National Network for Equitable Library Service

2018 Red Maple Award — Shortlisted • 2017 Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award — Winner, Young Adult Category • CCBC’s Best Books for Kids & Teens (Fall 2016) When a First Nations teen rescues a fish-hawk from a tailings pond in Alberta’s oil sands, he has no idea that soon they will both be fighting for their lives.  As a cross-country runner, Adam aims to win gold in the upcoming provincial championship. But when he is diagnosed with leukemia, he finds himself in a different race, one that he can’t afford to lose.

CCBC’s Best Books for Kids & Teens (Spring 2016) — Commended After defeating the forces of evil in Eldritch Manor, Willa must rebuild the manor — and her family. Can Willa rally her supernatural friends to defeat an invasion from beyond? After battling and defeating the forces of darkness, Willa is looking forward to a little well-earned peace and quiet. Unfortunately, her recent adventures have given birth to new problems, not the least of which is the task of rebuilding Eldritch Manor, a retirement home for supernatural beings, from the ground up.

2016 Junior Library Guild Selection 2016 VOYA Top Shelf Fiction Selection CCBC’s Best Books for Kids & Teens (Fall 2016) — Commended She’s with the band, whether she likes it or not. Victoria Mahler is the sixteen-year-old only daughter of rocker Micky Wayne, whose band, Dusty Moon, took the world by storm when Micky was just a teenager. The band broke up under mysterious circumstances, but, after years spent off the road being a mom, Micky’s solo career is finally starting to take off.

A missing child. A dead mother. Kala Stonechild is about to discover what one betrayal can lead to. When Adele Delaney and her daughter, Violet, go missing, Jacques Rouleau is called upon to investigate. However, struggling with the impending death of his ill ex-wife, he sends Kala Stonechild and Paul Gundersund instead. Stonechild has been trying to adapt to life as her young cousin Dawn’s guardian, and even though Gundersund has offered support, Stonechild is at risk of losing custody.

#1 Calgary Herald Bestseller Just when Andy starts to feel like he finally belongs, can he stand up to the person he trusted the most? Andy Crockett doesn’t fit in at his new school — not with the goths, not with the jocks, and certainly not with the brains. Not even, really, with The Six, a group of misfits who hang out with each other mostly because they can’t stand hanging out with anyone else. But maybe Andy’s luck is changing … and all because he is in Mr. Reztlaff’s grade ten social class — Mr.

CCBC’s Best Books for Kids & Teens (Spring 2016) — Commended Is pretending to be someone else the only way Michiko can fit in? Michiko Minigawa’s life is nothing but a bad game of baseball. The Canadian government swung the bat once, knocking her family away from a Vancouver home base to an old farmhouse in the Kootenay Mountains. But when they move into town, the government swings the bat again, announcing that all Japanese must now move east of the Rockies or else go to Japan. Now in Ontario, Michiko once again has to adjust to a whole new kind of life.

When Dani sets out to uncover her father’s past, she also discovers her own future. Raised by her mother, eighteen-year-old Dani Lancaster only had six weeks to get to know her father, Sam, before he lost his battle with cancer. It was long enough to love him, but not long enough to get to know him — especially since Sam didn’t even know himself. In this two-book bundle, Dani meets and loses her birth father, and then sets out to uncover his real past.

Prohibition means two things in the Border city of Windsor, Ontario: big business, and big trouble. Riverside Drive Jack McCloskey returned to Windsor, Ontario, from the Great War lost in a battle with his inner demons. When he channels his energy into amateur fights, he's noticed by a gangster moonlighting as a boxing promoter. After a brief professional stint, Jack is invited to join the crew in the early days of Prohibition along the Detroit River. Maiden Lane It's the winter of 1923 and the border towns are under a deep freeze.

A story about one all-inclusive resort, the ghost of an unknown father, and the tragedies we can’t forget. What’s it like when everyone’s dream vacation is your job? Ameera works at a Mexican all-inclusive resort, where every day is paradise — if “paradise” means endless paperwork, quotas to meet, and entitled tourists. But it’s not all bad: Ameera’s pastime of choice is the swingers scene, and the resort is the perfect place to hook up with like-minded couples without all the hassle of having to see them again.

CCBC’s Best Books for Kids & Teens (Spring 2016) — Commended From the award-winning movie comes a story of courage and forbidden love. It’s 1882 in southern China. Li Jun, a feisty homeless girl disguised as a boy called Little Tiger, works in a fireworks factory and yearns to sail across the ocean to the mysterious Gold Mountain in faraway British Columbia to find her long-lost father and fulfill her promise to her dying mother. She joins thousands of Chinese men blasting a path for the new railway through the “impassable” Rocky Mountains.