Teen Books

Sustainable Pacific Northwest-based seaweed harvester Amanda Swinimer describes the ecology, culinary uses, evidence-based health benefits and climate change-resisting potential of seaweed and shares highlights from her remarkable life beneath the waves.

Related to the most ancient living organisms on earth, seaweeds are incredible and unique life forms, sharing qualities with both plants and animals, as well as fungi. They have been prized as a nutrient-dense food source for millennia and contain essential vitamins, minerals and fatty acids, protein and fibre as well as biologically active compounds not found anywhere else in nature. Seaweeds are also a source for innovations combating climate change due in part to their ability to absorb massive quantities of carbon dioxide.

Based in the Pacific Northwest, home to the greatest cold-water seaweed diversity in the world, Amanda Swinimer has made her living from the sustainable harvest of seaweeds for over two decades. In The Science and Spirit of Seaweed, Swinimer reflects on the journey that led to her successful seaweed harvesting business and provides identification information, ecologically sound harvesting techniques, traditional medicinal application and evidence-based health information for more than twenty varieties of seaweeds commonly found from California to Alaska. She also includes notes on culinary and skin-care uses for several types of seaweeds.

Complemented by vibrant underwater photography, beautiful illustrations and chef-inspired recipes, this volume richly conveys the benefits and wonder of living in harmony with the ocean. It will be a welcome resource to beachcombers, foragers and anyone fascinated by the marvels of the natural world.

Reviews
"This beautiful book will appeal to poets and photographers as surely as it will to scientists, dreamers, harvesters and beachwalkers–every page opening a little window to the soul of the sea and all that dwells within. A timely salute to the synergy between man, ocean, plant, animal, place, spirit and science." — Prannie Rhatigan, author of Irish Seaweed Kitchen, July 2021

"This tour through Amanda Swinimer’s Mermaid Garden ebbs and flows through seaweed fact and the author’s fantasies and reminiscences, punctuated by Chris Adair’s surreal photos of Amanda suspended mid-water. Red, green and brown seaweeds are described with culinary, health and spa anecdotes. Thirty pages are dedicated to "Seaweed & Health," where the promise of seaweed in the treatment and prevention of diseases, many associated with aging, is explored (this section is neatly referenced). Fitting to Amanda’s sprinkling of ecological concern throughout the book, is the section on "Algae: A Global Perspective." Here we glimpse the role of seaweeds in moderating our abused environment and being the prime producer energizing the coastal ecosystem. The recipes are a pleasure. They are original. Many are provided by featured chefs. Swinimer has created a delightful, readable, informative and richly illustrated resource on seaweeds that I highly recommend." — Louis Druehl, author of Pacific Seaweeds: A Guide to Common Seaweeds of the West Coast, July 2021

"This beautifully written book is an irresistible and unique fusion of practical field guide, personal memoir and warm wisdom of how to live well in a home place. A wonderful ramble through the world of seaweeds from basic identification and natural science to culinary uses and medicine, Amanda’s creation brings us into her sphere by melding science, love and reverence in an inspiring ode to these humble but magnificent species." — Fiona Hamersley Chambers, ethnobotanist and owner of Metchosin Farm, July 2021

Additional Information
256 pages | 8.00" x 10.00" | 300 photos | Paperback

This brilliantly written thriller explores the lives--and deaths--of two girls, and what they will do to win justice. Sure to be one of the most talked-about books of the year!

Nothing's been the same for Beth Teller since the day she died.

Her dad is drowning in grief. He's also the only one who has been able to see and hear her since the accident. But now she's got a mystery to solve, a mystery that will hopefully remind her detective father that he needs to reconnect with the living.

The case takes them to a remote Australian town, where there's been a suspicious fire. All that remains are an unidentifiable body and an unreliable witness found wandering nearby. This witness speaks in riddles. Isobel Catching has a story to tell, and it's a tale to haunt your dreams--but does it even connect to the case at hand?

As Beth and her father unravel the mystery, they find a shocking and heartbreaking story lurking beneath the surface of a small town.

