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YA Fiction
A list of YA fiction featured in All Lit Up’s Kids’ Litspace.
All Books in this Collection
Showing 17–32 of 42 results
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Oculum
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On Fire
$15.95Part comedy, part mystery, part allegory, On Fire is narrated alternately by two characters: Matti Iverly, a fourteen-year-old girl with Tourette Syndrome. In Matti?s case, her tics are primarily vocal. As she confides early in the book, ?At school they called me Tourette?s Girl, like I came out of a phone booth wearing a costume and made funny noises for people?s entertainment. But I was a serious person, waiting for a serious purpose.? When a young man with amnesia wonders out of the heart of wildfire country, Matti finds that purpose and fulfills it with courage, humour and dignity. Within the scope of the story, it?s clear that Matti rules despite the isolation of her village, and the ominous care-taking to which she commits herself in trying to right the life of Dan, the strange seventeen-year-old teen with amnesia who mysteriously appears out of the smoke and fire and then disappears again.
When Dan first takes up the narration, he? hiding out in a ghost town across the lake from Matti? village. It? clear he? far more troubled than she realized. He? haunted by ghosts and demons and vague memories of something that happened to him in the mountains. As Dan appears almost mythically out of a forest fire area and collapses at Matti? feet, he reverses the journey countless adolescent males make every year into the wildfire we call mental illness. Dan is lucky. He finds Matti Iverly. Because of her stubborn persistence, he connects with an odd assortment of people who as much as any help he gets from doctors, assist him in reassembling his life. They become his community of concern, his family.
Through a series of synchronous events, Matti finds Dan again in a mental hospital. She becomes very much a part of his path back to reality, at least his version of it. As a result we see her grow into a person who believes in her own strength, and Dan morph into a young man who feels he has a future.
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Playing With Matches
$12.95When 16-year-old Raina Resnick is expelled from her Manhattan private school, she’s sent to live with her strict aunt — but Raina feels like she’s persona non grata no matter where she goes. Her sister, Leah, blames her for her broken engagement, and she’s a social pariah at her new school. In the tight-knit Jewish community, Raina finds she is good at one thing: matchmaking! As the anonymous “Match- Maven,” Raina sets up hopeless singles desperate to find the One. A cross between Jane Austen’s Emma, Dear Abby, and Yenta the matchmaker, Raina’s double life soon has her barely staying awake in class. Can she find the perfect match for her sister and get back on her good side, or will her tanking grades mean a second expulsion? In her debut novel, Suri Rosen creates a comic and heartwarming story of one girl trying to find happiness for others, and redemption for herself.
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Remote
$19.95Something sinister is going on in the catacombs of Duram University. A student is about to find himself part of a new technological leap into a future in which morals are tested against humanity’s growing desire for power — to regenerate, to control the aging process, and to kill — an all-out underground war with both sides willing to risk everything for dominance over the other. Both seeking the ultimate weapon, both seeking a man who doesn’t know who or what he really is. . . . And for Brenner James, the unwitting participant, it will take everything he is to save not only himself, but all those he loves from this underground experiment gone horribly wrong.
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Scion of the Fox
$19.95As the winter ice begins to thaw, the fury of a demon builds — all because one girl couldn’t stay dead . . .
Roan Harken considers herself a typical high school student — dead parents, an infected eyeball, and living in the house of her estranged, currently comatose grandmother (well, maybe not so typical) — but she’s uncovering the depth of the secrets her family left behind. Saved from the grasp of Death itself by a powerful fox spirit named Sil, Roan must harness mysterious ancient power . . . and quickly. A snake-monster called Zabor lies in wait in the bed of the frozen Assiniboine River, hungry for the sacrifice of spirit-blood in exchange for keeping the flood waters at bay. Thrust onto an ancient battlefield, Roan soon realizes that to maintain the balance of the world, she will have to sacrifice more than her life in order to take her place as Scion of the Fox.
