Tyler and Mason dream of escaping to the big city and getting started on their lives. One night, Mason convinces Tyler to help him steal a car and they are soon having the adventure of a lifetime. Until they run out of gas. Stranded on the side of the highway, Mason blames Tyler, Tyler blames Mason and their argument turns physical. Their fight is broken up by a scruffy-looking guy who offers them a ride to the city. Eventually the teens realize their rescuer is none other than Sean Dakota, a heavy-metal musician who suddenly disappeared from the spotlight the previous year. Tyler is intrigued by this music legend, but Mason wants to take advantage of him. Listening to Sean and the lessons he’s learned from his own life choices, Tyler starts to realize how dangerous and damaging his friendship with Mason is. But will he find the courage to branch out on his own?
Twelve-year-old Fishel (Fish) Rosner doesn’t like regular “boy” things. He hates sports and would prefer to read or do crafts instead of climbing trees or riding dirt bikes with his friends. He also loves to dance. But all his interests are considered “girly.” Fish doesn’t get why that’s a bad thing. He’s just interested in different things than other boys. When he asks his Bubby to teach him to knit, she tells him to go play outside. When he begs his mom to take him to Zumba, she enrolls him in water polo instead. Why does everyone else get to decide what Fish should or shouldn't do?
At school, Jenny Royce is bullied by Grade A Jerk Austin Parks. When Jenny and Austin end up at a March Break leadership camp together, Jenny thinks her week will be miserable. Especially once she and Austin are grouped together for the camp’s main assignment. They have to run a stall at a local farmer’s market. The market could be a lot of fun. But when Jenny learns that Austin wants their group’s project to fail, she has to decide if she can risk standing up to him.
After his twin sister, Minnie, dies in an accident, Emmitt's world goes sideways. He’s lost his best friend and it feels like the family is falling apart without her. But Minnie was an organ donor and Emmitt soon receives an anonymous thank you letter from one of the transplant recipients. Inspiration strikes, and he decides to try and put his sister back together, in spirit. He’s going to track down each organ recipient and film them to show his parents the results of Minnie’s selfless act and help them move on. But when each recipient falls short of his expectations and the star of his film, the girl who received his sister’s heart, refuses to meet him, Emmitt has to turn to extreme measures to find her. What he doesn’t know is that his "heart sister" is hiding an agonizing secret, one that could push Emmitt to the breaking point.
Sixteen-year-old Robin Ellis (aka Robin CookieJars) wants to be the best jammer on her roller-derby team and maybe one day play for the Creek City Roller Derby All-Stars like her idol, Annie Mossity. But star junior player April Reid (aka April Powers) always seems to be one lap ahead. Until recently, that is. Robin has noticed that April has been losing a lot of weight, and her game is suffering. This may be Robin's chance to finally grab the MVP title. But her success may come at a very heavy cost.
Lors d'un tournoi à la ville de Québec, Tom Morgan joue un mauvais tour à son coéquipier Johnny Maverick. Celui-ci trouve alors normal de lui rendre la pareille, et le ton monte... Pour le récompenser des buts incroyables qu'il a marqués, Johnny reèoit en cadeau un bâton de hockey signé de tous les joueurs des Canadiens de Montréal. Comme il s'inquiète des intentions de Tom à l'égard de son précieux trophée, il décide de l'emporter partout avec lui. Jusqu'où les garèons iront-ils donc avant de comprendre que la vengeance est une mauvaise idée? There's plenty of action both on and off the ice. At a big tournament in Quebec City, teammate Tom Morgan plays a practical joke on Johnny Maverick, so naturally Johnny feels he has to pay him back. The rivalry escalates. After he scores a hat trick, Johnny is given a hockey stick signed by all the members of the Montreal Canadiens. He worries that Tom will do something to this prized trophy and decides he will not let it out of his sight. But in the end Tom outsmarts him once more, and Johnny learns that revenge is never a good idea.
Lily is discovered by a big-name director when she’s auditioning for a role in a toothpaste commercial. He wants her for his new movie, which is great except for the fact that it’s shooting in Los Angeles and Lily lives in Vancouver. With the help of her Chinese grandmother, she convinces her parents to let her go to LA with her agent as a chaperone. But when she gets there, she finds out that if she wants to be more than the flavor of the week, she’s going to have to pay a price that may be way too high.
