Children and YA Fiction

★ If I Tell You the Truth

A companion to her 2019 debut, Jasmin Kaur’s sophomore YA novel, If I Tell You the Truth, blends poetry, prose, and illustration to tell the intergenerational story of Kiran, a Punjabi woman who flees her ... Read More »

April 19, 2021 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books

Athabasca

By Harry Kleinhuis

Parry Sound, Ontario, author Harry Kleinhuis delivers a well-realized, if uneven, adventure novel set on Alberta’s Athabasca River in the late 1930s. Fifteen-year-old Jack can’t take his distant, moody, and sometimes violent father, Malcolm, any ... Read More »

April 15, 2021 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books

Like a Duck

By Deborah Kerbel

Waterfowl, day-camp antics, and family secrets collide during a summer of self-discovery in Like a Duck from prolific Ontario-based children’s author Deborah Kerbel. Sarah lives in a little seaside town with her mom and best ... Read More »

April 12, 2021 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books

Zara Hossain Is Here

By Sabina Khan

Basking in the glow of a Biden-Harris White House, America may appear to have a newly progressive sheen, but it’s not bright enough to blind observers to the country’s ugly prejudices. Sabina Khan, author of ... Read More »

March 18, 2021 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books

The Life and Deaths of Frankie D.

By Colleen Nelson

Frankie Doe, the 17-year-old protagonist of Colleen Nelson’s impressive new novel, is a consummate outsider. Found in an alley as a young girl with no memory of her past, she has endured a series of ... Read More »

March 15, 2021 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books

The Good Fight

By Ted Staunton and Josh Rosen (ill.)

“None is too many.” That was the response of a Canadian official when asked in 1945 how many Jews would be allowed into the country after the Second World War. Anti-Semitism has long been present ... Read More »

March 11, 2021 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books

Birdspell

By Valerie Sherrard

Valerie Sherrard is a respected children’s writer, based in New Brunswick, whose considerable body of work demonstrates a deep understanding of children and teens in difficult situations. In her latest book, Sherrard takes her readers ... Read More »

March 8, 2021 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books

★ Tell No Tales:  Pirates of the Southern Seas

By Sam Maggs and Kendra Wells (ill.)

Pirate legends get a fabulously fresh and feminist reboot in Tell No Tales, the first original graphic novel by prolific author and pop-culture commentator Sam Maggs. Inspired by the lives of early 18th-century female pirates, ... Read More »

March 4, 2021 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books

Oh My Gods!

By Stephanie Cooke and Insha Fitzpatrick; Juliana Moon (ill.)

The debut middle-grade graphic novel Oh My Gods!, co-written by Toronto comic book scribe Stephanie Cooke and New Jersey–based Insha Fitzpatrick, delivers light-hearted lessons in friendship and ancient mythology. In this promising series opener, 13-year-old ... Read More »

March 4, 2021 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books

Sully, Messed Up

By Stephanie Simpson McLellan

The debut middle-grade novel from award-winning picture-book writer Stephanie Simpson McLellan, Sully, Messed Up, begins with a Kafka-esque flourish. Thirteen-year-old Sullivan Brewster – Sully to his friends – wakes on the first morning of Grade ... Read More »

February 22, 2021 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books

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