Cold

Written by Mariko Tamaki

Roaring Brook Press

978-1-62672-273-6

240 pp.

Ages 12-18

February 2022

He was already getting used to being so much less than he was when he was alive. Maybe because there's something in death that makes being nothing feel natural. Maybe because he had somehow always been a sort of figment. (pg. 49)

On a cold January night, seventeen-year-old Todd Mayer died, naked except for a pair of hand-knitted pink mittens, and found in Rosemary Peacock Park by a dog the next morning. Now a ghost, Todd watches and remembers as his death is investigated by Detectives Greevy and Daniels, seemingly disregarded by classmates at his private boys' school, and considered by Georgia Walker who never even knew Todd. 

 

Georgia hears of Todd's death from Carrie Harper, a new friend who was the former friend of the uber popular Shirley Mason. The girls are still negotiating their newfound friendship and one thing they spend time talking about is Todd's death. In fact, they go to the scene of the crime, discuss alibis and such. But Georgia begins to get a bad feeling when she realizes Todd went to school with her older brother Mark and may have even visited their house. So, as Georgia starts to question her brother and others to learn more about Todd and perhaps his death, Todd, as a ghost, watches as detectives question his virtually-silent peers and his teachers, including Mr. McVeeter, a social studies teacher who offered Todd support and refuge from bullies. But, as he watches and recognizes the mistakes he made and the complexity of his choices and of his feelings, Todd remembers all that led to his death and those involved.

Told in the alternating voices of Georgia and Todd as Todd's death is revealed and investigated, Cold takes a hard look at how the lives of two teens unknowingly come together. Both had recognized they were gay and were finding ways to deal with it for themselves, sometimes with support from others. Still, they were struggling: Todd at a private boys' school where those who were deemed different were persecuted, and Georgia with her mother, a children's book author who tactlessly used her children as the basis for her stories. That may be their only obvious commonality, other than seeking to fit in and avoid harassment, a goal of many school-age young people, but it's their endeavour to find the truth and share that truth that supersedes all. Georgia needs to find out what happened to Todd and how her brother may or may not be involved. Todd needs to take responsibility for his actions which may or may not have led to his death and make things right for those who had trusted him. In Cold, Mariko Tamaki, who has never shied away from weighty issues of young people coming of age, including conflicts in friendship, questions of sexuality and balancing family with friends, tells a complex mystery wrapped in a story of trying to survive challenging social circumstances. While the solution to the mystery of Todd's death is never fully realized until the end, Mariko Tamaki has kept the teens' circumstances so familiar and common that her explanation sadly makes perfect sense.

The cold, hard facts of Cold are that a teen died because he was perceived as different while he was determined to make positive connections with others. He did what he could but others made choices that were ill-considered at best and thoughtless and despicable at worst. And Mariko Tamaki shows us, with hindsight, choices made, independent of intentions, have consequences and we can only hope that they hurt no one and can be endured and even survived.

kā-āciwīkicik / The Move

Written by Doris George and Don K. Philpot

Illustrated by Alyssa Koski

Heritage House

978-1-77203-409-7

48 pp.

Ages 4-8

May 2022

The story of kā-āciwīkicik or The Move, a dual-language picture book, begins with an elderly Cree couple looking out from their new house in a rocky barren land, having moved from their old place beside a river close to a lake, land covered with trees, and brush and meadows. As upset as the old woman is in having to leave so much behind, her husband tells her that "There's nothing we can do to change things".  But he's wrong.

 

From kā-āciwīkicik / The Move by Doris George and Don K. Philpot, illus. by Alyssa Koski

Recalling the belief of her grandmother, a diviner, that the spirits would extend help when asked, the old woman first wishes for some trees so that she might have wood to smoke her fish and moose hides. With that, a group of black ash appear and root themselves in the yard. Consequently, the old man gathers some old wood and, in addition to making a smudge, starts a fire for his wife's drying racks.

From kā-āciwīkicik / The Move by Doris George and Don K. Philpot, illus. by Alyssa Koski

When the couple's daughter and two grandchildren come to visit, they reminisce about the old songs, and their activities like making maple sugar candy and weaving baskets from birch bark. With a wish, maple and birch trees then appear, along with spruce, and the elderly couple get to work tapping the trees and boiling sap, as well as cutting strips of bark and gathering roots for baskets. Moreover they can now share with their grandchildren the skills of those springtime activities.

When summer comes and the old woman remembers picking saskatoon berries for bannock and winter storage, she laments how far away they are from the berries now. With a clap of thunder and a heave of the ground, a trail appears and saskatoon berries materialize everywhere. It is finally then that the old woman looks out over their new home and land, and recognizes that, "It's good here."

From kā-āciwīkicik / The Move by Doris George and Don K. Philpot, illus. by Alyssa Koski

Though there are supernatural elements to Doris George and Don K. Philpot's story, it is a story rooted in reality and history. Their "Authors' Note" recalls the building of a dam in northern Manitoba in the early 1960s and the relocation of the Chemawawin Cree Nation from ancestral lands. It's the contrast of the old with the new but also the establishment of a new familiarity that is significant. What the Cree couple leave behind is tradition, family, culture and home. But, they are able to re-establish all, with a little spiritual assistance, to continue providing for themselves and others and build a new life. While the disruption caused by forced relocations is very real, authors Doris George and Don K. Philpot emphasize that the quality of life travels with the couple. With their resilience, they make it work.  

Alyssa Koski of Kainai Nation transitions the couple from the greyness of their stark new land to its promise. She gives us contemplation in the old woman's face, purpose in their activities, and hope in the lushness of the new greenness. By juxtaposing the real with the unreal, Alyssa Koski takes us into Doris George and Don K. Philpot's First Nation experience story of ancestry, upheaval and survival and, with colour and shape, shows us the continuity that inspires and reassures.

