Special Collections

Fighting for Gold

Canada is recognized as a leader in men's and women's hockey - but in 2006 Canada had yet to conquer the world of sledge hockey, the Paralympic version of ice hockey played by athletes with a physical disability in the lower part of the body.

Date Added: 05/25/2017

First Time

Haley and Lynn are best friends. When Lynn meets Chad, a player several years older, Haley feels left out. She tries to be happy for her friend, but when her mother's new boyfriend starts making unwanted advances, Haley finds she has no one to tell. Not wanting to upset her mother's happiness and finding that Lynn is drifting away, Haley has to face her tormentor alone and face up to some very hard truths.

Date Added: 05/25/2017

Wild Ride

In this sequel to "Lightning Rider", January and her family have taken in an RCMP summer student as a border. When Willow Whitecloud pulls up on her Kawasaki ZX-10R, January takes an instant liking to her. Willow becomes both a friend and a spiritual guide, who helps January connect with her Native heritage. But January is shocked when a number of clues suggest that her mentor may be involved in illegal activity that threatens the natural world she has taught January to respect.

Date Added: 05/25/2017

The Haunting of Drang Island (Orca Books)

The Haunting of Drang Island is a modern retelling of Old Norse and Icelandic myths. It combines all the best elements of the sagas: strong heroes, powerful enemies and a fast-paced story so full of detail it becomes entirely believable.

Date Added: 05/25/2017

Slam Dunk

Mason's basketball team, the Cabbage town Raptors, is going co-ed after seven successful seasons. He's pretty open-minded about the change, especially after he meets Cindy, a really top-notch player.

Date Added: 05/25/2017

Salt (The Salt Trilogy #1) (Orca Books)

In this compelling fantasy Hari and Pearl must discover the secrets of Deep Salt in order to rescue Hari's father Tarl. Their journey becomes far more than a quest to save Tarl-- their world is on the brink of unspeakable terror.

Date Added: 05/25/2017

Riley Park

Seventeen-year-old Corbin plays hockey and is known as a scrapper on and off the ice. Fighting makes him feel strong. Corbin's friend, Darius, is socially adept and popular, and Darius's reckless risk-taking makes Corbin feel alive. With Rubee, a girl both boys like, Darius crosses a line, and after a party at Riley Park, Darius and Corbin are attacked. Darius is killed; Corbin is seriously injured. Corbin fights his clouded memory—he can't identify the assailants. He fights his weakened body—he can no longer play hockey. He fights the loss of his friend. But when he gives up the fight, he finds strength in acceptance. This short novel is a high-interest, low-reading level book for teen readers who are building reading skills, want a quick read or say they don’t like to read!

Date Added: 05/25/2017

Learning to Fly

Jason is an outsider. A recent immigrant from China, he lives in a close-minded town with his mother and younger brother. Falling in with the wrong crowd, trying to fit in, Jason takes chances and ends up in trouble with the police. Holding on to his friendship with an Indigenous boy, also an outsider, Jason finds he needs to fight to belong and to find a new home.

Date Added: 05/25/2017

Speaking Our Truth

Canada's relationship with its Indigenous people has suffered as a result of both the residential school system and the lack of understanding of the historical and current impact of those schools.

Healing and repairing that relationship requires education, awareness and increased understanding of the legacy and the impacts still being felt by survivors and their families.

Guided by acclaimed Indigenous author Monique Gray Smith, readers will learn about the lives of Survivors and listen to allies who are putting the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission into action.

Date Added: 03/15/2018

Escalate

Team Retribution has been contacted by a teen who is being blackmailed into handing over secrets from the family business. Jace, with the help of his brother, Bentley, start to investigate and soon learn that the teen's family, like his own, is not what it appears to be. Jace, after learning he was switched at birth, then sets out to track down his birth family. The Retribution series is made up of six books, the original three, Burned, Exposed and Unleashed, and the three sequels, Terminate, Infiltrate and Escalate, by authors Natasha Deen, Judith Graves and Sigmund Brouwer. The RETRIBUTION series: "These interconnected narratives are page-turning reads, offering adventure, intrigue, and satisfying retribution. Jace, Josie, and Raven are fiercely independent, clever, and intelligent protagonists; each has a rich backstory and an engaging narrative voice that hooks readers from the beginning. Will appeal to a wide range of readers, including reluctant readers who need a quick hook." - VOYA

Date Added: 03/15/2018

Shooting Star

Quyen is a basketball star at her Ottawa school until a fight with her coach forces her to find another team. Her new teammates are hard to get along with and one of them goes out of her way to pick on Quyen. Then, when her parents start acting strangely, Quyen is forced to confront her family's past in Vietnam in order to face the challenges of the present. Shooting Star is a touching story of how past tragedy affects future generations, for good and ill.

