The Agency: A Spy in the House by YS Lee
Summary: After her father is lost at sea and her mother dies, Mary Lang is left to fend for herself in 1850s London, England. Arrested and sentenced to hang, Mary is rescued by Miss Scrimshaw’s Academy for Girls and educated to be a lady. But the Academy is also the home of the Agency, a spy collective made up of well educated women and young ladies. When Mary is given the opportunity to be a part of the Agency, she takes it and quickly finds herself working as a companion to Angelica, a young woman from a rich family whose father may be involved in clandestine business affairs....
Read MoreHalf World by Hiromi Goto, illustrated by Jillian Tamaki
Summary: A long ago prophecy of a child being born in the Half World to heal the rift between the three realms seems to be coming true when a pregnant woman is banished for fourteen years. Melanie, the unborn child from the incident, is born in the real world and lives fourteen years with a mother who seems to be fading away. Knowing nothing about her parents’ past and with just one picture of her absent father, Melanie is caught off guard when she receives a note from crows to go home only to go there and find her mother missing. Directed by a mysterious phone call to make her way to...
Read MoreHomo by Michael Harris
Summary: When someone overhears Will come out to his best friend Julie at a summer party, the announcement makes its way onto Facebook and Will is forced to start grade twelve outed. Despite the bullying another gay student named Daniel receives at Spencer High on a constant basis, Will finds on the surface his coming out doesn’t make much of difference. Looking closer reveals people are okay with his sexuality as long as he is not like Daniel. Struggling to find a committed, romantic relationship, Will turns to the internet and meets Riley, a slightly older man with a secret who...
Read MoreThe Dirt Eaters by Dennis Foon
Summary: When the community of Longlight is decimated and Roan is the only survivor, he is suddenly plunged into the real world. Unfortunately the real world is a chaotic, violence-ridden society ruled by the one City who uses the people’s uneducated state to take advantage of them. Except Roan is different. Not only has he been taught to read from his life in Longlight’s peaceful society, but he has the ability to cross over into his dreams and venture outside his body. He learns this gift makes him a dirt eater, and uses it to survive his time with the Brothers who want him to...
Read MoreShade & Sorceress by Catherine Egan
Summary: At the tender age of twelve years old, young Eliza comes into the knowledge of her birthright. The daughter of the former Shang Sorceress, Eliza’s destiny is to take her mother’s place and protect the connection between the lands of Tian Xia and Di Shang through developing her magical powers and having a daughter of her own. But when she is discovered by the Mancers and expected to take her place, everyone is surprised by the fact that she appears to have zero magical ability at all. Despite lacking essential powers, a competing sorceress who has been locked away for a...
Read MoreRabbit Ears by Maggie de Vries
Summary: Sisters Beth and Kaya are inexorably linked by their shared childhoods and the illness and death of their father. But when Kaya starts pulling away, using drugs and becoming a sex worker, Beth is left wondering how she and their mom can reach out to Kaya and get her to come home again. What they don’t know is that Kaya’s childhood also included years of abuse at the hands of a neighbour, and the shame Kaya feels over events she couldn’t control prevents her from telling her family what happened. Determined not to lose Kaya, Beth and her mother hold onto their love...
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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