 

Youth Reads

These are the books our Youth Ambassadors are currently reading.
What are YOU reading? Would you like to find out more about Atlantic Canadian Books?

Ten Thousand Truths

By Susan White

Acorn Press

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A moving story of losing family but finding a new one.Thirteen-year-old Rachel is bad news, or so her foster care worker tells her. She’s been shuttled from one rotten foster family to another ever since her mother and brother died in a car accident five years ago, and she’s running out of options. So when she gets caught shoplifting and is kicked out of her latest home, the only place left to send her is the last resort for kids like her: a farm in the middle of nowhere run by a disfigured recluse named Amelia Walton, whom Rachel nicknames “Warty” because of the strange lumps covering her face and neck. Rachel settles into life at the farm, losing herself in her daily chores and Amelia’s endless trivia, and trying to forget her past and the secret she’s holding inside. But when a letter arrives for her out of the blue, Rachel soon realizes that you can’t hide from your past-or your future.

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Alicia

Last Witness

By Glen Carter

Breakwater Books

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A mysterious letter has reached retired FBI agent Frank Malloy. A letter bearing a name from a lifetime ago, from a woman who claims she saw what really happened on the day John F. Kennedy died in Dallas. Many were there to film the president, but Helena Storozhenko snapped a photo on November 22, 1963, that would have changed everything. Then she vanished. Until now. From her death bed in Odessa, the Babushka Lady provides a piece of evidence that will send Malloy and network television host Jack Doyle on a desperate search for the truth. has summoned Malloy and finally reveals what she witnessed in Dealey Plaza. Malloy and Doyle need each other to solve a decades-old mystery, and to stop an assassin who is driven by the same evil which changed the world so tragically – so long ago. It all comes down to one place, one time, and one bullet as they race to prevent history from repeating itself – more than fifty years after a president was brutally slain – and Helena Storozhenko was The Last Witness.  

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Emily

Beach Reading

By Lorne Elliott   

Acorn Press

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Lorne Elliott’s new novel, Beach Reading, takes us back to the early 1970s on the North Shore of Prince Edward Island, where a hilarious and colourful cast of Lorne Elliott characters are engaged in uproarious political, financial, musical, amorous, and ecological shenanigans. Our young hero, Christian, is an eloquently wry and precocious university drop-out, who has never savoured the wonders of women or alcohol. A budding naturalist raised in central Canada, he arrives on PEI for a summer job in the newly-established Barrisway National Park, and sets up camp on the beach. There, he becomes enmeshed in the struggles of the boisterous MacAkrin siblings to remain in their park-enclosed home, rivalries and lustful longings at park headquarters, and the skullduggeries of an Island political campaign. Lorne Elliott gloriously conjures the mischief and zaniness, the lovable rascals and lamentable rogues, of Island life behind the tourist posters. He deftly evokes the kindness and camaraderie of Islanders, and the Island’s high-spirited revelry. Beach Reading transforms the Land of Anne and Avonlea into the land of Wallace MacAkrin, the Barley Boys, and Barrisway. “Come play on our Island,” as the tourist slogan says, and you’ll be laughing with bittersweet delight for days.

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Darby

Nimbus Publishing

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When Allison Watson awoke that day, she knew she was in a hospital bed. That’s all. She had no idea how much time had passed since she had seen her family. When she tried to focus, her vision was blurry, and when she tried to wave someone down, she became so exhausted she thought she was dying. Hours later, when Watson was able to communicate, she asked a nurse if the news was good or bad. “It’s good news,” the nurse replied. “You had your lung transplant four days ago.”

About 4,100 people in Canada have cystic fibrosis, and many are living longer today, thanks, in part, to transplants. CF mainly affects the digestive system and lungs, and there is no cure. In this candid memoir, Watson describes living with the disease and her life-altering surgery in 2014. Watson and her sister, Amy, both grew up with CF, and Allison had always believed that Amy would be the one to get a transplant first. The decision to undergo surgery was not easy. Nor was the road to full recovery. In this book, Watson, who cycled across Canada with her brother in 2008 to raise awareness of CF, describes her journey.

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Hidayah

Too Dumb for Democracy?

by David Moscrop 

Goose Lane Editions

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Brexit. Trump. Ford Nation. In this timely book, David Moscrop asks why we make irrational political decisions and whether our stone-age brains can process democracy in the information age.
In an era overshadowed by income inequality, environmental catastrophes, terrorism at home and abroad, and the decline of democracy, Moscrop argues that the political decision-making process has never been more important. In fact, our survival may depend on it.

Drawing on both political science and psychology, Moscrop examines how our brains, our environment, the media, and institutions influence decision-making. Making good decisions is not impossible, Moscrop argues, but the psychological and political odds are sometimes stacked against us. In this readable and provocative investigation of our often-flawed decisions, Moscrop explains what's going wrong in today's political landscape and how individuals, societies, and institutions can work together to set things right.

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Moriya

No One Knows about us

By Bridget Canning

Breakwater Books

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Award-winning author Bridget Canning returns with an incisive and unsettling collection that considers what it means to be good—or to be a villain—in our relationships with others. No One Knows about Us is a collection of short fiction about how we find connection in a disconnected world. Relationships exist under the wire, and conversations and revelations occur in secret pockets, both literally and physically. The characters conduct secret acts of vengeance, kindness, and vigilantism motivated by their hidden yearnings, grudges, losses, fears, and fixations.  

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Savannah

Breakwater Books

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A unique and engaging perspective of humanity – a journey to wisdom shared through stories of self-awareness, acceptance, and discovery, by acclaimed psychotherapist Dr. Hassan Khalili.
In A Life Spent Listening, Dr. Hassan Khalili reflects on four decades of being a frontline community psychotherapist and shares the wisdom he has learned over the years. By inviting the reader into his own life and the lives of his patients, Dr. Khalili explores the human condition and explains his concept of the grid as a guiding principle in his psychological practice. The book takes us from his experience as a young Iranian immigrant in Newfoundland and Labrador to his role as one of the top psychologists in the province, by way of his adventures hiking Machu Picchu and Mount Kilimanjaro. Dr. Khalili illuminates what it means to seek contentment and how we hold the key to our own happiness.   

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Oliver

Kira's Secret

By Orysia Dawydiak    

Acorn Press

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Twelve-year-old Kira loves to swim. But her parents, who adopted her as a baby, have forbidden her to go near the sea where they live on the north Atlantic coast. Frustrated by their rules, Kira decides to rebel and jumps into the icy waters. She is shocked by what she learns about herself. With the help of her friend Cody, Kira begins the search for her original family. She soon discovers why her adoptive parents were afraid to let her go into the sea.

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Naequan

Treasons Edge

By Susan MacDonald

Breakwater Books

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Being a teenager is hard enough. It’s even more difficult when you have supernatural powers you barely understand. Now that Alec and his terrifying abilities are under the control of the traitorous Anna, it’s up to Riley to save her friend before the entire world comes undone. And she’s running out of time.  

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Ariela

 
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