Braille Books Acquired: Summer 2026

Welcome

Welcome to Braille Books Acquired. This quarterly newsletter contains a list of Braille books recently acquired by the Centre for Equitable Library Access (CELA). Previous issues are available at celalibrary.ca/braille-books-acquired.

In this issue:

Announcements

Letter from our Executive Director

It’s summer reading season! There’s something about picking up a new book this time of year that feels especially enticing. Maybe it reminds us of childhood summer holidays, when it seemed like there was so much time for reading.

For kids, summer reading clubs have begun. I know libraries are putting in extra effort to create welcoming and accessible programming and activities. The TD Summer Reading Club and BC Summer Reading Club both have resources online to support accessibility. Please encourage any young readers you know to check out the programs at their local library. For kids with print disabilities, we also have a collection of books which supports the theme of both of these programs.

I have returned from a trip to Oslo in June where I had the honour of attending the DAISY Board meeting and the DAISY Technical Meeting representing DAISY Consortium Canada (DCC). Meeting with our colleagues from around the world and exchanging ideas and information is always inspirational. There were many discussions about new standards and file formats, including the new ebraille standard, which will allow for better navigation and integrated tactile graphics. I sometimes wonder what Louis Braille might think of the advancements made to braille.

The inspiration from the Oslo meeting dovetails with our own strategic planning work. We are delighted to be releasing our new Strategic Plan and I invite you to read it on our website. I want to thank everyone who contributed to its development, including users and colleagues, who provided input through surveys, focus groups and meetings, as well as our consultants and of course, our Board and staff. We are all looking forward to diving into this work.

Whatever and wherever you are reading this summer, I hope you find it relaxing, inspiring, or entertaining (or maybe all three!)

Happy reading!
Laurie Davidson, Executive Director

CELA’s Strategic Plan 2026 – 2031

We are thrilled to reveal our 2026 strategic plan which will guide our work for the next five years. This plan was shaped by input from over 500 of our users, member library staff, colleagues and supporters, and by the hard work by our Board and staff team. The full document is available on our website or as a PDF. Read our blog to learn more about the process and ways that the feedback we received has been included in the plan.

We want to thank everyone who participated in our surveys, focus groups and interviews during this process.

Refreshing our homepage

You may notice some minor changes to the CELA homepage. We have combined and renamed some of the sections on the homepage to streamline the content. Here are the major changes:

  • The name of the “Check it out” section has changed to “Discover your next read”.
  • Our title suggestion form can now be found on the bottom of the page in our Suggestion Box section.
  • You will find the "What’s New at CELA?" section closer to the top.
  • Our updated "Collections" section includes brief information and links for CELA’s collection, and the Bookshare collection.
  • The "How to read books from CELA" section has been updated, with the list of links in a slightly different order that now also includes links for DAISY players and braille displays.

We hope these changes make it easier for our users, especially our new users, to find what they need.

Awards update

Congratulations to Meredith Hambrock who one the 2026 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour for her novel, She's A Lamb!

The Crime Writers of Canada announced their 2026 winners in June.

Scottish author Ali Smith has won the 2026 Dublin Literary Award for her novel Gliff.

The Cure for Drowning by Loghan Paylor, which won Canada Reads, has also been named to the shortlist for the 2026 Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize.

A note about dates

Although the majority of these books have been published within the last 5 years, there may be some books listed here which are older, but which were only recently added to our collection. To make this clearer for you, we include the date of the print version of each book at the end of its annotation.

Uncontracted braille

Animal stories

7038555 Bella and Bean by Sandra Bradley.

For two young hippos, Bella and Bean, becoming big is guaranteed, and they can't wait! But Bella is ready to share a new dream--opening her own spa! Though others at the watering hole have their doubts about her dream, Bella uses the power of 'yet'--she may not have a spa yet, but with hard work, determination, and a little help from her friends, her dream will surely come true. For grades K-2. 2025.

7068845 Growing home by Beth Ferry.

A motley crew of talkative plants, a curious spider, and a grumpy goldfish use their newfound magical abilities to defend their family from a greedy human. For grades 1-4. 2025.

7068853 Turtle moon by Hannah Gold.

Silver Trevelon's parents aren't happy. They haven't been happy since the nursery they decorated started gathering cobwebs, waiting for the baby brother or sister that never came. So when Silver's dad is invited to paint at a turtle rescue centre in Costa Rica, she hopes it'll be just the adventure the family needs. Under the hot tropical sun, Silver settles into life at the animal centre. She even witnesses a rare sighting of a leatherback turtle nesting on the beach. But when the turtle's eggs are stolen, events take a dark and dangerous turn. Can Silver and her new friends track them down before it's too late? For grades 2-5. 2024.

