National Network for Equitable Library Service

Matt is desperate to fit in at summer camp. One night he gets lost when he goes off on his own to retrieve a forgotten life preserver. A wolf appears and Matt overcomes his fears and follows it. He finds a half-wolf, half-dog pup whose mother is dead. Is the big wolf who guides him the same wolf that his father rescued years before from a trap?

Sam’s grandfather vanished from his life the day Sam’s father was buried. Now, ten years later, Grandpa Max wants to make amends. He sends letters that lead Sam on a scavenger hunt. Sam follows his grandfather’s bizarre instructions even though he’s still not ready to forgive. Sam copes with his anger at his grandfather by climbing onto roofs and leaving his tag, a spray-painted symbol for the planet Aquarius. It doesn’t take long for Sam to learn that the way of the rebel has a price.

When sixteen-year-old Hannah gets stung, she rises out of her body, where she's greeted by her dead boyfriend, Logan, and a loving but unseen presence. She wants to stay with them. They say no. She must go back. There's something she must do. But Hannah can't figure out what it is. Nor can she make sense of the weird things happening around her. Since the sting, she seems to have the ability to heal. Hannah doesn't know what to think. And then she faces another challenge: Logan has a purpose in mind for her new gift. And it's a purpose Hannah can't bear to face.

Calvin is the smallest guy in his high school, and a perfect target for Rozelle and her girl gang. His mother is dead, his father is long gone and his only remaining relative, his grandmother, is getting too sick to run her dry cleaning business. The only time Calvin feels in control is when he's working his yo-yo. When he takes up street performing, Rozelle demands a cut and insists on being his manager.

Danny thinks he must be the only seventeen-year-old guy in Cape Breton – in Nova Scotia, maybe – who doesn't have his life figured out. His buddy Kierce has a rule for every occasion, and his best friend Jay has bad grades, no plans and no worries. Danny's dad nags him about his post-high-school plans, his friends bug him about girls and a run-in with the cops means he has to get a summer job. Worst of all, he's keeping a secret that could ruin everything.

Sam and Nate tells the story of a developing friendship between two boys. Through letters, notes, school projects, a pregnant teacher and a substitute who has never taught children before, Sam and Nate support each other as best they can, but get into some funny scrapes while they're at it.

Ray Hockaday plays center for the Medicine Hat Tigers. He’s spent his hockey career hiding something from the world. When his new Russian roommate shows up, Ray is assigned to help Vlad get used to life in Canada. What Ray doesn’t know is that Vlad is also hiding something. And that secret could get both of them killed.

When a young woman goes missing on a nature trail, small-town journalist Claire Abbott is first on the scene, as usual. The clues to the woman’s whereabouts are misleading, but Claire has a sixth sense, what the fire chief calls a “radar for crime.” Trusting her intuition, Claire insists that the search and rescue team look elsewhere for clues to the woman’s disappearance. When they fail to follow up on her lead, she pursues it on her own, embarking on a snowy chase up a mountainside that puts herself and others in danger. She’s more than just a journalist chasing a story.

Jesse's project about his immigrant ancestors is due tomorrow and he hasn't started. In a last-ditch effort to find some information about his great-great grandfather, Yossi, Jesse rummages through the mess in the attic until he finds a little battered travel case, full of pictures, and something else -- a Star of David. At first it looks plain and unimportant, but as he holds it in his hand, the star begins to glow. Jesse is in for the surprise, and adventure, of his life as he finds himself becoming the star's first owner, his own great-great grandfather.

Winner, 2011 Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction Longlisted for the 2013 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award Longlisted for CBC Canada Reads 2016 Swiftly paced, poignantly moving, and beautifully imagined, Niko is the powerful epic story of what it takes to survive after war, of what to hold dear and what to leave behind in a world that won’t let you have it all. Six-year-old Niko Karam has never known a life outside civil war. He rarely leaves his parents’ small apartment, and from its small balcony he listens to the world outside tumble down one building at a time.