Sun Wishes

Written by Patricia Storms

Illustrated by Milan Pavlović

Groundwood Books

978-1-77306-450-5

32 pp.

Ages 3-6

May 2022

 

It's the middle of summer and the sun is out in all its glorious warmth and brightness. But what of all the other things the sun does through each day, around world and year round? As a child imagines what the sun sees and feels, Sun Wishes lets us see all of its glory from a different perspective.

From Sun Wishes by Patricia Storms, illus. by Milan Pavlović

"If I were the sun..." is how this reflection on the sun's activities begins. From singing a gentle morning song to awaken life, including the flowers, insects and other animals, to brightening a gloomy day after a rain to accompany a grandfather and grandson fishing. In other global locations, it inspires "a vivid tapestry" in rice fields and on the African savannah, in the oceans, in the trees and among forests.

Oh, to be the sun! To swing and sway

with the mountains and trees

and dance across luminous waters.

From Sun Wishes by Patricia Storms, illus. by Milan Pavlović

Even in the winter, the sun is there to warm snow angel-making children. And always, at the end of a busy day, the child imagines itself as the sun going to rest peacefully "knowing tomorrow I would shine once more."

From Sun Wishes by Patricia Storms, illus. by Milan Pavlović

Sun Wishes is an ode to the sun through the imaginings of a child recognizing the sun's omnipresence and its many  powers. It's actually amazing how evocative Patricia Storms's text and Milan Pavlović's art are in reflecting the sun's warmth and brightness, the dreariness of a grey day or the cool wetness of an ocean. The colours and life called up in words and illustrations are tangible, cooling in the heat of our own summer days and glittering in a storm's aftermath.

Patricia Storms, along with husband Guy Storms, first collaborated with artist Milan Pavlović on Moon Wishes (Groundwood, 2019). That same partnership now takes us into a different poetic reverie, that of a child looking at a celestial entity and envisioning all that it might experience.  From play to harvest, family and solitude, the sun attends to all, in its full range of colours and vibrancy. And, as this child does, we should respect and honour that vitality, in its bringing of life and overseeing it in its many forms.

The Return of the Mummy (The Lunch Club #5)

Written and illustrated by Dom Pelletier

English text by Dina Ginzburg

Scholastic Canada

978-1-4431-9584-3

136 pp.

Ages 7-10

July 2022 

 

In Dom Pelletier's latest volume of his hysterical middle grade graphic novel series, the members of the secret Lunch Club a.k.a. the Philately Club must do some ingenious problem solving with time travel in order to help their teacher, Mr. Peabody, and the original founder of their club, Eglantine, from the nefarious actions of a trio of evil-doers.

From The Return of the Mummy (The Lunch Club #5) by Dom Pelletier

Determined to save himself from being eaten by Fluffy the sea monster in 1803, the villainous McSticky transports himself back in time, along with the huge moustachioed space monster Zaralgax and his mutant rat companion. Sadly Mr. Peabody is accidentally transported too. But time travel is not necessarily straightforward and the group ends up in various times before the bad guys end up where they want to be. 

From The Return of the Mummy (The Lunch Club #5) by Dom Pelletier

Meanwhile Tia and Leo end up bringing back to the school a mummy they release from a sarcophagus while on a field trip to the museum and discover, through some very funny circumstances, that it is actually someone they know who hoped to be discovered in the future. With a lot more laughs and some more time travel from the future and into the past, Tia and Leo are able to save Eglantine before McSticky changes the course of history and gets Fluffy to eat her instead.

From The Return of the Mummy (The Lunch Club #5) by Dom Pelletier

There will be belly laughs, quiet snickers and loud guffaws from kids as they again visit with Leo and Tia and Mr. Peabody in Dom Pelletier's The Lunch Club. Their teachers and parents will understand the irreverence of the stories but kids will just laugh. From Leo who is always getting into mischief like trying to wake up a mummy–"Hey, Mummy, wakey-wakey!"– or sticking fridge magnets to his braces, and Mr. Peabody who can sleep anytime and for long periods, courtesy of a radioactive mosquito, to the odd villains who annoy them, Dom Pelletier has created the weird and wonderful in The Lunch Club. Add a heavy dose of the fantastic, with time-travel, aliens, and wacky contraptions, and The Lunch Club is the place for middle grade readers to visit for a literary snack.

 

• • • • •

The Lunch Club (originally available in French as Les timbres):

#1 It Came From the Basement

#2 The Curse of the Scarewolf

#3 The Mutant Mouse from Outer Space

#4 Revenge of the Bigfoot

#5 The Return of the Mummy

 

Do check out the website dedicated to The Lunch Club, including activities, videos and learning to draw with Dom Pelletier, at Scholastic Canada here.

• • • • •

One Summer in Whitney Pier

Written by The Honourable Mayann Francis

Illustrated by Tamara Thiébaux-Heïkalo

Nimbus Publishing

978-1-77108-960-9

32 pp.

Ages 4-9

May 2022

The Honourable Mayann Francis, Nova Scotia's first Black lieutenant-governor, takes us back to the Cape Breton community of her youth, a place of diversity that gives her the context for her latter vocation. This story takes place two years later from Mayann's First Ride, Mayann Francis's first collaboration with artist Tamara Thiébaux-Heïkalo, and during a 1950s summer which is bountiful with possibilities, even if Mayann doesn't see them at first.