Date Added: 05/25/2017

Long Shot

When Nick and Kia arrive for try-outs for the basketball team they played on the previous year, they are surprised to meet their new coach. Coach Barkley is a former college star known for his fierce desire to win. Though the coach has been away from the game for many years, his competitive instincts are as strong as ever and his aggressive coaching techniques are a new experience for these kids. Suddenly making the rep team no longer seems the sure thing that Nick and Kia expected when they came to try-outs. This is hard on Nick and Kia, but especially difficult for the coach's son, L.B., who is also trying out for the team. When the coach matches them up against a team of older players and then refuses to accept their loss, the kids begin to wonder if they even want to make this team. Nick, Kia and L.B. finally have to decide whether to play for a tyrant or to take a stand on principle and face the consequences.

Date Added: 05/25/2017

Thunderbowl

Jeremy's band, Thunderbowl, is hot, and they have had their first big break -- a long-term gig at a local bar. The problem is that while Jeremy should be keeping up with his school work, he is spending most nights in a rowdy club, trying to keep the band together. Balancing dreams of success with the realities of the music business force Jeremy to make tough choices.

Date Added: 05/25/2017

Walking Backward

When Josh's mother dies in a phobia-induced car crash, she leaves two questions for her grieving family: how did a snake get into her car and how do you mourn with no faith to guide you? Twelve-year-old Josh is left alone to find the answers. His father is building a time machine. His four-year-old brother's closest friend is a plastic Power Ranger. His psychiatrist offers nothing more than a blank journal and platitudes. Isolated by grief in a home where every day is pajama day, Josh makes death his research project. He tests the mourning practices of religions he doesn't believe in. He tries to mend his little brother's shattered heart. He observes, records and waits—for his life to feel normal, for his mother's death to make sense, for his father to come out of the basement. His observations, recorded in a series of journal entries, are funny, smart, insightful—and heartbreaking. His conclusions about the nature of love, loss, grief and the space-time continuum are nothing less than life-changing.

Date Added: 05/25/2017

Lizzie's Soccer Showdown

Lizzie has just been named captain of the soccer team - the boys' soccer team, that is. For a shy twelve year old, that's a problem. Lizzie never dreamed anything like this would happen when she asked if the boys and girls could play on the same team. Now that the principal knows her name and the editor of the school newspaper wants an interview, Lizzie wishes she could disappear.Worse still, the boys are treating the team as a big joke, and Lizzie just knows they have something planned to get even.Find out what it is in this interesting new novel from John Danakas.

Date Added: 05/25/2017

The Lottery

Every student at Saskatoon Collegiate knew that all the most important aspects of school life were controlled by a secret club called Shadow Council. Each fall, Shadow held a traditional lottery during which a single student's name was drawn. The rest of the student body called the student the lottery winner. But Shadow Council knew better; to them, the winner was the lottery victim. Whatever the label, the fated student became the Council's gofer, delivering messages of doom to selected targets. In response, the student body shunned the lottery winner for the entire year. This year's victim was fifteen-year-old Sally Hanson.

Date Added: 05/25/2017

War of the Eagles

During WWII, Jed’s English father serves as a fighter pilot overseas, while Jed and his mother move back to her Tsimshian community on Canada's west coast. When the military sets up a naval base in town, Jed is hired to help out, honored it seems, for both his father's bravery and his own native skills as a hunter. Presented with a military jacket, Jed finds an allegiance to his country and a pride in his mixed heritage that he's never felt before.    But one day Jed's world is shattered. His best friend Tadashi, along with the other members of the nearby Japanese village, are declared enemy aliens and told to prepare to leave their homes. Now Jed must ask himself where his allegiance really belongs…to his country's rigid code, or to the truth that is buried in his Tsimshian soul.    War of the Eagles is the first of two books in a series. Book two is Caged Eagles.

Date Added: 05/25/2017

Out

After several shocking events, Alex must decide where his loyalties and beliefs lie.

Date Added: 05/25/2017

Water Fight!

Josie's sister Melissa is too perfect, better than her in everything--except in the pool. Josie dreams of Olympic swimming gold, and works hard with her Calgary swim team to achieve it. So when Melissa decides to join the team too, Josie is outraged and afraid that, once again, her sister will beat her. But as the big invitational swim meet approaches Melissa acts to help make Josie's dream come true, and forces them both to reconsider the value of sisterhood. "Water Fight!" is the story of two sisters who overcome sibling rivalry and learn to be themselves.

