Recommended Reading Lists

We All Play by Julie Flett

Animals and kids love to play! This wonderful book celebrates playtime and the connection between children and the natural world. Beautiful illustrations show birds who chase and chirp, bears who wiggle and wobble, whales who splash and swim, and a diverse group of kids who love to do the same, shouting: We play too! / kimêtawânaw mîna. At the end of the book, animals and children gently fall asleep after a fun day of playing outside, making this book a great bedtime story. A beautiful ode to the animals and humans we share our world with, We All Play belongs on every bookshelf. (Greystone Books)

Ottawa Public Library

A New Green Day by Antoinette Portis

Explore nature through evocative riddles and bold imagery that take the reader from day to night and back again in this perfect read-aloud. Who scribbles on the sidewalk with glistening ink? Snail! Who's a comma in a long, long sentence of a stream? Tadpole! Active readers will delight in the clever language and striking illustrations by esteemed author/illustrator Antoinette Portis. On each spread, children will solve riddles about the familiar animals, plants and the weather that one child encounters outdoors throughout a whole day. (Neal Porter Books)

Ottawa Public Library

This Is a Book of Shapes by Kenneth Kraegel

First comes the circle. Then the square and the triangle. Then the . . . emu pushing a pancake wagon down a hill? What begins as a concept book about everyone’s geometric favourites soon defies expectations with a series of funny and imaginative twists. Award-winning author-illustrator Kenneth Kraegel pairs a deadpan text with simple wood-grained shapes, interspersed with vibrant illustrations of animals engaged in hilariously absurd pastimes. Each page turn builds on the delicious anticipation the contrast creates to make this a unique and rollicking story-time hit. (Candlewick)

Ottawa Public Library

You Matter by Christian Robinson

In this full, bright, and beautiful picture book, many different perspectives around the world are deftly and empathetically explored—from a pair of bird-watchers to the pigeons they’re feeding. Young readers will be drawn into the luminous illustrations inviting them to engage with the world in a new way and see how everyone is connected, and that everyone matters. (Simon & Schuster)

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Ottawa Public Library

Hurry Up: A Book About Slowing Down by Kate Dopirak

For one busy boy, life is all hurry up, hurry down, hurry round and round and round! That is until he takes a big breath...and a big break...and slows down to see all the wonderful things in the world around him.

From celebrated picture book creators Kate Dopirak and Christopher Silas Neal, this playful yet powerful picture book reminds us to be present, to be mindful, and to appreciate each moment. (Simon & Schuster)

Ottawa Public Library

Me & Mama by Cozbi A. Cabrera

Mama’s love is brighter than the sun, even on the rainiest of days. This celebration of a mother-daughter relationship is perfect for sharing with little ones!

On a rainy day when the house smells like cinnamon and Papa and Luca are still asleep, when the clouds are wearing shadows and the wind paints the window with beads of water, I want to be everywhere Mama is.

With lyrical prose and a tender touch, the Caldecott and Coretta Scott King Honor Book Mama and Me is an ode to the strength of the bond between a mother and a daughter as they spend a rainy day together. (Denene Millner Books)

Ottawa Public Library

Souris, tu veux un biscuit? de Laura Numeroff

Si un petit être affamé vient chez vous, vous lui donnerez sûrement un biscuit. Si vous lui donnez un biscuit, il demandera un verre de lait. Puis, il voudra se regarder dans un miroir pour vérifier s'il n'a pas de moustaches de lait et il vous demandera une paire de ciseaux pour se rafraîchir la moustache. Le fait de donner un biscuit à cette souris énergique épuisera son jeune hôte, mais les jeunes lecteurs s'amuseront des multiples demandes faites par cette souris tout au long de l'histoire. (Scholastic)

Ottawa Public Library

Nous avons trouvé un chapeau de Jon Klassen

Les lecteurs friands des livres de Jon Klassen comme Rendez-moi mon chapeau! et Ce n'est pas mon chapeau se délecteront de voir deux tortues convoiter le même chapeau. L'une des tortues voudrait-elle le chapeau pour elle seule? Bien sûr que non! Les tortues de cette histoire n'oseraient jamais... trouveront-elles un moyen d'avoir chacune leur chapeau? (Scholastic)

Ottawa Public Library

Carpenter’s Helper by Sybil Rosen

Renata and her Papi are hard at work renovating their bathroom. Renata can’t wait to build castles of bubbles in the deep, old-fashioned bathtub. But one morning, she finds dried leaves and pine needles heaped on a shelf in the corner. How did they get there? She soon realizes that a bird has built a nest on the shelf, and inside it are four rosy eggs! Weeks pass, and Renata watches as the wrens come and go, building a home in her bathroom… until, one day, with a little help from Renata, the birds are ready to fly.  (Schwartz & Wade Books)

Ottawa Public Library

Dumplings for Lili by Melissa Iwai

Lili loves to cook little dumplings called baos with her grandmother, but when cabbage is needed, Lili races up and down the stairs of her grandmother's apartment building to find the ingredient and help the other grandmothers borrow ingredients for different dumplings, from Jamaican meat patties and Italian ravioli to Lebanese fatayer and more. (Norton Young Readers)

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Ottawa Public Library

When We Are Kind by Monique Gray Smith

When We Are Kind celebrates simple acts of everyday kindness and encourages children to explore how they feel when they initiate and receive acts of kindness in their lives. Celebrated author Monique Gray Smith has written many books on the topics of resilience and reconciliation and communicates an important message through carefully chosen words for readers of all ages. Beautifully illustrated by artist Nicole Neidhardt, this book encourages children to be kind to others and to themselves. (Orca Book Publishers)

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Ottawa Public Library

The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle

Early one morning, a little spider begins to spin her web on a fence post. One by one, the animals of the nearby farm try to divert her, each with its own sound and species-specific enticement: "Maa! Maa!" said the goat. "Want to jump on the rocks?" "Oink! Oink!" grunted the pig. "Want to roll in the mud?" Continuing patiently with her work, the industrious spider doesn't answer. She has a busy day ahead of her, but at the end she will be able to show the animals that her web is both beautiful and very useful. (Philomel Books)

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Ottawa Public Library

The Tree In Me by Corinna Luyken

Through poetic text and exquisite illustrations of children revelling in nature, this picture book explores the various ways we as human beings are strong, creative, and connected to others. Each of us is like a tree, with roots and fruit, and an enduring link to everything else in nature. “The tree in me is strong. It bends in the wind, and has roots that go deep . . . to where other roots reach up toward their own trunk-branch-crown and sky.”

As Corinna Luyken did in her award-winning My Heart, she again provides an invigorating conversation-starter that contains a world of truths–about self-esteem, community, and living a meaningful life. (Dial Books for Young Readers)

Ottawa Public Library

Fatima’s Great Outdoors by Ambreen Tariq 

After a rough week at school, Fatima is thrilled to join her family on their first campout. On the way, Mama offers warm homemade samosas for a snack while the radio plays Bollywood music. As the Khazi family navigates setting up a tent, fending off pests, and making a proper campfire, they connect to the outdoors and each other. This diverse voices book is an ode to the timeless invitation for families to reconnect in nature. (Kokila)

Ottawa Public Library

J'adore mon nouveau jouet! de Mo Willems

Rosie adore son nouveau jouet! Mais, comment y joue-t-on exactement? Gérald propose de le lancer dans les airs. La proposition est acceptée avec enthousiasme, mais, lorsqu'il atterrit sur le sol, la babiole se brise en deux. Fâchée et triste à la fois, la petite truie éclate en sanglots, bientôt suivie par Gérald. L'amitié survivra-t-elle à cette épreuve? (Scholastic)

Ottawa Public Library

Ne laissez pas le pigeon conduire le bus! de Mo Willems

Malgré l'interdiction formelle du chauffeur de bus, le pigeon veut prendre le volant.

Il va déployer ses multiples talents de persuasion pour parvenir à ses fins… et toi, tu le laisserais conduire? (Kaléidoscope)

Ottawa Public Library

Ish by Peter H. Reynolds

Ramon loved to draw. Anytime. Anything. Anywhere.

Drawing is what Ramon does. It's what makes him happy. But in one split second, all that changes. A single reckless remark by Ramon's older brother, Leon, turns Ramon's carefree sketches into joyless struggles. Luckily for Ramon, though, his little sister, Marisol, sees the world differently. She opens his eyes to something a lot more valuable than getting things just "right." Combining the spareness of fable with the potency of parable, Peter Reynolds shines a bright beam of light on the need to kindle and tend our creative flames with care. (Candlewick)

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Ottawa Public Library

Little Witch Hazel: A Year in the Forest by Phoebe Wahl

Little Witch Hazel is a tiny figure who lives in a cozy cottage in the woods — and devotes herself to helping the creatures around her. Through a year of four seasons in Mosswood, readers will follow Little Witch Hazel's adventures: rescuing an orphaned egg in the spring, takes a day off in summer; and investigates a mysterious cry from a (maybe haunted?) stump in autumn. And in winter, when Little Witch Hazel gets trapped in a blizzard during a busy day of doctoring her neighbors, one of her acts of kindness will be the key to her rescue! With beautiful illustrations and a gentle, evocative view of the natural world, this gorgeous book by award-winning author-illustrator Phoebe Wahl celebrates friendship, wildness, and seasonal changes. (Tundra)

Ottawa Public Library

The Camping Trip by Jennifer K. Mann

Ernestine has a big adventure planned for this weekend: her first camping trip! Her single dad helps her pack everything on the list her aunt Jackie gave, and even helps her make some special trail mix. But when she gets to the campsite with Jackie and her cousin Samantha, Ernestine gets intimidated. Putting up a tent is hard, there are FISH in the lake she's supposed to swim in, and everything is so quiet and big. Fortunately, with a little encouragement (and a few s'mores), Ernestine realizes that she's up for these challenges! This exuberant story about both the joys and the downsides to a first camping trip provides a powerful lesson about the confidence that comes from getting out of your comfort zone. (Candlewick)

Ottawa Public Library

The Girl and Her Dinosaur by Hollie Hughes

When Marianne visits the beach, she digs for buried treasure — and the treasure she discovers is a real life dinosaur skeleton. After naming her skeleton Bony, Marianne wishes it would come to life, and to her delight, Bony responds. Now a green-skinned, apatosaurus-like creature who can swim and fly, Bony sets off with Marianne on some amazing adventures, including meeting other children with their own dream dinos! When the night is done, the children return to their homes and the beach.... where they continue digging, the adults none the wiser. This charming celebration of imagination (and dinosaurs) will delight young readers. (Bloomsbury)

Ottawa Public Library

Mercy Watson Series by Kate DiCamillo

To Mr. and Mrs. Watson, Mercy is not just a pig — she’s a porcine wonder. And to the portly and good-natured Mercy, the Watsons are an excellent source of buttered toast, not to mention that buttery-toasty feeling she gets when she snuggles into bed with them. This is not, however, so good for the Watsons’ bed. BOOM! CRACK! As the bed and its occupants slowly sink through the floor, Mercy escapes in a flash – “to alert the fire department,” her owners assure themselves. But could Mercy possibly have another emergency in mind — like a sudden craving for their neighbors’ sugar cookies? Welcome to the wry and endearing world of Mercy Watson — an ebullient character for early chapter-book readers in a series that’s destined to be a classic. (Candlewick)

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Ottawa Public Library

Princess in Black Series by Shannon Hale and Dean Hale

Who says princesses don’t wear black? When trouble raises its blue monster head, Princess Magnolia ditches her flouncy dresses and becomes the Princess in Black!