Biography

6898220 Athlete is agender: true stories of LGBTQ+ people in sports by Katherine Locke.

A groundbreaking nonfiction collection of well-known LGBTQ professional athletes and queer authors telling stories about the feeling of belonging that comes with finding a sport that's yours, all dynamically packaged with photographs and full-color interior illustrations. For grades 4-9. 2025.

7056987 She is hope for wildlife: the story of wildlife rescuer Hope Swinimer by Wanda Baxter.

Hope Swinimer is the well-known founder of Hope for Wildlife, a wildlife rescue in Seaforth, Nova Scotia, that has cared for over 80,000 injured and orphaned animals since 1997. This inspiring book for young readers celebrates Hope's life story (so far), and her incredible commitment to helping wildlife. For grades 1-5. 2024.

Fantasy

7068855 Spotting Dottie (Orca currents) by Gail Anderson-Dargatz.

In this high-interest accessible novel for middle-grade readers, fourteen-year-old Charlotte wants to use her new drone to prove that Dottie, the elusive lake monster of Lake Dorothy, really exists. For grades 4-7. 2024.

Friendship stories

7073652 Nish, northern lights (Nish #2) by Isabelle Picard.

Leon and Eloise are 13-year-old twins living In Matimekush, an Innu community in Northern Quebec. A decision is made. The entire Mckenzie family is moving to Wendake, near Quebec City. Leaving Matimekush, nature, their friends and their school is going to be quite a challenge for Eloise and Leon. Between the adaptation to this different world, their desire to make new friends and the need to keep their bond with the old ones, everything goes too fast. At school, a student bullies Eloise, and she has to deal with this difficult situation. As for Leon, he starts doubting his hockey skills: is he really talented or was he the best in Matimekush only because the competition simply wasn't as strong? In the midst of this storm, Leon and Eloise can always count on each other as well as their family and friends. For grades 5-9. 2024.

Indigenous peoples in Canada fiction

7078974 A summer of dragonflies by Natasha Deen.

When her dad is chosen for a year-long teacher-exchange program, Gupta “Guppie" Persaud and her whole family packs up for a big move from Calgary to New York City. But first, she must survive the three-week summer road trip across America to their new temporary home. With no A/C in the van, no cell phones, and no escape from their technophobe parents' old people music, Guppie hatches a plan with her brothers to secretly enter an online photography contest, where the top prize is new phones for the whole family. For grades 4-7. 2025.

7047847 I am connected by Kung Jaadee.

We are all connected. Whether it is with your family, the mossy earth beneath your feet, the warm guidance of your ancestors, you belong in connection with all around you. Along the backdrop of Haida Gwaii's breathtaking landscapes, Indigenous storyteller, Ḵung Jaadee, invites you to witness the many threads of relationship that connect us across time and space. What makes you feel connected? For grades K-3. 2025.

Mysteries and crime stories

7106199 The Dark Won't Wait by David A Poulsen.

Dom's life revolves around cars and baseball until a chance connection to a high school audition hands him a major role in a psychological thriller. This would be exciting enough, except that real life begins to shadow the script in a very creepy way as an elusive girl and a local murder draw Dom out of his otherwise quiet shell. For grades 6-10. 2025.

Nature

7062094 Origin: an illuminating look at indigenous peoples and their connection to the natural world by Nat Cardozo.

Meet twenty-two indigenous young people and discover how they're connected with their environments and striving to preserve their way of life. For grades 3-7. 2025.

Science and technology

7068844 Deep, deep down: the secret underwater poetry of the Mariana Trench by Lydia Lukidis.

Deep, deep down, at the very bottom of the ocean, lies a secret world. Through lyrical narration, this spare-text STEM picture book takes readers on a journey to a place very few humans have ever been-the Mariana Trench. The imagined voyage debunks scary myths about this mysterious place with surprising and beautiful truths about life at Earth's deepest point. For grades P-4. 2023.

Social issues

7047850 Rising seas: flooding, climate change and our new world by Keltie Thomas.

The Earth's oceans are on the rise. Since 1900, global sea levels have risen steadily each year to a global average of about 8 inches (20cm) today, and they're still rising. By 2100, the sea could climb as much as 14 feet (4.3m) to 32 feet (9.75m). An eye-popping view of what the Earth might look like under the rising and falling water levels of climate change. For grades 4-8. 2023.