From One Summer in Whitney Pier by Mayann Francis, illus. by Tamara Thiébaux-Heïkalo

With her best friends Eunice and Betty going away, Mayann is faced with filling her time. Though baseball seems a possibility, the Hankard Street Crew tell her she is too young. When she tells her father, a church minister, that there's nothing to do, he suggests she help her mother and him to see how much there really is to do. 

From One Summer in Whitney Pier by Mayann Francis, illus. by Tamara Thiébaux-Heïkalo

There's cooking of her many favourite Caribbean meals, learning to make fudge and soft drinks and baking of cakes and pies to share with neighbours. She helps out at the church, watches her sixteen-year-old sister play baseball, and embroiders. And then she realizes she can combine several of those activities and, with a little help from her friends who return early from holidays, do more good for her community.

From One Summer in Whitney Pier by Mayann Francis, illus. by Tamara Thiébaux-Heïkalo

The Honourable Mayann Francis takes us to a different time and place in One Summer in Whitney Pier. It's a time when summers were not filled with camps, scheduled activities, and tech, and days stretched with opportunities. It's a place where people shared food, and cooking and baking were full-day endeavours. 1950s Whitney Pier was everything to a young Mayann Francis to discover what she could and would enjoy doing and to become a part of something more significant.

That feel to the book also comes from Tamara Thiébaux-Heïkalo's artwork, a blend of pencil and watercolours, giving it a softness appropriate for a nostalgic look at Whitney Pier. The girls wear skirts and white socks, the kids ride their bikes down streets waving to others, and sewing was a skill encouraged in girls. Whitney Pier may not be like that anymore but it gave Mayann Francis a foundation for a life as a public servant and human rights authority and will now give young readers a historical perspective–as well as a couple of recipes–on summers once lived and well spent.

When the Wind Came

Written by Jan Andrews

Illustrated by Dorothy Leung

Kids Can Press

978-1-5253-0339-5

32 pp.

Ages 4-7

June 2022

 

When the Wind Came is a story of reminiscences. Its narrator, a pig-tailed child who loves to read, recalls how life was on their family farm. It may be a different time, with a mother pulling out weeds by hand and with an earthen root cellar for storing food, but its story is one for all time. 

From When the Wind Came by Jan Andrews, illus. by Dorothy Leung

Living on a farm, a child remembers her father tending the cattle, her mother weeding with a baby playing on a blanket nearby. She also remembers that baby brother whimpering endlessly while she reads beneath a tree. And then the wind comes and everything changes.

I remember my mother

grabbing up my baby brother.

I remember her running 

with him in her arms.

 

I remember my father opening

the door to the root cellar.

She remembers the darkness and the silence, and then coming out to witness the destruction of that wind. 

Our home was gone

when we came out.

From When the Wind Came by Jan Andrews, illus. by Dorothy Leung

As they attempt to retrieve anything that might have survived, her mother cobbles together some food, and it is the child's job to clean the dishes.

I don't know why I did it.

I wasn't even thinking.

Maybe I was crying.

Maybe tears were running down my cheeks.

What she did was make bubbles.

We may hear of devastating storms more nowadays because of media reporting and people sharing on social media but those catastrophes have always been there and those who've endured them do just that. They endure. They pick themselves up and get on with things. Even with unfathomable destruction and losses, they try to go on. They find food and do dishes and maybe even have a laugh before they leave it all behind. And Jan Andrews takes us into their family and their pain and their tenacity. She makes us feel the child's frustration with a wailing baby, the force of the storm, and the ruination of their home. She also gives us a family living off the land, accepting nature's unpredictability, and always showing resilience.

The youngCanLit world lost a literary legend when Jan Andrews passed unexpectedly in 2017. She could write it all: picture books, middle grade, short stories, and young adult novels. She was always a storyteller (first president of the Storytellers of Canada) who'd won the Silver Birch Express Award in 2012 for When Apples Grew Noses and White Horses Flew: Tales of Ti-Jean, was awarded the Order of Canada, and was nominated for multiple Governor General's Literary Awards. Even five years from her passing, we have another extraordinary tale of resilience housed in a story of tragedy. The storm that brings the wind and destroys the family farm is pivotal but it's the response to that catastrophe that is the true story. It's a story of seeing beyond the dark, finding a lightness in that gloom. The wind may have brought destruction and despair but it also revealed that which was there all along: resilience. It was creating sparkles of joy from soap, bubbles that entertained and distracted and changed nothing and changed everything. From something little during something monumental, faith for a future was found.

Dorothy Leung is a new pencil (and paint) creator in children's book illustration and she impresses with her take on this important story. The vastness of the farm setting, the force of that storm, and the normality of a family's response are all evident through her use of colour and shape. The contrast of the dryness of those fields and the power of that destructive wind is almost tactile, and definitely convincing. She has fortified Jan Andrews's story with her art.

We will continue to hear about devastating weather and its impact on communities but Jan Andrews and Dorothy Leung's picture book shows us that, when the winds come, there will always be stories to tell of resilience and possibility.

White Lies

Written by Sara de Waard

DCB

978-1-77086-649-2

224 pp.

Ages 13+

May 2022

Birthdays should be joyful celebrations, especially for young people. I know that lots have elaborate events (perhaps sometimes too extravagant) but for some the mere recognition of the day as auspicious would be enough. Sadly, for 15-year-old Missy Bell, her last three birthdays have been tortuous and her sixteenth is almost upon her and she has no reason to expect any different. Ever since the death of her younger brother Jeremy when she turned 13, Missy's special day has been marked by her parents behaving badly through their grief and Missy dealing with the fallout on top of her own loss and guilt. In fact, most of the time, they don't even recognize her needs, with her father Tim, whom she refers to alternately as Trick or Treat, wallowing in alcohol and other illegal substances, and her mother Susanna now in prison and unable to see beyond herself.  

