Money Boy by Paul Yee
Summary: Living with his father and step-family in Canada after moving from China, Ray Liu is an eighteen year-old frustrated with his lot in life. He’s got two years left of high school because he’s an English-as-a-second-language student, and he’s hiding a secret from his strict father. Looking for some respect and acknowledgement that he is an adult, as well as the freedom to be who he really is, everything blows up when his father discovers the websites Ray has been visiting and kicks him out. Now Ray is living on the street, discovering that he may not be as much of an...
Read MoreInk Me by Richard Scrimger
Summary: Bunny (Bernard) O’Toole is not David McLean’s smartest grandson, but when he receives a task like his six cousins after the death of his grandpa, he is the first to complete it without question. ‘It’ happens to be getting the tattoo his grandfather was never able to get, a souvenir from his time in the air force during the war. Getting his tattoo takes Bunny into a part of Toronto he has never visited, and when others recognize his tattoo as a gang symbol worn by a person with a kill. Suddenly Bunny has some new friends and respect he’s never known...
Read MoreThe Hangman in the Mirror by Kate Cayley
Summary: Françoise Laurent is the daughter of a prostitute and a soldier in 1700s New France. Trained to be a washerwoman by her mother, she has dreams to rise above her station, and when he parents die from illness a neighbour helps her get a position as a ladies’ maid. In her work for Madame Pommereau, she finds what she thinks is an ally and a friend, but her knowledge that she and the Madame should be considered equals gets her into trouble when she steals a pair of ladies’ gloves. Her crime earns her the punishment of hanging by noose to deter other uprisings and maintain...
Read MoreGrist by Heather Waldorf
Summary: Charlie, short for Charlena, is an only child whose mother died from cancer when Charlie was just a little girl. Faced with the decision of whether to spend her summer in Toronto with her dad and his new girlfriend or in Lake Ringrose with her grandmother in the house her mother grew up in. Just before the summer begins she has an intense conversation with her teacher and takes offense when he challenges her writing. When the teacher has a heart attack later that night, Charlie feels guilty and takes his criticisms to heart. Turns out her summer away is going to provide her with a...
Read MoreThe Girls They Left Behind by Bernice Thurman Hunter
Summary: With most of her childhood male friends going off to fight in World War II, Natalie feels left behind as she waits for the war to end. When her beloved cousin Carmen enlists Natalie is left behind once more to her dismay. Determined to play her own part in supporting the war effort, she takes jobs at factories working diligently in munitions and then building mosquito airplanes. Though her job helps her gain self-confidence and some financial independence, Natalie is reminded of the reality of war when Carmen goes missing in action, presumed dead. When the war ends, Natalie must...
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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