36 Must Read Canadian YA Books

Social media is liberally peppered with book lists and best-of lists but too often the ones that make the biggest splashes are those that come from the United States–they do have a far greater population.  CanLit for LittleCanadians is all about books by Canadian creators so let me throw my blog into that ring and share with you my list of 36 Must Read Canadian YA Books.

There's a little bit of everything: historical fiction, high fantasy, romance, non-fiction, high school, lots of relationships, graphic novel, paranormal, thriller, LGBTQ+, tragedy, humour, diverse characters, family, coming of age, mental health, dystopia, novels in verse, and so much more. (I initially intended to add tags for each book but I didn't want to skew what any reader might get out of the books so I chose not to include them here.)

I know that I've missed many, many fine books for teens here and I am sorry. I could make a top 100 list easily but it would be prohibitively long if I wanted to add images of the book covers–which I always do–but hopefully this short list will get readers of YA started thinking about the wealth of books written by Canadians and then seek out other great Canadian YA books. 

40 things I Want to Tell You
Written by Alice Kuipers
HarperTrophy Canada
978-1-44340-587-4
283 pp.
Ages 13+
2012
Reviewed here

The Agony of Bun O'Keefe
Written by Heather T. Smith
Penguin Teen Canada
978-0-143198659
224 pp.
Ages 13-17
2017

Blink & Caution
Written by Tim Wynne-Jones
Candlewick Press
978-0-7636-3983-9
342 pp.
Ages 14+
2011
Reviewed here

Chanda's Secrets
Written by Allan Stratton
Annick Press
978-1550378351
200 pp.
Ages 14+
2004

Cheeseburger Subversive
Written by Richard Scarsbrook
Thistledown Press
978-1894345545
204 pp.
Ages 13+
2006

Dance of the Banished
Written by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
Pajama Press
978-1- 927485-65-1
288 pp.
Ages 12+
2014
Reviewed here

The Droughtlanders
Written by Carrie Mac
Puffin Canada
978-0143056669
347 pp.
Ages 12-16
2006

Everything Beautiful is Not Ruined
Written by Danielle Younge-Ullman
Razorbill
978-0-425-28759-0
368 pp.
Ages 13-17
2017
Reviewed here

Exit, Pursued by a Bear
Written by E. K. Johnston
Dutton Books for Young Readers
978-1-101994580
256 pp.
Ages 12-18
2016
Reviewed here

Falling Kingdoms
Written by Morgan Rhodes
Razorbill
978-1-59514-584-0
412 pp.
Ages 12+
2012
Reviewed here

The Fashion Committee
Written by Susan Juby
Penguin Teen
978-0670067602
320 pp.
Ages 12+
2017

The First Stone
Written by Don Aker
HarperTrophy Canada
978-0-00639-286-6
289 pp.
Ages 14+
2003
Reviewed here

The Gathering
Written by Kelley Armstrong
Doubleday Canada
978-0-385-66851-4
359 pp.
Ages 12+
2011
Reviewed here

A Girl Like That
Written by Tanaz Bhathena
Farrar Straus Giroux
978-0-374-30544-4
369 pp.
Ages 13-18
2018
Reviewed here

The Gospel Truth
Written by Caroline Pignat
Red Deer Press
978-0-88995-493-9
328 pp.
Ages 12+
2014
Reviewed here

Half Brother
Written by Kenneth Oppel
HarperCollins Canada
978-1-55468-812-8
304 pp.
Ages 12+
2010

In the Key of Nira Ghani
Written by Natasha Deen
Running Press Kids
978-0-762465477
304 pp.
Ages 12+
2019

Jeremy Stone
Written by Lesley Choyce
Red Deer Press
978-0-88995-504-2
184 pp.
Ages 14-18
2013
Reviewed here

The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali
Written by Sabina Khan
Scholastic
978-1-338-22701-7
336 pp.
Ages 14+
2019
Reviewed here

Looks Like Daylight: Voices of Indigenous Kids
Written by Deborah Ellis
Groundwood Books
 978-1-55498-120-5
256 pp.
Ages 12+
2013
Reviewed here

The Marrow Thieves
Written by Cherie Dimaline
DCB (Cormorant)
978-1-77086-486-3
231 pp.
Ages 14+
2017
Reviewed here

Moon at Nine
Written by Deborah Ellis
Pajama Press
978-1927485576
224 pp.
Ages 14+
2014
Reviewed here

My Book of Life by Angel
Written by Martine Leavitt
Groundwood Books
978-1-55498-117-5
246 pp.
Ages 14+
2012
Reviewed here

Optimists Die First

Written by Susin Nielsen

Tundra Books

978-1-77049-782-5

240 pp.

