Special Collections
High Interest Y. A. Novels
Description: High Interest, Low Vocabulary books are for teenagers looking to advance their reading capabilities. Perfect for emerging teen readers. #teens
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Back
by Norah Mcclintock"Back" chronicles the story of Jojo-- an ex-thug -- who has just returned home after serving a two year prison sentence. Despite having reformed, his neighborhood seals itself off from Jojo. But this time, real justive will be done -- even if it involves violence...
Orca Soundings
Play On
by Sandra DierschFast-paced sports action novels that get kids reading. Alecia is about to be adopted by a new stepfather, her soccer team, the Burrards, is preparing for the championship game, and a cute new boy has arrived on the scene. But there are even more changes on the horizon. The team's game is suffering as the players get distracted by other interests. If the Burrards are to make it to the finals, they must renew their commitment to their sport and to each other. Play On is the satisfying conclusion to the acclaimed series that also includes Offside! and Alecia's Challenge.
A Leap of Faith
by Michele Martin BossleyWhen Amy trains for the Novice Canadian Figure Skating Championship she knows the stakes are high. If she does well, she's one step closer to the Olympics; if she doesn't, she's convinced her parents will stop paying for her skating lessons. One day in practice she falls, hard. Afraid she'll miss the championship, she doesn't tell her coach about the screaming pain in her right knee. As the day approaches, however, it gets worse and worse until it threatens to end her skating dreams. "Leap of Faith" shows the extremes to which competitive ambition can drive young athletes, and the consequences that follow.
Two on One
by C. A. ForsythTwins Jeff and Melody are top players on the same hockey team. Jeff is the number one goal-scorer, and almost no one can get a puck past Melody in net. But after a new coach arrives on the scene, Jeff suddenly realizes that his star power comes from being the best on a so-so team. And the better the other players get under the direction of Coach Lehmann, the more attention Melody gets as the team's shining talent. Funny and full of action, Two on One looks at sibling rivalry and what it really means to be the best.
Prove It!
by Sherryl ClarkLeo Marrelli has moved to a hick town that's so small it doesn't even have an arcade. And he's supposed to stay out of trouble. But the harder he tries, the more trouble seems to follow him. In fact, he makes an appointment with trouble for 10 o'clock at Hollows Bridge. And every kid in town comes to see what will happen.
Lizzie's Soccer Showdown
by John DanakasLizzie 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.
Mirror Image
by K. L. DenmanSable wears only black and has always felt that doom is near. Lacey wears pink and seeks beauty everywhere. A sadistic art teacher pairs Sable and Lacey together for their final project. The girls have to get to know one another and select a suitable poem for the back of each other's decorative mirror. Sable is less than thrilled at having to spend time with Lacey, who she believes to be nothing more than a brainless doll. As the project progresses, and Sable gets past her resentment, she learns some surprising truths about who Lacey really is. All of Sable's images begin to change, including the one she holds of herself.
Quid Pro Quo
by Vicki GrantQuid Pro Quo is a high-stakes, fast-moving legal thriller about real people, and funny people at that. Cyril MacIntyre's mother is a twenty-eight-year-old ex-street kid who drags her son to all her law school classes, then proceeds to get herself kidnapped. That aside, Cyril's life isn't too different from that of other thirteen-year-olds. He has all the usual adolescent issues to deal with: parent problems, self-esteem problems, skin, hair and girl problems. He just has legal problems too. And he's got to solve them if he wants to save his mother's life.
Torn Away
by James HeneghanThirteen-year-old Declan lives only for revenge. His mother, father and sister were all killed on the streets of Belfast, and Declan will stop at nothing to settle the score. When he is torn away from his native soil and sent to live with relatives in Canada, he is disgusted by their efforts to welcome him into their lives, and determined to make them regret their hospitality. Can he devise a plan to return to Ireland and rejoin his cause? Or will the strange beauty of his new life and surroundings weaken his resolve?
The Tuesday Cafe
by Don TrembathHarper is sentenced to 40 hours of community service and a 2000-word essay. His mother registers him in a local writing club: "The Tuesday Cafe." Thrust into this educationally challenged group, Harper gets rid of his unfriendly pretense. He learns that self-worth and friendships come from honesty and accountability.
Dunces Anonymous
by Kate JaimetJosh Johnson's mother wants him to run for class president. Josh just wants to run and hide. If only there were a club to help downtrodden eleven-year-olds escape their parents' ambitions! But since no such club exists, Josh has to invent one—he calls it Dunces Anonymous, and before he knows it, the membership is up to three. Magnolia and Wang help Josh lose the school presidential election, but that's just the beginning of the club's activities. Magnolia, pressured by her mom into trying out for the role of Juliet in the school's play, finds herself fending off the advances of an overly amorous Romeo. Wang's father has forced him to join the school chess club, but Wang desperately wants to take fencing lessons instead. As the three friends try to free Magnolia from the school play, liberate Wang from the chess club and get rid of horrible Stacey Hogarth, who has vowed to become the new president of Dunces Anonymous, they realize that they all have talents—if only their parents could see them.