An untethered Missy has found refuge at the vintage toy store of Ren Lin, where she organizes and cleans voluntarily for multiple hours most days of the week. Even though Ren's perfect daughter Valkyrie doesn't trust Missy and is often rude to her, the store is a far better choice than going home to a house with little, if any, food, and a father often drunk or high on the couch hurling abuse at her. By keeping the routine of working at the store, seeing her psychiatrist Dr. Tandalay every Monday, visiting her mother the first Wednesday of the month, and going to school, Missy is keeping it together. For now. 

But two new people enter her life and offer her something she's rarely experienced. First, there's the new custodian, Miss Maalouf, who extends supportive kindnesses to Missy. And then there's classmate Luke Geurtin, who also visits a mother at the penitentiary. Missy and Luke form an unorthodox relationship that is both supportive and hostile, as the two damaged teens try to navigate feckless parents, poverty and abuse, and systems purported to offer support. Only time will tell whether they can feel beyond their traumas and circumstances.

 

Sara de Waard, an author and screenwriter of Métis descent, has delved into numerous issues in White Lies, giving us a tough story about childhoods, or at least teen years, saturated with misery and discouragement. It's about young people not living their best lives because those who should be there for them aren't and, in fact, work against them, mistreating them with neglect or emotional abuse, and sometimes even physical harm. Those who should love them, their parents, give them very little but strangers like Miss Maalouf, Ren and even Missy and Luke for the other step up, offering what they can. But Missy and Luke are working at a deficit, trying to survive and, knowing that their parents are the only ones they have, make do. And still they persevere.

The soft ceiling tiles soften the profanities of the inmates, but can't silence them. The four-letter words puff from the ladies' mouths like rings of fire, blazing through the massive concrete gathering space. But they fall on my deaf ears. I'm used to it. Nothing shocks me now. I may look like china in a bull's shop, but I'm a matador of life's crap.  (pg. 22)

Thankfully, without solving all of Missy and Luke's problems, Sara de Waard has given them hope, in each other and in others–though perhaps not their parents–that perhaps a little kindness will help lift them out of difficult circumstances or at least sideways so they can avoid harm.

Upcoming Releases for Summer and Fall 2022

 

If anything is an indication that things in publishing are returning somewhat to normal, it's the plethora of new titles coming out in the fall of 2022.  September is especially crazy with almost 50 picture books due for release that month! I know that some of these titles have been delayed because of supply chain issues and curtailed work production but it's looking like the last half of 2022 will be a blockbuster for publication of books for youth by Canadian creators. And that's a win-win for everyone, readers and creators alike. 

 

What am I most looking forward to reading?

    • Courtney Summers's I'm the Girl (YA) 

    • Kenneth Oppel's Ghostlight (MG)

    • Kevin Sylvester's Apartment 713 (MG)

    • Angela Ahn's Double O Stephen and the Ghostly Realm (MG)

    • Miriam Körner's Fox and Bear (picture book)

and waiting desperately for 

    • Lesley Livingstone's Queen Among the Dead (YA for 2023)

Fingers crossed that some of these books cross my desk! (Thankfully, I'm the Girl is already here!)

 

I hope you find something here that excites you for your TBR list.

 

Happy reading!

 

Picture Books
Akpa's Journey by Mia Pelletier, illus. by Kagan McLeod (Inhabit Media) 

Ballewiena by Rebecca Bender (Pajama Press)

Just Bea by Kari-Lynn Winters, illus. by Nahid Kazemi (Tradewinds)

The Lonely Little Lighthouse by Lana Shupe, illus. by Maria Lesage (Nimbus)

A Spoonful of Frogs by Casey Lyall, illus. by Vera Brosgol (Greenwillow Books)

The Terrible, Horrible, Smelly Beach by Jacqueline Halsey and Carrie Muller, illus. by Paul G. Hammond (Nimbus) >>> sequel to The Terrible, Horrible, Smelly Pirate
The Three Hunters by Raymond Gianfrancesco and Grade 4 Class of Leo Ussak School, illus. by Thamires Paredes (Inhabit Media)
The Ugly Place by Laura Deal, illus. by Emma Pedersen (Inhabit Media)  

 

Early Readers and Chapter Books

Autumn Bird and the Runaway by Melanie Florence and Richard Scrimger (Scholastic Canada)

Burt's Way Home by John Martz (Tundra) >>> graphic novel
Horror House by Jeff Szpirglas (Scholastic Canada) >>> Countdown to Danger Choose Your Own Ending

The Return of the Mummy by Dom Pelletier (Scholastic Canada) >>> The Lunch Club #5 graphic novel

The Science of Boys by Emily Seo, illus. by Gracey Zhang (Tradewind)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Picture Books

A Baby Whale Ventures North by Samantha Baker, illus. by Dawn Baker (Flanker Press)

Bear Has a Belly by Jane Whittingham (Pajama Press) >>> Big, Little Concepts 5

Blanket by Ruth Ohi (Groundwood)
Boobies by Nancy Vo (Groundwood)

Brady Brady and the Cranky Kicker by Mary Shaw, illus. by Chuck Temple (Scholastic Canada) >>> Brady Brady hockey picture books

Dinos Driving by Lynn Leitch, illus. by Scot Ritchie (Pajama Press)

Lola Flies Alone by Bill Richardson, illus. by Bill Pechet (Running the Goat)

Luna's Green Pet by Kirsten Pendreigh, illus. by Carmen Mok (Sleeping Bear Press)