Princess Magnolia is having hot chocolate and scones with Duchess Wigtower when . . . Brring! Brring! The monster alarm! A big blue monster is threatening the goats! Stopping monsters is no job for dainty Princess Magnolia. But luckily Princess Magnolia has a secret —she’s also the Princess in Black, and stopping monsters is the perfect job for her! Can the princess sneak away, transform into her alter ego, and defeat the monster before the nosy duchess discovers her secret? From award-winning writing team of Shannon and Dean Hale and illustrator LeUyen Pham, here is the first in a humorous and action-packed chapter book series for young readers who like their princesses not only prim and perfect, but also dressed in black. (Candlewick)

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Ottawa Public Library

Un ours pour déjeuner! de Robert Munsch

Autrefois, le grand-père de Donovan mangeait de l'ours pour déjeuner… mais puisqu'il n'y en a pas dans le réfrigérateur, Donovan décide d'en attraper un lui-même! Dans cette aventure étonnante, le jeune Donovan aperçoit tour à tour une fourmi, un écureuil et un chien, mais comme il ne s'agit pas d'ours, il les repousse chaque fois. Quand il tombe sur un énorme ours qui gronde en sa direction, Donovan court se réfugier chez lui, mais la bête le suit jusque dans la cuisine!

C'est finalement son grand-père qui fera fuir l'animal en le frappant sur la tête avec une poêle à frire. BOÏNG! La famille peut alors savourer un succulent déjeuner qui n'a pas de dents : de la pizza! (Scholastic)

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Ottawa Public Library

Mais où sommes-nous, très exactement? de Lauren Child

Lola se demande qui peut bien vivre dans les tentes.« Ce sont les explorateurs qui vivent dans des tentes, lorsqu'ils partent en expédition.» répond Charlie. Lola dit : « J’aimerais bien être une exploratrice. Pourquoi ne pas partir tous les deux en expédition ? » Charlie et Lola partent donc à l'aventure... dans le parc ! (La Courte échelle)

Ottawa Public Library

Dragon Masters by Tracey West

DRAGON MASTERS has it all! Dragons, a Dragon Stone, a king, a wizard, and magic! In the first book in this fully-illustrated series, 8-year old Drake is snatched up by King Roland's soldier and taken to the castle. He is to be trained as a Dragon Master. At the castle, he is joined by three other young Dragon Masters-in-training: Ana, Rori, and Bo. The Dragon Masters must learn how to connect with and train their dragons--and they must also uncover their dragons' special powers. Does Drake have what it takes to be a Dragon Master? What is his dragon's special power? (Scholastic)

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Ottawa Public Library

Narwhal and Jelly Series by Ben Clanton

Narwhal is a happy-go-lucky narwhal. Jelly is a no-nonsense jellyfish. The two might not have a lot in common, but they do they love waffles, parties and adventures. Join Narwhal and Jelly as they discover the whole wide ocean together.

A wonderfully silly early graphic novel series featuring three stories. In the first, Jelly learns that Narwhal is a really good friend. Then Narwhal and Jelly form their own pod of awesomeness with their ocean friends. And finally, Narwhal and Jelly read the best book ever -- even though it doesn't have any words...or pictures! (Tundra Books)

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Ottawa Public Library

Owl Diaries Series by Rebecca Elliott

An adorable early chapter book series for young girls who love friendship stories starring animal characters!

This series is part of Scholastic's early chapter book line called Branches, which is aimed at newly independent readers. With easy-to-read text, high-interest content, fast-paced plots, and illustrations on every page, these books will boost reading confidence and stamina. Branches books help readers grow! (Scholastic)

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Ottawa Public Library

Dog Man Series by Dav Pilkey

There's a new breed of justice in town, and he's ready to sniff out criminals-as soon as he stops chasing his own tail!

New from the creator of Captain Underpants, it's Dog Man, the crime-biting canine who is part dog, part man, and ALL HERO!

George and Harold have created a new hero who digs into deception, claws after crooks, and rolls over robbers. When Greg the police dog and his cop companion are injured on the job, a life-saving surgery changes the course of history, and Dog Man is born. With the head of a dog and the body of a human, this heroic hound has a real nose for justice. But can he resist the call of the wild to answer the call of duty? (Graphix)

Ottawa Public Library

The Bad Guys Series by Aaron Blabey

They sound like bad guys, they look like bad guys . . . and they even smell like bad guys. But Mr. Wolf, Mr. Piranha, Mr. Snake, and Mr. Shark are about to change all of that...

Mr. Wolf has a daring plan for the Bad Guys' first good mission. They are going to break two hundred dogs out of the Maximum Security City Dog Pound. Will Operation Dog Pound go smoothly? Will the Bad Guys become the Good Guys? And will Mr. Snake please stop swallowing Mr. Piranha?! (Scholastic)

Ottawa Public Library

Clementine by Sara Pennypacker

In this first book of the series, Clementine tries to help out her friend Margaret, but ends up in a lot of trouble for it. Things get worse each day of the week, until finally she's worried that Margaret is right: Clementine's parents might consider her "the hard one" in the family. They're up to something mysterious...are they thinking they'd be better off if they only had her little vegetable-named brother..."the easy one"? (Little, Brown and Company)

Ottawa Public Library

Licorne et Yeti de Heather Ayris Burnell

Voici Licorne et Yeti.

Ils aiment ce qui brille.

Ils aiment la magie.

Ils aiment les combats de boules de neige.

Et ils aiment être amis!

Licorne et Yeti découvrent qu’ils ont plusieurs choses en commun et deviennent les meilleurs amis du monde. Ce livre contient trois épisodes hilarants qui portent sur les différents intérêts des personnages et leurs forces. Une belle ode à l’amitié. (Scholastic)

Ottawa Public Library

Narval licorne de mer de Ben Clanton

Série de bandes dessinées réunissant des histoires courtes ayant pour héros Narval, le narval enthousiaste amateur de gaufres, et son ami Gelato, une méduse craintive et sceptique, qui se laisse néanmoins facilement convaincre de s'amuser. (Scholastic)

Ottawa Public Library

Bad Kitty Series by Nick Bruel

Kitty is not happy hen she's told that her favorite foods are all gone and all that's left are asparagus, beets, cauliflower, dill, and 22 other equally unappealing vegetables. So she ate my homework, bit grandma, clawed the curtains, damaged the dishes, and so on, through Z. Only when tastier things arrive, an assortment of anchovies, buffalo burritos, chicken cheesecake, does she apologize to grandma. (Roaring Brook Press)

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Ottawa Public Library

Thea Stilton and the Dragon’s Code by Thea Stilton

While teaching at Mouseford Academy Geronimo Stilton's sister and fellow journalist, Thea, and her five amazing students (Thea Sisters) investigate the recent rash of disappearances among the student body. (Scholastic)

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Ottawa Public Library

Frankie Sparks and the Class Pet by Megan Frazer Blackmore

The best thing EVER is happening in Frankie Sparks’s third grade class: They are getting a class pet! Their teacher, Miss Cupid, tells them they will vote on their pet, but it has to meet some “parameters.” Their pet must:

1. Fit in aquarium.
2. Cost less than $50.
3. Be easily portable.
4. Be able to be left alone for the weekend.

Frankie thinks that a rat—just like the rats in her beloved Aunt Gina’s lab—would be the perfect fit. But her best friend, Maya, doesn’t think a rat would be great at all. They are kind of gross and not as cool as a hermit crab, which is Maya’s top choice. Using her special workshop, can Frankie find a way to convince her teacher and her best friend that Team Rat is the way to go? (Aladdin)

Ottawa Public Library

I Survived: True Stories by Lauren Tarshis

The New York Times bestselling I Survived series expands to include this thrilling nonfiction exploration of five true stories, from the Titanic to the Henryville Tornadoes.

I Survived is the New York Times bestselling historical fiction series that keeps readers on the edge of their seats. Now author Lauren Tarshis brings them 5 true stories in a narrative nonfiction companion that explores the real names behind history's greatest disasters. Including:

• Into the Black Water: The Titanic, 1912

• The Wave: The Japanese Tsunami, 2011

• Out of the Tornado: Henryville, Indiana, 2013

• The Great Molasses Flood of 1919

• In the Path of the Avalanche!

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Ottawa Public Library

Smile by Raina Telgemeier

Raina Telgemeier's #1 New York Times bestselling, Eisner Award-winning graphic memoir based on her childhood!

Raina just wants to be a normal sixth grader. But one night after Girl Scouts she trips and falls, severely injuring her two front teeth. What follows is a long and frustrating journey with on-again, off-again braces, surgery, embarrassing headgear, and even a retainer with fake teeth attached. And on top of all that, there's still more to deal with: a major earthquake, boy confusion, and friends who turn out to be not so friendly. (Graphix)

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Ottawa Public Library

The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell by Chris Colfer

Alex and Conner Bailey's world is about to change, in this fast-paced adventure that uniquely combines our modern day world with the enchanting realm of classic fairy tales.

