The Tiffin by Mahtab Narsimhan
Summary: Every working day in Bombay, India, people pack up hot lunches for their loved ones to be delivered in tiffins to their work places. Kunal’s life is changed before he is even born when his mother, Anahita, slips an important note into the tiffin she’s sending out, and it never reaches its destination. Years later Kunal believes he is an orphan, and he works in a restaurant owned by the people he lives with. Exploited and in physical danger, Kunal takes Vinayak, a tiffin deliverer, up on his offer to provide a home. When he finds out he’s not an orphan after all,...
Read MoreThis One Summer by Mariko Tamaki & Jillian Tamaki
Summary: Up at her family’s cottage for the summer, Rose and her friend Windy are inseparable, watching horror movies, checking out the local guy at the corner store, spying on the older teens in town and talking about growing up. Often overlooked, Rose is an observer, watching her parents struggle with their marriage in the face of her mother’s depression, and witnessing local girl Jenny try to make her boyfriend take responsibility for the fact that she’s pregnant. Being a woman is more complicated than Rose and Windy originally thought, and this one summer will show them...
Read MoreThis Dark Endeavour by Kenneth Oppel
Summary: In the untold story of Victor Frankenstein’s early years, Victor is constantly competing with his older by two minutes twin, Konrad. Raised by liberal parents, Victor is taught to believe in science above all, but when Konrad falls suddenly falls ill and is close to death, Victor turns to alchemy for a cure. Seeking the help from an alchemist rumoured to have saved others, Victor and his friends gather ingredients for an elixir of life that he hopes will save his brother. Things are complicated by Victor’s inferiority complex and the love triangle that exists between...
Read MoreSwimming in the Monsoon Sea by Shyam Selvadurai
Summary: Living with his mother’s best friend Bundle and her family since his parents died when he was six, fourteen year-old Amrith is left to piece together the mysteries of his past. Although his new family is very supportive, Amrith is still drawn to connect with his blood relatives when the uncle and cousin he never knew he had come visit Sri Lanka from Canada. Being around his older cousin Niresh opens up the past for Amrith, and also ends up revealing surprising truths about himself. Amrith’s anger over his sisters taking up Niresh’s precious time grows, but figuring...
Read MoreSomewhere in Blue by Gillian Cummings
Summary: After the Sandy’s father dies of cancer, Sandy is left with her mother, the usually absent part of their little family. Drowning in grief and depression, Sandy begins to pull away from school and her friends, isolating herself in her misery until she reaches her breaking point when she finds out some startling news from her mother. Sandy’s best friend Lennie does her best to reach her and support her through the grieving process, but when Lennie’s mother’s brother shows up in town, a lot of family issues come to the surface. Suddenly there’s an...
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