Ages 12+

2017

Reviewed here

The Rule of Three
Written by Eric Walters
Razorbill
978-0-670-06705-3
405 pp.
Ages 12-18
2014
Reviewed here

Sadia
Written by Colleen Nelson
Dundurn
978-1-45974-029-7
240 pp.
Ages 12+
2018
Reviewed here

Sadie
Written by Courtney Summers
Wednesday Books
978-1-250-10571-4
308 pp.
Ages 14+
2018
Reviewed here

The Scorpion Rules (Prisoners of Peace)
Written by Erin Bow
Margaret K. McElderry Books (Simon & Schuster)
978-1-48144-271-8
384 pp.
Ages 14+
2015

Skim
Written by Mariko Tamaki
Illustrated by Jillian Tamaki
Groundwood Books
978-0888997531
144 pp.
Ages 14+
2002

Swimming in the Monsoon Sea
Written by Shyam Selvadurai
Tundra Books
978-0-88776-735-4
274 pp.
Ages 16+
2005

This Place: 150 Years Retold
Written by Katherena Vermette, Sonny Assu, Jen Storm, David A. Robertson, Rachel and Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley, Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm, Richard Van Camp, Brandon Mitchell, Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair, Chelsea Vowel
Illustrated by Scott B. Henderson, Kyle Charles, Natasha Donovan, GMB Chomichuk, Ryan Howe, Jen Storm, Tara Audibert, Andrew Lodwick
Colour by Donovan Yaciuk, Scott A. Ford, Natasha Donovan, GMB Chomichuk, Andrew Lodwick
HighWater Press
978-1-555379-758-6
274 pp.
Ages 13+
2019
Reviewed here

The Unlikely Hero of Room 13B
Written by Teresa Toten
Doubleday Canada
978-0-385678346
255 pp.
Ages 14+
2013
Reviewed here

We Contain Multitudes
Written by Sarah Henstra
Penguin Teen
978-0-735264212
384 pp.
Ages 14+
2019
Reviewed here

What We Hide
Written by Marthe Jocelyn
Tundra Books
978-1-77049-642-2
275 pp.
Ages 14+
2014
Reviewed here

When Everything Feels Like the Movies
Written by Raziel Reid
Arsenal Pulp Press
978-1-55152-574-7
160 pp.
Ages 14+
2014

Wondrous Strange
Written by Lesley Livingston
HarperCollins
978-1-55468-273-7
327 pp.
Ages 12+
2008
Reviewed here

#CanLitChoices: Alternatives for Hatchet

Hatchet
by Gary Paulsen
Bradbury Press
195 pp.
Ages 11+
RL 6.3
1987

Hatchet, recipient of the 1988 Newbery Honor Book and winner of the William Allen White Children's Book Award for 1990, as well as the basis for A Cry in the Wild film, is a favourite novel read by young people across Canada and the U.S. It is the story of thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson who must learn to survive in the northern Alberta wilderness after the pilot of his small plane has a heart attack and dies, crashing the plane.

Themes upon which teachers focus lessons include the following:
• survival (man vs. nature)
• perseverance
• attitude
• fear

But we have a plethora of youngCanLit that can fill the same novel study bill and, of course, I would like to promote them here.  Each one of these deals with the same themes but in different ways and are all the better for the variety of storylines covered.  This listing includes classics and hi-lo reads, as well as middle-grade and YA titles.  There’s something for every reader who wants an adventure story set in the wilderness, many in the wilds of Canada.

Camp Wild
by Pam Withers
Orca Book Publishers
104 pp.
Ages 10-14
RL 3.8
2005
Fourteen-year-old Wilf runs away from summer camp to stay alone in the woods but ends up with a couple of unwanted followers and a fight for survival.
Teachers guide available at http://digital.orcabook.com/teachersguides-campwild-teaching-strategies/

Chocolate River Rescue
by Jennifer Kent McGrath
Nimbus
122 pp.
Ages 8-12
RL 3.9
2007
Three boys rough housing on the ice of the Petitcodiac River in New Brunswick face danger when the ice breaks away, sending them out towards the Atlantic.

Cut Off
by Jamie Bastedo
Red Deer Press
340 pp.
Ages 12+
RL 4.0
2015
Teen Indio McCracken is sent to a wilderness-based rehab camp, which includes a 50-day canoe trip, to help him with his tech addiction.



The Darwin Expedition
by Diane Tullson
Orca Book Publishers
128 pp.
Ages 12+
RL 2.5
2007
After going off run when snowboarding, two boys must deal with an accident, a bear tracking them, impending weather dangers and hunger to survive.

Frozen Fire: A tale of courage
by James Houston
Aladdin
139 pp.
Ages 12+
RL 5.9
1977/1992
Determined to find his father who has been lost in a storm, Mathew and his Inuit friend Kayak brave wind storms, starvation, wild animals, and wild men during their search in the Canadian Arctic.

The Hill
by Karen Bass
Pajama Press
256 pp.
Ages 12+
RL 4.1
March 2016
After a plane crash, a privileged teen is helped by a Cree young man when his decisions have the two pursued by Wîhtiko, the legendary Cree monster.

Island: Shipwreck, Survival, Escape
by Gordon Korman
Scholastic Canada
144 pp., 144 pp., 160 pp.
Ages 8-13
RL 4.6, 4.9, 4.8
2001
Six kids must survive after they are shipwrecked on a deserted island with no food and very few supplies.

Lost in the Barrens
by Farley Mowat
McLelland & Stewart
244 pp.
Ages 12-16
RL 7.1
1956
Jamie MacNair and his Cree friend Awasin are separated from others during a canoe trip to the remote barrens and must find the means to survive the winter in the harsh environment.

Timberwolf
by Caroline Pignat
Red Deer Press
206 pp.
Ages 11-14
RL 4.5
2011

In this historical fiction, a young man awakens in the snow, knowing neither his name nor his story but find his way back to himself and survive, with the help of a young Anishnaabeg man.