Date Added: 05/25/2017

Worst Date Ever

Jennie has been a widow for two years. Her twelve-year-old son thinks it's about time she started dating, and so does her best friend, Angela. So with Angela's help, Jennie signs up to an online dating site. Within hours, she has several dates lined up for the week. Surely there will be one Prince Charming in the bunch. And if not, it's only one date, right? How bad could it be?

Date Added: 03/15/2018

Sink or Swim

Dario Cavalito has his summer plans all mapped out: he's going to split his time between the basketball court and his Uncle Vinny's cafe, the "Via Granita," off Commercial Drive in a funky Vancouver neighborhood. His plans are derailed, however, when his mother tells him he' s going to summer camp--to a water sports camp, no less. Dario can barely do the dog paddle, so he's not exactly thrilled. When he finally gets tired of playing sick and hiding in the camp's infirmary, he finds he actually kind of likes the water. As the camp's sailing regatta approaches, he fights to overcome the last of his reluctance and to win big. Packed with action and humour, "Sink or Swim" is a story about a boy overcoming his fears and striving for his best performance.

Date Added: 05/25/2017

Innocent Heroes

A unique celebration of the important role animals play in war, and an insightful look at the taking of Vimy Ridge from the perspective of 3 men in a Canadian platoon.Never before have the stories of animal war heroes been collected in such a special way. This book consists of eight connected fictional stories about a Canadian platoon in WW1. The Storming Normans have help from some very memorable animals: we meet a dog who warns soldiers in the trench of a gas attack, a donkey whose stubbornness saves the day, a cat who saves soldiers from rat bites, and many more. Each story is followed by nonfiction sections that tell the true story of these animals from around the world and of the Canadian soldiers who took Vimy Ridge. Through the friendship that grows between three of these soldiers in particular, we get a close-up look at life in the trenches, the taking of Vimy Ridge, the bonds between soldiers and their animals and what it meant to be Canadian in WW1.From the Hardcover edition.

Date Added: 03/27/2018

Overdrive

A street race ends in a tragic accident. Jake's friends tell him to run, but he doesn't know if he can—or should—run from the truth. Jake has finally got his driver's license, and tonight he has his brother's car as well. He and his friend Mickey take the car out and cruise the strip. When they challenge another driver to a street race, a disastrous chain reaction causes an accident. Jake and Mickey leave the scene, trying to convince themselves they were not involved. Jake finds he cannot pretend it didn't happen and struggles with deciding on the right thing to do. Should he pretend he was not involved? Or should he go to the police? The epub edition of this title is fully accessible.

Date Added: 05/25/2017

Tripping

An opportunity to escape a dull summer -- and perhaps to find a future for herself after high school - persuades Rainey Williamson to join a school-sponsored program that will take her and five other teenagers on an eight-week road trip across Canada. The challenge of this journey is heightened, in view of the fact that Rainey has had to wear an artificial leg from birth. On the eve of her getaway, a crucial complication arises: she finds out that the mother who left when she was just a few months old is alive and well and living in Squamish, B. C. , directly on the route of the student expedition. What's more, her mother now wants to see her. Rainey's ambivalent at the prospect, to say the least. The cross-country trip begins, and she soon meets the others who become friends and comrades, all with issues and challenges to deal with. Rainey discovers her own strengths as she struggles with the decision about whether or not to meet her mother and figuring out what she might do with her life. In the end she discovers that her family tree is more extensive than she'd thought - and that taking chances provides perspective, opportunity, and a springboard from which to launch her future - and even a way back home. The story is laced with Heather Waldorf's customary sharp intelligence and sense of humour - and her understanding of the themes teenagers are most engaged with.

Date Added: 05/25/2017

Perfect Revenge

Lizzie Lane is used to life at the top of the food chain. Her near-perfect life is ruined when Rachel, a girl she socially destroyed, exacts her revenge by getting Lizzie in trouble for cheating on a test. Friendless and facing detention, Lizzie obsesses over finding the perfect revenge. When Stella, Lizzie's strange new neighbor, teaches Lizzie about magick, Lizzie can't resist creating a revenge spell. But she forgets the "rule of three," that whatever spell you cast comes back on you three-fold, and her zit spell backfires with dramatic results. When she asks for help from Stella's Baba, the only advice she gets is to "write the lesson of the zit on her heart." Can Lizzie find a way to teach Rachel a lesson without causing permanent disfigurement to herself? This short novel is a high-interest, low-reading level book for middle-grade readers who are building reading skills, want a quick read or say they don’t like to read! The epub edition of this title is fully accessible. Also available in French.

Date Added: 05/25/2017