Winner of the 2017 Governor General's Literary Award (Young People's Literature - Text)
Winner of the 2017 Kirkus Prize
Winner of the 2018 Sunburst Award
Winner of the 2018 Amy Mathers Teen Book Award
Winner of the 2018 Burt Award for First Nations, Inuit and Métis Young Adult Literature

Just when you think you have nothing left to lose, they come for your dreams.

Humanity has nearly destroyed its world through global warming, but now an even greater evil lurks. The Indigenous people of North America are being hunted and harvested for their bone marrow, which carries the key to recovering something the rest of the population has lost: the ability to dream. In this dark world, Frenchie and his companions struggle to survive as they make their way up north to the old lands. For now, survival means staying hidden - but what they don't know is that one of them holds the secret to defeating the marrow thieves.

An absorbing historical novel. -- Booklist

Steal. Trade. Survive.

That's what Father tells Rose and Lem moments before he dies of the Great Plague.

Orphaned and homeless in London 1665, all Rose and Lem have left are their wits, each other, and three bottles of Thieves Oil -- a medicinal blend Father created that can protect people from the sickness.

But then Lem goes missing, and Rose is left to fend for herself. As words of Thieves Oil spread to London's most desperate scavengers, Rose must band together with her fellow street orphans, steal the essentials to survive, and protect herself and her newfound friends against both the Plague and a world filled with dangers.

Missing jewelry, a false accusation, and a real thief. Shamus the Urban Rez Dog, P.I. is on the case.

The name's Shamus. I'm a special kind of dog known as a Rez Dog. That means I'm a mix of different breeds and I come from a reserve. I live in the city with Mom and the twins, Rainey and Cole. We are one of many Indigenous families on our block.

Life is great -- until Mom is falsely accused of stealing from the jewelry store she's worked at for years. When the kids and I set out to catch the real thief, we discover some surprising and, if I do say so myself, hilarious clues -- including a false wall, a lucky bowling ball, and a vicious poodle named Hepzibah!

Sports fans and reluctant readers alike will enjoy the detailed, fast-paced wrestling matches and blow-by-blow MMA fight scenes. ... Visceral and violent yet ultimately hopeful. -- Kirkus Reviews

Sixteen-year-old star wrestler Rowan Harper's biggest fan is her father.

But he has ALS, and his symptoms are getting worse. Saving his life will cost more money than the family has, but Rowan finds a solution. Will she risk her chances at a scholarship by competing in a lucrative, but illegal, underground MMA fight?

Takedown is a high-intensity coming-of-age story about family illness and competitive combat, with lots of heart, hope, and headlocks.

Blue to the Sky is a fabulous book that fills a niche of families and children living with severe allergies. ... Highly Recommended. -- Canadian Review of Materials

The journey to conquering your fears starts with 1,776 steps.

Starting sixth grade after years of homeschooling, Ella is tired of being known as Allergic-to-Everything Girl. She just wants to eat pizza without breaking into hives, convince her mom to adopt a Whoodle dog, and get over her stage fright so she can perform her poem to her class.

When her best friend signs up for a CN Tower climb for charity, Ella knows she has to join. If she can climb to the top and summon the courage to recite her poem over the city, she's convinced she'll finally be cured of her fears.

A strong, accessible, and relevant story about modern families. -- Kirkus Reviews

Jax has big plans for grade eight: seeing if his maybe-girlfriend, Samantha, will become his actual girlfriend, and being first trumpet in the school band.

Enter Liv, the new girl Jax meets at band auditions. Liv's a star on the trumpet too. In fact, she might be better than Jax.

A spot on the International Space Station (ISS) has opened up, and Mortimer, the journal-keeping lab rat, is not about to miss his chance to become an intergalactic space rat. And that's just the first step in his master scheme to prove that rats are much better suited than humans when it comes to colonizing Mars.

Mortimer sets out to expose the impracticality of human astronauts by conducting experiments and recording the evidence for YouTube. As far as he's concerned, pellet-eating rats are much easier to feed than fussy humans, and just think of all the unwashed underthings floating around the galaxy -- especially when compared to the versatile rattail!

But when Mortimer's schemes go awry, he is forced to face new truths about dreams, friendship, and choosing the right thing to do. Maybe not everything is a rat race.

When Ever's father passes away suddenly, she is devastated. Not long after that, her mom has a stroke and Ever's anguish becomes almost unbearable. That's when she gets the idea to form a group she calls Boys and Girls Screaming. Ever brings together kids from their school who have suffered trauma so they can share their stories and begin to heal.

Although the others find solace in the group, Ever tumbles further into depression until she reaches a breaking point. As the group learns the true source of Ever's pain, they jump into action to help her find a way out.

Krish hates the outdoors, camping, and especially germs. When Krish and his father take a camping trip to Ladakh, he convinces himself they'll bond, despite their differences.

When they're lost in a bamboo forest teeming with black rats, and germs, Krish is at an all-time low. His gut feel and a couple of rats lead them to Imdur, a hidden village.

Krish and his father are allowed to stay, if they follow the rules. But when Krish and Kabir break the most sacred rule, the Imdura threaten to keep them there forever. Can Krish overcome his fears to save them?

