Pink hearts everywhere. Candy that says “Be Mine, Valentine”. Pet names and mushy stuff. Maybe it just isn’t for you. So here’s a list of books we recommend that are romance-free-zones (at least 95% romance-free, anyway), with no love triangles in sight. Steeplejack (A. J. Hartley)High above the city, Ang works a dangerous job repairing […]
Review by Fariha, with "thanks a lot to HBG Canada for providing an ARC to read and review!" Release Date: February 7, 2017Rating: 3 out of 5 stars A Tragic Kind of Wonderful follows Mel, a 16-year-old who is dealing with bipolar disorder. The novel explores how the mental illness affects her life and her […]
Review by Fariha, with thanks to "Helena at TPL for sending the ARC my way!" Release Date: January 17, 2017 Rating: 4/5 stars History Is All You Left Me follows Griffin as he mourns and tries to come to terms with the death of one of his best friends and his first love. There is […]
Review by Rifa, member of the Cedarbrae Youth Advisory Group The Boy Most Likely To by Huntley Fitzpatrick is a young adult contemporary novel that focuses on Tim Mason’s and Alice Garrett’s story. I anticipated this book to be a light-hearted romance that focused on the relationship between the two main characters. However, this book […]
Review by Tasmi, member of the Cedarbrae Youth Advisory Group Julia and Dave are longterm best friends that are just about to start their freshmen year in high school. But they aren’t your typical cliché best friends that will end up being a quarterback of the football team, or the cheerleading captain and grow apart […]
Review by Fariha We are all someone’s monster. Leigh Bardugo just became one of those authors whose shopping lists I’d read with this book. While I enjoyed Bardugo’s Shadow and Bone, it did not affect me as emotionally as Six of Crows has. Six of Crows is about a heist crew with an impossible mission […]
Want to know the hottest books of 2016? Well, a lot of great teen books were published in 2016 and we've rounded up the most popular for you. These were the top ten placed on hold at Toronto Public Library this year. These books are in hot demand, so place your holds now! […]
In Shooter, five grade 12 students find themselves trapped inside the boys’ washroom during a school lockdown. The group couldn't be more different or more annoyed with each other. As the lockdown prolongs the students quickly realize the severity of their situation; there is real danger that lurks outside of the washroom door and there is also a real […]
What would you do to get into your university of choice? Study hard? Do volunteer work? Design an app? If you're trying to get into Stanford like Reshma Kapoor, you know that it might take a little something more than that. Something spectacular. Something that will set you apart from all the other top-of-their-school applicants. […]
Review by Azeeza, member of the Cedarbrae Youth Advisory Group Like many youth, my love for YA Dystopian novels took up much of my time and stopped me from exploring other genres of books. Dystopian novels were always so wonderful, why would I want anything else when I already knew what I liked? This ideology […]