The Land of Stories tells the tale of twins Alex and Conner. Through the mysterious powers of a cherished book of stories, they leave their world behind and find themselves in a foreign land full of wonder and magic where they come face-to-face with the fairy tale characters they grew up reading about.

But after a series of encounters with witches, wolves, goblins, and trolls alike, getting back home is going to be harder than they thought. (Little, Brown and Company)

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Ottawa Public Library

Rainbow Magic: Ambre la fée orange de Daisy Meadows

Pour les punir de ne pas l'avoir invité au grand bal de l'été, le terrible Jack Frost a plongé le pays des fées dans la grisaille en envoyant les sept fées de l'arc-en-ciel dans le monde des mortels. En vacances sur l'île de Magipluie, Zoé et Léa rencontrent ainsi Capucine, la première d'entre elles, qui les convainc de l'aider à retrouver ses sœurs. Chaque titre de la collection relate la libération de l'une de ces créatures fantaisistes. (Hachette Jeunesse)

Ottawa Public Library

Le Club des Baby-Sitters : N° 1 - L'idée géniale de Kristy de Ann M. Martin

Peu importe la situation, on peut toujours compter sur Kristy, Mary Anne, Claudia et Stacey, co-fondatrices du Club des Baby-Sitters et grandes amies. Qu'il s'agisse de bambins malcommodes, de chiens énormes, de voisins étranges ou de parents trop sévères, rien n'est à leur épreuve lorsqu'il est question de garder des enfants! (Scholastic)

Ottawa Public Library

The Wild Robot by Peter Brown

Can a robot survive in the wilderness?

When robot Roz opens her eyes for the first time, she discovers that she is all alone on a remote, wild island. She has no idea how she got there or what her purpose is--but she knows she needs to survive. After battling a violent storm and escaping a vicious bear attack, she realizes that her only hope for survival is to adapt to her surroundings and learn from the island's unwelcoming animal inhabitants.

As Roz slowly befriends the animals, the island starts to feel like home--until, one day, the robot's mysterious past comes back to haunt her. (Little, Brown and Company)

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Ottawa Public Library

Camp by Kayla Miller

Olive and Willow are happy campers!
Or are they?

Olive is sure she’ll have the best time at summer camp with her friend Willow – but while Olive makes quick friends with the other campers, Willow struggles to form connections and latches on to the only person she knows – Olive. It’s s’more than Olive can handle! The stress of being Willow's living security blanket begins to wear on Olive and before long…the girls aren’t just fighting, they may not even be friends by the time camp is over. Will the two be able to patch things up before the final lights out? (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

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Ottawa Public Library

Merci Suárez Changes Gears by Meg Medina

Merci Suárez knew that sixth grade would be different, but she had no idea just how different. For starters, as strong and thoughtful as Merci is, she has never been completely like the other kids at her private school in Florida, because she and her older brother, Roli, are scholarship students. They don’t have a big house or a fancy boat, and they have to do extra community service to make up for their free tuition. So when bossy Edna Santos sets her sights on the new boy who happens to be Merci’s school-assigned Sunshine Buddy, Merci becomes the target of Edna’s jealousy. Things aren’t going well at home, either: Merci’s grandfather and most trusted ally, Lolo, has been acting strangely lately — forgetting important things, falling from his bike, and getting angry over nothing. And Merci is left to her own worries, because no one in her family will tell her what’s going on. Winner of the 2019 Newbery Medal, this coming-of-age tale by New York Times best-selling author Meg Medina gets to the heart of the confusion and constant change that defines middle school — and the steadfast connection that defines family.

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Ottawa Public Library

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin

This stunning fantasy inspired by Chinese folklore is a companion novel to Starry River of the Sky and the New York Times bestselling and National Book Award finalist When the Sea Turned to Silver

In the valley of Fruitless mountain, a young girl named Minli lives in a ramshackle hut with her parents. In the evenings, her father regales her with old folktales of the Jade Dragon and the Old Man on the Moon, who knows the answers to all of life's questions. Inspired by these stories, Minli sets off on an extraordinary journey to find the Old Man on the Moon to ask him how she can change her family's fortune. She encounters an assorted cast of characters and magical creatures along the way, including a dragon who accompanies her on her quest for the ultimate answer. (Little, Brown and Company)

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Ottawa Public Library

Twins by Varian Johnson

Coretta Scott King Honor author Varian Johnson teams up with rising cartoonist Shannon Wright for a delightful middle-grade graphic novel!

Maureen and Francine Carter are twins and best friends. They participate in the same clubs, enjoy the same foods, and are partners on all their school projects. But just before the girls start sixth grade, Francine becomes Fran -- a girl who wants to join the chorus, run for class president, and dress in fashionable outfits that set her apart from Maureen. A girl who seems happy to share only two classes with her sister!Maureen and Francine are growing apart and there's nothing Maureen can do to stop it. Are sisters really forever? Or will middle school change things for good? (Graphix)

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Ottawa Public Library

Allergic by Megan Wagner Lloyd

At home, Maggie is the odd one out. Her parents are preoccupied with getting ready for a new baby, and her younger brothers are twins and always in their own world. Maggie loves animals and thinks a new puppy is the answer, but when she goes to select one on her birthday, she breaks out in hives and rashes. She's severely allergic to anything with fur!

Can Maggie outsmart her allergies and find the perfect pet? With illustrations by Michelle Mee Nutter, Megan Wagner Lloyd draws on her own experiences with allergies to tell a heartfelt story of family, friendship, and finding a place to belong. (Graphix)

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Ottawa Public Library

Chi: une vie de chat de Konami Kanata

Ce manga raconte l'histoire d'un petit chat recueilli par une famille et son évolution au sein de cette famille. Chaque épisode met en scène un moment marquant de cette vie de chat : sa première rencontre avec une auto, avec un chien, comment il va apprendre à faire ses besoins dans la litière, le bon goût des croquettes, la chaleur du soleil à travers les vitres, le confort ouaté des pantoufl es de papa, etc. Très populaire et connu des fans de manga, y compris en France, Chi - Une vie de chat s'adresse à un très large public. Le propos est universel, la réalisation adorable et le ton à même de plaire aux parents prescripteurs et à leurs enfants lecteurs. (Glénat)

Ottawa Public Library

Super Chien de Dav Pilkey

Deux amis, George et Harold, se rencontrent à la maternelle. Ensemble, ils vont inventer un super flic en bande dessinée. Au départ, ils présentent un policier et son chien. Lors d'une mésaventure impliquant un chat criminel du nom de Pistache, les deux collègues se retrouveront à l'article de la mort. La seule solution pour les sauver est de greffer la tête du chien sur le corps du policier. La créature devient ainsi le meilleur policier au monde. S'en suit une série d'aventures humoristiques impliquant un chef de police colérique et un chat machiavélique. Super Chien doit capturer Pistache, mais ce dernier veut tout faire pour se débarrasser de l'extraordinaire chien policier. (Scholastic)

Ottawa Public Library

Three Keys by Kelly Yang (Front Desk #2)

The story of Mia and her family and friends at the Calivista Motel continues in this powerful, hilarious, and resonant sequel to the award-winning novel Front Desk.

Mia Tang thinks she's going to have the best year ever. She and her parents are the proud owners of the Calivista Motel, Mia gets to run the front desk with her best friend, Lupe, and she's finally getting somewhere with her writing!But as it turns out, sixth grade is no picnic...1. Mia's new teacher doesn't think her writing is all that great. And her entire class finds out she lives and works in a motel!2. The motel is struggling, and Mia has to answer to the Calivista's many, many worried investors.3. A new immigration law is looming and if it passes, it will threaten everything -- and everyone -- in Mia's life.It's a roller coaster of challenges, and Mia needs all of her determination to hang on tight. But if anyone can find the key to getting through turbulent times, it's Mia Tang!  (Scholastic)

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Ottawa Public Library

Daughter of the Deep by Rick Riordan

Ana Dakkar is a freshman at Harding-Pencroft Academy, a five-year high school that graduates the best marine scientists, naval warriors, navigators, and underwater explorers in the world. Ana's parents died while on a scientific expedition two years ago, and the only family's she's got left is her older brother, Dev, also a student at HP. Ana's freshman year culminates with the class's weekend trial at sea, the details of which have been kept secret. She only hopes she has what it'll take to succeed. All her worries are blown out of the water when, on the bus ride to the ship, Ana and her schoolmates witness a terrible tragedy that will change the trajectory of their lives.

But wait, there's more. The professor accompanying them informs Ana that their rival school, Land Institute, and Harding-Pencroft have been fighting a cold war for a hundred and fifty years. Now that cold war has been turned up to a full broil, and the freshman are in danger of becoming fish food. In a race against deadly enemies, Ana will make amazing friends and astounding discoveries about her heritage as she puts her leadership skills to the test for the first time. (Disney/Hyperion)

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Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

One cruel night, Meggie's father reads aloud from a book called INKHEART-- and an evil ruler escapes the boundaries of fiction and lands in their living room. Suddenly, Meggie is smack in the middle of the kind of adventure she has only read about in books. Meggie must learn to harness the magic that has conjured this nightmare. For only she can change the course of the story that has changed her life forever. This is INKHEART--a timeless tale about books, about imagination, about life. Dare to read it aloud. (Scholastic)

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The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

"Are you a gifted child looking for special opportunities?"

When this peculiar ad appears in the newspaper, dozens of children enroll to take a series of mysterious, mind-bending tests. (And you, dear reader, can test your wits right alongside them.) But in the end just four very special children will succeed. Their challenge: to go on a secret mission that only the most intelligent and resourceful children could complete. To accomplish it they will have to go undercover at the Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened, where the only rule is that there are no rules.