Awards

• Winner of Australia's prestigious Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Writing for Young Adults

Reviews
"An #ownvoices story that empowers its female heroines, giving them pride in their lineage and power in remembering." —Kirkus Reviews, Starred

"An intense, addictive book. Shocking and heartbreaking truths come to light, and the book deftly examines racism, violence, terrible historic injustices and corruption within the police force. This is a book that shows trauma and survival. It's completely gripping, and while highly recommended for young adults, it also deserves a wider readership." —Readings, Australia

"A fusion of ghost story and crime thriller, it also combines poetry and fiction to striking and exciting effect." —The Saturday Paper, Australia

"Fascinating, gripping, innovative." —Magpies Magazine

"A ghost story as well as a psychological thriller, The Things She's Seen seamlessly weaves together the poetic and the everyday. A magnificent and life-giving novel." — Justine Larbalestier

"Terrible crimes lie at the centre here; viewed through the eyes of young women of unquenchable spirit, they can be approached, examined, and ultimately solved. This novel will turn gazes in the right direction, and make the caw of every crow more resonant." —Margo Lanagan

“The two Australian Aboriginal girls at the center of this The Things She’s Seen discover just how poisonous silencing can be and how much power it takes to finally break through it.”—Bulletin

Educator Information
Recommended for ages 12+ | Teen and young adult fiction

Additional Information

These are the Stories is a memoir presented in short chapters, comprising the life of a survivor of the Sixties Scoop. Christine Miskonoodinkwe Smith reveals her experiences in the child welfare system and her journey towards healing in various stages of her life. As an adult, she was able to reconnect with her birth mother. Though her mother passed shortly afterward, that reconnection allowed the author to finally feel "complete, whole, and home." The memoir details some of the author's travels across Canada as she eventually made a connection with the Peguis First Nation in Manitoba.

A memoir in the vein of Colleen Hele Cardinal's Raised Somewhere Else and Alicia Elliot's A Mind Spread Out On the Ground, These are the Stories is an inspirational and courageous telling of a life story.

Additional Information
170 pages | 5.50" x 8.50" | Paperback

A guide to integrating indigenous thinking into modern life for a more interconnected and spiritual relationship with our fellow beings, Mother Earth, and the natural ways of the universe.

With each generation, we have drifted further and further away from our ability to recognize and connect with the source of our original design. In this modern world, we spend our attention in ways that benefit the powers that be, and not ourselves or the earth.

This book's intention is not to teach you to "be Native American," but instead to use the indigenous culture of the Lakota to help you connect with your own indigenous roots and help you remember your ancestral knowing that all beings are divinely connected.

Thinking indigenously centers around three concepts:
1) The way of the seven generations--conscious living
2) The way of the buffalo--mindful consumption
3) The way of the village--collective impact

Author Doug Good Feather, with Doug Pineda, shares the knowledge that has been handed down through his Lakota elders to help you connect with your purpose in life, personal power, and place in this interconnected web with Spirit, Mother Earth, and humanity as a whole.

Additional Information
176 pages | 5.50" x 8.50"

The first treaty that was made was between the earth and the sky. It was an agreement to work together. We build all of our treaties on that original treaty.

On the banks of the river that have been Mishomis’s home his whole life, he teaches his granddaughter to listen—to hear both the sounds and the silences, and so to learn her place in Creation. Most importantly, he teaches her about treaties—the bonds of reciprocity and renewal that endure for as long as the sun shines, the grass grows, and the rivers flow.

Accompanied by beautiful illustrations by Luke Swinson and an author’s note at the end, Aimée Craft affirms the importance of understanding an Indigenous perspective on treaties in this evocative book that is essential for readers of all ages.

Awards

• 2022 Indigenous Voices Award in the graphic novels, comics, and illustrated books category 

Educator Information
Recommended for ages 10+ 

Target Grade: Grade 5

Reading Level: Lexile 920L

CCSS.ELA-Literacy Strand-Reading literature:
SL.3.1,1a,1b,1c,1d,2
W.3.1,1a.1b,1c,1d,1e
L.3.1,1a,1b,1c,1d.1e
RL.3.1,2,3,4,5,6,7,9

This book is available in French: Mishomis raconte les traités: Tant que les rivières couleront 

Additional Information
60 pages | 4.00" x 6.00"

All cultures have tales of the trickster, a crafty creature or being who uses cunning to get food, steal precious possessions, or simply cause mischief. He disrupts the order of things, often humiliating others and sometimes himself. In Native American traditions, the trickster takes many forms, from coyote or rabbit to raccoon or raven. The first graphic anthology of Native American trickster tales, Trickster brings together Native American folklore and the world of comics.

In Trickster more than twenty Native American tales are cleverly adapted into comic form. Each story is written by a different Native American storyteller who worked closely with a selected illustrator, a combination that gives each tale a unique and powerful voice and look. Ranging from serious and dramatic to funny and sometimes downright fiendish, these tales bring tricksters back into popular culture in a very vivid form. From an ego-driven social misstep in "Coyote and the Pebbles" to the hijinks of"How Wildcat Caught a Turkey" and the hilarity of "Rabbit's Choctaw Tail Tale", Trickster provides entertainment for readers of all ages and backgrounds.