American Gods meets Princess Mononoke in this powerful first installment of a trilogy sure to capture readers’ imaginations everywhere.
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Silencing Rebecca
$18.95In this genre-bending debut YA novel combining elements of horror, magic realism, and realistic fiction, Rebecca Waldmann’s sheltered life as an Orthodox Jewish teen in Toronto is shattered when her father moves them to Edmonton, where she is plunged into the worldly life of a public high school.
Ordinary teenage angst is complicated by Rebecca’s lack of experience with a culture of wearing cool clothes, swearing, talking back to teachers, and other aspects of secular teen life. Things take a darker turn when Rebecca encounters antisemitism and discovers a secret about the long-ago death of her mother that her father has been hiding from her.
Rebecca doesn’t just defy the strictures of her ultraorthodox religion by wearing tight jeans and flirting with a non-Jewish boy. She discovers to her horror that she has undergone a change that makes puberty look easy—she’s been transformed into a golem! When this mythical clay creature from Jewish folklore takes her over, body and soul, she’s helpless to resist—or almost. Is it because she’s so furious with her father, is that why she is sometimes a girl with a cute boyfriend, and sometimes a very earthy, ugly monster?
In this new and very disturbing back-and-forth existence, Rebecca fights off the attention of a predatory schoolmate and her father’s determination to force her into an arranged marriage. She struggles to name her own desires and speak her own truths, and still be true to her own beliefs. But it’s hard to know your own beliefs when you are in a battle for your existence as a human… -
Sophie, in Shadow
$15.95It’s 1914. Sixteen year old Sophie Pritchard, orphaned two years earlier by the sinking of the SS Titanic, is about to begin a new life in the unfamiliar world of British India. For Sophie, still devastated by her parents’ death, India proves a dangerously unsettling environment. Are her terrifying experiences in Kali’s temple and the Park Street cemetery hallucinations, or has she somehow been drawn back through the centuries as a witness to dark places in Calcutta’s past?
Sophie it seems has become an unwilling traveller in a timeless zone where past, present and future co-exist. Kidnapping, enemy spies, and terrorist plots all play their parts against the background of a world at war and growing unrest in the Indian subcontinent. Soon Sophie’s powers of precognition will be called upon to help thwart a conspiracy that could incite a bloodbath in Calcutta, and deliver India into enemy hands. “Sophie, in Shadow deftly weaves intrigue, spies, and mystics with more than a dash of the occult into a story that will captivate any reader.” – Linda DeMeulemeester, author of the Grim Hill Series -
Stepping into Traffic
$15.95The title Stepping into Traffic is a play on words (and a metaphor) reflecting the protagonist’s actions. When we meet Sebastian (Seb) he is already taking risks and putting himself in harm’s way as he and a couple of his friends carry out a failed break and enter and are arrested. As we get to know Seb we discover his life has been a series of bad foster experiences that have left him numb to the memories of his dead parents, and poor in his judgement of how to fit in. Much of his foster care has been damaging to his self-esteem and moral codes. He is not strong and his fears begin to mount.
Awaiting his court appearance, Seb is placed in his eighth foster home in seven years in the company of Mrs. Ford, a foster home caregiver, whom Seb finds familiar and comforting. Memories of his early home life flood him and he begins to find a sense of well-being and trust. However, Seb’s troubles soon reappear in the form of wealthy, manipulative drug dealer Donny Malner. Lured by Donny’s social power and blind to Danny’s ruthlessness, Seb seeks his approval. Soon he is entwined in Danny’s drug-dealing world where violence and lies direct most actions. Though Mrs. Ford continues to stand by him, he knows he is betraying her trust. Others who could help him like his school friends, the nerdy Nina or her friend Matt, cannot hold sway. Soon Seb is caught up in a wave of violent circumstance that neither Mrs. Ford nor his unusual mentor the school janitor, Mr Frogly, can help him out of. He is as lost and directionless as the feral dog he befriends and cannot escape the wicked path of lies he has created.
