National Network for Equitable Library Service

A daughter’s search for her mother reveals her family’s past in a Japanese internment camp during the Second World War. Lily Takemitsu goes missing from her home in Toronto one luminous summer morning in the mid-1980s. Her daughter, Rita, knows her mother has a history of dissociation and memory problems, which have led her to wander off before. But never has she stayed away so long. Unconvinced the police are taking the case seriously, Rita begins to carry out her own investigation.

On a trip to Chinatown, thirteen-year-old Jasmine steps through a doorway back in time and finds herself in the 1880s. 1994 Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize — Winner 1994 Candian Library Association Book of the Year Award — Runner-up 1995 Silver Birch Award — Shortlisted CCBC’s Best Books for Kids & Teens (Spring 2017) Selection Jasmine is not sure she likes the idea of being stuck in Victoria while her father goes to China. But on a field trip to Chinatown, she changes her mind. Passing through a doorway in Fan Tan Alley, she mysteriously finds herself in the early 1880s.

CCBC’s Best Books for Kids & Teens (Fall 2017) Selection • 1996 Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize — Shortlisted • 1996 Violet Downey IODE Book Award — Shortlisted • 1997 Silver Birch Award — Shortlisted It all started with an ancient arrowhead in an Alberta field. While walking through a field, Danny finds an 8,000-year-old arrowhead. After he shows his friend Joshua, who lives on the Peigan reserve at Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, the two go on buffalo hunts, powwows, archaeological digs, and break in to the local museum.

A Winnipeg Free Press Bestseller! • In the Margins Book Award, Top Ten Selection • CCBC’s Best Books for Kids & Teens (Fall 2017) Selection Close as brothers, Jakub’s and Lincoln’s lives diverge when Jakub gets a private school scholarship and Lincoln is lured into a gang. Fifteen-year-old Jakub Kaminsky is the son of Polish immigrants, a good Catholic boy, and a graffiti artist. While his father sleeps, Jakub and his best friend, Lincoln, sneak out with spray paint to make their mark as Morf and Skar.

They’re troubling. They’re bizarre. And they JUST might be true. They’re Weird Stories Gone Wrong. Here are three spectacularly spooky books from acclaimed children’s author Philippa Dowding that will have you wondering about tall tales, giant flies, and mysterious monsters in the dark. Includes Jake and the Giant Hand Jake doesn’t really believe a giant’s hand was found in a field near his grandfather’s farm, but when Jake begins noticing giant flies buzzing around and Grandpa says the basement is off-limits, he doesn’t know what to believe.

A heartbreaking set of murders bring detectives Leith and Dion together in the Lower Mainland, where violence flows like a riptide. Last summer the inlet waters washed an unnamed woman’s body onto the rocks of North Vancouver’s Neptune shipyards. When RCMP Constable Cal Dion returns home after a year’s absence, he finds the case still open and grown cold. While Dion works to fit back in and put closure to the Jane Doe drowning case, newly relocated Constable Dave Leith is learning to cope with his first big-city posting.

The first four novels of the Thaddeus Lewis Mystery series, with the inimitable Lewis, saddlebag preacher and reluctant sleuth. During the wild era before Confederation, and with the mysterious death of his daughter Sarah hanging over him, he finds himself investigating other troubling deaths and shining a light on darkness in pre-Confederation Canada.

A Calgary Herald Bestseller! Sometimes, the wrong choice is the only choice you have. Chief Inspector Domenic Jejeune is hoping an overseas birding trip might hold some answers in his fugitive brother’s manslaughter case. But there are people on the tour who seem keen to keep their secrets, and the rainforest can be a dangerous place for those who ask too many questions. Back in the U.K., in Jejeune’s absence, Marvin Laraby, his former boss and longtime nemesis has been brought in to investigate the murder of an accountant.

Still waters run deep. English teacher, mother, wife, and convicted child predator Jane Thompson has made parole and she has a plan. She begins her life in the shadows while she bides her time. One month later, the bludgeoned body of the student she was found guilty of corrupting four years earlier is found on the shores of Lake Ontario. Officers Stonechild and Gundersund head up the investigation and Jane Thompson quickly becomes the prime suspect. But knowing guilt and proving it are two entirely different things.

First she blamed herself. Now she doesn’t know who to trust. When Kit disappeared at a party and was found drowned in the quarry the next day, Clem knew who to point the finger at: herself. She was the last person to see him alive, the last person who could have helped. If she had just kept a closer eye on him instead of her crush, Jake, maybe Kit would still be here. She knows she made a mistake, and wishes she could just forget about it — but Clem’s friend Ellie says she’ll expose Clem’s secret if she doesn’t play along with Ellie’s lies.