Elements of Genius: Nikki Tesla and the Ferret-Proof Death Ray

In the opening scene of Jess Keating’s new middle-grade series, Elements of Genius, Nikki Tesla’s pet ferret sets off Nikki’s fully functional death ray. The child prodigy and her ferret survive, but Nikki’s bedroom doesn’t, ... Read More »

July 11, 2019 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books

★ Like a Love Story

By Abdi Nazemian

This new novel from Lambda Literary Award winner Abdi Nazemian (The Walk-In Closet) is a fresh and important addition to the queer YA canon. Set in New York City in 1989, at the peak of ... Read More »

July 4, 2019 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books

Before the Broken Star

By Emily R. King

Emily R. King, the bestselling author of the Hundreth Queen books, returns with a new series featuring another strong and unusual heroine. Everley Donovan’s best friends are sex workers, her one desire is for vengeance, ... Read More »

June 27, 2019 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books

★ Shout Out

By Andrew Wheeler

When you’re an LGBTQ2IA+ person, finding characters like you, written by people who are also like you, and in the kinds of stories you want to read can be tough. This is especially true for ... Read More »

June 20, 2019 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books

★ Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me

By Mariko Tamaki and Rosemary Valero-O’Connell (ill.)

It’s the colour scheme that grabs you first in Mariko Tamaki and Rosemary Valero-O’Connell’s Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me. The pages are predominantly black, white, and grey except for splashes of the most ... Read More »

June 19, 2019 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books

★ The Absence of Sparrows

By Kurt Kirchmeier

From a brief description of The Absence of Sparrows – by Saskatchewan writer and wildlife photographer Kurt Kirchmeier – readers might assume that they’ve read this story before: a small-town setting, a summer vacation, an ... Read More »

June 10, 2019 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books

Girl of the Southern Sea

By Michelle Kadarusman

Toronto-based, Australian-Indonesian-Canadian author Michelle Kadarusman (The Theory of Hummingbirds) sets her moving and dramatic sophomore novel in the impoverished villages of Jakarta. Fourteen-year-old Nia’s mother has died in childbirth and her bapak (father) is drowning ... Read More »

June 6, 2019 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books

★ Love from A to Z

By S.K. Ali

In her second novel, S.K. Ali strikes a balance between charming love story and issue-driven narrative, in which Muslim teen characters confront and overcome Islamophobia, racism, and ignorance. Love from A to Z follows protagonists ... Read More »

June 3, 2019 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books

Papergirl

By Melinda McCracken with Penelope Jackson

On May 15, 1919, some 30,000 workers in Winnipeg walked off the job to protest poor living wages and demand collective bargaining. Two new middle-grade novels bring the general strike, a watershed event, to light ... Read More »

May 15, 2019 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books