The Book of Living and Dying by Natale Ghent
Summary: After her older brother John’s death from cancer, Sarah finds herself adrift in grief. Constant headaches led Sarah to self-medicate with alcohol and pills, but when her brother begins to haunt her, Sarah steps up her substance abuse. Trying to rid herself of her brother’s ghost, she confides in her friend Donna and tries different rituals from The Book of Living and Dying to help him move on to the afterlife. When it doesn’t work, Sarah finds herself descending into madness, having repetitive dreams that don’t make sense, hearing voices, and fixating on a...
Read MoreThree Songs for Courage by Maxine Trottier
Summary: Sixteen year-old Gordon and his friends, the Lakers, are a group of guys living it up in the summer of 1956. Given a car for his birthday, Gordon is distressed when Lancer, a member of a rival group, is careless with his cigarette and mars the paint job. As the summer progresses the tension between the two continues to build, escalating when Gordon starts going out with Mary, the girl Lancer had his eye on. But when Lancer goes too far, his actions will change Gordon’s life forever, forcing him into a position where he has to decide what he would do to get revenge. By the time...
Read MoreTrue Blue by Deborah Ellis
Summary: As their summer as camp counsellors draws to a close, best friends Jess and Casey find themselves with their most challenging camper yet. Stephanie is an uncooperative eight year-old who likes to stir up trouble whenever she can. At their wits’ end with her, Jess and Casey are almost relieved to be taking their campers on their last camp-out, until one of the girls ends up with appendicitis and Stephanie disappears, only to turn up dead. Casey is arrested, charged with killing Stephanie while Jess was taking the other girl to the hospital, and Jess is left without a best...
Read MoreMoon at Nine by Deborah Ellis
Summary: Living in Iran in 1988, Farrin attends a girl’s school working to become educated to help lead a future Iran. An outsider with no friends, Farrin’s life takes a turn for the better when Sadira, a new student at school, befriends her. Their friendship improves their grades as they study together, and new feelings are stirred within both of them as they continue to share in each other’s lives. But Iran is not a country that accepts homosexuality, and before long Farrin and Sadira are labelled deviants and advised to change their behaviour. Convinced there is nothing...
Read MoreThe Hunger by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
Summary: When puberty changes her body and comments about her weight begin to get to her, Paula endeavours to lose some weight over the summer. But what starts out as losing a few pounds turns into over-exercising, binge eating, vomiting and not eating at all, and Paula’s doctor recognizes she has become anorexic with bulimic tendencies. A school project has Paula researching her family’s roots, and she uncovers her grandmother’s connection to the Armenian genocide beginning in 1915. As her weight gets lower and lower, Paula has a heart attack one day while exercising and...
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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