In a final showdown with Donny and gangland members, he must decide what he will do. His dilemma is as great as the fear he faces: engage in the revenge he seeks and lose the closest thing he has had to a home, or stand up to his mistakes, reveal his lies and accept the consequences. Though he is not ready, Sebastian steps out in the traffic.
Buy an eBook version of this book at Kobo, Amazon Kindle Store, or your favourite eBook store
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Tainted Amber
$12.95It’s 1937, and Katya-working as a servant girl on a Trakehner horse estate in East Prussia-dreams of being a writer. One hot June day, with Thomas Mann as her muse, and Minna Epstein as her friend, Katya heads to Rauschen, a spa town on the Baltic. Helmut and David, the estate owner’s two sons, accompany them. The foursome pairs off-Minna and Helmut, David and Katya-and things go from peaceful and predictable to dramatic and unsettling.
By summer’s end, Minna leaves for Vienna, ostensibly, to study acting. The new girl who replaces her-Gretchen-is an avid Nazi supporter. She and Helmut, an aspiring SS recruit, soon become a couple.
Meanwhile, David and Katya enjoy riding in the East Prussian countryside. One evening, David has a seizure. According to the 1935 Nuremberg Laws, he must be sterilized.
David and Katya struggle to salvage their relationship, while babies seem to crop up everywhere. Katya attends a cousin’s baby shower and Gretchen deals with morning sickness. Throughout the story, Minna and Katya exchange letters and Minna finally reveals her own unwanted pregnancy.
Breeding Trakehner horses might be an exact science, but breeding perfect Aryans is much more complicated. -
Taking a Chance on Love
$11.95Falling in love creates an enchanted time, and when it’s on the magical Sunshine Coast of British Columbia during the Second World War, it is never to be forgotten. The increased emotions of a country at war and the heartache as many of the young men join up to serve their country are always present. A special music becomes the background. It is the era of the big band, and Glen Miller, Count Basie and Frank Sinatra top the Hit Parade on the radio each week. For Meg, who is seventeen, it is a special time, but she is also living in an isolated village. She has only one other girl for company, and the highlight of the day is the daily arrival of Union Steamship with the mail and supplies. A summer job at the local guesthouse introduces her to a number of boys with whom she strikes up a friendship. But it is Bruce, a young naval officer who has been badly burned in the Battle of the Atlantic, who most interests her. He’s bitter, she’s naive, but they fall in love. And yes, they live happily ever after.
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The Beggar King
$15.95?The world is merely wallpaper. Hide behind it. ?
At last Jordan Elliott has a gift. He can disappear?but at what price? The Beggar King never gives without taking. Jordan is about to discover that everything has an underside: even magic, even him.
A political coup on Jordan?s fifteenth birthday brings the disappearance of many Cirrans, including his mother. Brinnian guards have imprisoned them at an unknown location.
The time is also coming for Jordan to choose a vocation and take his robes, and not a single talent has revealed itself besides a gift for mischief. On his sixteenth birthday he risks everything in a defiant act punishable by hanging. The guards spot him; he is doomed.
When the Beggar King offers him the gift of disappearing, he has no choice but to accept. Who is this man, anyway? No one believes there?s such thing as a Beggar King.
But there is, and he means to bring back the undermagic, a dangerous dark power from long ago. Jordan needs this power to save his mother, so he agrees to help the sorcerer. But he discovers that the undermagic is difficult to give up once you?ve tried it. And there is always a price, a terrible price, which the Beggar King does not name in advance.