My Name is Saajin Singh by Kuljinder Kaur Brar, illus. by Samrath Kaur (Annick)

Sharon, Lois and Bram's One Elephant Went Out to Play by Randi Hampson, illus. by Qin Leng (Tundra) 

 

Early Readers and Chapter Books

Berani by Michelle Kadarusman (Pajama Press) 

The Book of Elsie by Joanne Levy (Orca) >>> Orca Currents

Double O Stephen and the Ghostly Realm by Angela Ahn (Tundra)

Fire on Headless Mountain by Iain Lawrence (Margaret Ferguson Books)

Forever, Truffle by Fanny Britt, illus. by Isabelle Arsenault (Groundwood) >>> graphic novel
The Further Adventures of Miss Petitfour by Anne Michaels, illus. by Emma Block (Tundra) >>> collection of stories

Legends of Funland by Melanie Florence (Orca) >>> Orca Currents

Luna by Loraine Kemp (Crwth Press)

Operation: Classified! by Caroline Héroux (Forbidden Press) >>> Do Not Enter! 3 

She Holds Up the Stars by Sandra Laronde (Annick)

The Stone Child by David A. Robertson (Puffin Canada) >>> The Misewa Saga, Book 3

The U-nique Lou Fox by Jodi Carmichael (Pajama Press) 

Welcome to the Big Kids World! by Caroline Héroux (Forbidden Press) >>> Do Not Enter! 4 

 

Young Adult

Ahiahia the Orphan by Levi Illuitok, illus. by Nate Wells (Inhabit Media) >>> graphic novel

Blood Like Fate by Liselle Sambury (Margaret K. McElderry)>>> Blood Like Magic #2

Careful What You Wish For by Mahtab Narsimhan (Orca) >>> Orca Anchor

Final Cut by Marty Chan (Orca) >>> Orca Anchor

Counting Scars by Melinda Di Lorenzo (Orca) >>> Orca Soundings

Murder at the Hotel Hopeless by John Lekich (Orca) >>> Orca Soundings

Silencing Rebecca by Nikki Vogel (Thistledown) 

A Venom Dark and Sweet by Judy I. Lin (Feiwel & Friends) >>> sequel to A Magic Steeped in Poison of The Book of Tea duology

 

Non-Fiction

Good Morning, Sunshine: The Joey Moss Story by Lorna Schultz Nicholson, illus. by Alice Carter (Sleeping Bear Press)

Kid Trailblazers: True Tales of Childhood from Changemakers and Leaders by Robin Stevenson, illus. by Allison Steinfeld (Quirk Books) >>>Kid Legends series

 

 

 

 

Picture Books

Amō's Sapotawan by William Dumas, illus. by Rhian Brynjolson (HighWater Press) >>> The Six Seasons of the Asiniskaw Ithiniwak 2

Benny the Bananasaurus Rex by Sarabeth Holden, illus. by Emma Pedersen (Inhabit Media)

Brady Brady and the Special Goal by Mary Shaw, illus. by Chuck Temple (Scholastic Canada)>>> newest Brady Brady title

The Brass Charm by Monique Polak, illus. by Marie Lafrance (North Winds Press)

The Closet Ghosts by Uma Krishnaswami, illus. by Shiraaz Bhabra (Lee & Low)

Crazy for Hockey! by Gilles Tibo, illus. by Bruno St-Aubin (Scholastic Canada) >>> collection of five stories

Dancing with Our Ancestors by Sara Florence Davidson and Robert Davidson, illus. by Janine Gibbons (HighWater Press) >>> Sk'ad'a Stories 4

Dear Black Child by Rahma Rodaah, illus. by Lydia Mba (HarperCollins)

Do You Wonder? by Wallace Edwards (North Winds Press)

Fiona the Fruit Bat by Dan Riskin, illus. by Rachel Qiuqi (Greystone)

Groundhog Night: Shubenacadie Sam's Shadow by Doretta Groenendyk (MacIntyre Purcell)

Hooray for Trucks! by Susan Hughes, illus. by Suharu Ogawa (Owlkids)

How to Party Like a Snail by Naseem Hrab, illus. by Kelly Collier (Owlkids) 

How to Teach Your Cat a Trick by Nicola Winstanley, illus. by Zoe Si (Tundra) >>> follow-up to How to Give Your Cat a Bath

I Can, Too! by Karen Autio, illus. by Laura Watson (Scholastic Canada) 

I Hear You, Ocean by Kallie George, illus. by Carmen Mok (Greystone) 

I Hope / nipakosêyimon by Monique Gray Smith, illus. by Gabrielle Grimard, trans. by Dolores Greyeyes Sand (Orca) >>> dual language English and Plains Cree; also available in English edition and French editions

If You Could Be Anything by Jennifer Britton, illus. by Briana Corr Scott (Nimbus)

It's My Body! by Elise Gravel (North Winds Press)

Jellies in the Belly: A sea turtle's Atlantic journey by Carol McDougall (Boulder Books)

Kindness is a Golden Heart by Jessica Kluthe, illus. by Charlene Chua (Orca)

Kumo by Kyo Maclear, illus. by Nathalie Dion (Tundra)

The Late, Great Endlings: Stories of the Last Survivors by Deborah Kerbel, illus. by Aimée van Drimmelen (Orca) 

Leaves! by Robert Munsch, illus. by Michael Martchenko (Scholastic Canada)

The Line in the Sand by Thao Lam (Owlkids)

Mi'kmaw Moons Through the Seasons by David F. Chapman and Cathy Jean LeBlanc, illus. by Loretta Gould (Formac) 