Sports fiction

7038560 The big splash (Julia on the go! #2) by Angela Ahn.

Julia is dismayed to learn that Coach Marissa has to leave the Vipers swim team for an urgent family matter. Coach Nathan, their new temporary coach, is strict and humorless. He doesn't even let them have Splash Time! So it's no surprise that the team is not enthusiastic when Coach Nathan asks them to put together a car wash fundraiser for the team. But then they learn that there's going to be a big increase in pool rental fees, which means the Vipers may lose practice days, or worse, not be able to swim at all. Julia takes the lead and gets the Vipers organized. For grades 2-5. 2025.

Fiction printbraille

Alphabet, number and picture books

7032948 Bright Lights and Summer Nights by Shauntay Grant.

On a hot summer night, Mother Moon soothes a little star baby who won't go to sleep. With her magic, she spins a warm, lyrical tale of friendship and fun: a dreamy summer evening set beneath a blanket of twinkling stars as children and forest friends with balloons enjoy a country fair with a carousel and caramel apples before taking a fantastical trolley ride to a marvelous, light-filled destination. For grades P-K. 2025.

7032947 Little Shoes by David A. Robertson.

Deep in the night, when James should be sleeping, he tosses and turns. He thinks about big questions, like why we don't feel dizzy when the Earth spins. One day, James's kōkom takes him on a special walk with a big group of people. It's called a march, and it ends in front of a big pile of things: teddy bears, flowers, tobacco ties and little shoes. Kōkom tells him that this is a memorial in honor of Indigenous children who had gone to residential schools and boarding schools but didn't come home. For grades P-2. 2025.

7047797 This Land Is a Lullaby by Tonya Simpson.

In this gentle picture-book lullaby, the sounds of the land soothe an Indigenous child to sleep on a stormy summer night on the Plains. For grades P-K. 2024.

Animal stories

7032942 Fox and the Mystery Letter by Alex G Griffiths.

In the dense forest, in a lonely cottage, there lives Fox. One day, a letter arrives: "Dear Fox: I know how much you enjoy puzzles. I bet you can’t resist this one. Head to the forest path to begin your journey. From an old friend." Fox doesn't need any mysterious puzzles, adventures, or memories of his old; but he stops himself from finishing the thought. Still, it can't hurt to look at the first clue. Fox follows arrows in the mud, notes taped to trees, swirling smoke signals, a map from a bottle, and gifts from fellow animals—on the trail of a friendship that once was. For grades P-K. 2025.

7088230 I Hear You, Ocean (Sounds of Nature) by Kallie George.

When a child visits the ocean with his little brother, he whispers to him, “The ocean has lots to say, if you listen.” Together, they hear wondrous things, like the rumble of pebbles tumbling and filling the beach with shiny gems, the bark of a seal playing peekaboo, and the whooshing of a shell murmuring messages. For grades P-2. 2022.

7032943 My Path by Jana Curll.

A joyful, empowering celebration of finding your path with an adorable snail protagonist— follow the snail's sparkly silver trail on every page! There are mountains to climb, rushing rivers to cross, and sometimes the journey ahead seems impossible. But listening to their inner voice, this determined snail keeps going. Follow this adventurous snail as they decide not to follow the crowd and face unexpected challenges. For grades P-3. 2025.

Canadian authors (Fiction)

7111158 RJ and the ticking clock by Ian Duncan.

RJ is panicking! His teacher has given the class only 30 minutes to finish their Father's Day cards. RJ has done the math and he knows he's not going to have enough time to make two perfect cards for his two perfect dads. As the time ticks by, he know that he'll never be able to create two cards in the way that he wants to - in a way that will show both his dads how much he loves and appreciates them. RJ manages to get one card done, and just when he decides that this will have to do, his teacher and classmates surprise him. They have all used their extra time to chip in and create another card to help him out. So when his dads pick him up at the end of the day, RJ is able to greet them joyfully and give each of them their own beautiful card. For grades K-1. 2025.

Family stories

7047804 Dad, I Miss You: A Residential School Story by Nadia Sammurtok.

Told in the voice of a boy and his father by turns, this book takes a thoughtful and heartfelt look at the emotional toll of a child being taken from their family and community to attend residential school. For grades 4-6. 2024.

