2026 Forest Teen Committee Summer Reading List

 

Recently, the Forest of Reading announced their summer reading lists for Silver Birch readers in Grades 3–6, (ages 8–12), and one for Red Maple readers in Grades 7 and 8 (ages 12–14). Now there's a summer reading list for teens ages 14–18 (Grades 9–12) who would be in the White Pine program of the Forest of Reading.

 

This list which came together after a teen committee met to discuss recently published books by Canadian creators is a fabulous list of titles teens might consider reading this summer. 

 

Congratulations to the young people who worked so diligently to champion Canadian books for their peers and to prepare such stellar lists. 

 

Here are their selections for 2026:

  

White Pine

(Ages 14–18, Grades 9–12)

 

Agnes Aubert's Mystical Cat Shelter 

Written by Heather Fawcett 

Del Rey

368 pp.

Ages 18+

2026 

 

Bad in The Blood 

Written by Matteo L. Cerilli

Tundra Books

392 pp.

Ages 14–17

2025 

 

The Beauty of Us 

Written by Farzana Doctor 

ECW Press

304 pp.

Ages 15–18 

2024 

 

Behind Five Willows 

Written by June Hur 

Feiwel & Friends

336 pp.

Ages 13–18

2026 

 

A Deadly Inheritance 

Written by Kelley Armstrong 

Tundra Books

424 pp.
Ages 14+

2026  

 

Here for a Good Time 

Written by Kim Spencer 

Swift Water Books

256 pp.

Ages 14+

2026 

 

Like a Bird 

Written by Becky Citra 

Second Story Press

250 pp.

Age 12–18

2025 

 

The Ocean Would Paint Me Blue 

Written by Zoulfa Katouh

Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

368 pp.

Ages 12+

2026 

 

Other Worlds: Stories 

Written by André Alexis 

McClelland & Stewart

288 pp.

Ages 17+

2025 

 

Red Flags and Butterflies 

Written by Sheryl Azzam 

DCB Young Readers

258 pp.

Ages 12–17

2025 

 

Small Ceremonies 

Written by Kyle Edwards

McClelland & Stewart

368 pp.

Ages 18+

2025 

 

This Place Kills Me 

Written by Mariko Tamaki 

Illustrated by Nicole Goux 

Harry N. Abrams

272 pp.

Ages 14–18

2025

 

A Treachery of Swans 

Written by A. B. Poranek 

Margaret K. McElderry Books

368 pp.

Ages 14+ 

2025 

 

What Wakes the Bells 

Written by Elle Tesch

Feiwel & Friends 

331 pp.

Ages 13–18

2025 

 

 

 

 

The downloadable list and poster are available at the Forest of Reading website here:

• Teen summer reading list

• Teen summer reading list poster

2025 Stephen Leacock Student Humourous Short Story Competition

Stephen Leacock (1869-1944) was a well-known Canadian writer and humourist as well as academic whose impact on Canadian culture and society has been recognized with countless awards, including being recognized as a National Historic Person of Canada. For me, his book Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town makes him as quintessential a writer of CanLit as Lucy Maud Montgomery, Robertson Davies, Margaret Atwood and Michael Ondaatje. 

 

In 1947, the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour was established, and the student writing award in 1977. 

The 2025 competition is now open, closing on April 15, 2025, and I encourage parents and teachers to invite Ontario teens (ages 14-19) to submit their humourous short stories or personal essays to this competition. The prizes are very generous and this contest gives young writers an opportunity to get their work out there and maybe meet a Canadian author of note. (See prizes below.)

 

Details follow. Full details can be found at https://leacock.ca/studentaward.php and inquiries can be made to Christy den Haan-Veltman, Registrar - Student Awards, at studentawards@leacock.ca.

 

🖊💻🖊💻🖊💻🖊💻🖊💻 🖊

 

WHO MAY ENTER?

The contest is open to Ontario students (public, separate, private, home school, university or college) who are of ages 14 to 19.

 

 

WHAT TO SUBMIT?

The contest is looking for:

• an original humourous short story or humourous personal essay;
• maximum word count of 1500 words;
• a titled work; and
• formatted to include page numbers and the title on every page.

Depending on how you submit, whether online or by mail, the formatting will be different, so page attention to the requirements as posted on https://leacock.ca/studentaward.php.

 

HOW TO ENTER?

There is a $5 entry fee.

 

Submit your writing by the deadline of Tuesday, April 15, 2025 through the following link  https://leacock.ca/essayform.php or via mail (so make sure it's postmarked before the April 15th deadline).

 

(All this information are posted on the Leacock Award website at https://leacock.ca/studentaward.php)

HOW WILL SUBMISSIONS BE JUDGED?

Entries will be judged blind. (Entries are opened on arrival in Orillia by a disinterested party who removes the cover page and assigns a number to the entry. The number is placed in a register, along with the student’s name and school, and the numbered entry is then passed to the committee of judges who are all published authors, many of whom have been nominated or have won the Leacock Award. The register is not returned to the committee until the judging is complete.)

WHAT ARE THE PRIZES?

First Prize: $1500

Second Prize: $750

Third Prize: $750 

Winners will be announced on Thursday, May 15, 2025.

 

Winners will read their works at the "Meet the Authors Night" in Orillia on Friday, June 20, 2025 and receive their awards. (Note: All three student winners will receive two tickets, one for themselves, plus one for their guest, though additional tickets may be purchased.) 

The first place winner will also be invited (two tickets) for the Gala Dinner on Saturday, June 21, 2025, at which the winner of the Leacock Medal for Humour will be announced.

 

🖊💻🖊💻🖊💻🖊💻🖊💻 🖊

 

Time to get your funny on and start writing.