The Most Magnificent Idea by Ashley Spires (Kids Can Press) >>> sequel to The Most Magnificent Thing 

Munsch More! A Robert Munsch Collection by Robert Munsch, illus. by Michael Martchenko, Alan Daniel, Lea Daniel and Eugenie Fernandes (Scholastic Canada) >>> six stories

My Self, Your Self by Esmé Shapiro (Tundra)

Night Lunch by Eric Fan, illus. by Dana Seiferling (Tundra)

Niitu and Chips by Babah Kalluk (Inhabit Media)

Nonna and the Girl Next Door by Gianna Patriarca, illus. by Ellie Arscott (Second Story Press)

Only the Trees Know by Jane Whittingham, illus. by Cinyee Chiu (Kids Can Press)

A Place for Pauline by Anouk Mahiout, illus. by Marjolaine Perreten (Groundwood)

Returning to the Yakoun River by Sara Florence Davidson and Robert Davidson, illus. by Janine Gibbons (HighWater Press) >>> Sk'ad'a Stories 3

A Starlit Trip to the Library by Andrew Katz and Juliana Léveillé-Trudel, illus. by Joseph Sherman (CrackBoom! Books) >>> includes song by Splash'N Boots Taes Leavitt

Still This Love Goes On by Buffy Sainte-Marie, illus. by Julie Flett (Greystone)

The Three Canadian Pigs: A Hockey Story by Jocelyn Watkinson, illus. by Marcus Culter (Sleeping Bear Press ) 

To Boston with Love: The Story of the Nova Scotia Christmas Tree by John DeMont, illus. by Belle DeMont (MacIntyre Purcell)

Truck! by Doretta Groenendyk (Acorn Press)

A Wee Boo by Jessica Boyd, illus. by Brooke Kerrigan (Orca)

Welcome, Dark by Charis St. Pierre, illus. by Rachel Wada (Orca)

When Spider Met Shrew by Deborah Kerbel, illus. by Geneviève Côté (Groundwood)

 

Early Readers and Chapter Books

Amanda in France: Fire in the Cathedral by Darlene Foster (Central Avenue Publishing) >>> Book 9 in Amanda Travels series

Apartment 713 by Kevin Sylvester (HarperCollins Canada)

Asha and Baz Meet Mary Sherman Morgan by Caroline Fernandez,  illus. by Dharmali Patel (Common Deer Press) 

Best Wishes by Sarah Mlynowski (Scholastic) >>> Book 1 in new series Best Wishes

The Case of the Rigged Race by Michael Hutchinson (Second Story Press) >>> A Mighty Muskrats Mystery 4

From Anne by Jean Little (Scholastic Canada) >>> 50th anniversary edition!

Ghostlight by Kenneth Oppel (Tundra) 

Green Mountain Academy by Frances Greenslade (Tundra)

Hidden on the High Wire by Kathy Kacer (Second Story Press) >>> Holocaust Remembrance Series for Young Readers

In the Game by Kevin Sylvester (Scholastic Canada)>>> Book 6 in Hockey Super Six series

Izzy's Tail of Trouble by Caroline Adderson, illus. by Kelly Collier (Kids Can Press) 

Lark Steals the Show by Natasha Deen (Orca) >>> Orca Echoes

Mortimer by Joan Marie Galat (DCB)

My Name is Seepeetza by Shirley Sterling (Groundwood) >>> 30th anniversary edition

Where the Crooked Lighthouse Shines by Joshua Goudie, illus. by Craig Goudie (Breakwater Books) >>> collection of narrative poems

Why Are You Still Here? by Lynda Partridge (Durvile) >>> A Lilian Mystery

Winterkill by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch (Scholastic)

 

Young Adult

Behind the Label: Gloria and Willa by Lorna Schultz Nicholson (Red Deer Press) >>> newest title in One-2-One series

A Blanket of Butterflies by Richard Van Camp, illus. by Scott B. Henderson and Donovan Yaciuk (HighWater Press) >>> 2nd edition of first book in The Spirit of Denendeh graphic novel series

Daughters of the Dawn by Sarena and Sasha Nanua (HarperTeen) >>> Ria & Rani Book 2

Escape from the Wildfire by Dorothy Bentley (Lorimer)

Faded Glimpses of Time by Nyah Nichol (Common Deer Press) >>> The Tempus Trilogy Book 2

I'm the Girl by Courtney Summers (Wednesday Books)

Jordan and Max, Field Trip! by Suzanne Sutherland, illus. by Michelle Simpson (Orca) >>> Orca Echoes

Made 4 You by Eric Walters (DCB)

Meet Me in Mumbai by Sabina Khan (PUSH)

Not Talking About You by Kevin Heron Jones (Lorimer)

Running Through It by Lorie Scarfarotti (Red Deer Press) 

Union by Sara Cassidy (Orca)

 

Non-Fiction

Amazing Hockey Trivia for Kids by Eric Zweig (Scholastic Canada)

Carey Price by Lorna Schultz Nicholson (Scholastic Canada) >>> Amazing Stories

Child of Morning Star: Embers of an Ancient Dawn by Antoine Mountain (Durvile)

How to Become an Accidental Entrepreneur by Elizabeth Macleod and Frieda Wishinsky, illus. by Jenn Playford (Orca) >>> Accidental series 3

How to Feed Backyard Birds: A Step-By-Step Guide for Kids by Chris Earley (Firefly Books)

Listen Up! Exploring the World of Natural Sound by Stephen Aitken (Orca) >>> Orca Footprints 24

Meet J. Armand Bombardier by Elizabeth MacLeod, illus. by Mike Deas (Scholastic Canada) >>> Scholastic Canada Biography