Friendship stories

7032962 The Most Magnificent Team (Most Magnificent #4) by Ashley Spires.

When a girl and her dog arrive at the girl's favorite workspace to make something, they find that a neighbor has gotten there first! Hmm, well, maybe they could make something together? Magnificent idea! So the girl starts cutting, hammering and gluing, while the neighbor considers, measures and calculates. The neighbor believes in always measuring twice and cutting once, but the girl thinks that takes way too long. Clearly, they have very different approaches to making. Will they ever be able to work things out as a team? For grades P-3. 2025.

Historical fiction

7056843 Tove and the Island with No Address by Lauren Soloy.

A gorgeous picture book homage to celebrated Moomin author Tove Jansson. Tove and her family go to the island with no address every summer. Young Tove sets off on an adventure. She finds some interesting salvage on the beach, she visits the grotto and she offers to babysit her strange little friend's five wild daughters. But when the weather takes a turn, Tove finds this task is more than she bargained for. For grades P-2. 2024.

Indigenous peoples in Canada fiction

7142785 They come off the ice by Andrea Andersen.

In They Come Off the Ice, debut Inuit author Andrea Andersen introduces young readers to a unique celebration that takes place in Inuit communities across Labrador: Nalijuit night! Each January 6th, also known as Old Christmas night, something comes lurking off the ice and into town. With their faces hidden, long sticks in their hands, and carrying bags full of candy? The beings approach in the snowy darkness. What do they want? Knock, Knock, Knock Open the door if you dare! For grades P-2. 2025.

Multi-cultural fiction

7056902 Look! Look! by Uma Krishnaswami.

A girl in India discovers an ancient step well in this companion book to the creators’ much-loved Out of the Way! Out of the Way! For grades P-1. 2024.

7056848 Sea Snooze by Sarabeth Holden.

Two siblings imagine sailing into dreamland and encounter all the wonders of the Arctic on their journey. For grades P-K. 2024.

7057043 The Last Last by Wendy J. Whittingham.

A story of a girl’s last day before emigrating from Jamaica to Canada. For grades P-1. 2025.

Non-fiction printbraille

Biography

7032946 Meet Frederick Banting (Scholastic Canada Biography) by Elizabeth MacLeod.

Meet Frederick Banting — doctor, scientist and Nobel Prize-winner! When Frederick Banting was young, his friend Jennie became sick. She had diabetes and soon passed away. Fred grew up determined to do something about this terrible disease. He became a surgeon, then practiced family medicine and taught at a nearby university. But Fred still wanted to help people with diabetes. One night he was struck by a big idea — a whole new way to treat the disease. Fred convinced a professor at the University of Toronto to give him a lab and an assistant: Charles Best. They worked long hours and finally developed insulin. To this day, insulin is still the only treatment for Type 1 diabetes. It has saved the lives of millions of people around the world. For grades 1-4. 2025.

Customs and cultures

7032965 The Beat of the Dragon Boat by Christina Matula.

On the night before the Dragon Boat Festival, a young boy’s grandfather tells him that legend has it that the races started in the ancient time of the Dragon King, when every lake and river had a guardian dragon. In Chinese culture, dragons symbolize good luck, and have great power, especially over water and weather. On race day at the harbor, all the boats have a carved dragon head. As a final touch, to wake up their team's boat, the boy paints in the dragon's eye. But once the race is underway, their boat is in last place. How can they wake their dragon? For grades K-3. 2025.

Death and bereavement

7032971 Memory Stones by Kathy Kacer.

When Sophie’s beloved grandmother passes away, Sophie learns she can honor her memory by placing stones on her granny's grave. For grades 1-3. 2025.

7032964 The Rock and the Butterfly by Kathy Stinson.

In this meditative picture book about loss, a butterfly finds peace in the memories left behind by its friend, the rock. For grades P-K. 2024.

Health and medicine

7032961 A Stronger Home by Katrina Chen, Elaine Su.

A mother and son experiencing family violence have to flee their home, moving from place to place to find safe shelter, until finally they’re able to go back home again and make it the strongest house yet. For grades 1-3. 2025.

7143122 Calm your roar like a dinosaur: how to relax muscle by muscle by Colleen A Patterson.

Every little dinosaur has big feelings sometimes, whether it's anger bubbling up, stress taking over, or frustration that just won't quit. This book turns those overwhelming moments into something kids can manage by teaching progressive muscle relaxation, a mind-body technique used by therapists and proven to reduce stress. For grades K-3. 2025.