As our heroes face physical and mental trials beyond their wildest imaginations, they have no choice but to turn to each other for support. But with their newfound friendship at stake, will they be able to pass the most important test of all? (Little, Brown and Company)

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Farah Rocks Fifth Grade by Susan Muaddi Darraj

Farah and her best friend, Allie Liu, are getting excited to turn in their applications to the Magnet Academy, where they both hope to attend sixth grade. But when new girl Dana Denver shows up, Farah's world is turned upside down. As Dana starts bullying Farah's little brother, Samir, Farah begins to second-guess her choice to leave him behind at Harbortown Elementary/Middle School. Determined to handle it on her own, Farah comes up with a plan--a plan that involves lying to those closest to her. Will her lies catch up with her, or can Farah find a way to defeat the bully and rock fifth grade? (Stone Arch Books)

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The First Rule of Punk by Celia C. Perez

There are no shortcuts to surviving your first day at a new school—you can’t fix it with duct tape like you would your Chuck Taylors. On Day One, twelve-year-old Malú (María Luisa, if you want to annoy her) inadvertently upsets Posada Middle School’s queen bee, violates the school’s dress code with her punk rock look, and disappoints her college-professor mom in the process. Her dad, who now lives a thousand miles away, says things will get better as long as she remembers the first rule of punk: be yourself.

The real Malú loves rock music, skateboarding, zines, and Soyrizo (hold the cilantro, please). And when she assembles a group of like-minded misfits at school and starts a band, Malú finally begins to feel at home. She’ll do anything to preserve this, which includes standing up to an anti-punk school administration to fight for her right to express herself! (Viking)

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Fantômes de Raina Telgemeier

Catrina et sa famille déménagent sur la côte de la Californie du Nord parce que Maya, la petite soeur de Catrina, est malade. Cat n'est pas contente de quitter ses amies pour Bahía de la Luna, mais Maya est atteinte de la fibrose kystique et l'air frais et salin de la mer lui sera bénéfique. Alors que les deux filles explorent leur nouvel environnement, un voisin leur laisse entendre que des fantômes hantent Bahía de la Luna. Maya veut absolument en rencontrer un, mais Cat ne veut pas en entendre parler. À l'approche du temps où les fantômes vont à la rencontre de leurs proches, Cat doit trouver une façon de surmonter ses peurs. (Scholastic)

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Kristy et les snobs de Ann M. Martin

La mère de Kristy s'est remariée et la famille a emménagé dans un quartier plus chic de la ville. Les autres membres du Club des Baby-Sitters pensent que c'est l'occasion d'agrandir leur clientèle, mais les filles qui vivent près de chez Kristy ne sont pas très accueillantes. Elles critiquent ses vêtements et se moquent du Club. Ce sont de véritables snobs! Mais le Club des Baby-Sitters saura les remettre à leur place! (Scholastic)

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Sweep by Jonathan Auxier

For nearly a century, Victorian London relied on "climbing boys"--orphans owned by chimney sweeps--to clean flues and protect homes from fire. The work was hard, thankless and brutally dangerous. Eleven-year-old Nan Sparrow is quite possibly the best climber who ever lived--and a girl. With her wits and will, she's managed to beat the deadly odds time and time again.

But when Nan gets stuck in a deadly chimney fire, she fears her time has come. Instead, she wakes to find herself in an abandoned attic. And she is not alone. Huddled in the corner is a mysterious creature--a golem--made from ash and coal. This is the creature that saved her from the fire.

Sweep is the story of a girl and her monster. Together, these two outcasts carve out a life together--saving one another in the process. (Penguin Random House)

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The Thing About Jellyfish by  Ali Benjamin

After her best friend dies in a drowning accident, Suzy is convinced that the true cause of the tragedy must have been a rare jellyfish sting--things don't just happen for no reason. Retreating into a silent world of imagination, she crafts a plan to prove her theory--even if it means traveling the globe, alone. Suzy's achingly heartfelt journey explores life, death, the astonishing wonder of the universe...and the potential for love and hope right next door. (Little Brown and Company)

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Blended by Sharon M. Draper

Eleven-year-old Isabella’s parents are divorced, so she has to switch lives every week: One week she’s Isabella with her dad, his girlfriend Anastasia, and her son Darren living in a fancy house where they are one of the only black families in the neighborhood. The next week she’s Izzy with her mom and her boyfriend John-Mark in a small, not-so-fancy house that she loves.

Because of this, Isabella has always felt pulled between two worlds. And now that her parents are divorced, it seems their fights are even worse, and they’re always about HER. Isabella feels completely stuck in the middle, split and divided between them more than ever. And she is beginning to realize that being split between Mom and Dad involves more than switching houses, switching nicknames, switching backpacks: it’s also about switching identities. Her dad is black, her mom is white, and strangers are always commenting: “You’re so exotic!” “You look so unusual.” “But what are you really?” She knows what they’re really saying: “You don’t look like your parents.” “You’re different.” “What race are you really?” And when her parents, who both get engaged at the same time, get in their biggest fight ever, Isabella doesn’t just feel divided, she feels ripped in two. What does it mean to be half white or half black? To belong to half mom and half dad? And if you’re only seen as half of this and half of that, how can you ever feel whole?

It seems like nothing can bring Isabella’s family together again—until the worst thing happens. Isabella and Darren are stopped by the police. A cell phone is mistaken for a gun. And shots are fired. (Simon and Schuster)

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Strange Birds by Celia Perez

When three very different girls find a mysterious invitation to a lavish mansion, the promise of adventure and mischief is too intriguing to pass up. Ofelia Castillo (a budding journalist), Aster Douglas (a bookish foodie), and Cat Garcia (a rule-abiding birdwatcher) meet the kid behind the invite, Lane DiSanti, and it isn’t love at first sight. But they soon bond over a shared mission to get the Floras, their local Scouts, to ditch an outdated tradition. In their quest for justice, independence, and an unforgettable summer, the girls form their own troop and find something they didn’t know they needed: sisterhood. (Penguin Random House)

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Nevermoor: The Trails of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend

Morrigan Crow is cursed, destined to die on her eleventh birthday. But, as the clock strikes midnight, she’s whisked away by a remarkable man called Jupter North and taken to the secret city of Nevermoor. There she’s invited to join the Wundrous Society. Mystery, magica and protection are hers – if only she can pass four impossible trials, using an exceptional talent. Which she doesn’t have… Perfect for fans of the Harry Potter series and His Dark Materials, this series takes readers into an extraordinary world, setting hope and imagination alive. (Hachette UK)

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Front Desk by  Kelly Yang

Mia Tang has a lot of secrets.
Number 1: She lives in a motel, not a big house.

Every day, while her immigrant parents clean the rooms, ten-year-old Mia manages the front desk of the Calivista Motel and tends to its guests.

Number 2: Her parents hide immigrants.

And if the mean motel owner, Mr. Yao, finds out they've been letting them stay in the empty rooms for free, the Tangs will be doomed.

Number 3: She wants to be a writer.

But how can she when her mom thinks she should stick to math because English is not her first language?

It will take all of Mia's courage, kindness, and hard work to get through this year. Will she be able to hold on to her job, help the immigrants and guests, escape Mr. Yao, and go for her dreams? (Scholastic)

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The War That Saved My Life by  Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

An exceptionally moving story of triumph against all odds set during World War II. A Newbery Honor Book.

Ten-year-old Ada has never left her one-room apartment. Her mother is too humiliated by Ada’s twisted foot to let her outside. So when her little brother Jamie is shipped out of London to escape the war, Ada doesn’t waste a minute—she sneaks out to join him.

So begins a new adventure for Ada, and for Susan Smith, the woman who is forced to take the two kids in. As Ada teaches herself to ride a pony, learns to read, and watches for German spies, she begins to trust Susan—and Susan begins to love Ada and Jamie. But in the end, will their bond be enough to hold them together through wartime? Or will Ada and her brother fall back into the cruel hands of their mother? (Penguin Random House)

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The Confidence Code for Girls by  Katty Kay, Claire Shipman, JillEllyn Riley

Girls can rule the world—all they need is confidence. This empowering, entertaining guide from the bestselling authors of The Confidence Code gives girls the essential yet elusive code to becoming bold, brave, and fearless.

Packed with graphic novel strips; appealing illustrations; fun lists, quizzes, and challenges; and true stories from tons of real girls, The Confidence Code for Girls teaches girls to embrace risk, deal with failure, and be their most authentic selves.

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Les voyageurs silencieux par Jeanne-A. Debats

« Les équilims, créatures extraterrestres, sont venus un jour dans de drôles de vaisseaux spatiaux. À présent, ils vivent en troupeaux dans des élevages et sont réputés pour la valeur de leurs cornes. Alix, une magnifique jeune fille grande et noire, est chargée d'accompagner un convoi afin d'aider leur nouveau propriétaire à réussir leur intégration. Mais l'avion qui les transporte s'écrase en Amazonie laissant l'adolescente et Thomas le fils du négociant en grand désarroi. [SDM] » - Bibliothèque publique d’Ottawa

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Mini Maude. 1, Duo-tang et mains moites par  Catherine Girard-Audet

« Chronique de la vie familiale, des amitiés et des amours tourmentées de Maude Ménard-Bérubé, une fillette de dix ans, qui voit ici la fin de ses vacances estivales et la rentrée des classes perturbées par d'importantes disputes. (...) [SDM] » -Bibliothèque publique d’Ottawa

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New Kid by Jerry Craft

Seventh grader Jordan Banks loves nothing more than drawing cartoons about his life. But instead of sending him to the art school of his dreams, his parents enroll him in a prestigious private school known for its academics, where Jordan is one of the few kids of colour in his entire grade.

As he makes the daily trip from his Washington Heights apartment to the upscale Riverdale Academy Day School, Jordan soon finds himself torn between two worlds—and not really fitting into either one. Can Jordan learn to navigate his new school culture while keeping his neighbourhood friends and staying true to himself? (HarperCollins)

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No Fixed Address by  Susin Nielsin

Felix Knuttson, twelve, is an endearing kid with an incredible brain for trivia. His mom Astrid is loving but unreliable; she can't hold onto a job, or a home. When they lose their apartment in Vancouver, they move into a camper van, just for August, till Astrid finds a job. September comes, they're still in the van; Felix must keep "home" a secret and give a fake address in order to enroll in school. Luckily, he finds true friends. As the weeks pass and life becomes grim, he struggles not to let anyone know how precarious his situation is. When he gets to compete on a national quiz show, Felix is determined to win -- the cash prize will bring them a home. Their luck is about to change! But what happens is not at all what Felix expected (Penguin Random House).

