Body image and self-respect are key issues in C.K. Kelly Martin’s The Sweetest Thing You Can Sing (Dancing Cat Books, $14.95 pa., Sept.), in which 15-year-old Serena tries to strike a balance between how others perceive her and how she sees herself. • In former social worker Rie Charles’s A Hole in My Heart (Dundurn Press, $12.99 pa., Aug.), Nora discovers that she is not the only member of her family going through a dark time. • The latest instalment in Lorimer’s SideStreet series is So Far Gone ($9.95 pa., Sept.). Suri must decide if she’s going to join best friend Liv in her risky behaviour or try to save her from the dangerous path she’s on in this debut from Raising Readers founder Michelle Kadarusman. • From prolific poet and novelist Lesley Choyce comes Into the Wasteland (Red Deer Press, $12.95 pa.).  Dixon Carter has gone off his medication. Can girlfriend Sylvia and best friend Zeke save him from himself? Find out in November. • University of Victoria kinesiology and neuroscience professor E. Paul Zehr sets his diary-style narrative of two Grade 8 girls against the backdrop of 9/11 in Project Superhero (ECW Press, $13.95 cl., Sept.).

From Arsenal Pulp Press comes Vancouver blogger Raziel Reid’s debut novel, When Everything Feels Like the Movies ($15.95 pa., Oct.). Inspired by true events, the book tells the story of Jude, whose high-school experience is akin to the craziness of a Hollywood movie set. • In Kristine Scarrow’s Throwaway Girl (Dundurn, $12.99 pa., Oct.), 18-year-old Andy Burton must overcome her abusive past when she is forced to leave the group home she’s lived in for five years. • The Sinkhole (Lorimer, $18.95 cl., $12.95 pa., Aug.) by Brad V. Cowan, the third instalment of the Seven Stair Crew series, follows a group of skateboarding friends.

In September, Annick Press will publish the latest from War Brothers author Sharon E. McKay. The End of the Line ($21.95 cl., $12.95 pa.) is the story of a young  Jewish girl saved from the Nazis through the daring actions of regular people in wartime Holland. • A 15-year-old girl is forced to grow up too soon following her father’s disappearance during Kristallnacht and her mother’s subsequent  abandonment when the family flees from Germany to Shanghai. Lynne Kositsky’s With Fearful Bravery (Dancing Cat, $14.95 pa.) appears in September. • Shelley Sanders brings her Rachel trilogy to a close with the September release of Rachel’s Hope (Second Story, $12.95 pa.), which sees the protagonist, now a young woman, finally making her way to America. • Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch’s Dance of the Banished (Pajama Press, $14.95 pa., Sept.) relates the story of Ali and Zeynep, two teens from Anatolia whose love  is threated by geographic separation and the outbreak of the First World War.

Q&Q’s kids’ preview covers books published between July 1 and Dec. 31, 2014 ● All information (titles, prices, publication dates, etc.) was supplied by publishers and may have been tentative at Q&Q’s press time