Nature

7032944 If You Were Here by Kathy Stinson.

In this beautiful ode to nature and mindfulness, a child sets out to explore the environment around their home, using all their senses. Yet, someone important is missing, someone the child wishes could be there on the journey. For grades P-2. 2025.

7088228 River's Journey (Nature in Action) by Sally M. Walker.

River flowing, where’s it going? Water springs from the ground, creeks gurgle downhill, snow and rain make streams bigger, and then you have a river. Step by step, Sally M. Walker’s simple, scientifically accurate narration lets the youngest hydrologists follow water’s movement from high land to the ocean, changing from a trickle to a torrent along the way. For grades P-K. 2025.

Parenting

7032960 Miya Wears Orange by Wanda John-Kehewin.

A beautifully illustrated book that gently explores the complicated feelings Miya experiences when her teacher shares a story about a little girl who was taken away to a residential school. It happened because she was Indigenous, just like Miya! Miya worries it’ll happen to her. What can she do about these feelings? For grades 1-3. 2025.

Self help

7142747 You can't tame a tiger by Stephanie Ellen Sy.

Imran is an awesome pet tiger. Except he doesn't look like a tiger. In fact, Imran's human isn't so sure that he's a real tiger at all. To impress the other kids, the boy paints black stripes on Imran, but the kids all think Imran is a zebra! Painted black spots make him look like a cheetah. But Imran stays true to himself. When the kids feed him grass as if he were a zebra, he spits it out. When asked to run like a cheetah, he naps instead. When the boy tries to paint him orange, Imran has had enough. Why does he think Imran isn't a perfectly good tiger the way he is? When the other children rush to over to meet the tiger with the awesome roar, and the boy realizes his mistake--Imran should be exactly what he is. For grades 1-2. 2025.

Social issues

7032949 The Weedflower by Elizabeth Davaze.

A modern schoolyard fable about nature’s magical ability to encourage imagination, play, and joy—and a dandelion’s ability to always grow back. For grades K-3. 2024.

Travel and geography

7032959 Our Ancestors' Kitchen by Willie Poll.

It’s a special day: the young protagonist in this memorable story is learning her grandfather’s favorite recipe from her grandmother! As each ingredient is prepared for this special dish, readers will be eager to follow along as they are transported back to each instance of gathering, hunting, and harvesting foods in the traditional ways throughout the seasons. For grades P-2. 2025.

7032966 The Girl Who Loved Poutine by Lorna Schultz Nicholson.

A little girl loves poutine so much, it's become a part of her shared July 1 birthday celebrations with her father. This year, family members from across Canadian join the celebration, bringing their regions' unique twists to this popular dish. For grades K-3. 2024.

Fiction for children and young adults

Adventure stories

6973808 Under fire (Orca anchor) by Gabrielle Prendergast.

In this high-interest accessible novel for teen readers, sixteen-year-old Poppy and her brother are home alone when a nearby wildfire builds and threatens to burn down their farm. For grades 8-12. 2025.

Animal stories

7038559 Project Wild One by Louise Sidley.

Ten-year-old Robbie discovers that raising a wild mallard duckling is not easy, and adventures ensue as he cares for Wild One alongside a domestic duckling. When Robbie's granddad-a former duck hunter-moves into the family home for the summer, he challenges Robbie's ideas about protection and freedom, intention and foolhardiness, and life and death in the natural world. By summer's end, Robbie and a new friend take action to save Wild One's pond from destruction. For grades 3-6. 2025.

Canadian authors (Fiction)

6974781 Recommended Reading by Paul Coccia.

Curvaceous, clever, and an avid reader, seventeen-year-old bookseller Bobby Ashton never misses a main character moment. So when it comes to asking out his crush, he plans a romantic proposal grand enough to go down in local history. Unfortunately, Bobby's very public rejection ends up posted online for the world to see. For grades 5-12. 2025.