After a big fight with his wife, Rupert's grandfather, known to everyone as Gump, packs up and moves into Gentle Breezes Nudist Community for Active Seniors. Thirteen-year-old Rupert is sent in to talk some sense into him. While he's there, Rupert accidentally lets Gump's dog, Wayne, escape. Gump is frantic. Wayne is blind and tends to panic. Rupert and his grandfather set out to search the woods, and soon they are lost too. Aside from an apron, Gump is butt naked, and without his phone, Rupert feels naked too. The only way they are going to get out of this mess is by working together.
La vie de Claire a besoin d'un changement radical. Elle coule en math, sa mère déprimée ne veut pas se lever du sofa et le gars de ses rêves est avec sa rivale Lucy. Au moment où Claire fait le souhait d'une vie meilleure, la foudre frappe. Bientôt sa vie se transforme et Claire obtient tout ce qu'elle a souhaité. Elle se demande bientôt si le prix à payer pour cette chance n'est pas trop élevé. Claire's life is a mess. She's failing math, her depressed mother won't get off the couch, Eric, the boy of her dreams, is dating her nemesis Lucy. While Claire is wishing her life were better, lightning strikes. Soon afterward, everything changes. With Lucy in the hospital and out of the way, Claire attracts Eric's attention and gets the starring role in the school play. But good fortune has a cost: her newly energized mother reconciles with her deadbeat dad, the dream boy turns out to be a dud and Claire feels terrible guilt about gaining everything Lucy has lost. But how can Claire turn it around when lightning only strikes once?
When Nat, her best friend Jess and singing-star wannabe Harper sing together, their harmonies bring down the house. For Nat, the experience sparks a driving new desire to perform. But when the girls form a trio and enter a contest for a chance to play at the Tall Grass Music Festival, Nat finds that harmony - musical and otherwise - is hard to maintain. Her bandmates almost never agree, her new boyfriend starts behaving more like a non-boyfriend, and the trio’s famous-musician mentor doesn’t even like the way Nat breathes. Every day, Nat’s dream of performing at Tall Grass seems farther away, and she questions whether she has what it takes to get there.
Alex wants to enter the Silver Stage magic competition, but he needs a sponsor. Jack, a veteran card wizard, is willing to take on the role, but only if Alex agrees to team up with Zoe, another young magician - and Alex’s rival. Working with Jack and sharing the spotlight with Zoe, Alex comes to see that there are other ways to be a magician besides competing, and that magic is about entertaining people, not fooling them.
The last thing Chaz wants is to spend his summer working on his father’s Eye, a Ferris wheel with glass-bottomed gondolas set up to view scenic North Vancouver. For one thing, Chaz would prefer to pursue his own passion: dance in the style of the late, great Gene Kelly. More important, Chaz suffers from vertigo, and even the thought of the Eye makes him want to lose his lunch. But when a crowd of angry protestors and a mysterious vandal threaten his father’s dream, and the family’s livelihood, Chaz is forced to overcome his own fears to help out.
Seventeen-year-old Jemma's older brother took her in when she needed to get away from her abusive ex-boyfriend, Razor. All Jemma wants now is to be a good mom to her baby daughter, Violet. But one night she needs to go out, just for a few minutes, to get diapers and ice cream. On her way back, she witnesses the drive-by shooting of a kid, Kwame, who lives in the same building. The driver is Razor. Jemma is terrified. If she tells anyone what she saw, they'll know she left her baby alone and she might lose custody. But if she doesn't, Kwame's killer will go free. Razor convinces Jemma to make a deal to save her life, but Jemma isn't sure she can live with the consequences.
Fifteen-year-old Maxwell Stone has been surviving and thriving in the tough part of East Vancouver by being smart and fast. But when a drug deal goes wrong, Max suddenly finds himself on the run from both the bad guys and the cops. Desperate to escape, Max impulsively decides to hop on a moving freight train. His first attempt to climb aboard fails, but at the last second a hand reaches down and pulls him in. Joseph has been riding the rails for years, and his tales inspire Max to take a journey to the last place he ever expected to go.
This soothing board book by child psychologist, professor and author Dr. Jillian Roberts was written to remind us that the little people in our lives need us to be their calm. To recognize their big feelings, teach them how to honor them and let them go. A valuable tool to help young ones learn to co-regulate, Calm is just as much for babies as it is the adults in their lives.