Additional Information
248 pages | 8.00" x 8.00" | Paperback

Trois jeunes hommes – Flinch, Bryce et Rupert – ont vandalisé leur communauté. Ils sont envoyés par les Ainés vivre pendant neuf mois dans la brousse comme le veut le cercle de justice réparatrice. Là, les jeunes hommes apprennent à devenir responsables pour leurs actions et acquièrent l'humilité requise pour retourner à la maison.

Educator Information
This book is available in English: Three Feathers 

Win lives on the rez and Roe lives in the city, where she fled after a terrible family tragedy. After years apart, the two cousins reunite in a Toronto alley to recreate a ceremony from their childhood, but can they remember how? Has the world changed too much? Have they? When the words "missing and murdered," "truth and reconciliation," "occupation and resistance" are everywhere, how do two Mohawk women stand their ground? Falen Johnson"s powerful Two Indians is a darkly comedic look at the landscape of being Indigenous.

Reviews
"The volatile and unpredictable dynamic between Win and Roe shifts uneasily from familiar family nostalgia and hilarious-yet-revealing anecdotes to emotional accusations and intense confrontations that hinge on the reservation/city binary, and associated assumptions about First Nations identities." - NOW Magazine

"As a whole production, the show's such a rewarding entertainment that you'll hardly notice the politics sneaking up behind you. Whatever your background, so long as you come into the room with an open mind, you'll leave savvier, with a number of sticky points and difficult questions that'll rattle around in your head for days afterwards...This is a fun show with heart, energy, and a vital message..." -Mooney on Theatre

Educator Information
Recommended in the Canadian Indigenous Books for Schools resource collection as being useful for grades 11 and 12 for these subjects: Social Studies, Social Justice, English First Peoples, English, BC First Peoples, Contemporary Indigenous Studies, Drama, Theatre Company, Theatre Production, Directing and Script Development.

Content Warning: Coarse Language

Additional Information
72 pages | 5.50" x 8.50" | Paperback

Selina Boan’s debut poetry collection, Undoing Hours, considers the various ways we undo, inherit, reclaim and (re)learn. Boan’s poems emphasize sound and breath. They tell stories of meeting family, of experiencing love and heartbreak, and of learning new ways to express and understand the world around her through nêhiyawêwin.

As a settler and urban nehiyaw who grew up disconnected from her father’s family and community, Boan turns to language as one way to challenge the impact of assimilation policies and colonization on her own being and the landscapes she inhabits. Exploring the nexus of language and power, the effects of which are both far-reaching and deeply intimate, these poems consider the ways language impacts the way we view and construct the world around us. Boan also explores what it means to be a white settler–nehiyaw woman actively building community and working to ground herself through language and relationships. Boan writes from a place of linguistic tension, tenderness and care, creating space to ask questions and to imagine intimate decolonial futures.

Awards

• 2022 Indigenous Voices Award for published poetry in English.

Reviews
"Reading Undoing Hours feels like going home, where home, much like memory, is a place continually under construction. This is a work at once exquisite and particular in its offering while at the same time striking us as expansive, prepossessing and true." — Liz Howard

"Selina Boan’s Undoing Hours is going to be so very important to those who are “learning to name” inside multiple languages. It is about embodying the knowledge of one’s ancestry as well as about love as it collides with grief and longing and hope. It is about standing firmly inside a single hour and being brave enough to want another. It is about learning Cree, about how a word in a language older than the world might, in the end, redeem us. And because of this, it is also about miracles. I can’t wait to read it again and again and again." — Billy-Ray Belcourt

Additional Information
96 pages | 5.50" x 8.00"

"I hear so much power in these pages. I also feel it." —Richard Van Camp

We Remember the Coming of the White Man chronicles the history of the Sahtú (Mountain Dene) and Gwinch’in People in the extraordinary time of the early 20th century. This 2021 Special Edition of the book recognizes the anniversary of the signing of Treaty 11, which is greatly controversial due to the emotional and economic fallout for the People.

The remastered film “We Remember,” is included with the book, on DVD and as digital Vimeo links. As well as poignant essays on Treaty 11, the book includes transcripts of oral histories by Elders. They talk about the early days of fur trading and guns; the flu pandemic; and dismay about the way oil and uranium discoveries and pipelines were handled on their land. A new section of stories is included as well — stories by Leanne Goose, Antoine Mountain, Raymond Yakeleya, and George Blondin.