Lightning Rider
by Jacqueline GuestJanuary Fournier, a sixteen-year-old Metis girl, learns her brother is in intensive care after a motorcycle crash. When she arrives at the hospital, the police tell her the crashed bike was stolen, and her brother is now the prime suspect.
Flower Power
by Ann WalshCallie's mother has chained herself to the neighbor's tree and is living inside the treehouse. She refuses to come down until the neighbor, Mr. Wilson, agrees to leave the tree standing. Soon reporters arrive to interview Callie about her mother's protest. Callie doesn't want to talk to anyone. More chaos ensues when Callie's grandmother invites the "singing grannies" to help save the tree, the neighbor's biker friends come to her aid, and Callie's friends show up to try to get themselves on TV. Callie needs to figure out how to get her mother to come down from the tree so that her life can return to normal.
Dancing Naked
by Shelley HrdlitschkaKia is sixteen and pregnant. Her world crumbles as she attempts to come to terms with the life growing inside her and what she must do. Initially convinced that abortion is her only option, Kia comes to understand that for her, the answers are not always black and white. As the pregnancy progresses, Kia discovers who her real friends are and where their loyalties lie. It is through her relationship with the elderly Grace that she learns what it means to take responsibility for one's life and the joy that can come from trusting oneself. Faced with the most difficult decision of her life, Kia learns that the path to adulthood is not the easily navigable trail she once thought, but a twisting labyrinth where every turn produces a new array of choices, and where the journey is often undertaken alone.
Bang
by Norah McclintockAfter a robbery goes terribly wrong, Quentin is framed for murder.
(Orca Soundings)
Death on the River
by John WilsonSurviving prison camp is one thing, but can Jake survive his trip home?
The Shadow Road
by K. V. JohansenIn Book Four of the Warlocks of Talverdin series, half human warlock Nethin is abducted and forced to use his formidable powers to open the shadow road, an action that may have terrible consequences beyond anyone's imagining.
Hockey Heat Wave
by C. A. ForsythMitch Stevens is keen to spend July at a hockey camp in Muskoka--half the time on the ice, and the other half drinking in the sun on the lake. But things start to go wrong right away: his best pal Zack is assigned to a different cabin, and then Zack makes friends with Mitch's worst enemy, Eddie. As they all struggle to make the camp select team, Zack faces a crisis that brings the friends back together--closer than ever. Hockey Heat Wave shows how young hockey players' ambitions can strain friendships--and make them stronger.
Offside!
by Sandra DierschAlecia' s Vancouver soccer team, the Burrards, are a good, hard-fighting squad--her teammates are her friends and her coach is her loving step-dad.When Lexi, a new kid, joins the team, her bad attitude makes things fall apart fast. Alecia decides to find out what makes Lexi so difficult, and to hold the team together, on the field and off."Offside! shows how embracing unexpected change can make teams, and players, stronger.
Gool
by Maurice GeeThe gool cannot be seen, not properly, but Xantee, Lo and their friends sense its evil presence. It lurks in the jungle in rock clefts, an enemy from outside nature. And now a fragment of gool grips Hari by the throat, draining the life from him. They can hold it back with the force of their minds, but for how long? Xantee, Lo and Duro set out on a perilous mission to find the Dog King Tarl, Hari's father, and the ruined city of Belong. Can he help them find the source of the gool? Will they find it in time? And do they have the strength to destroy the mother gool to rid the world of this life-sucking force? Want more Gool? Visit www. salt-the-trilogy. comto read excerpts from each book in the Salt Trilogy and learn more about Maurice Gee.
Crossbow
by Dayle Campbell GaetzFourteen-year-old Matt has only one goal in life: to become a hermit. He has no use for school, but he loves the solitude of the forest. When he hikes up to the cabin he built for himself, he discovers a mysterious stranger named Forrest has moved in. At first Matt doesn't connect Forrest's appearance with the rash of local robberies. Forrest seems to be the perfect hermit, and he teaches Matt the skills he needs to achieve his goal, including how to hunt with a crossbow. But when Forrest tries to kill an endangered Roosevelt elk, Matt questions the ethics of his new friend. When Matt discovers a stolen rifle in his cabin, he finds himself trapped in a dangerous situation.
Rookie Season
by Jacqueline GuestLeigh Aberdeen is determined to win the hockey championship with a new, all-girls team, the Chinooks. So when the coach adds a know-it-all boy to the mix, Leigh is furious. To make matters worse, the team goalie -- Leigh's best friend -- starts mysteriously dropping out from practices just as the Chinooks show they can win. With humour, action, and suspense, Jacqueline Guest weaves these threads together to their surprising conclusion.
The Lottery
by Beth GoobieEvery 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.