March 15, 2021 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books
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 »
“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
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
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
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
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
A YA novel about gentrification might sound as sexy as a YA novel about urban planning. Yet the political is effectively intertwined with the personal in Louisa Onomé’s debut novel. Chinelo and Kate are best ... Read More »
February 4, 2021 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books
In the new middle-grade novel My Best Friend Is Extinct, a lonely 10-year-old boy discovers a wounded, bear-like creature living in the snow and must nurse it back to health while facing bullies and sabre-toothed ... Read More »
January 28, 2021 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books
There are few books that offer unadulterated joy from beginning to end. But The Fabulous Zed Watson! is a middle-grade wonder: a literary mystery and Onward-esque road-trip story that celebrates self-described nerds and weirdos, and ... Read More »
January 7, 2021 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books
Sixteen-year-old Annaka has spent the last 10 years going by Anna, but when she and her mother move from Halifax back to her hometown of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, to take care of her Nan, her ... Read More »
November 30, 2020 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction, Kids’ Books