Dene Elders in the book (now all deceased) are Joe Blondin, John Blondin, Elizabeth Yakeleya, Mary Wilson, Isadore Yukon, Peter Thompson, Jim Sittichinli, Sarah Simon, Johnny Kay, and Andrew Kunnizzi. Dene translation is by Bella Ross.

Reviews
"We Remember The Coming of the White Man should be crucial reading for anyone in Canada because it speaks to the resiliency of the Dene and Metis people of Denendeh. It's also a testament to the power of memory carried in the oral tradition. To think what our ancestors have seen in one lifetime: relations with the Hudon's Bay Company, TB, Influenza, Treaty signings, the first musket loader, Residential Schools, the first radio, the first TV, a man on the moon. It is staggering. I hear so much power in these pages. I also feel it. I am grateful to everyone involved in this project because it is a life's work honouring the witnessing of so much change in so little time. Mahsi cho, everyone. I am grateful. We will have and celebrate this book and the DVD that accompanies it forever."— Richard Van Camp, Author

"Our traditional knowledge is recorded in the stories of our ancestors since time immemorial. In this book, you will read our oral history and traditions that are our Dene parables, used to guide ourselves and our People.” — Norman Yakeleya, Dene National Chief

“All Canadians are enriched by the stories in this collection. By listening to these stories, we take a step together towards reconciliation. We are learning the truth and building an understanding. We are nurturing respect and reciprocity. We are honouring our relations in a good way.”—­Colette Poitras, Chair of the Canadian Federation of Library Associations Indigenous Matters Committee

Educator Information
Author royalties for this edition are being used to create a scholarship for an emerging Indigenous writer in conjunction with Northwords Writers Festival.

Keywords: Indigenous, Dene Nation, Elders, Treaty 11, Hudson Bay Company, Missionaries, Northwest Territories.

Contains DVD of film We Remember.

Editors: Sarah Stewart & Raymond Yakeleya
Foreword : Walter Blondin,
Elders: Elizabeth Yakeleya, Sarah Simon, Mary Wilson, Joe Blondin, John Blondin, Isadore Yukon, Johnny Kaye, Jim Edwards Sittichinli, Peter Thompson, Andrew Kunnizzi
Storytellers and Authors: Colette Poitras, Leanne Goose, George Blondin, Raymond Yakeleya, Antoine Mountain
Artists: Antoine Mountain, Ruth Schefter, Deborah Desmarais

This book is part of the Indigenous Spirit of Nature series.

Additional Information
272 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | 100 b&w photographs, 10 b&w line drawings 

The outrageously funny and painfully relatable satire of an aspiring artist and millennial culture.

Walter Scott’s Wendy comics have become a critical sensation, with rave reviews in The New Yorker and The Guardian, and an appearance in the Best American Comics anthology. Learn Wendy’s origin story as Scott hilariously plumbs millennial culture, creative ennui, and the nepotism of the art world’s institutions.

Wendy’s an aspiring artist in a party city, and she’s in a rut. She spends her time snorting MDMA in gallery bathrooms and watching Nurse Jackie reruns on her laptop while hungover. So when she’s accepted into the prestigious Flojo Island residency, Wendy vows to buckle down and get working. But during the remote, woodsy residency, Wendy and her collaborator/bff Winona put on a performance piece that becomes the centre of an art world controversy, and so Wendy returns to Montreal, getting a job in a coffee shop to make ends meet.

With Wendy, Scott launches the Wendyverse, brimming with painfully relatable characters like the back-stabbing frenemy Tina, the name-dropping Paloma, the cool drummer Wendy obsesses over, Jeff, and of course, our treasured Wendy, the hot mess we can’t live without. In blunt, laugh out loud funny vignettes with perfect punchlines, Scott illuminates the opacity of artspeak and the ceaseless anxieties plaguing a largely privileged generation.

Reviews
“Wendy’s lust for life is inseparable from her knee-jerk self-destruction.”–The New Yorker

“Winningly messy.”—The Guardian

“The art school party girl who is perhaps the real voice of our generation (sorry Lena Dunham).”—Vice

Educator Information
Publisher recommends for ages 16+.  

Caution: mature content (swearing and strong language, sexual content, drug/alcohol use, etc.)

Additional Information
216 pages | 6.50" x 9.00" | black and white illustrations throughout | paperback 

"[In Wendy, Master of Art,] Scott manages a rare thing: the sharpness of his satire doesn’t preclude a realistic rendering of personhood, and the seeming flatness opens up, at every turn, to a depth of feeling…. His mastery of his characters’ faces and gestures is also wonderful, his line quick and sure and expressive." —The New Yorker

The existential dread of making (or not making) art takes center stage in this trenchant satire of MFA culture.

