National Network for Equitable Library Service

Fifteen-year-old Kyle Evans has been a jock for years – a triple-threat basketball player who can dribble, pass or shoot with considerable skill. When an old friend encourages Kyle to try out for a part in the school play, he has to deal with more than stage fright. After an act of vandalism shocks the school, Kyle realizes that it’s time for him to take a stand, even if it means his team will suffer.

When her mother suddenly moves them to a new town, Zoe is unhappy about leaving behind what passes for a normal life. And when the first person she meets turns out to be Beck, who rules her new school with a mixture of intimidation and outright violence, she is dismayed. But she has no idea how bad things will get. Unsure of herself and merely trying to fit in, Zoe is initiated, painfully, into the Beckoners, a twisted group of girls whose main purpose is to stay on top by whatever means necessary.

Readers of Hoop Crazy will remember Ned as the bug-loving beanpole who lives in an isolated national park out West, three hours from the nearest basketball court. But Ned's participation in the three-on-three tournament when he visited Nick has sparked his interest in the game and now he and his father have built their own basketball court in the wilderness. And Ned's hoop skills have improved considerably. Nick and Kia are just beginning to get the hang of life in the wilderness when disaster strikes. A raging forest fire threatens to destroy Ned's home and cut off their escape.

When grade-eight science-project time rolls around, J.J. Murphy skips the beakers and the papiermâché and dives into research about jerks. And idiots. But mostly jerks. By his own estimation, his science project, On a Scale from Idiot to Complete Jerk, is groundbreaking, exhaustive, highly scientific and seriously worthy of bonus marks. Beginning with the dawn of humankind and concluding conclusively with a very cool pie chart, the project dissects the elements of jerkosity through extensive case studies and scientific illustrations.

When Meg’s summer ballet program is canceled and her ballet teacher suggests she attend Camp Dance to learn new dance styles, Meg is devastated. Worse still, her teacher thinks she lacks stage presence and needs to connect more with her audience. At camp, Meg struggles to learn contemporary dance. A girl named Logan, who is jealous of Meg’s ballet technique and her friendship with Nio, a cute contemporary dancer, makes Meg’s life even more difficult. When Meg, Nio and Logan have to work together to create a piece for the final show, arguments threaten to ruin their dance.

Hockey stars Mike “Crazy” Keats and his Cree Indian friend, Dakota, are caught in a web of violence which makes winning this year’s hockey league championship the least of their concerns. Mike’s new to the Seattle Thunderbirds, and Dakota seems like a good guy to have for a friend. Unfortunately, not everyone accepts Dakota’s Indian heritage as easily. Spin-off racial hatred takes Keats and Dakota into a life-threatening situation.

MacIntyre, son of firebrand lawyer Andy MacIntyre, smells something fishy about one of his mother's cases. And it's not just that there are sea lice in the coffee. When Cyril starts investigating the death of a millionaire inventor, he gives a whole new meaning to the term "legal aid." Long on smarts and short on, well, just plain short, Cyril tangles with deranged criminals, indulges in a little bit of B & E and confronts the scariest person in the world -- his mother.

Kate is determined to win her spelling club's spelling bee, but the competition is fierce. She can almost put up with Violet's relentless claims of superior spelling ability, but when Kate and Jake begin to fight with each other, Kate is miserable. She wants to win the contest, but she doesn't want to lose her best friend.

Darcy's mother is getting out of jail. Ten years ago she was convicted of throwing Darcy's baby sister off a fifth floor balcony. Kat survived, but Darcy has spent the last decade raising his sister, giving her the love and support she has been denied by an absent mother and an uncaring father. Now, with their mother about to be released, their father has decided he has had enough of parental responsibility and is determined to return the children to their mother's care. Darcy is horrified, and adamant that he will not subject his sister to the woman who once tried to murder her.

How can you liven up a boring camping trip with your grandpa and your younger brother? Spencer has the answer: lose the new cell phone you weren't supposed to bring with you. Add a War of 1812 reenactment, a student film crew, an old flame of Grandpa's, Laura Secord's cowbell and a larcenous hardcore history buff, and you get a weekend that gives Spencer his first taste of independence and maybe a glimpse of his future, by way of the past. In this funny prequel to Jump Cut and Coda, the goofy and creative Spencer gets caught up in a War of 1812 reenactment.