Lumiere by Jacqueline Garlick
Summary: Plagued by mental fits that could cause her to be committed, Eyelet finds herself all alone after her father dies the Night of the Great Illumination and her mother is executed for being deemed a valkyrie. Before his death, Eyelet’s father was working on a machine to cure her affliction that he called the Illuminator, and Eyelet’s quest to find it causes her introduction to Urlick, a young man afflicted with his own demons. Together, Eyelet and Urlick embark on a journey to find her father’s journals and make the machine work in a quest for healing, but the true...
Read MoreA Troublesome Boy by Paul Vasey
Summary: Labelled a troublesome boy by his old school, Teddy’s mother’s boyfriend decides to send him to St. Iggy’s, a Catholic boys boarding school. Once there he makes friends and gets along well with his classmates, but the priests and brothers who run the school often abuse their power through the use of physical discipline and intimidation. When one of the priests begins using Teddy’s friend Cooper for sexual favours, Teddy feels powerless to stop what becomes Cooper’s gradual descent into depression and hopelessness. The one good part of their lives comes...
Read MoreTales From the Farm by Jeff Lemire
Summary: Living with his Uncle Ken after his mother dies, 10 year-old Lester is just trying to stay afloat. The relationship between Lester and his uncle is strained as they can’t quite seem to connect through their grief, but a new friendship with Jimmy helps Lester see things in a new light. Jimmy himself is a former Maple Leafs’ player whose career was cut short when a injury caused brain damage. Like a kid himself, Jimmy is the perfect companion for Lester, and allows him to be the hero his mother always thought he was. Number of Pages: 104 Age Range: 13-15 Review: There is a...
Read MoreBig Big Sky by Kristyn Dunnion
Summary: Belonging to a pod made up of teen girls, Shona, Rustle, Solomon, Roku and Loo work together to carry out missions assigned to them by the ScanMans. But when two of their members start going through physiological changes and one of them goes missing, the ScanMans try to bring them all in for reprogramming. In their escape the pod is confronted with the wider world outside what they’ve been told, and the metamorphosis of Rustle and Roku changes them forever. Seeking answers and trying to survive, the separation of the pod causes each member to follow their own journey,...
Read MoreGetting a Life by Jocelyn Shipley
Summary: When her best friend Tanya moves to Australia for a year and doesn’t write, Carly is understandably upset. Missing Tanya but also her best friend’s family, Carly is surprised when the letter she finally receives tells her to get a life of her own and to stop trying to bogart Tanya’s mother. New neighbours distract Carly from the hurt she feels, as she finds herself offering to babysit the children of a single and neglectful mother. The experience brings up memories of her own mother who was institutionalized and died in a car accident, and Carly slowly starts to...
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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