Wendy is an aspiring contemporary artist whose adventures have taken her to galleries, art openings, and parties in Los Angeles, Tokyo, and Toronto. In Wendy, Master of Art, Walter Scott’s sly wit and social commentary zero in on MFA culture as our hero hunkers down to complete a master of fine arts at the University of Hell in small-town Ontario.

Finally Wendy has space to refine her artistic practice, but in this calm, all of her unresolved insecurities and fears explode at full volume—usually while hungover. What is the post-Jungian object as symbol? Will she ever understand her course reading—or herself? What if she’s just not smart enough? As she develops as an artist and a person, Wendy also finds herself in a teaching position, mentoring a perpetually sobbing grade-grubbing undergrad.

Scott’s incisively funny take on art school pretensions isn’t the only focus. Wendy, Master of Art explores the politics of open relationships and polyamory, performative activism, the precariousness of a life in the arts, as well as the complexities of gender identity, sex work, drug use, and more. At its heart, this is a book about the give and take of community—about learning to navigate empathy and boundaries, and to respect herself. It is deeply funny and endlessly relatable as it shows Wendy growing from millennial art party girl to successful artist, friend, teacher—and Master of Art.

Reviews
"Wendy’s personal life remains chaotic, hilarious, and relatable…" —Quill & Quire

Educator Information
The publisher recommends for ages 16+, but this graphic novel contains very mature content. 

Caution: Mature content

This is the third and largest book in the Wendy series.

Additional Information
276 pages | 6.52" x 9.07" | Black-and-white illustrations | Paperback 

This critique of the art world will have you crying with laughter

In Wendy’s Revenge, Scott’s titular heroine returns with a fresh set of awkward misadventures and messy nights out. When the book opens, aspiring artist Wendy has decided to move to the west coast to clear her head.

She plans on getting some quality time with her collaborator and friend Winona, only to find Winona packing up to leave, having decided to move back in with her mom on the rez. All alone, Wendy endeavours to foster community in Vancouver’s bleak art scene. When her hope and optimism are all used up, she packs her bags for an artist residency in Japan. Wendy then gallery hops and parties around the globe until she stumbles upon the opportunity to unite with former foe Paloma. Together they enact revenge on VVURST, the German publication that once tore her performance art to shreds.

Young artists struggle with mental health issues, they get wasted and hook up with men with gross piercings, and they’re afflicted with an insatiable longing for a stable identity—stability they themselves undermine. Scott’s deceptively simple, inky character drawings evoke millennial culture with such Jungian accuracy that you can’t help but stare and giggle in equal measure. Praised by The New Yorker, Guardian, Globe and Mail, and with an appearance in the Best American Comics anthology, it’s clear why Walter Scott’s Wendy comics have taken critics by storm.

Reviews
“I am blown away by Walter Scott’s Wendy series.” —Zadie Smith

“Wendy, her pals and her milieu comprise a fictional world as fully and funnily inhabited as any in recent Canadian storytelling.”—Globe & Mail

“Funny, poignant, and scary. Scott makes you laugh and then rips your heart out.”—Literary Hub

Educator Information
The publisher recommends for ages 16+, but this graphic novel contains very mature content. 

Caution: Mature content

In this second comic, Winona, an Indigenous character, is introduced.

Additional Information
260 pages | 6.50" x 9.00" | Black-and-white illustrations with partial color section | Paperback 

Richard Wagamese, one of Canada’s most celebrated Indigenous authors and storytellers, was a writer of breathtaking honesty and inspiration. Always striving to be a better, stronger person, Wagamese shared his journey through writing, encouraging others to do the same.

Following the success of Embers, which has sold almost seventy thousand copies since its release in 2016, this new collection of Wagamese’s non-fiction works, with an introduction by editor Drew Hayden Taylor, brings together more of the prolific author’s short writings, many for the first time in print, and celebrates his ability to inspire. Drawing from Wagamese’s essays and columns, along with preserved social media and blog posts, this beautifully designed volume is a tribute to Wagamese’s literary legacy.

Reviews
"Treasure these words. Honour his thoughts. But don’t read it too fast. Soak it in. Enjoy every morsel. Linger on each page because every paragraph has nuggets of understanding. Lines of wisdom. Stories to appreciate." — Drew Hayden Taylor

Additional Information
176 pages | 5.50" x 8.00" | Hardcover