Fantasy

6848969 Where the dark stands still by A. B Poranek.

Liska knows that magic is monstrous, and its practitioners are monsters. She has done everything possible to suppress her own magic, to disastrous consequences. Desperate to be free of it, Liska flees her small village and delves into the dangerous, demon-inhabited spirit-wood to steal a mythical fern flower. If she plucks it, she can use its one wish to banish her powers. Everyone who has sought the fern flower has fallen prey to unknown horrors, so when Liska is caught by the demon warden of the wood--called The Leszy--a bargain seems better than death: one year of servitude in exchange for the fern flower and its wish. Whisked away to The Leszy's crumbling manor, Liska soon makes an unsettling discovery: she is not the first person to strike this bargain, and all her predecessors have mysteriously vanished. If Liska wants to survive the year and return home, she must unravel her taciturn host's spool of secrets and face the ghosts--figurative and literal--of his past. For grades 8-12. 2024.

Friendship stories

6906082 Wavelength by Cale Plett.

Hannah Montana meets Heartstopper in this story of a teen pop star on the run from fame who finds family, love and gender euphoria when they become entangled with a local band. Seventeen-year-old pop sensation Sasha may be famous, but they've always kept a layer of anonymity by covering their face to perform. Facing pressure to unmask in public, Sasha runs away to a nowhere midwestern city, planning to finish senior year and come out as nonbinary away from the limelight. But their plan falters from the moment they meet Wavelength, an alt-rock band, and their lead singer. Lillian is struggling to keep the band together, caught in a mess of lyrics, late-night texts and ill-conceived love notes. She's torn between feelings for her ex-girlfriend (and ex-bandmember) and her new infatuation with Sasha. For grades 7-12. 2025.

Ghost and horror stories

6858372 Beast: A novel by Richard Van Camp.

Returning to a favourite Northwest Territories setting, Richard Van Camp brings his exuberant style to a captivating teen novel that blends the supernatural with 1980s-era nostalgia to reflect on friendship, tradition and forgiveness. For as long as Lawson can remember, his life in a small Northwest Territories town has revolved around "the Treaty" between the Dogrib and the Chipewyan, set down centuries ago to prevent the return of bloody warfare between the two peoples. On the Dogrib side, Lawson and his family have done their best to keep the pact alive with the neighbouring Cranes, a family with ancestral ties to a revered Chipewyan war chief. But even as Lawson and his father dutifully tidy the Cranes' property as an act of respect, their counterparts offer little more than scowls and derision in return, despite the fact that both families are responsible for protecting the treaty. Worse still, it seems that one of the Cranes' boys is doing all he can to revive the old conflict: Silver, fresh out of jail, has placed himself in the service of a cruel, ghoulish spirit bent on destroying the peace. Now it's up to Isaiah Valentine, a Cree Grass Dancer, Shari Burns, a Metis psychic, and Lawson Sauron, a Dogrib Yabati-or protector-to face what Silver Cranes has called back. For grades 6-12. 2024.

Indigenous peoples in Canada fiction

7088328 I won't feel this way forever by Kim Spencer.

In this follow-up middle-grade novel to Weird Rules to Follow, when Mia's beloved grandmother gets sick and is sent to a Vancouver hospital, Mia and her Mom and aunties travel to be by her side. But as she bounces between motel room, visiting hours and city adventures, Mia begins to realize that her grandmother might not get better. For grades 4-7. 2025.

Mysteries and crime stories

4033446 The Case of the Missing Auntie (A Mighty Muskrats Mystery #2) by Michael Hutchinson.

The Mighty Muskrats are off to the city to have fun at the Exhibition Fair. But when Chickadee learns about Grandpa's little sister, who was scooped up by the government and adopted out to strangers without her parents' permission many years ago, the Mighty Muskrats have a new mystery to solve. Once in the bright lights of the big city, the cousins get distracted, face off with bullies, meet some heroes and unlikely teachers, and learn many of the difficulties of life in the city, as well as hard truths about their country’s treatment of First Nations people. For grades 4-7. 2020.

6991168 The vanished ones by Chad Lucas.

When boys start disappearing from a mysterious island monastery, Darian and his friend Micah's covert investigation reveals secrets of the Order that leave them questioning their faith. For grades 5-9. 2025.

Science fiction

6972890 Sunrise on the reaping by Suzanne Collins.

As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honor of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes. Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves. When Haymitch's name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He's torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who's nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he's been set up to fail. But there's something in him that wants to fight and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena. For grades 11-12. 2025.