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Shouting At The Rain by Lynda Mullaly Hunt

Delsie loves tracking the weather–lately, though, it seems the squalls are in her own life. She’s always lived with her kindhearted Grammy, but now she’s looking at their life with new eyes and wishing she could have a “regular family.” Delsie observes other changes in the air, too–the most painful being a friend who’s outgrown her. Luckily, she has neighbors with strong shoulders to support her, and Ronan, a new friend who is caring and courageous but also troubled by the losses he’s endured. As Ronan and Delsie traipse around Cape Cod on their adventures, they both learn what it means to be angry versus sad, broken versus whole, and abandoned versus loved. And that, together, they can weather any storm. (Penguin Random House)

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When You Reach Me by  Rebecca Stead

Shortly after a fall-out with her best friend, sixth grader Miranda starts receiving mysterious notes, and she doesn’t know what to do. The notes tell her that she must write a letter—a true story, and that she can’t share her mission with anyone.

It would be easy to ignore the strange messages, except that whoever is leaving them has an uncanny ability to predict the future. If that is the case, then Miranda has a big problem—because the notes tell her that someone is going to die, and she might be too late to stop it (Penguin Random House).

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The Westing Game by  Ellen Raskin

A highly inventive mystery begins when sixteen unlikely people gather for the reading of the very stranger will of the very read Samuel W. Westing. They could become millionaires, depending on how they play a game. All they have to do is find the answer - but the answer to what? The Westing game is tricky and dangerous, but the heirs play on - through blizzards, burglaries, and bombings, Sam Westing may be dead ... but that won't stop him from playing one last game! (Penguin Random House)

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Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston

Amari Peters has never stopped believing her missing brother, Quinton, is alive. Not even when the police told her otherwise, or when she got in trouble for standing up to bullies who said he was gone for good.

So when she finds a ticking briefcase in his closet, containing a nomination for a summer tryout at the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs, she’s certain the secretive organization holds the key to locating Quinton—if only she can wrap her head around the idea of magicians, fairies, aliens, and other supernatural creatures all being real.

Now she must compete for a spot against kids who’ve known about magic their whole lives. No matter how hard she tries, Amari can’t seem to escape their intense doubt and scrutiny—especially once her supernaturally enhanced talent is deemed “illegal.” With an evil magician threatening the supernatural world, and her own classmates thinking she’s an enemy, Amari has never felt more alone. But if she doesn’t stick it out and pass the tryouts, she may never find out what happened to Quinton. (HarperCollins Publishers)

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Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and emotionally charged, each line a glimpse into a child’s soul as she searches for her place in the world. Woodson’s eloquent poetry also reflects the joy of finding her voice through writing stories, despite the fact that she struggled with reading as a child. Her love of stories inspired her and stayed with her, creating the first sparks of the gifted writer she was to become (Penguin Random House).

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The Blackthorn Key by  Kevin Sands

“Tell no one what I’ve given you.”

Until he got that cryptic warning, Christopher Rowe was happy, learning how to solve complex codes and puzzles and creating powerful medicines, potions, and weapons as an apprentice to Master Benedict Blackthorn—with maybe an explosion or two along the way.

But when a mysterious cult begins to prey on London’s apothecaries, the trail of murders grows closer and closer to Blackthorn’s shop. With time running out, Christopher must use every skill he’s learned to discover the key to a terrible secret with the power to tear the world apart (Simon and Schuster).

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The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind by William Kamkwamba

When a terrible drought struck William Kamkwamba's tiny village in Malawi, his family lost all of the season's crops, leaving them with nothing to eat and nothing to sell. William began to explore science books in his village library, looking for a solution. There, he came up with the idea that would change his family's life forever: he could build a windmill. Made out of scrap metal and old bicycle parts, William's windmill brought electricity to his home and helped his family pump the water they needed to farm the land (Penguin Random House).

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Terreur à l'auberge du lac par Émilie Rivard

« Passer dix jours dans une auberge au bord d'un lac est peut-être le rêve de certains, mais pas celui de Jacob et sa mère! Ils ne voient pas comment ils pourront survivre loin des amis et d'Internet. Heureusement, plusieurs légendes fantastiques font du village de Lac-aux-Galets un endroit hors de l'ordinaire. Mais ces histoires seraient-elles aussi réelles que les habitants le croient? Cet étrange tableau qui prend vie n'en serait-il pas la preuve? Quand le danger s'invite dans le paisible village de Lac-aux-Galets, Jacob et sa mère ne peuvent plus résister à la tentation de mener l'enquête! [BTLF] » -Bibliothèque publique d’Ottawa

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Le jardin invisible par  Valérie Picard

« En visite chez sa grand-mère, Arianne se voit proposer d'aller jouer dans le jardin pendant que tous les adultes discutent entre eux. Lasse, la fillette s'exécute et s'étend dans l'herbe, profondément ennuyée. La découverte d'un drôle de caillou enflamme toutefois son imaginaire et l'entraîne dans un périple fabuleux au cours duquel elle fait la course avec les sauterelles, virevolte au milieu des papillons, suspendue à l'aigrette d'un pissenlit, explore les abysses d'un lac en compagnie des tortues et des poissons, puis fait la chasse aux étoiles en chevauchant un dinosaure... [SDM] » -Bibliothèque publique d’Ottawa

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Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

Zélie remembers when the soil of Orïsha hummed with magic. When different clans ruled – Burners igniting flames, Tiders beckoning waves, and Zélie’s Reaper mother summoning forth souls.

But everything changed the night magic disappeared. Under the orders of a ruthless king, anyone with powers was targeted and killed, leaving Zélie without a mother and her people without hope. Only a few people remain with the power to use magic, and they must remain hidden.

Zélie is one such person. Now she has a chance to bring back magic to her people and strike against the monarchy. With the help of a rogue princess, Zélie must learn to harness her powers and outrun the crown prince, who is hell-bent on eradicating magic for good.

Danger lurks in Orïsha, where strange creatures prowl, and vengeful spirits wait in the waters. Yet the greatest danger may be Zélie herself as she struggles to come to terms with the strength of her magic – and her growing feelings for an enemy (Pan Macmillan).

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A Spy in the House by Y.S. Lee

Rescued from the gallows in 1850s London, orphan (and thief) Mary Quinn found herself at Miss Scrimshaw’s Academy for Girls, the cover for an all-female investigative unit called the Agency. Now seventeen, Mary must put her training to the test. Disguised as a lady’s companion, she infiltrates a merchant’s home in hopes of finding clues to the whereabouts of his missing cargo ships. But the household is full of deceptions, and there is no one to trust. . . . Or is there? Packed with suspense and evoking gritty Victorian backstreets, this breezy mystery marks the debut of a detective who lives by her wits while uncovering secrets — including those of her own past.

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The Sun Is Also A Star by  Nicola Yoon

Natasha: I’m a girl who believes in science and facts. Not fate. Not destiny. Or dreams that will never come true. I’m definitely not the kind of girl who meets a cute boy on a crowded New York City street and falls in love with him. Not when my family is twelve hours away from being deported to Jamaica. Falling in love with him won’t be my story.

Daniel: I’ve always been the good son, the good student, living up to my parents’ high expectations. Never the poet. Or the dreamer. But when I see her, I forget about all that. Something about Natasha makes me think that fate has something much more extraordinary in store—for both of us.

The Universe: Every moment in our lives has brought us to this single moment. A million futures lie before us. Which one will come true? (Penguin Random House).

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Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson

Ellingham Academy is a famous private school in Vermont for the brightest thinkers, inventors, and artists. It was founded by Albert Ellingham, an early twentieth century tycoon, who wanted to make a wonderful place full of riddles, twisting pathways, and gardens. “A place,” he said, “where learning is a game.”

Shortly after the school opened, his wife and daughter were kidnapped. The only real clue was a mocking riddle listing methods of murder, signed with the frightening pseudonym “Truly, Devious.” It became one of the great unsolved crimes of American history.

True-crime aficionado Stevie Bell is set to begin her first year at Ellingham Academy, and she has an ambitious plan: She will solve this cold case. That is, she will solve the case when she gets a grip on her demanding new school life and her housemates: the inventor, the novelist, the actor, the artist, and the jokester.

But something strange is happening. Truly Devious makes a surprise return, and death revisits Ellingham Academy. The past has crawled out of its grave. Someone has gotten away with murder.

The two interwoven mysteries of this first book in the Truly Devious series dovetail brilliantly, and Stevie Bell will continue her relentless quest for the murderers in books two and three. (HarperCollins Publishers)

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The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

Linus Baker is a by-the-book case worker in the Department in Charge of Magical Youth. He's tasked with determining whether six dangerous magical children are likely to bring about the end of the world.

Arthur Parnassus is the master of the orphanage. He would do anything to keep the children safe, even if it means the world will burn. And his secrets will come to light.

The House in the Cerulean Sea is an enchanting love story, masterfully told, about the profound experience of discovering an unlikely family in an unexpected place—and realizing that family is yours. (MacMillan Publishers)

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The Perks of Being a Wallflower by  Stephen Chbosky

The critically acclaimed debut novel from Stephen Chbosky follows observant “wallflower” Charlie as he charts a course through the strange world between adolescence and adulthood. First dates, family drama, and new friends. Sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Devastating loss, young love, and life on the fringes. Caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it, Charlie must learn to navigate those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up (Simon and Schuster).

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Wonder Women by Sam Maggs

You may think you know women’s history pretty well. But have you ever heard of:

• Alice Ball, the chemist who developed an effective treatment for leprosy—only to have the credit taken by a man?
• Mary Sherman Morgan, the rocket scientist whose liquid fuel compounds blasted the first U.S. satellite into orbit?
• Huang Daopo, the inventor whose weaving technology revolutionized textile production in China—centuries before the cotton gin?

