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Due to the strike by Canada Post workers, CELA has suspended production and mailing of physical materials. Digital options are unaffected.
Due to the strike by Canada Post workers, CELA has suspended production and mailing of physical materials. Digital options are unaffected.
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By Wali Shah, Eric Walters. 2024
Key Selling Points Ali is an eighth-grade student trying to to do it all—get good grades, fit in with his…
friends, get the girl and satisfy his parents—all while struggling to deal with the anti-Muslim racism around him. Writing poetry helps. If only his father wasn't set against it. Call Me Al deals with what it's like to be an immigrant (Ali and his family immigrated from Pakistan when he was little), racism (from peers and the world at large), balancing family versus friends' expectations, first crushes, being from a lower-income household, being Muslim and finding forgiveness for those who hurt you. Features a relatable male protagonist who discovers spoken-word poetry as an outlet for his feelings. Also makes clear the relationship between poetry and hip-hop. Co-authored by the power duo of veteran writer Eric Walters and renowned poet and motivational speaker Wali Shah, who has based this character's struggles with choosing between studying science (for his parents) and writing poetry (for himself) on his own experiences.By Null Anna Sortino. 2024
A hopeful novel about love, disability, and the inevitability of change by the author of Give Me a Sign.&“Poignant, romantic,…
and deeply heartfelt.&” —Amber Smith, New York Times bestselling author of The Way I Used to BeEllie&’s Deaf boarding school just shut down, forcing her to leave the place she considered home and return to her hearing family. But being mainstreamed into public school isn't exactly easy. So her guidance counselor pairs her with Jackson, a student who&’s supposed to help her adjust. Can the boy who tries to say the right things, and gets it all wrong, be the lifeline Ellie needs?Jackson has been avoiding his teammates ever since some numbness in his legs cost them an important soccer match. With his senior year off to a lonely start, he&’s intrigued when he&’s asked to help the new girl, initially thinking it will be a commendable move on his part. Little does he know Ellie will soon be the person he wants most by his side when the strange symptoms he&’s experiencing amount to a life-changing diagnosis.Exploring what it means to build community, Anna Sortino pens a story about the fear of the unknown and the beauty of the unexpected, all wrapped up in a poignant romance that will break your heart and put it back together again."Tender, honest, and utterly human." —Adib Khorram, award-winning author of Darius the Great Is Not OkayBy Tanya Boteju. 2025
Perfect for fans of Mason Deaver and Becky Albertalli, this tender, raucous novel follows a rule-following, perfectionist teen who starts…
an underground GSA club at her conservative Catholic high school, from the acclaimed author of Kings, Queens, and In-Betweens.Cassie Perera is a star student in St. Luke's junior class. But the new school year brings an unwelcome surprise—the return to St. Luke's of Cassie's former friend, Ben, who left a few years ago after a homophobic bullying incident Cassie knows she didn't do enough to prevent.Still harboring guilt from her inaction, Cassie decides, in her usual, overzealous way, to team up with the neighboring public school to found an underground Gender and Sexuality Alliance—as a complicated strategy for making things up to Ben. Secretly, Cassie is also tempted by the possibility of opening up about her own sexuality for the first time.As Cassie’s new friends urge her out of her comfort zone, she unlocks a kind of joy and freedom she’s never felt before—even as she struggles to balance these experiences with her typical tightrope of being the perfect daughter, student, and Catholic.Cassie’s perfectly curated life unravels into turmoil, but can she embrace the mess enough to piece together something new?