 

Good luck to all young writers!

 

2025 Sheree Fitch Prize for Teen Writers: Now open for submissions

Let's support young Canadian writers because they will be the published authors of our future. To that end, the Sheree Fitch Prize, a teen writing contest organized by the Writers' Federation of New Brunswick, encourages young people ages 13 to 18 who live in New Brunswick to submit a short story or poem  for this contest.

 

I may not live in New Brunswick but how did I not know about this writing contest for young people? A competition that encourages teens to write and submit their writing for judging by published authors is definitely a win-win. Here are the details, which are available via the Writers' Federation of New Brunswick website.

 

Who may enter?

• Only teens from 13-18 years of age who are residents of New Brunswick may enter

 

What to submit?

• A short story or poem written by the teen

• A short story may be up to 4000 words

• A poem may be up to 100 lines

• Only two submissions per person 

How to enter?

• Entry is free

• Email entries to info@wfnb.ca with the subject line "Sheree Fitch Prize" 

• The deadline for submission is Monday, March 31, 2025

Who will be the judge this year?

• Writer Jacqueline Halsey, author of Joe and the Wreck of the Tribune, Piper, and Peggy's Letters

 

What are the prizes?
• First Prize is $100

• Second Prize is $50

• Third Prize is a 1-year membership to the Writers' Federation of New Brunswick

Time to get writing! 

 

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For those who don't know of the incredible collection of works by writer Sheree Fitch, from picture books to poetry collections and YA novels, check out some of her most notable titles:

 

Toes in My Nose and Other Poems

EveryBody's Different on EveryBody Street 

There's a Mouse in My House

Summer Feet

Sing in the Spring!

If You Could Wear My Sneakers

Polly MacCauley's Finest, Divinest, Woolliest Gift of All

Mabel Murple

There Were Monkey's in My Kitchen

If I Had a Million Onions

The Gravesavers
One More Step

Dodger Boy

Written by Sarah Ellis

Groundwood Books

978-1-77306-072-9

176 pp.

Ages 10-14

September 2018

Most people would not think of the 1970s as the setting for historical fiction but, at 40 plus years ago, it definitely qualifies, and it was a time rampant with fodder for fiction writers. From Apollo 13 to the attack on Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics, the pioneering of in vitro fertilization and, of course, Watergate, the 1970s rolled through on a plethora of highs and lows. But for many it will be the decade during which the Vietnam War finally ended. Before that end, however, lives were being shaped by either going to war, protesting it or dodging the call to military service, and those who met those individuals were likewise forever changed. Such are the circumstances of Sarah Ellis's newest middle grade novel, Dodger Boy.

Vancouverites Charlotte Quinlan and her best friend Dawn Novak, both 13, attend a hippie event called an Easter Human Be-In. There, amidst the music and dance and fun, they meet Tom Ed, a draft dodger from Texas, who is invited to stay with Charlotte's Quaker family while he tries sort out his plans. When Tom Ed gets a job as a car jockey and has to drive a car up to 100 Mile House, Charlotte and Dawn accompany him. But while, Charlotte appreciates how Tom Ed talks to her like an adult, Dawn sees the trip as something else.

Meanwhile there is a war against the girls' teacher, who is affectionately known as O.O., from a parent seeking her firing for including the book The Catcher in the Rye in her classroom library.  Even within the context of a greater conflict, Charlotte is compelled to protest the censorship and the attack on her teacher, learning about civil disobedience and taking herself out from Dawn's shadow to find her own voice.

Dodger Boy piggybacks on an era of free love and peace but is embedded in a time of conflict. Sarah Ellis may use the Vietnam War as the big conflict, one between nations, but by including those involved with censorship  and between friends, she makes it personal. There may be discussions about pacifism and Nixon and the war but there is also much learning about differences and similarities between Americans and Canadians, about growing up and being an Unteen or a teenager, and about having a friend and being one.  It's a comprehensive look at the 1970s while still being selective about where Charlotte's focus is. Sarah Ellis, in her crafty subtlety, takes a massive picture of life in the 1970s and angles it at the individual, acknowledging what is important to Charlotte: her family, her friends, her school and the freedom to be her best human "be-in."

Forest of Reading Kid and Teen Committees: Applications due April 20

Do you 💜 reading?

Are you in Grades 4-8 or in high school?

Do you live in Ontario?

Do you want to help choose books that other kids will want to read?

Then

the Ontario Library Association's

Forest of Reading

has a committee for you!

Last year's Forest of Reading Kid Committee brought readers in Grades 4 through 8 together to talk books and produce an exceptional summer reading list for those readers of the Silver Birch and Red Maple reading programs.

This year the Ontario Library Association's Forest of Reading program is again asking students to apply to be on the 2018 Forest Kid Committee and on the inaugural Forest Teen Committee.

Who can apply?
For the Forest Kid Committee: Ontario students in Grades 4-8 (homeschoolers too!)
For the Forest Teen Committee: Ontario high school students

What will you do?
Come together at the Ontario Library Association's offices in Toronto with other readers to select 10-20 titles for a summer reading list. (Check out last year's lists here.) It's a full day of talking books, special treats and making new friends. And it's all about the books!

When will we meet?
Tentatively May 25, 2018 or June 1, 2018

Applications are due April 20, 2018 

and are available online here

Don't miss this great opportunity 

to share your 💜 of Canadian books!

 

The inaugural Forest Kid Committee was a huge success 

and I'm sure those committee members will be reapplying. 

 But you too can become a committee member on the 

Forest Kid Committee or Forest Teen Committee

and help your peers find great books to read.

Apply before the April 20th deadline 

for your chance 

to be part of something great!