Smart women have always been able to achieve amazing things, even when the odds were stacked against them. In Wonder Women, author Sam Maggs tells the stories of the brilliant, brainy, and totally rad women in history who broke barriers as scientists, engineers, mathematicians, adventurers, and inventors. Plus, interviews with real-life women in STEM careers, an extensive bibliography, and a guide to women-centric science and technology organizations—all to show the many ways the geeky girls of today can help to build the future. (Penguin Random House)

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The Radium Girls by  Kate Moore

Amid the excitement of the early twentieth century, hundreds of young women spend their days hard at work painting watch dials with glow-in-the-dark radium paint. The painters consider themselves lucky ― until they start suffering from a mysterious illness. As the corporations try to cover up a shocking secret, these shining girls suddenly find themselves at the center of a deadly scandal.

Company management had long known the dangers these young women faced, but they never informed them. Worse, when the women began to speak up, demanding the company help the workers they had injured, company representatives slandered them, implying that they were actually dying of syphilis, not radium poisoning. With their days numbered, and more of them dying every month, the Radium Girls knew they didn't have long to force the companies to acknowledge what they had done — and ensure it could never happen again (A Mighty Girl).

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Mon cœur après la pluie par Pierre Labrie

« Aujourd’hui, il pleut. Il pleut à transformer les flaques d’eau en lacs. Aujourd’hui, il n’y aura pas de récréation dans la cour d’école. Il n’y aura pas plus de pause à l’extérieur après le dîner. Aujourd’hui, tout se passe à l’intérieur. Aujourd’hui, l’eau est synonyme autant de tristesse que de fraîcheur. Aujourd’hui, c’est le début de tout. Faisant partie de la saga poétique initiée par Nous sommes ce continent, Un gouffre sous mon lit et Suivre le lapin blanc, Mon cœur après la pluie ramène le personnage de LUI à la fin du primaire. Dans ce livre, on y retrouve les premières amours, la joie de l’amitié autant que la dureté du regard des autres, le pouvoir des mots dans ce qu’il y a de beau et de méchant. » -Éditeur

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Les marées par  Brigitte Vaillancourt

« Capucine est comme un poisson hors de l'eau. Pour sa mère Solange et le reste de sa famille, sa timidité est une tare inexcusable. À quelques semaines de la fin de son secondaire, elle ne rêve que d'une chose : prendre le large. Laisser les jacassements de sa mère et de ses tantes pour remonter le fleuve et repartir à zéro. Puis, un jour, les bavardages de Solange cessent d'un coup. En cherchant à comprendre, Capucine finit par déterrer un lourd secret de famille, plus gros que tout ce qu'elle aurait pu imaginer : une sœur. (...) [BTLF] » -Bibliothèque publique d’Ottawa

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A Lovely War by  Julie Berry

They are Hazel, James, Aubrey, and Colette. A classical pianist from London, a British would-be architect turned soldier, a Harlem-born ragtime genius in the U.S. Army, and a Belgian orphan with a gorgeous voice and a devastating past. Their story, as told by the goddess Aphrodite, who must spin the tale or face judgment on Mount Olympus, is filled with hope and heartbreak, prejudice and passion, and reveals that, though War is a formidable force, it’s no match for the transcendent power of Love (Penguin Random House).

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Sadie by  Courtney Summers

When popular radio personality West McCray receives a desperate phone call from a stranger imploring him to find nineteen-year-old runaway Sadie Hunter, he’s not convinced there’s a story there; girls go missing all the time. But when it’s revealed that Sadie fled home after the brutal murder of her little sister, Mattie, West travels to the small town of Cold Creek, Colorado, to uncover what happened.

Sadie has no idea that her journey to avenge her sister will soon become the subject of a blockbuster podcast. Armed with a switchblade, Sadie follows meager clues hoping they’ll lead to the man who took Mattie’s life, because she’s determined to make him pay with his own. But as West traces her path to the darkest, most dangerous corners of big cities and small towns, a deeply unsettling mystery begins to unfold—one that’s bigger than them both. Can he find Sadie before it’s too late? (Macmillan)

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Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

Two young women from totally different backgrounds are thrown together during the Second World War. One is a working-class girl from Manchester, the other a Scottish aristocrat; one is a pilot, the other a wireless operator. Yet whenever their paths cross, they complement each other perfectly, and before long they are devoted friends. But then a vital mission goes wrong, and one of the friends has to bail out of a faulty plane over France. She is captured by the Gestapo and becomes a prisoner of war. The story begins in "Verity's" own words, as she writes her account for her captors (Penguin Random House).

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Scythe by  Neal Shusterman

A world with no hunger, no disease, no war, no misery: humanity has conquered all those things, and has even conquered death. Now Scythes are the only ones who can end life—and they are commanded to do so, in order to keep the size of the population under control.

Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to a scythe—a role that neither wants. These teens must master the “art” of taking life, knowing that the consequence of failure could mean losing their own (Simon and Schuster).

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The Girls I've Been by Tess Sharpe

Nora O’Malley’s been a lot of girls. As the daughter of a con-artist who targets criminal men, she grew up as her mother’s protégé. But when her mom fell for the mark instead of conning him, Nora pulled the ultimate con: escape.

For five years Nora’s been playing at normal. But she needs to dust off the skills she ditched because she has three problems:

#1: Her ex walked in on her with her girlfriend. Even though they’re all friends, Wes didn’t know about her and Iris.

#2: The morning after Wes finds them kissing, they all have to meet to deposit the fundraiser money they raised at the bank. It’s a nightmare that goes from awkward to deadly, because:

#3: Right after they enter the bank, two guys start robbing it.

The bank robbers may be trouble, but Nora’s something else entirely. They have no idea who they’re really holding hostage . . . (Penguin Random House)

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Six of Crows by  Leigh Bardugo

Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price—and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can't pull it off alone. . . .

A convict with a thirst for revenge.
A sharpshooter who can't walk away from a wager.
A runaway with a privileged past.
A spy known as the Wraith.
A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums.
A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes.

Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist. Kaz's crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction—if they don't kill each other first.

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo returns to the breathtaking world of the Grishaverse in this unforgettable tale about the opportunity—and the adventure—of a lifetime. (MacMillan Publishers)

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Almost American Girl by  Robin Ha

For as long as she can remember, it’s been Robin and her mom against the world. Growing up as the only child of a single mother in Seoul, Korea, wasn’t always easy, but it has bonded them fiercely together.

So when a vacation to visit friends in Huntsville, Alabama, unexpectedly becomes a permanent relocation—following her mother’s announcement that she’s getting married—Robin is devastated.

Overnight, her life changes. She is dropped into a new school where she doesn’t understand the language and struggles to keep up. She is completely cut off from her friends in Seoul and has no access to her beloved comics. At home, she doesn’t fit in with her new stepfamily, and worst of all, she is furious with the one person she is closest to—her mother.

Then one day Robin’s mother enrolls her in a local comic drawing class, which opens the window to a future Robin could never have imagined (HarperCollins).

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This Place: 150 Years Retold by  By Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm, Sonny Assu, Brandon Mitchell, Rachel Qitsualik-Tinsley, Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley, David A. Robertson, Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair, Jen Storm, Richard Van Camp, Katherena Vermette, Chelsea Vowel

Explore the past 150 years through the eyes of Indigenous creators in this groundbreaking graphic novel anthology. Beautifully illustrated, these stories are an emotional and enlightening journey through Indigenous wonderworks, psychic battles, and time travel. See how Indigenous peoples have survived a post-apocalyptic world since Contact.

Each story includes a timeline of related historical events and a personal note from the author. Find cited sources and a select bibliography for further reading in the back of the book. The accompanying teacher guide includes curriculum charts and 12 lesson plans to help educators use the book with their students. (Portage & Main Press)

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Ferdinand F., 81 ans, chenille par Mario Brassard

« Ayant toujours eu peur de tout, Ferdinand F. n'a jamais véritablement pris de risque dans sa vie, voyant les jours se succéder sans histoire jusqu'à ses 81 ans. S'il était reconnu, enfant, pour son magnifique sourire, le voilà un vieillard solitaire qui n'a pas profité des chances qui lui ont été offertes tout au long de son existence. En effet, même s'il se faisait approcher par Georges Foisy, fils de diplomate, il n'a jamais voulu se lier d'amitié avec ce dernier parce qu'il était jaloux de lui, particulièrement lorsqu'il a constaté que Frangin, son copain imaginaire, s'était mis à jouer avec son pire ennemi. Changeant d'école, il termine ses études avant de s'enrôler dans l'armée lors de la Deuxième Guerre mondiale, mais feint toutes sortes de maladies afin d'éviter d'être envoyé au front. Ses talents indéniables en batterie lui auraient également permis de joindre les Beatles si sa mère parlait anglais, il aurait pu se marier à une bibliothécaire décomplexée s'il n'avait pas fait de mauvais rêves et il aurait pu visiter les villes dominées par les gratte-ciel s'il n'avait pas aussi peur de l'avion. Tout change cependant en 2005 quand un vieil ennemi le contacte afin de sauver l'être le plus cher à ses yeux. [SDM]. » -GoogleBooks

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13 000 ans et des poussières par  Camille Bouchard

« La première et la dernière phrase : “Puis mes parents adoptifs ont eu un petit garçon.” et “Il faut me manipuler avec le plus grand soin.” [BTLF] » -Bibliothèque publique d’Ottawa

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Watch Us Rise by  Renee Watson

Jasmine and Chelsea are best friends on a mission--they're sick of the way women are treated even at their progressive NYC high school, so they decide to start a Women's Rights Club. They post their work online--poems, essays, videos of Chelsea performing her poetry, and Jasmine's response to the racial microaggressions she experiences--and soon they go viral. But with such positive support, the club is also targeted by trolls. When things escalate in real life, the principal shuts the club down. Not willing to be silenced, Jasmine and Chelsea will risk everything for their voices--and those of other young women--to be heard.
These two dynamic, creative young women stand up and speak out in a novel that features their compelling art and poetry along with powerful personal journeys that will inspire readers and budding poets, feminists, and activists (Bloomsbury),

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The Poet X by  Elizabeth Acevedo

Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Ever since her body grew into curves, she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking.

But Xiomara has plenty she wants to say, and she pours all her frustration and passion onto the pages of a leather notebook, reciting the words to herself like prayers—especially after she catches feelings for a boy in her bio class named Aman, who her family can never know about.