The Museum of Odd Body Leftovers: A Tour of Your Useless Parts, Flaws, and Other Weird Bits by Rachel Poliquin, illus. by Clayton Hanmer (Greystone) 

One Tiny Bubble: The Story of Our Last Universal Common Ancestor by Karen Krossing, illus. by Dawn Lo (Owkids)

Poopy Science: Getting to the Bottom of What Comes Out Your Bottom by Edward Kay, illus. by Mike Shiell (Kids Can Press) >>> Gross Science series

The Raven Mother by Hetxw’ms Gyetxw (Brett D. Huson), illus. by Natasha Donovan (HighWater Press) >>>Mothers of Xsan 6

Righting Canada's Wrongs: The LGBT Purge and the Fight for Equal Rights in Canada by Ken Setterington (Lorimer)

Rock? Plant? Animal? by Etta Kaner, illus. by Brittany Lane (Owlkids) 

Secret Schools: True Stories of the Determination to Learn by Heather Camlot, illus. by Erin Taniguchi (Owlkids)

Severn Speaks Out by Severn Cullis-Suzuki, illus. by Ana Suárez (Groundwood) >>> Speak Out 1

Ta-Da! A Story of Egg Donation by Ella Kay, Illus. by Farida Zaman (Second Story Press)

Whales to the Rescue: How Whales Help Engineer the Planet by Adrienne Mason, illus. by Kim Smith (Kids Can Press)

Why Humans Build Up: The Rise of Towers, Temples and Scrapers by Gregor Craigie, illus. by Kathleen Fu (Orca)

A Wonderful Bigness by Diana Daly, illus. by Bruce Alcock (Running the Goat)

 

 

 

 

 

Picture Books

Abalone Woman by Teoni Spathelfer, illus. by Natassia Davies (Heritage House)

Anna Maria and Maestro Vivaldi by Jan L. Coates, illus. by François Thisdale (Red Deer Press)

Arthur Who Wrote Sherlock by Linda Bailey, illus. by Isabelle Follath (Tundra) >>> another Who Wrote Classics book

Beautiful You, Beautiful Me by Tanya Spillett-Sumner, illus. by Salini Perera (Owlkids)

The Bird Feeder by Andrew Larsen, illus. by Dorothy Leung (Kids Can Press)

Boney by Cary Fagan, illus. by Dasha Tolstikova (Groundwood)

The Digger Dance by Judy Ann Sadler, illus. by Yong Ling Kang (Owlkids)

Fox and Bear by Miriam Körner (Red Deer Press)

Grandpa's Stars by Carolyn Huizinga Mills, illus. by Samantha Lucy Haslem (Fitzhenry & Whiteside)

kā-āciwīkicik / The Move by Doris George and Don K. Philpot, illus. by Alyssa Koski (Heritage House)

Little Pea by Davide Cali, illus. by Sébastien Mourrain (Milky Way) 

The Many Hats of Louie the Rat by Sakshi Mangal (Owlkids)

My Ittu by Laura Deal, illus. by Thamires Paredes (Inhabit Media) 

My Promise by Dr. Jillian Roberts, illus. by Slavka Kolesar (Orca)

Night Runners by Geraldo Valério (Groundwood)

Oolichan Moon by Samantha Beynon, illus. by Lucy Trimble (Harbour Publishing) 

Pebbles to the Sea by Marie-Andrée Arsenault, illus. by Dominique Leroux, trans. by Shelley Tanaka (Groundwood)

Phoenix Gets Greater by Marty Wilson-Trudeau with Phoenix Wilson, illus. by Megan Kyak-Monteith (Second Story Press)

Revenge of the Raccoons by Vivek Shraya, illus. by Juliana Neufeld (Owlkids)

Santa ABC by George Brewster (HarperCollins)

Scaredy Squirrel Visits the Doctor by Melanie Watt (Tundra)

Smash by Addam Schafer, illus. by Noel Tuazon (Red Deer Press) 

Star: The Bird Who Inspired Mozart by Mireille Messier, illus. by Matte Stephens (Tundra)

That's My Sweater! by Jessika Von Innerebner (North Winds Press)

The Three Billy Goats Gruff by Mac Barnett, illus. by Jon Klassen (Orchard Books)

Together We Drum, Our Hearts Beat As One by Willie Poll, illus. by Chief Lady Bird (Arsenal Pulp Press)

The Tray of Togetherness by Flo Leung (Owlkids)

Two Crows by Susan Vande Griek, illus. by Emma FitzGerald (Nimbus)

To My Panik: To My Daughter by Nadia Sammurtok, illus. by Pelin Turgut (Inhabit Media)

The Underpants by Tammi Sauer, illus. by Joren Cull (Scholastic)

We Are Many by Dave Cameron, illus. by Suharu Ogawa (Kids Can Press)

 

Early Readers and Chapter Books

AWOL by Marla Lesage (Orca) >>> graphic novel

Babble! And How Punctuation Saved It by Caroline Adderson, illus. by Roman Muradov (Tundra)

The Basketball Game by Hart Snider, illus. by Sean Covernton (Firefly Books) >>> graphic novel adaptation of NFB short of same name 

Buddy the Bluenose Reindeer and the Christmas Dinner Rescue by Bruce Nunn, illus. by Brenda Jones (Nimbus) >>> Buddy the Bluenose Reindeer 3

Fly by Alison Hughes (Kids Can Press) 

Honey and Me by Meira Drazin (Scholastic)

How to Be a Goldfish by Jane Baird Warren (Scholastic Canada)

Knight of the Rails by Christine Welldon (Red Deer Press)