This is a book for RIGHT NOW. -- Teresa Toten, author of The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B

Is it asking too much to live a typical twelfth grade existence? Kelsey Kendler just wants to earn some money for university, hang out with friends, maybe even snag a boyfriend. But her pill-popping mom and distant dad scare off anybody she tries to bring home, making those last two things feel impossible.

As the lockdown takes its toll on Kelsey's mental health, she starts to see the appeal of her mom's pills. She hates what they do to her mom, but numbing herself to the world seems like a pretty good idea right about now. Horrified to find herself following in her mom's footsteps, she can only hope she'll eventually figure out some other way to cope ...

Where have all the raccoons gone?

The answer to that question is scarier than any zombie hoard. People have discovered that raccoons are more than just scavengers who knock over their garbage bins; they might be a tool for ending zombie-ism.

And that is bad news for raccoons.

Finalist for the 2021 Governor General's Literary Award for Young People's Literature - Text

Firefly lived in the park across from her mother's home. It was safer there. But after the bad night happens, and her baseball-bat-wielding mother is taken away, social services sends Firefly to live with her Aunt Gayle. She hardly knows Gayle, but discovers that she owns a costume shop.

Yes, Firefly might be suffering from PTSD, but she can get used to taking baths, sleeping on a bed again, and wearing as many costumes as she can to school.

But where is home? What is family? Who is Firefly, for that matter ... and which costume is the real one?

Corbin's bipolar mother is often unemployed, and their apartment has no furniture, and sometimes no food. When his classmate offers Corbin the bird she can no longer keep, he's all-in.

When things begin to spiral out of control and Corbin can no longer get his mom - or himself - through the darkness, he discovers his neighbors aren't the unfriendly bunch he thought they were. Maybe this bird has a bit of magic in him.

Birdspell features celebrated author Valerie Sherrard's trademark blend of humor and warmth. It's a book about mental illness and poverty, but also hope, and the reminder that friends can be found anywhere.

It's the summer before grade twelve, and sixteen-year-old Noah Greene is in the relationship of a lifetime with his brilliant and book-smart girlfriend, Miranda Owens. But when Miranda overhears his private conversation with another girl, what he says destroys everything they've built, shattering Noah's world.

Determined to make amends, Noah sets out to truly understand the harm his words have caused and maybe become worthy enough for Miranda in time for prom. Along the way, he's been turning his journey into a manuscript called The Book of Us and wants to give it to Miranda to prove to her how far he thinks he's come.

What did Noah say that upset Miranda so much? What will she say when he finally asks her out again? Has he been able to mend the harm he's caused, or are some things beyond repair?

Becky Lawrence lives in a small Indiana town where nothing much ever happens. Padding her college applications with good grades and volunteer work -- while also managing the boys' basketball team and playing in the school band -- is her main focus, so when her guidance counsellor asks her to show a new student around, she agrees. It'll be great fodder for a reference letter.

But there's something very different about the new student, Gene Newman. He's been homeschooled his entire life and he's as brilliant academically as he is socially awkward, uninformed, and unaware. Gene also proves to be a gifted saxophone player and makes the school band, and his rapidly developed basketball skills allow him to play for the school team. Embarrassingly, Becky suspected he'd never played the sax or basketball before, and just wanted to spend more time with her. But nobody could possibly learn new things that quickly ... Right?

With Becky's help, Gene also quickly develops his social skills and learns to fit in. He's certainly different from anybody Becky has ever known. In fact, Gene is like nobody else. As they become closer, Gene confides in Becky that he has a secret. More than that, he is a secret. And, apparently, it's a secret worth killing for.

The explosions come in the night.

Miranda1, Mannfred, Grannie, and the one thousand children of Oculum must flee their farm, chased by the UnRuly and their bombs. Just as they begin their journey through the wasteland and towards the safety of the green valley, Echo1 wakes from an eighty-three-year sleep and is given a mission to find the four domes of the children of Oculum, and to find the First One, whatever the cost.

On the run from the UnRuly and their stolen weapons, the children endure plague and Black Rain. Yet, there is a whisper of hope. William1 and Jonatan Briar, two of the literate, ride to the northern sea to read a rare book, a book that will illuminate the secret to their survival.

Echo1 searches the wasteland for life and faces a choice: who must be protected in this new world? And what must be destroyed?

Missy's sweet sixteenth is almost here, but her last three birthdays haven't exactly been happy occasions. Her little brother died when she turned thirteen and now birthdays are just painful reminders of their loss. If only she had walked him to school that morning, like she was supposed to...

Adding fuel to the fire, Missy's mom was arrested on her fifteenth birthday and her father's mood swings are unbearable. Then Missy meets Luke -- a new classmate she cannot stop thinking about. Luke understands what she's going through more than anybody, but will Missy be able to let him in?

Unlike the rest of the people in her small town, Ruth Mornay does not believe that the death of her sixty-four-year-old neighbor Beatrice was an accident. Word has it that Bea was swept away by the flooded Teeswater River, but Bea was the head of the Teeswater River Embankment Rehabilitation Society, so Ruth knows her friend would never be so careless.

Bea's godson Saul adds to Ruth's suspicions when he claims that Bea had premonitions about her murder and has left Ruth a box of clues to figure out what really happened. But what could a frog-shaped sprinkler, a mismatched pair of ladies' gloves, and an ugly flower picture made of human hair possibly have to do with Bea's death? That's the case Saul, Ruth, and Ruth's wayward pet chicken Dorcas, have to crack.