With Mami’s determination to force her daughter to obey the laws of the church, Xiomara understands that her thoughts are best kept to herself. So when she is invited to join her school’s slam poetry club, she doesn’t know how she could ever attend without her mami finding out. But she still can’t stop thinking about performing her poems.

Because in the face of a world that may not want to hear her, Xiomara refuses to be silent (Harper Collins).

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I'll Give You The Sun by  Jandy Nelson

At first, Jude and her twin brother are NoahandJude; inseparable. Noah draws constantly and is falling in love with the charismatic boy next door, while daredevil Jude wears red-red lipstick, cliff-dives, and does all the talking for both of them.

Years later, they are barely speaking. Something has happened to change the twins in different yet equally devastating ways . . . but then Jude meets an intriguing, irresistible boy and a mysterious new mentor.

The early years are Noah’s to tell; the later years are Jude’s. But they each have only half the story, and if they can only find their way back to one another, they’ll have a chance to remake their world (Penguin Random House).

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The Field Guide to the North American Teenager by  Ben Philippe

Norris Kaplan is clever, cynical, and quite possibly too smart for his own good. A Black French Canadian, he knows from watching American sitcoms that those three things don’t bode well when you are moving to Austin, Texas.

Plunked into a new high school and sweating a ridiculous amount from the oppressive Texas heat, Norris finds himself cataloging everyone he meets: the Cheerleaders, the Jocks, the Loners, and even the Manic Pixie Dream Girl. Making a ton of friends has never been a priority for him, and this way he can at least amuse himself until it’s time to go back to Canada, where he belongs.

Yet against all odds, those labels soon become actual people to Norris…like loner Liam, who makes it his mission to befriend Norris, or Madison the beta cheerleader, who is so nice that it has to be a trap. Not to mention Aarti the Manic Pixie Dream Girl, who might, in fact, be a real love interest in the making.

But the night of the prom, Norris screws everything up royally. As he tries to pick up the pieces, he realizes it might be time to stop hiding behind his snarky opinions and start living his life—along with the people who have found their way into his heart.

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Firekeeper's Daughter by  Angeline Boulley

Eighteen-year-old Daunis Fontaine has never quite fit in, both in her hometown and on the nearby Ojibwe reservation. She dreams of a fresh start at college, but when family tragedy strikes, Daunis puts her future on hold to look after her fragile mother. The only bright spot is meeting Jamie, the charming new recruit on her brother Levi’s hockey team.

Yet even as Daunis falls for Jamie, she senses the dashing hockey star is hiding something. Everything comes to light when Daunis witnesses a shocking murder, thrusting her into an FBI investigation of a lethal new drug.

Reluctantly, Daunis agrees to go undercover, drawing on her knowledge of chemistry and Ojibwe traditional medicine to track down the source. But the search for truth is more complicated than Daunis imagined, exposing secrets and old scars. At the same time, she grows concerned with an investigation that seems more focused on punishing the offenders than protecting the victims. (Macmillan Publishers)

Now, as the deceptions—and deaths—keep growing, Daunis must learn what it means to be a strong Anishinaabe kwe (Ojibwe woman) and how far she’ll go for her community, even if it tears apart the only world she’s ever known. (Macmillan Publishers)

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Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

The boys of Huaxia dream of pairing up with girls to pilot Chrysalises, giant transforming robots that can battle the mecha aliens that lurk beyond the Great Wall. It doesn't matter that the girls often die from the mental strain.

When 18-year-old Zetian offers herself up as a concubine-pilot, it's to assassinate the ace male pilot responsible for her sister's death. But she gets her vengeance in a way nobody expected—she kills him through the psychic link between pilots and emerges from the cockpit unscathed. She is labeled an Iron Widow, a much-feared and much-silenced kind of female pilot who can sacrifice boys to power up Chrysalises instead.​

To tame her unnerving yet invaluable mental strength, she is paired up with Li Shimin, the strongest and most controversial male pilot in Huaxia​. But now that Zetian has had a taste of power, she will not cower so easily. She will miss no opportunity to leverage their combined might and infamy to survive attempt after attempt on her life, until she can figure out exactly why the pilot system works in its misogynist way—and stop more girls from being sacrificed. (Penguin Random House)

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Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sanchez 

Perfect Mexican daughters do not go away to college. And they do not move out of their parents’ house after high school graduation. Perfect Mexican daughters never abandon their family.

But Julia is not your perfect Mexican daughter. That was Olga’s role.

Then a tragic accident on the busiest street in Chicago leaves Olga dead and Julia left behind to reassemble the shattered pieces of her family. And no one seems to acknowledge that Julia is broken, too. Instead, her mother seems to channel her grief into pointing out every possible way Julia has failed.

But it’s not long before Julia discovers that Olga might not have been as perfect as everyone thought. With the help of her best friend, Lorena, and her first love (first everything), Connor, Julia is determined to find out. Was Olga really what she seemed? Or was there more to her sister’s story? And either way, how can Julia even attempt to live up to a seemingly impossible ideal? (Penguin Random House).

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By Chance Alone: A Remarkable True Story of Courage and Survival at Auschwitz by Max Eisen

Tibor “Max” Eisen was born in Moldava, Czechoslovakia into an Orthodox Jewish family. He had an extended family of sixty members, and he lived in a family compound with his parents, his two younger brothers, his baby sister, his paternal grandparents and his uncle and aunt. In the spring of1944--five and a half years after his region had been annexed to Hungary and the morning after the family’s yearly Passover Seder--gendarmes forcibly removed Eisen and his family from their home. They were brought to a brickyard and eventually loaded onto crowded cattle cars bound for Auschwitz-Birkenau. At fifteen years of age, Eisen survived the selection process and he was inducted into the camp as a slave labourer.

One day, Eisen received a terrible blow from an SS guard. Severely injured, he was dumped at the hospital where a Polish political prisoner and physician, Tadeusz Orzeszko, operated on him. Despite his significant injury, Orzeszko saved Eisen from certain death in the gas chambers by giving him a job as a cleaner in the operating room. After his liberation and new trials in Communist Czechoslovakia, Eisen immigrated to Canada in 1949, where he has dedicated the last twenty-two years of his life to educating others about the Holocaust across Canada and around the world (HarperCollins).

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Où est ma maison? par Édith Bourget

« Où est ma maison? met en scène trois jeunes vivant des moments déterminants de leur existence. Né à Montréal, Vilmont rêve de découvrir Haïti, le pays de ses parents, ce pays qui coule dans ses veines. Juan, un Colombien adopté avec sa sœur Luisa par Simone, revit son arrivée au Québec quand Odélie, une fillette haïtienne, s’ajoute à la famille. Moonif, un réfugié syrien, n’arrive pas à oublier les horreurs de la guerre qu’il a fuie avec les siens. Trois garçons, trois histoires. […] » -Quatrième de couverture

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Little Sister par  Bénoît Séverac

« C'est difficile d'en vouloir à un grand frère qu'on aime. Difficile aussi d'aimer un frère à qui on en veut autant. Du haut de ses seize ans, Lena fait preuve d'une assurance étonnante. Pourtant sa vie est loin d'être simple. Lena Rodriguez, c'était son nom avant. Sa nouvelle identité, elle ne peut la révéler à personne... Lena a convaincu ses parents de la laisser partir seule quelques jours à Cadaquès, chez son oncle et sa tante catalans. Elle ne leur a pas tout dit. Là-bas, elle a rendez-vous avec Ivan, son grand frère que personne n'a vu depuis quatre ans... depuis qu'il est parti, sans explication, faire le djihad en Syrie. Éditeur » -GoogleBooks

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Washington Black by Esi Edugyan

Washington Black is an eleven-year-old field slave who knows no other life than the Barbados sugar plantation where he was born. When his master's eccentric brother chooses him to be his manservant, Wash is terrified of the cruelties he is certain await him. But Christopher Wilde, or "Titch," is a naturalist, explorer, scientist, inventor, and abolitionist. He initiates Wash into a world where a flying machine can carry a man across the sky; where two people, separated by an impossible divide, might begin to see each other as human; and where a boy born in chains can embrace a life of dignity and meaning. But when a man is killed and a bounty is placed on Wash's head, Titch abandons everything to save him. What follows is their flight along the eastern coast of America, and, finally, to a remote outpost in the Arctic, where Wash, left on his own, must invent another new life

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Never Let Me Go by  Kazuo Ishiguro

Hailsham seems like a pleasant English boarding school, far from the influences of the city. Its students are well tended and supported, trained in art and literature, and become just the sort of people the world wants them to be. But, curiously, they are taught nothing of the outside world and are allowed little contact with it.

Within the grounds of Hailsham, Kathy grows from schoolgirl to young woman, but it’s only when she and her friends Ruth and Tommy leave the safe grounds of the school (as they always knew they would) that they realize the full truth of what Hailsham is (Penguin Random House).

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Little Fires Everywhere by  Celeste Ng

In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is planned—from the layout of the winding roads, to the colors of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules.

Enter Mia Warren—an enigmatic artist and single mother—who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenaged daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother-daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past and a disregard for the status quo that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community.

When old family friends of the Richardsons attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town—and puts Mia and Elena on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia’s past. But her obsession will come at unexpected and devastating costs (Penguin Random House).

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Life After Life by  Kate Atkinson

What if you could live again and again, until you got it right?

On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born to an English banker and his wife. She dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in a variety of ways, while the young century marches on towards its second cataclysmic world war.

Does Ursula’s apparently infinite number of lives give her the power to save the world from its inevitable destiny? And if she can — will she? (Hachette Book Group).

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Station Eleven by  Emily St. John Mandel

A novel about art, fame and ambition set in the eerie days of civilization's collapse. One snowy night a famous Hollywood actor slumps over and dies on-stage during a production of King Lear. Hours later, the world as we know it begins to dissolve. Moving back and forth in time, this novel charts the strange twists of fate that connect five people: the actor, the man who tried to save him, the actor's first wife, his oldest friend, and a young actress with the Travelling Symphony, caught in the cross-hairs of a dangerous self-proclaimed prophet (Ottawa Public Library).

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They Both Die At The End by  Adam Silvera

On September 5, a little after midnight, Death-Cast calls Mateo Torrez and Rufus Emeterio to give them some bad news: They’re going to die today.