Oculum Echo by Philippa Dowdings (DCB) >>> sequel to Oculum

One More Mountain by Deborah Ellis (Groundwood) >>> a Breadwinner book

The Power of the Pearl Earrings by Linda Trinh, illus. by Clayton Nguyen (Annick) >>> Book 2 in new early reader series The Nguyen Kids

The Prisoner and the Writer by Heather Camlot, illus. by Sophie Casson (Groundwood)

The Rabbit's Gift by Jessica Vitalis (Greenwillow Books)

The Secret of the Jade Bangle by Linda Trinh, illus. by Clayton Nguyen (Annick) >>> Book 1 in new early reader series The Nguyen Kids

Seekers of the Fox by Kevin Sands (Tundra) >>> Thieves of Shadow 2

Simon and Chester: Super Sleepover! by Cale Atkinson (Tundra) >>> Simon and Chester #2

The Sorcerer's Revenge by Kristin Butcher (Crwth Press) >>> The Seer Trilogy 2

A Spartan at Sea by James McCann (Crwth Press) >>> sequel to The Three Spartans

This Game of War by Ed Butts (Ronsdale)

Weird Rules to Follow by Kim Spencer (Orca)

The Wolf Suit by Sid Sharp (Annick) >>> graphic novel

 

 

Young Adult

The Book of Us by Shane Peacock (DCB)

Heartbreak Homes by Jo Treggiari (Nimbus)

A House Unsettled by Trynne Delaney (Annick) 

In the Key of Dale by Benjamin Lefevre (Arsenal Pulp Press)

Magenta by E. Graziani (Fire & Ice YA Books) 

Night of the Raven, Dawn of the Dove by Rati Mehrotra (St. Martin's Press)

Suck It In and Smile by Laurence Beaudoin-Masse, trans. by Shelley Tanaka (Groundwood)

 

Non-Fiction

Baby Alligator by Aubrey Lang, photos by Wayne Lynch (Fitzhenry & Whiteside) 

Beware the Burmese Pythons and Other Invasive Animal Species by Etta Kaner, illus. by Phil Nicolls (Kids Can Press)

Big Sharks, Small World by Mark Leiren-Young (Orca)

Canada Wild: Animals Found Nowhere Else on Earth by Maria Birmingham, illlus. by Alex MacAskill (Nimbus)

Her Courage Rises: 50 Trailblazing Women of British Columbia and Yukon by Haley Healey, illus. by Kimiko Fraser (Heritage House)

Heroines, Rescuers, Rabbis, Spies: Unsung Women of the Holocaust by Sarah Silberstein Swartz (Second Story Press)

If You Can Dream It, You Can Do It: How 25 inspiring individuals found their dream jobs by Colleen Nelson and Kathie MacIsaac (Pajama Press)

The Late Great Endlings: Stories of the Last Survivors by Deborah Kerbel, illus. by Aimée van Drimmelen (Orca)

Luminous: Living Things That Light Up the Night by Julie Kuo (Greystone)

More Than Money: How Economic Inequality Affects Everything by Hadley Dyer and Mitchell Bernard, illus. by Paul Gill (Annick) 

Sharks Forever: The Mystery and History of the Planet's Perfect Predator by Mark Leiren-Young (Orca) >>> Orca Wild 9

Superpower? The Wearable-Tech Revolution by Elaine Kachala, illus. by Belle Wuthrich (Orca) >>> Orca Think 7

The Twelve Days of Christmas: A Celebration of Nature by Briana Corr Scott (Nimbus)

Where We Live: Mapping Neighborhoods of Kids Around the Globe by Margriet Ruurs, illus. by Wenjia Tang (Kids Can Press)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Picture Books

Cocoa Magic by Sandra Bradley, illus. by Gabrielle Grimard (Pajama Press) 

Let's Add Up! by Victoria Allenby, illus. by Maggie Zeng (Pajama Press)

While You Sleep by Jennifer Maruno, illus. by Miki Sato (Pajama Press)

 

Early Readers and Chapter Books

Aggie Morton, Mystery Queen: The Seaside Corpse by Marthe Jocelyn (Tundra) >>> Book 4 in Aggie Morton, Mystery Queen series

Simon and Chester: Super Family by Cale Atkinson (Tundra) >>> Simon and Chester #3

This is It, Lark Harnish by Laura Best (Nimbus)

Weenie With Frank and Beans: Mad about Meatloaf by Maureen Fergus, illus. by Alexandra Bye (Tundra) >>> new early reader graphic novel series

 

Non-Fiction

Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer, adapted by Monique Gray Smith, illus. by Nicole Neidhardt (Zest Books/Lerner)

The Possible Lives of W. H., Sailor by Bushra Junaid (Running the Goat)

Searching Beyond the Stars: Seven Women in Science Take On Space's Biggest Questions by Nicole Mortillaro, illus. by Amanda Key (Annick)

 

 

 

 

*Really? No titles set for December release?

 

 

 

 

Picture Books

Amik's Big Day by Nancy Cooper, illus. by Joshua Pawis Steckley (Owlkids)

Kiri's Tear by Deborah Kerbel, illus. by Sophia Choi (Fitzhenry & Whiteside)

 

Early Readers and Chapter Books

Boldly Go by Eric Walters (Orca) >>> 2nd in Teen Astronauts series

 

Young Adult

Queen Among the Dead by Lesley Livingston (Zando Young Readers) 

Then Everything Happens at Once by M-E Girard (HarperTeen)

When You Were New by Jennifer Harris (HarperCollins)

 

Non-Fiction
The Girl Who Built an Ocean by Jess Keating, illus. by Michelle Mee Nutter (Knopf)