National Network for Equitable Library Service

A painted sword is their only protection from evil sorcery, strange creatures, and enemy forces. On the spell-crossed Phaer Isle, teenage Xemion dreams of being a great swordsman. When he finds a blade-shaped stick, he fashions it to look like a real sword. Knowing that the laws of their cruel Pathan conquerors would require a death sentence for possession of such an object, his friend Saheli demands he destroy it. He agrees, but insists on performing just one sword ceremony.

Arien holds the key to healing her planet. Planet Kondar has a light side that faces the sun and a dark side in eternal night. Lightsiders have never met those on Darkside, known as Oscura. Arien lives in Kattannya on Lightside. When her parents fall through thin ice and drown, she is sold in the marketplace. The chief seer of Vor, Yaddair, purchases her. Vor is very close to Edge, a grey wall of fog that divides Lightside from Oscura. The Oscurans are suffering from a deadly plague and some fly into Vor, bringing the disease with them. How will the Vorians cure it?

An ancient battle is renewed in the modern world. Seventeen-year-old Gwen is settling into her new home in Oregon and looking forward to senior year when she is kidnapped by Kian, who warns her that she is in terrible danger. An ancient war was fought between magical Celtic warriors and three evil magicians. Those magicians are alive and well and need Gwen’s magic to regain their power. If they succeed, they’ll be unstoppable. To save the world, Gwen must unlock the magic trapped in her memories of a past life in Britannia.

Eva is a seventeen-year-old from Edmonton in 1979 who is experiencing a world of trouble at home. To escape the trouble, she decides to visit her family’s homeland of Poland for the summer, staying with an older half-sister, Hanna, whose existence Eva has only recently discovered. In Communist Poland, she experiences a different way of living, one where the conveniences she has taken for granted do not exist. She finds, however, the rich cultural traditions both fascinating and compelling.

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.

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.

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.

Winner of the Canadian Children’s Book Centre Choice: Best Books for Kids & Teens David Baird, a talented young rock musician, accompanies his estranged father to Wales. Fleeing after a quarrel, David has a bizarre motorcycle accident which hurls him back in time to medieval Prydein. A variation on the Arthurian legend, The Minstrel Boy introduces us to Merlin as a stern music teacher who takes David under his wing and a young King Arthur who becomes his friend.

Life at home isn’t easy for sixteen-year-old Corey. When he sees an ad for a retreat called Camp Liberty, he can’t wait to get away. But Corey has no idea of what he’s in for, as he and his fellow campers are brainwashed into joining a racist Aryan cult. In the end, he not only hurts his family and friends but is also forced to confront some uncomfortable truths about himself. And there’s another price to be paid; the Liberty Circle knows he’s betrayed them, and they’re coming after him…

An expert at fierce scowls and unpleasant grimaces, twelve-year-old Kaitlin Anderson presents a tough face to the world, usually hiding her quirky, imaginative nature. Still dealing with the loss of her mother to cancer, Kaitlin is less than kindly disposed to her stepmother Jane and her bratty half-sister, Anna. Meanwhile, Kaitlin has firmly fastened the bulk of her antagonism on her next-door neighbour - the odious boy, Michael, who used to be her best pal. Now, with the help of her friends, she devotes much of her energy to scheming to make him as miserable as possible.