-baiting ten-year-old. When she foresaw her father’s death, she picked up her football and decided to head for New York. Meet her older brother Bob: Protector of the Rat, but more often her follower, he is determined to find their uncle in America and discover a new life for them both.On their adventures across the flatlands of Winnipeg and through the exciting streets of New York, Bob and the Rat make friends with a hilarious con man and a famous rap star, and escape numerous dangers. But is their Uncle a rich business man, or is the word on the street, that he something more sinister, true? And will they ever find him?
FIC & YA FIC KOG Kogawa, Joy Obasan
Based on the author's own experiences, this award-winning novel was the first to tell the story of the evacuation, relocation, and dispersal of Canadian citizens of Japanese ancestry during the Second World War.
YA MYS KYI Kyi, Tanya Lloyd Truth
There’s been a murder. The murder happened at a party with tons of people there. No one saw anything, or did they?
YA FIC MAR Martinez, Jessica Space Between Us
Amelia is used to being upstaged by her charismatic younger sister, Charly. She doesn’t mind, mostly, that it always falls to her to cover for Charly’s crazy, impulsive antics. But one night, Charly’s thoughtlessness goes way too far, and she lands both sisters in serious trouble. Amelia’s not sure she can forgive Charly this time, and not sure she wants to . . . but forgiveness is beside the point. Because Charly is also hiding a terrible secret, and the truth just might tear them apart forever.
YA FIC MCD McDonald, Abby Boys, Bears and a Serious Pair of Hiking Boots
Seventeen-year-old Jenna may hail from the ’burbs of New Jersey, but environmental activism is her life. So when the opportunity arises to spend the summer in the wilds of Canada with her hippie godmother, Susie, this Green Teen jumps at the chance to explore this nature she’s heard so much about — and the cute, plaid-wearing boys she’s certain roam wild and free. But after a few unpleasant run-ins with local wildlife (from a larger-than-life moose to Susie’s sullen Goth stepdaughter to a hot but hostile boy named Reeve), Jenna realizes that her long-held ideals, like vegetarianism and conservation, don’t play so well with this population of real outdoorsmen. With the help of a dusty survival guide, Jenna begins to navigate the wilderness, and those who call it home — but can she learn to navigate the surprising turns of her heart?
YA FIC MCP McPhee, Peter New Blood
McPhee writes a gritty and realistic tale of bullying and what it can do to a boy and his family, including moving from Scotland to Canada and sharing tight living quarters with a brother and sister-in-law. This novel shows the victim's pain in dealing with his family. It shows his guilt at being the cause of his mother's worry and unhappiness, and his anger and resentment at being the cause of the family's turmoil. His fear spurs the desire to hide what is really happening, to avoid the family's anger and frustration, not necessarily at him personally but about him which is almost as bad. Callum seems to go out of the frying pan and into the fire when he starts his new school. Fortunately, he and the bully come to an uneasy alliance about a situation that is important to both of them, the safety of a girl who interests them both
YA FIC PET Peters, Kimberly Joy Maybe Never, Maybe Now
Eleventh-grader Caitlyn is still recovering from an abusive relationship when she reluctantly embarks on a semester in French-speaking Quebec. Life there takes some getting used to, as she goes from sixteen years as an only child to being plunged into a large and chaotic host family. Also, her close friend Connor has joined the trip, and while Caitlyn feels their mutual attraction growing, she is unsure that she is ready to trust another boy—or herself. Then, just as Caitlyn relaxes into the love of her host family and her new boyfriend, she gets a letter from the father who abandoned her as a child. He wants contact. Caitlyn has begun re-learning to trust her own decisions, but has she healed enough to decide about this?
YA FIC RYA Ryan, Tom Way to Go
Danny thinks he must be the only seventeen-year-old guy in Cape Breton—in Nova Scotia, maybe—who doesn't have his life figured out. His buddy Kierce has a rule for every occasion, and his best friend Jay has bad grades, no plans and no worries. Danny's dad nags him about his post-high-school plans, his friends bug him about girls and a run-in with the cops means he has to get a summer job. Worst of all, he's keeping a secret that could ruin everything.
YA FIC SCH Schabas, Martha Various Positions
Trapped between the hormone-driven world of her friends and the discontent of her dysfunctional family, fourteen-year-old Georgia is only completelyat ease when she's dancing. When she is accepted into Canada's preeminent ballet school, Georgia thinksit is the perfect escape. Artistic Director Roderick Allen singles her out as a star, subjecting her to increasingly intensive training, and Georgia obsesses about becoming the perfect, disciplined student. But as she spends more and more time with Roderick,it's not so clear exactly what their relationship means. Is he her teacher and mentor, or is there something more? These blurred lines will threaten both Roderick's future at the academy and Georgia's ambitions as a ballerina.
YA FIC SUT Sutherland, Suzanne When We Were Good
The year 2000 isn't starting out too well for Toronto high school senior Katherine Boatman. Not only has her oldest friend ditched her for yet another boyfriend, her beloved grandmother died on New Year's Eve, leaving a void of goodness in her life that Katherine's not sure how to fill. While overwhelmed with sadness and self-doubt, Katherine unexpectedly finds new love, both for Toronto's underground music scene and for her would-be savior: a straight-edge, loudmouthed misfit named Marie. As Katherine seeks comfort in jagged guitars, mind-reading poets and honest conversations, she struggles to figure out not only what she and Marie might mean to each other, but also what it truly means to be good.
YA FIC WAL Waldorf, Heather Tripping
Rainey has a congenital amputation and wears a prosthesis on her left leg. Happily, the self-sufficient 17-year-old has no problem with that; what she's most concerned about is her sketchy future. She wants to be an artist, but her father thinks she should settle for a more realistic career. Hoping eight weeks in the woods will help her resolve this dilemma, Rainey signs up for a study/camping trip, but things quickly grow complicated when she breaks up with troubled Carlos, meets hunky Alain, and learns that her birth mother, whom she's never seen, wants to meet her.
YA FIC WAL Walter, Gregory Fouling Out
Craig's mom thinks his friend Tom is trouble and doesn't like her son hanging out with him. But Craig and Tom have been friends since second grade, and although Tom's behavior is a little out there, he is a lot of fun and Craig finds himself constantly pulled into his schemes. When Tom takes his dad's gun and tries to get Craig to go squirrel hunting in the park with him, Craig's better judgment tells him not to, but still he gives in. The squirrel-hunting incident goes awry and instead of a squirrel, Tom ends up shooting a bullet through a neighbor's back window. The whole town is immediately thrown into an uproar, thinking the shooting is a racially motivated hate crime. Upset with the shooting incident and fearful of what Tom is capable of doing the next time, Craig tries to distance himself from his long-time friend. Their friendship is put to the ultimate test when Tom runs away and the details of his abusive home life are revealed. Will Craig try to find Tom, and how far will he go to help his friend?
YA FIC WYN Wynne-Jones, Tim The Maestro
With a brutal, despicable father who beats him and an ineffectual mother incapacitated by drugs, Burl, 14, has learned not to expect anything good from life. After a crisis, he runs away into the wilderness near his small Canadian town, eventually stumbling upon an isolated house that is the secret refuge of a famous musician. Burt ingratiates himself, making himself useful while harboring the hope of staying on. But the boy's relationship with his reluctant savior is only the first in a series of encounters with those who want to use him, assist him, control him, or threaten him. Wynne-Jones skillfully presents a complex character who, in order to survive, uses all his resources: knowledge of the woods; an instinctive understanding of the manipulations of adults; strategy; brutality, the legacy of his father; and compassion.