National Network for Equitable Library Service

New Year’s 1955 is coming up fast, and eleven-year-old Vivian is determined to buy a snazzy new diary. The diary is soon put to good use, as Vivian must untangle the web of problems in her life, including a stolen keepsake of her grandfathers and her constantly arguing parents. Does her grandfather suspect her when he realizes one of his greatest treasures is missing? Does her father really mean it when he says hes leaving?

Homicide becomes more than an academic study for Toronto criminologist Ted Boudreau when his own suburban home is burglarized, with deadly results. Was his computer targetted because of his interest in a secretive biker gang? Teds attempts to deal with the aftermath bring him into conflict with family, police detectives, and the Crown prosecutor assigned to the caseas well as with his university colleagues, whose penal philosophy Ted no longer believes can stand the test of real-life experience.

Fifteen-year-old Zoe is many things, but confident is not one of them. Perhaps that’s why she prefers the company of animals. A self-professed advocate for their rights, Zoe is not above taking matters into her own hands. But the stakes are raised when she finds herself at the centre of a dangerous conspiracy involving the disappearance of animals from a shelter. She turns to street-savvy Alex Fisher, her troubled Social Studies partner, to help unravel the mystery.

A tiny speck imprisoned in a world of white… This is an exciting adventure novel told through the eyes of eleven-year-old ships boy Jeremy. It is both history and fiction. The merchant ship Henrietta Maria has been trapped in the ice of Hudson Strait for two months. It is August 6, 1631, when she finally breaks free to search for a northwest passage. The crew knows that it must leave Hudson Bay by early October to avoid being caught in the ice for the winter. The ship is leaking badly and the crew is ravaged by scurvy.

Winner of the Canadian Children’s Book Centre Choice: Best Books for Kids & Teens Seventeen year-old Nathan is running – running from his past and running from his present. Raised by a white mother and never having known his native father, he must cope with prejudice and stereotypes. When he meets Sally, the beautiful outsider, he finds someone who believes in him. But when Sally’s house is put to the torch by an arsonist, suspicion falls on Nathan and he finds himself embroiled in an intrigue and murder that threaten to drive the two teenagers apart.

The life of fiftyish Jessie Dearborn takes an unexpected turn when a ruthless developer threatens to cut down century-old trees in her small northern town in order to build a condominium. Surprising even herself, she steps in front of a chainsaw to defend the trees she loves. As the fight to save the trees intensifies, a group of gutsy, quick-witted older women joins the battle and explodes the issue into the newsmedia. At this turning point in her life, a native man helps Jessie by teaching her to trust her own instincts.

In the fourth and final instalment in the Jennifer Bannon mystery series, Jennifer begins Grade Eleven at Springhills High, where her life is far from settled. Her mother has moved to L.A. with her new husband, Jennifers boyfriend moves to McGill to study pre-med and Jennifer fears their relationship will not survive the separation. She’s worried about her best friend Ambie who has been secretly e-mailing the biological father she has never met. This story deals with themes of belonging, friendship and loss.

Poor Fiona Silk is broke again. Her romance writing career is tanking, and her tiny house in the lovely community of St. Aubaine may be sold for unpaid taxes. But Fiona’s new agent has a planFiona can write an erotic cookbook. This project would be easier if Fiona had a sex life or a working oven. Soon bad things start to happen to people, but, oddly, only when Fiona is nearby. Before long, her tiny home is in flames and the body count is rising. Will Canada’s most reluctant sleuth stop a killer before her own goose is cooked?

Ten-year-old Elizabeth is spending the summer at her Great-Aunt Germaines, in rural Caradoc County. Also along for the visit is her brother, Eddie, and her mother. Great-Aunt Germaine seems to be a forbidding character, and Beth does not warm up to her. Between her relationship with Aunt Germaine and Eddies antics, Elizabeth feels overwhelmed. She discovers her aunts emporium, a former tourist attraction. It is a fascinating place, filled with memorabilia, including old newspaper reports of a mysterious swamp monster.

Short-listed for the 2008 Red Maple Award Keira, kidnapped from Ireland by Vikings, is a slave living in legendary Vinland. Two native bands, the Beothuck and the Thule, are also fighting over the land, thrusting the Norsemen into war. While the Vikings search for a new home, an accident at sea leaves Keira miraculously saved by a Beothuck warrior. Keira settles into the Beothuck way of life, learning their customs and coming to care for them. But she dreams of risking everything in order to find a way home.