Mateo and Rufus are total strangers, but, for different reasons, they’re both looking to make a new friend on their End Day. The good news: There’s an app for that. It’s called the Last Friend, and through it, Rufus and Mateo are about to meet up for one last great adventure—to live a lifetime in a single day (HarperCollins).

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The Inconvenient Indian by  Thomas King

Rich with dark and light, pain and magic, The Inconvenient Indian distills the insights gleaned from Thomas King's critical and personal meditation on what it means to be "Indian" in North America, weaving the curiously circular tale of the relationship between non-Natives and Natives in the centuries since the two first encountered each other. In the process, King refashions old stories about historical events and figures, takes a sideways look at film and pop culture, relates his own complex experiences with activism, and articulates a deep and revolutionary understanding of the cumulative effects of ever-shifting laws and treaties on Native peoples and lands (Penguin Random House).

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The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls

The Glass Castle is a remarkable memoir of resilience and redemption, and a revelatory look into a family at once deeply dysfunctional and uniquely vibrant. When sober, Jeannette’s brilliant and charismatic father captured his children’s imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and how to embrace life fearlessly. But when he drank, he was dishonest and destructive. Her mother was a free spirit who abhorred the idea of domesticity and didn’t want the responsibility of raising a family.

The Walls children learned to take care of themselves. They fed, clothed, and protected one another, and eventually found their way to New York. Their parents followed them, choosing to be homeless even as their children prospered (Simon & Schuster).

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Trahie par Martine Latulippe

« Noémie est en train de terminer le secondaire et tout va pour le mieux pour elle: elle est toujours aussi proche d'Olivia, sa meilleure amie, elle fréquente Lucas depuis huit mois, le beau garçon pour qui elle pince depuis toujours, et elle est très confiante face à son avenir. Tout bascule cependant le 7 juin. Le jour C pour Cauchemar. Alors que la journée commence normalement pour l'adolescente de 17 ans, les autres élèves, même ceux qu'elle ne connaît pas, la dévisagent et la traitent de "bitch" et de "traînée". Ne comprenant pas ce qui suscite une telle réaction, elle apprend d'Olivia qu'une photo d'elle a été publiée sur la page Spotted de l'école. Une photo très révélatrice, qu'une seule personne avait en sa possession: Lucas. (...) [SDM] » -Bibliothèque publique d’Ottawa

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Cœur de perdrix par  Michel Noël

« Shipun et son fils, Nipishish, sont inséparables. Quand ils partent à la chasse à la perdrix, Nipishish observe son père avec attention. Il apprend à chasser pour manger, pas pour tuer. La chasse donne un sens à sa vie d'enfant amérindien. Shipun adresse une prière à l'oiseau. Il arrête de respirer et appuie sur la détente. Le cœur de Nipishish cesse de battre. » -Bibliothèque publique d’Ottawa

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How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa

A young man painting nails at the local salon. A woman plucking feathers at a chicken processing plant. A father who packs furniture to move into homes he'll never afford. A housewife learning English from daytime soap operas. In her stunning Giller Prize-winning debut book of fiction, Souvankham Thammavongsa focuses on characters struggling to make a living, illuminating their hopes, disappointments, love affairs, acts of defiance, and above all their pursuit of a place to belong. In spare, intimate prose charged with emotional power and a sly wit, she paints an indelible portrait of watchful children, wounded men, and restless women caught between cultures, languages, and values. As one of Thammavongsa's characters says, "All we wanted was to live." And in these stories, they do—brightly, ferociously, unforgettably (Penguin Random House).

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Vanishing Half by  Brit Bennett

The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it's not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it's everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Many years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation, when their own daughters' storylines intersect? (Penguin Random House).

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White Teeth by  Zadie Smith

Smith (recently profiled in an issue of The New Yorker) has written an epic tale of two interconnected families. It begins with the suicide attempt of hapless, coin-flipping Archibald Jones on New Year's Day, 1975, and ends, after a 100-year ramble back and forth through time, on New Year's Eve, 1992, with his accidental (or preordained?) release of a poor mutant mouse programmed to do away with the randomness of creation. Smith evokes images of teeth throughout the novel. Do they symbolize some characteristic shared by all of humanity in this novel about ethnicity, class, belonging, homeland, family, adolescence, identity, blindness, and ignorance? Or are they meant to distract the reader from the all-encompassing theme of fate? Smith's characters are tossed about by decisions made deliberately, rashly, or by the flip of a coin. As Smith pieces together this story with bits of fabric from different times and places, the reader must contemplate whether our choices determine our future or whether fate leads us to an inevitable destiny (Library Journal).

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The Road by  Cormac McCarthy

Set in the smoking ashes of a postapocalyptic America, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road tells the story of a man and his son’s journey toward the sea and an uncertain salvation. The world they pass through is a ghastly vision of scorched countryside and blasted cities "held by cores of blackened looters who tunneled among the ruins and crawled from the rubble white of tooth and eye carrying charred and anonymous tins of food in nylon nets like shoppers in the commissaries of hell" [p. 181]. It is a starved world, all plant and animal life dead or dying, some of the few human survivors even eating each other alive.

The father and son move through the ruins searching for food and shelter, trying to keep safe from murderous, roving bands. They have only a pistol to defend themselves, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food–and each other (Penguin Random House).

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Homegoing by  Yaa Gyasi

Two half-sisters, Effia and Esi, unknown to each other, are born into two different tribal villages in 18th century Ghana. Effia will be married off to an English colonist, and will live in comfort in the sprawling, palatial rooms of Cape Coast Castle, raising "half-caste" children who will be sent abroad to be educated in England before returning to the Gold Coast to serve as administrators of the Empire. Her sister, Esi, will be imprisoned beneath Effia in the Castle's women's dungeon, before being shipped off on a boat bound for America, where she will be sold into slavery. Stretching from the tribal wars of Ghana to slavery and Civil War in America, from the coal mines in the north to the Great Migration to the streets of 20th century Harlem, Yaa Gyasi has written a modern masterpiece, a novel that moves through histories and geographies and--with outstanding economy and force--captures the intricacies of the troubled yet hopeful human spirit (Ottawa Public Library).

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Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Malibu: August 1983. It’s the day of Nina Riva’s annual end-of-summer party, and anticipation is at a fever pitch. Everyone wants to be around the famous Rivas: Nina, the talented surfer and supermodel; brothers Jay and Hud, one a championship surfer, the other a renowned photographer; and their adored baby sister, Kit. Together the siblings are a source of fascination in Malibu and the world over—especially as the offspring of the legendary singer Mick Riva.

The only person not looking forward to the party of the year is Nina herself, who never wanted to be the center of attention, and who has also just been very publicly abandoned by her pro tennis player husband. Oh, and maybe Hud—because it is long past time for him to confess something to the brother from whom he’s been inseparable since birth.

Jay, on the other hand, is counting the minutes until nightfall, when the girl he can’t stop thinking about promised she’ll be there.

And Kit has a couple secrets of her own—including a guest she invited without consulting anyone.

By midnight the party will be completely out of control. By morning, the Riva mansion will have gone up in flames. But before that first spark in the early hours before dawn, the alcohol will flow, the music will play, and the loves and secrets that shaped this family’s generations will all come rising to the surface.

Malibu Rising is a story about one unforgettable night in the life of a family: the night they each have to choose what they will keep from the people who made them . . . and what they will leave behind. (Penguin Random House)

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The Break by  Katherena Vermette

When Stella, a young Métis mother, looks out her window one evening and spots someone in trouble on the Break — a barren field on an isolated strip of land outside her house — she calls the police to alert them to a possible crime.

In a series of shifting narratives, people who are connected, both directly and indirectly, with the victim — police, family, and friends — tell their personal stories leading up to that fateful night. Lou, a social worker, grapples with the departure of her live-in boyfriend. Cheryl, an artist, mourns the premature death of her sister Rain. Paulina, a single mother, struggles to trust her new partner. Phoenix, a homeless teenager, is released from a youth detention centre. Officer Scott, a Métis policeman, feels caught between two worlds as he patrols the city. Through their various perspectives a larger, more comprehensive story about lives of the residents in Winnipeg’s North End is exposed (House of Anansi Press).

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Crying in H Mart by  Michelle Zauner

In this exquisite story of family, food, grief, and endurance, Michelle Zauner proves herself far more than a dazzling singer, songwriter, and guitarist. With humor and heart, she tells of growing up one of the few Asian American kids at her school in Eugene, Oregon; of struggling with her mother’s particular, high expectations of her; of a painful adolescence; of treasured months spent in her grandmother’s tiny apartment in Seoul, where she and her mother would bond, late at night, over heaping plates of food.

As she grew up, moving to the East Coast for college, finding work in the restaurant industry, and performing gigs with her fledgling band–and meeting the man who would become her husband–her Koreanness began to feel ever more distant, even as she found the life she wanted to live. It was her mother’s diagnosis of terminal cancer, when Michelle was twenty-five, that forced a reckoning with her identity and brought her to reclaim the gifts of taste, language, and history her mother had given her.

ottawa public library

Miguetsch! Portrait d'un passeur d'histoires par Michel Noël

« Pien est né de l'union entre un Algonquin et une femme blanche qui n'a jamais réussi à s'adapter à la vie en forêt. Cette dernière étant retournée à la ville peu après sa naissance, le jeune métis grandit donc sur une falaise surplombant le lac Cabonga aux côtés de ses grands-parents et de son père, le gérant du tout dernier poste de traite de la Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson. Dans un grand cri d'amour, le narrateur devenu adulte raconte son enfance selon un mode de vie aujourd'hui révolu. […] [SDM] ». -Bibliothèque publique d’Ottawa

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Rap pour violoncelle seul par  Maryse Pagé

« Condamné à effectuer des travaux communautaires, Malik se retrouve dans une résidence pour aînés auprès d'un vieil homme détestable qu'il n'a nulle envie de connaître. Sous la petite délinquance de l'un et l'aigreur de l'autre se cache une sensibilité qui, peu à peu, transformera cette relation forcée en amitié sincère. » -Bibliothèque publique d’Ottawa

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