National Network for Equitable Library Service

The Night Drummer is the story of two teenage friends—white, middle-class Peter Ellis, and Otis James, a native boy adopted by an older evangelical Christian couple. Peter and Otis grow up in small town Ontario in the 1970s, and the novel follows them through their high school years where both confront challenges that require them to decide who they are and who they want to be, decisions that will have profound consequences not only for themselves, but for their friends and family.

Nicholas is a twelve-year-old with red hair whose dad just remarried. This makes Nicholas a redheaded stepchild. Literally. And tomorrow at lunch, the biggest boy in grade six plans to beat him up—he even made a Facebook event about it. Should Nicholas skip school? His new stepmom, a chain-smoking, ex-Jehovah’s Witness golf pro named Mary-Anne, doesn’t want him playing hooky. His secret alter ego, the fabulous and charismatic Rufus Vermilion, thinks his ginger genetics will doom him either way.

Standing at the edge of the ship, contemplating a watery demise, Billy is called back to reality when his dead mentor Sid Diamond appears as a handpuppet. Sid forces Billy to re-enact his life as a puppet show, rekindling the passion Billy once had for puppets, people, and the dream of a life that sparkles. For anyone stuck in the middle—mid-career, mid-love, mid-life—this requiem for a golden boy shines a little light on the wonder of youth meeting the wisdom of age.

Skin introduces us to a group of Canadian teenagers who are coming of age in the late 1980s. Faced with racial discrimination, Phiroza, Jennifer, and Tuan must navigate the choppy waters of high school, each confronting his or her own set of challenges. Ranging from academic difficulties, to budding relationships, to the trials of adapting to a foreign language and culture, the three share their stories of struggle, survival, and defiance of negative expectations and racist attitudes. Lenny is at the top of her class. Jace seemingly couldn't care less.

Set in Calcutta, Pyaasa tells the story of Chaya, an eleven-year-old untouchable who dreams of nothing more than learning her times tables. When Chaya's mother begs a woman from a higher caste to give Chaya a job at a local tea stall, Chaya's journey from childhood to adulthood begins and ends over ten days.

Two is fraught. While dealing with the impossible expectations of her parents, she is trying to understand why her brother, a bright and talented teenager, has taken his own life. It’s not until a fateful school detention that she meets three other students who all seem as lost as she is. There’s Three, a quiet, misunderstood guy who doesn’t quite know how to care for himself; Four, the fashionable, popular kid and class clown; and Five, a rebel ready to fight against everyone and everything.

Elsa is a typical fifteen-year-old growing up in the early 1960s. Her world revolves around independence, boys, and being popular at school, despite growing concerns surrounding the Cuban missile crisis. In fact, this is Elsa's opportunity to let loose before the world blows up. Knee-deep in teenage angst, her mission is clear: get drunk for the first time and lose her virginity. Though Elsa is old enough to feel the tense political climate, she is young enough to believe there might be a cure for everything.

Esi decides to divorce after enduring yet another morning's marital rape. Though her friends and family remain baffled by her decision (after all, he doesn't beat her!), Esi holds fast. When she falls in love with a married man-wealthy, and able to arrange a polygamous marriage-the modern woman finds herself trapped in a new set of problems. Witty and compelling, Aidoo's novel, inaugurates a new realist style in African literature.

Looking back at a tragic event that occurred during his thirteenth year, Frank Drum explores how a complicated web of secrets, adultery, and betrayal shattered his Methodist family and their small 1961 Minnesota community.

Tom Harry and his son Rusty live alone and run a bar in a small Montana town in the early 1960s. Their lives are upended when a woman from Tom's past and her beatnik daughter breeze into town.