Ever since her parents got divorced, Pia has worked hard to make sure everything in her life is Perfect, with a capital P. But everything keeps going wrong. She and her sister get into a fight. Pia falls down the stairs and hurts her ankle. She spills chocolate milk all over her lucky outfit. She accidentally studied for the wrong test. And her best friend still isn’t speaking to her since she got mad at him for throwing her a surprise birthday party. Now Pia has a big race this afternoon and she’s pretending her ankle is fine. But she has to win the race. She has to!
When We Are Kind celebrates simple acts of everyday kindness and encourages children to explore how they feel when they initiate and receive acts of kindness in their lives. Beautifully illustrated by artist Nicole Neidhardt, this book encourages children to be kind to others and to themselves.
Jennifer McCaffrey has been working hard on her art for years and is thrilled when she is accepted to a prestigious art school. The school is everything she always thought it would be, mostly. There is one group of kids who seem to resent her and say she only got in because of her skin color. Jen, who loves to create new pieces of artwork that incorporate her Indigenous heritage, finds herself a target when the group tells her to stop being “so Indian”. The night before the big art show at school, Jen’s beading art project is defaced. Jen has to find a way not to let the haters win.
Our favorite pretend princess, Angelica, aka Jelly, is back! A case of mistaken identity, a wild imagination and a love of storytelling leads Jelly to tell her friend Joon and the new kid she's just met, Leo, that she's a part-time lion trainer at the local animal rescue center. Her inventiveness has them completely convinced, but things get a bit more complicated when the resident lioness, Mwezi, escapes from her enclosure and the kids look to Jelly’s "expertise" to save the day.
This illustrated nonfiction picture book by child psychologist Dr. Jillian Roberts introduces children to the topics of bodies, body safety and body image through a conversation-based story that begins with an observation at the community pool. Modesty, privacy and boundaries are discussed, along with how self-image is formed and how some people are more sensitive than others—sometimes at different stages in their lives. Relevant themes around body shaming, body positivity and self-esteem building are explored, with a final call to action empowering children to build their own confidence and speak up when something doesn't feel right.
Julie survived a horrific car accident, but she has no memory of the event or the boyfriend who was with her in the car. He disappeared, and she is diagnosed with PTSD. Her doctor recommends a therapy animal, and Julie chooses to get a horse. Julie's experience with horses is limited, but it's empowering to finally be involved in life again, and her symptoms abate. However, she has a lot to learn, and when the riding coach gives confusing lessons, Julie is thrown off balance, both emotionally and in the saddle. The improvement she'd begun to experience with PTSD symptoms is lost, and her nightmares return. Can Julie and the horse recover and heal their broken spirits?
Through gentle rhymes and colorful photographs of adorable children, Pride Colors is a celebration of the deep unconditional love of a parent or caregiver for a young child. The profound message of this delightful board book is you are free to be whoever you choose to be; you'll always be loved. Celebrated author Robin Stevenson ends her purposeful prose by explaining the meaning behind each color in the Pride flag: red = life, orange = healing, yellow = sunlight, green = nature, blue = peace and harmony, and violet = spirit.
In the gay community, a young, husky man is known as a "cub." Seventeen-year-old Theo fits the definition perfectly, but he is very self-conscious about his body. So when his best friend signs him up for a cooking competition at Heat, the city's newest trendy restaurant, Theo is nervous. He's confident in his baking ability, and dreams of opening his own bakery one day, but he's not a chef, and he hates being in the spotlight. As Theo survives round after round, he gains the admiration of both the audience and the restaurant owner, a sexy celebrity chef known as KCC. When the owner makes it clear he is more interested in what Theo might do outside the kitchen, Theo has to decide how far he is willing to go to launch his career.
Jasmine used to love dance. Now she struggles to hold on to that love as her dance team trains for a big competition. Her teammates are bickering, and when their teacher suggests that Jasmine might not have what it takes to be on the team, Jasmine is ready to quit. At a particularly rough practice, she channels her anger into her moves, surprising everyone, including herself, with how well she dances. But the team is still falling apart, and it’s up to Jasmine to figure out a way to get her teammates to work together and celebrate the joy of dance.
A natural-born explorer, Leo loves to make maps and experiment with new ways of getting around the schoolyard. But explorers sometimes get sidetracked, which can lead to getting in trouble. When Leo’s teacher, Mr. Chang, announces he’ll be giving out an award for responsibility, Leo is determined to redeem himself. The upcoming class field trip to the woods seems like the perfect opportunity. He’ll get to use his handy compass watch and show Mr. Chang he can be extra-responsible! But when two of Leo’s classmates wander out of bounds, Leo is faced with a tough decision.
