14-year-old Sam really, really doesn’t want to move from Toronto to someplace called Sleepy Hollow, way north of nowhere. But move he must. So now he’s the new kid at school, trying to impress the local daredevil, Cody, nick-named Maniac. But wait! Somebody sees what happens one terrible night, and is leaving blog messages and anonymous locker notes. Uh oh.
Dee and her Grandmother live in a small cabin at the outskirts of a rural town. Gran is the town’s midwife and also the one people come to for “medicines” when they are sick. Dee has the “sight”. This means that like her Gran, she has the ability to see spirits from the afterlife, and experience their deaths. Her ‘gift’ which she keeps secret even from her Grandmother tests her endurance when a former friend of hers’ bones are found up on the mountain (she had disappeared approximately four years ago). Everyone thought she’d run away with a boy at the time and now people are remembering other girls who ‘disappeared’ in the past. It isn’t until a new girl is found dead that a Detective from Toronto is sent to find this serial killer in their midst. Dee’s gift of the sight draws her deeper and deeper into this terrifying mystery of murder in a small town.
Marcus is fifteen years old and he hasn’t seen his father in over six months, because he is a Special Forces Officer over in Afghanistan. Marcus, his mother and his sister are eagerly awaiting word from his father in the weeks before he finishes his tour of duty and comes home. The problem is that father is often “off the wire” and has not been in touch with them for weeks, and they are not sure that he is OK. There is a great amount of relief when Marcus’ dad makes it home, and his family celebrates. After a while Marcus notices that something about his father has changed, sometimes he is really happy and then other times he is erratic and aggressive. He barely sleeps and is always online with the soldiers still in Afghanistan. Marcus starts to realize that his father is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, but how do you tell a soldier and a father that it is time he asked for help?
Popular author Gordan Korman has come back with yet another funny, poignant, and action-packed novel. If you love some good ‘ol all-American football and also enjoy making great friendships, then you have something in common with Marcus! Marcus finds himself in a new town in the middle of a boring quiet summer and as he prepares himself for upcoming football try-outs he befriends someone who really needs a friend: the well-known “King of Pop,” aka Charlie, an NFL linebacker star. From football to secrets to school to the challenges of friendship, Marcus finds himself on an adventure, where he must find a way to help his new friend Charlie through a very difficult situation. Does he succeed? To find out be sure to read Pop!
Here is a new series set in the seedy underbelly of Victorian England. Mary is an orphan – and a pickpocket- who is sentenced to hang. She is rescued from the gallows at the last minute and whisked away to Miss Scrimshaw’s Academy for Girls. The Academy is actually a cover for an all-female spy unit called the Agency. Mary’s first assignment has her posing as a lady’s companion to the daughter of a man suspected of fraud and smuggling.
Mary is a feisty, independent heroine and reminds me of a grittier version of Nancy Drew!
Find this book at London Public Library.
“How can I be invisible and visible at the same time?” Henry Bibb, born to a black slave mother and a white father who will never acknowledge this fact, lives a hard life as a slave. Separated from his mother and brothers at a young age, Henry must always “attend” to the whites. He serves them meals, cleans their houses, works in their fields and factories, but he can never make eye contact or let on that he knows how to read and write (against the law!). Henry Bibb was a real person who started Canada’s first Black newspaper and had his autobiography published — all the while fighting for freedom for slaves. Read Dr. Afua Cooper’s gripping story of Henry’s childhood to learn how sorrow and physical pain fuelled a passion for justice.
Find this book at London Public Library.
Meet Nieve: a regular girl in a very irregular situation. All the creepy, evil things her grandmother has warned her about are real – and they’re taking over her hometown. People are disappearing, friends are losing their memories, and Nieve’s family seems to be at the centre of this mystery. Teaming up with a strange eight-toed boy, Nieve sets out to save her friends and banish the creatures. Nieve is a dark, magical book that feels much like a Halloween story. If you’re tired of reading about fairies and vampires, find out what else goes bump in the night!
