Leap by Jodi Lundgren
Summary: Natalie is a newly fifteen year-old girl who is about to have a life-changing summer. With plans to take an intensive summer dance course with her friends, those plans go askew when attentions from Kevin, her best friend Sasha’s older brother, alienate Natalie from her friends. Before she knows it, Natalie is involved in a relationship she doesn’t fully understand, crossing physical boundaries in the moment she later regrets. Unable to take the flak from her dance class friends and drawn to a different type of dance anyway, Natalie finds herself taking more chances with...
Read MoreFinding Cassidy by Laura Langston
Summary: When her father is diagnosed with Huntington’s Chorea, Cassidy learns from her research that it’s a degenerative genetic illness she stands a 50% chance of inheriting herself. But when she expresses this concern to her parents, Cassidy learns good news and bad news. The good news is she has no chance of inheriting her father’s disease. The bad news is her biological father is actually an anonymous sperm donor, and her parents have been keeping the true nature of her conception a secret for her whole life. Plunged into self-doubt, questioning who she is and...
Read MoreSwimmers by Amy Bright
Summary: Travelling by bus from Lethbridge, Alberta back to Victoria, British Columbia with his semi-girlfriend Lee, and his younger friend Poppy, Hunter reflects on the reason why he was sent away, and everything that has happened since one fateful day with his best friend Niall. Number of Pages: 215 Age Range: 14-16 Review: I know my summary is short for Swimmers by Amy Bright, but I hesitate to say more because Bright’s book is a delicately structured read that relies heavily on the suspense of a story slowly being unveiled. Hunter is a seventeen year-old who hasn’t always...
Read MoreThree Little Words by Sarah N. Harvey
Summary: Rescued from a neglectful mother by a couple named Megan and Caleb when he was just two years old, Sid has grown up in stable, loving environment. Sid’s new parents foster others as well, and over the years he has been a big brother and a little brother to many other children and teens. While his turmoil over his past comes out in his drawings, Sid seems to give little thought to his birth mother, until a man named Phil shows up one day to tell him she has disappeared. Turns out Sid has a half brother named Gawain who ran away shortly after their mother’s disappearance,...
Read MoreHalf Brother by Kenneth Oppel
Summary: When his mother comes home with a baby chimpanzee for his father’s university experiment, Ben has his doubts. Hoping to determine if chimpanzees are able to be taught language through using American Sign Language, Zan moves in with them and everyone except Ben’s father find themselves growing attached to him. The problem is while Zan is being raised like a human, he is still a chimp, and after they lose an opportunity for a major grant the whole project is in jeopardy. Ben and his mother struggle to keep Zan with them no matter what, but since he is owned by the...
Read MoreAbout Amy
Amy Mathers has been passionate about reading from a very young age, and hopes others will share her enthusiasm for funding a teen book award. Read more Follow Amy
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