Lean Mean Machines by Michele Marineau
Summary: Jeremy is a teen with a good head on his shoulders, but if there is one thing he doesn’t understand it is girls and their moods. When Laure starts at his school, Jeremy is drawn to her, first by humiliation and then by her mysterious nature. Laure’s hiding what she considers to be a shameful secret, and Jeremy becomes determined to figure it out. Their friendship helps Laure see life in a new light, but an unintended side effect is the alienation of Jeremy’s best friend Tanya. If Jeremy doesn’t learn to understand girls and their moods fast, he’s going...
Read MoreThe Road to Chlifa by Michele Marineau
Summary: After a physical altercation with a high school classmate in Montreal, Karim examines what triggered him, going back to his life in war-torn Lebanon and his journey to get out of the country with his love interest’s little sister and brother. Karim hates living in Montreal, but as he sorts through his experiences, it turns out he is a young man in deep mourning for lost possibilities, lost people and a lost country. The offer of friendship from the classmate he defended brings him around, but Karim will always be affected by what has happened to him. Number of Pages: 142 Age...
Read MoreBoy O’Boy by Brian Doyle
Summary: Martin O’Boy lives in a distracted family. With a twin named Phil who has emotional and physical problems, a pregnant mother and a father who throws tantrums on a regular basis, the most reliable family member Martin has is his cat, Cheap. Paid to be in the boys choir at church, Martin and his friend Billy encounter a man named Mr. George who appears to be their friend but has more sinister intentions. After Martin has a traumatic encounter with Mr. George and his family is oblivious, Martin turns to others for help to stop the same thing from happening to his friend Billy....
Read MoreUp to Low by Brian Doyle
Summary: Young Tommy hasn’t been to his family cabin since his mother died two years before. Living now with his father and his Aunt Dottie, a woman with a serious germ-phobia, Young Tommy is looking forward to going back to the cabin, hoping he’ll run into Baby Bridget, the girl next door he cares for. Getting to the cabin means taking his life in his hands at times as he travels with his father and his father’s friend Frank, a notorious drunk who drives anyway. All along their journey the news is that Mean Hughie, Baby Bridget’s father, is dying of cancer, and when...
Read MoreWhat World is Left by Monique Polak
Summary: Anneke and her family are forced to live in Theresienstadt concentration camp during World War II because they are Jewish. Only 14 when she enters the camp, Anneke quickly loses her innocent and childlike nature in favour of survival at any cost. But although death touches those around them, causing Anneke to lose friends and a romantic interest, Anneke’s family makes out of Theresienstadt alive. Now 16, Anneke is forever changed, and must find a way to come to terms with everything her family had to do to survive. Number of Pages: 215 Age Range: 14-16 Review: Survival, for...
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