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Ten Thousand Truths
Publisher: Acorn Press$12.95A 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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Whispers of Mermaids and Wonderful Things
Editor: Anne HuntPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$29.95From celebrated children’s poet and author Sheree Fitch and early childhood educator and researcher Anne Hunt comes this illustrated compendium of Atlantic Canadian poetry and verse for young readers. Spanning centuries of work, from Milton Acorn to Kathleen Winter, and a broad thematic scope–from soft lullabies to silly, jiggly lyrics, poignant meditations on nature, loss, and love–over 100 poems from the region’s best are sure to delight educators, parents, and young readers everywhere. With brilliant spot illustrations from acclaimed New Brunswick artist Lloyd Fitzgerald, Whispers of Mermaids and Wonderful Things is a feast for all senses.
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Girl on the Run
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$17.95When seventeen-year-old track and field star Jesse Collins’s dreams of a full scholarship are shattered after the sudden death of her dad, she leaves home to work as a summer camp counsellor to escape the nosy stares in small town…and her own secret guilt. After a mix-up at registration, she’s put in charge of a boys’ cabin, and the head counsellor, Kirk, predicts she won’t last the first two weeks.
In the midst of fending off four twelve-year-old boys who are hell-bent on mortifying her and a growing attraction to Kirk, Jesse finds the inspiration to run again from an unlikely source. After all, a good pair of legs can take a girl far, but it’s facing the truth that makes all the difference.
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Rattled
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$11.95It’s just all so unfair. My ditzy sister is trying to get her claws into my future husband, plus, I’m pretty sure I’m living across the street from a murderer, and of course no one believes me. Could my life get any suckier? I didn’t know it yet, but apparently it could.
Fifteen-year-old Lydia, resigned to a boring summer in Halifax, is thrilled when Megan and her totally hot brother, Sam, move in across the street. But their rude and hostile mother, Mrs. Swicker, is strangely protective, and does everything she can to stop Lydia and her older sister, Jilly, from getting anywhere near her kids.
One day Lydia accidentally stumbles across something very puzzling in the Swickers’ basement. Determined to find some answers, Lydia enlists the help of Jilly. But the further they investigate, the more bizarre the discoveries.
Lydia’s suspicions about Mrs. Swicker are mounting, but she has no idea what a twisted, dangerous secret she has uncovered until it’s too late.
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Pamela Pollock’s Perilous Adventure
$12.95Pamela Pollock is a small fish that lives in Nova Scotia. She gets caught in a current and swept away to a place she has never been, where the water is warm, and the fish don’t look familiar, and aren’t friendly.
She wants desperately to go home but doesn’t know how until she sees a boat that looks familiar. The Bluenose. Pamela is certain if she stays close to the Bluenose she will find her way home.
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La promesse du bout du monde
Artist: Stéphanie BourgeoisPublisher: Bouton d'or Acadie$14.95“He gets halfway up, screams and throws a stick towards the cougar, which hits it in the eye. The sound of his scream surprises the boy himself. He is full of a singular rage, of a refusal to die here, all alone. It’s the scream of a man who takes charge of his destiny. And the animal can smell it.”
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The Last Wild Boy
Publisher: Acorn Press$12.95This is a new young adult novel by P.E.I.’s Poet Laureate. It is a dystopic story about Nora who lives in the walled city of Aahimsa, anidyllic community of girls and women working together to make a peaceful life free of the brutality of the outsiders. As the companionof the mayor of Aahimsa’s daughter, Alice, she enjoys privileges that other women from the working class can only dream of.But when she and Alice find an outsider baby abandoned within the city walls, Nora starts to question whether the outsiders poseas much of a threat to her civilization as she’s been taught. With the baby’s life in danger, Nora must decide whether she’s willingto give up everything she has to save him, and who she can trust to help her.
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Asp of Ascension A Nefertari Hughes Mystery
Publisher: Fierce Ink Press$16.99Nefertari “Terry” Hughes has three rules for surviving high school: #1 Don’t attract attention, #2 Don’t get involved, and #3 Don’t make trouble.
A year after the accident that left her disabled and took her mother’s life, sixteen-year-old Terry just wants to keep her head down and survive her new high school. When she catches the eye of cute basketball star Zach, all hopes of flying under the radar are gone.
She is thrust even further into the spotlight when Fraser, the editor of the school newspaper, learns her father Mr. Hughes is the renowned archaeologist overseeing the new Egyptian display at the museum, which is rumored to include Cleopatra’s sarcophagus. When Fraser stumbles upon the fifty-year-old mystery of a girl who vanished in the museum and Terry’s father falls into a mysterious coma, Terry’s caught up in a whirlwind of events that leads all the way back to ancient times.
Before long, the stakes become too high for Terry to ignore. Tossing aside her rules for survival, she teams up with Fraser and her candy-loving new friend Maude to solve the mystery and save her father — before she loses everything.