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The Book of Us
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The Boy Who Saw the Colour of Air
$16.95Growing up in a small Lebanese village, Bassim’s blindness limits his engagement with the materials taught in his schools. Despite his family’s love and support, his opportunities seem limited. At thirteen years old, Bassim leaves his village to join the Institute for the Blind in a Beirut suburb. There, he comes alive. He learns Braille and discovers talents he didn’t know he had. Bassim is empowered by his newfound abilities to read and write. Thanks to his newly developed self-confidence, Bassim decides to take a risk and submit a short story to a competition sponsored by the Ministry of Education. After winning the competition, he is hired to work at the Institute for the Blind. At the Institute, Bassim, a Sunni Muslim, forms a strong friendship with George, a Christian. Cooperation and collective support are central to the success of each student at the Institute, a principle that overcomes religious and cultural differences. In the book, the Institute comes to symbolize the positive changes that tolerance can bring to the country and society at large. The Boy Who Saw the Color of Air is an important contribution to a literature in which people with disabilities are underrepresented. In addition to offering a story of empowerment and friendship, this book also aims to educate readers about people with disabilities.
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The Call of the Rift: Crest
$23.95Step through the portal into a world ravaged by chaotic spirits and corrupted magic in the third book of The Call of the Rift high fantasy series.
Kateiko Rin lives a quiet life with her parents and her people in the coastal rainforest. Everything changes when her estranged uncle washes up on their shores, harried and half-dead, trailed by two blue-eyed children no one knew existed. To protect her family, Kateiko secrets away her young cousins. Caring for them includes hiding their ties to the Rúonbattai, a warlike cult trying to claim the land for themselves along with as many lives as they can. With the immigrant mage Tiernan and his companions Jorumgard and Nerio, Kateiko enters into the fray, facing strange, dangerous magic that unwinds the fabric of time. She must end the war before it tears the land, and her family, apart.
In the third book in The Call of the Rift series, Jae Waller invites us into another dimension and introduces an alternate version of her captivating heroine in a world full of familiar and unknown faces, including many we thought long dead.
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The Fish Eyes Trilogy
$24.95Three coming-of-age solo shows that follow the lives of teenage girls who attend the same high school and process their real-life dilemmas through dance, while exploring the heartaches of youth and the meaning of heritage.
Fish Eyes is the story of Meena, a classically trained Indian dancer who, despite being obsessed with Bollywood movies and her dance career, just wants to be like the rest of her high-school friends. When she develops a massive crush on Buddy, the popular boy at school, Meena contemplates turning down an incredible opportunity to pursue him, even if he barely notices her.
Boys With Cars follows Naz, also a classically trained Indian dancer, who dreams of getting out of small town Port Moody to attend the University of British Columbia. But when Buddy causes a stir over Naz at school, Naz’s university plans begin to crumble quickly.
Let Me Borrow That Top centres on Candice, a girl who appropriates Meena’s Indian dance skills and bullies Naz after a nasty rumour spreads through the halls of their high school. But like her two enemies, Candice shares a passion for Indian dancing, and has just been accepted to the Conventry School of Bhangra. Will she leave behind the comforts of home to pursue her dreams?
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The Girl of Newgate Prison
$12.95A young reader novel about Libby, who is thrown into Newgate Prison in the early years of the 19th century and is sentenced to hang.
In this young reader novel set at the beginning of the 19th century, Libby is placed in chains and transported to London’s notorious Newgate Prison after which, in a show trial, she is found guilty of helping her brother escape justice for attacking a Peer of the Realm after he beat her. Her punishment? Death by hanging. But while living in the horrific conditions of Newgate Prison, she is befriended by Elizabeth Fry, a woman who is famous for her work with English prisoners. For reasons Libby doesn’t understand she is spared the noose and is imprisoned in a rotten prison ship on the River Thames, where she waits to be transported to Australia. With the help of a new friend, Libby escapes the ship and makes her way to Elizabeth Fry. It is then Libby must make the hardest decision of her life. Does she escape from England or does she risk her life to testify in court about the horrific conditions that women endure in England’s prisons? Will Libby choose to flee to safety, or will she find the courage to seek justice for herself and the unfortunate victims locked in England’s grim prisons?