Free as a Bird by Gina McMurchy-Barber
Summary: Born in 1957 with Downs Syndrome, Ruby Jean Sharp is put in an institution called the Woodlands School at the age of eight when her Gramma dies and can no longer care for her. The stigma against Ruby Jean’s condition is great, and those in the institution are often abused. But hope comes when Ruby Jean starts taking lessons on daily life activities with a helper named Grace, demonstrating that though others call her a retard she is capable of running her own life with some support. Finally she emerges from the Woodlands School to live with a friendly, caring older couple...
Read MoreLosing Faith by Denise Jaden
Summary: When Brie’s older sister Faith falls off a mountain and dies, her family is plunged into grief as they struggle to understand what happened. As Brie tries to unravel the events leading up to Faith’s death, she’s also dealing with a cheating boyfriend, a best friend who would make a good enemy, and parents who are so overcome that they hardly notice her anymore. Thankfully Tessa, a Goth girl from school, takes Brie under her wing because she knows what loosing a sibling is like. Together, along with Alis, the brother of someone Brie didn’t know Faith was...
Read MoreYear of Mistaken Discoveries by Eileen Cook
Summary: They say bad things come in threes and Avery is about to find out just how true that statement is. Having her boyfriend break up with her, being turned down for early acceptance at Duke University and the sudden death of her former best friend, Nora, leaves Avery feeling bereft and adrift. Struggling to figure out how to salvage a future Duke acceptance and mourning her friend, Avery uses the fact that she and Nora were both adopted as the basis of her senior class project, searching for her own birth mother and hoping to impress the university with the results. Along the way she...
Read MoreMen of Stone by Gayle Friesen
Summary: Aunt Frieda’s announcement that she’s coming to stay with Ben, his three sisters and his mother takes them all by surprise. It’s been years since Aunt Frieda’s nephew (Ben’s father) died, and no one knows exactly why she would want to visit now. But once they become accustomed to her, Aunt Frieda’s presence and easy nature begins to have subtle and positive effects on all of them. At a time when Ben is questioning what he knows because of his ongoing grief over the death of his father and the threat of physical violence at school, Aunt Frieda...
Read MoreThe Way It Is by Donalda Reid
Summary: Ellen’s father’s mid-life crisis when his best friend dies unexpectedly feels like the end of the world for Ellen herself. Suddenly she’s starting over in a new high school in a small town called Salmon Arm, British Columbia, and because it’s 1968 she is facing serious discrimination about her academic and career ambitions to become a doctor. Feeling like an outsider, meeting Tony, another outsider, on the bus to school is just what Ellen needs. Tony is an Indian who is marginalized like Ellen is, albeit in different ways and for different reasons. Their...
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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