Suspense and thrillers

6972869 Butterfly on the wind by Adam Pottle.

A magical picture book about a Deaf girl who creates a butterfly with Sign Language and sends it on a journey around the world.On the day of the talent show, Aurora's hands tremble. No matter how hard she tries to sign, her fingers stumble over one another and the words just won't come. But as she's about to give up, she spots a butterfly. Using her hands to sign the ASL word for butterfly," Aurora sends a magical butterfly of her own into the world, inspiring Deaf people across the globe to add their own. The butterflies grow in numbers and strength as they circle back to Aurora, bolstering her with the love and support of her worldwide Deaf community.Deaf picture book creators author Adam Pottle and artist Ziyue Chen combine powerful text and sweeping art into a moving story of resilience and self-belief. For grades P-2. 2024.

Non-fiction for young adults

Indigenous peoples in Canada

7016454 Shirley: An indian residential school story by Joanne Robertson.

Shirley is only five years old when she is taken away by the Indian agent to live at a residential school. She loves learning, but she is not there by choice. From the first day walking up the long, lonely stone steps of the school building, life is hard and full of rules. Separated from her brothers and sisters, she is truly on her own. Shirley is very brave, but there is no one she loves to hold her at night when she is afraid. No one to tuck her in and comfort her. Shirley keeps going despite the sadness. She makes friends and has adventures. And most of all, she looks ahead to summertime, when she will be able to return to her family and the happiness of home. A true story. For grades 4-7. 2026.

Psychology

6921753 The story and science of hope by Andrea Curtis.

Hope is more than a feeling — it can change the world! Discover how new science and ancient knowledge can help us face an uncertain world. All over the world, kids are struggling with grief, anxiety and fear about the climate crisis, war, and a future that seems out of their control. Sometimes it's hard to have hope – but hope may be the one thing that can change the world! Modern researchers – called Hope Theorists – are helping us to understand that we can use hope to improve our own lives and those of our neighbors, friends and even the planet. The Story and Science of Hope is an illustrated nonfiction book for middle-grade readers that weaves together ancient history with surprising new scientific research showing hope is more than a feeling — it's essential for our well-being. For grades 4-7. 2025.

Science and technology

7094656 Smart machines: how AI is changing our world (Orca think #19) by Helaine Becker.

Part of the nonfiction Orca Think series for middle-grade readers, this illustrated book introduces young readers to artificial intelligence and how this technology will influence humanity now and in the future. For grades 4-7. 2025.

7106181 Sticking to the facts: 10 ways to fight misinformation (Orca take action #3) by Gregor Craigie.

How can you tell if what you're reading is TRUE or FALSE? 1. Consider the source. 2. Weigh the evidence. 3. Ask the experts. With information only a click away, fighting misinformation is now more important than ever. Learn how to spot fake news and take action to stop its spread! For grades 4-7. 2026.

7094665 What a waste: 9 ways to fight climate change (Orca take action #2) by Karen Tam Wu.

Part of the nonfiction Orca Take Action series for middle-grade readers, this illustrated book examines practical ways waste can be transformed to protect the planet and fight the effects of the climate crisis. For grades 4-7. 2025.

Social issues

6947569 Can posters kill?: Antisemitic propaganda and world war ii by Jerry Faivish.

How did Hitler and the Nazi Party convince millions of people that the murder of Jews during the Holocaust was not only justifiable but correct? What can we learn from one of the most horrific times in history? Can Posters Kill? uses rare, historical posters to take readers on a visual journey from medieval anti-Jewish artwork to the venomous Nazi propaganda of the Second World War. These posters show how powerful propaganda can be as a tool for spreading hate: how repetition, vivid imagery, and urgent messaging promote intense emotional reactions—fear, distrust, loyalty, revulsion—that can be used to create a coordinated campaign to impact the way we think. For grades 8-12. 2025.

6972899 Interabled: true stories about love and disability from Squirmy & Grubs and other interabled couples by Shane Burcaw.

Interabled follows the lives of several couples as they navigate their love story in an ableist world. Sometimes tear-jerking, sometimes funny, but always heartwarming, this moving collection comprised of interviews and short stories - with interludes from Shane and Hannah about their own dating, marriage, and IVF journey - will have readers laughing and sobbing as they discover true stories of love and commitment. With his signature wit and hilarious voice, author, blogger, and entrepreneur Shane Burcaw has put together an inspiring and true story collection of sweet, funny, and often miraculous love stories of different interabled couples. For grades 6-12. 2025.

Fiction for adults

Canadian authors (Fiction)

7068856 Horsefly by Mireille Gagné.

A chilling tale about what happens when we mess with nature. In 1942, a young entomologist, Thomas, is sent on a secret mission to a remote island to work on biological weapons for the Allied military. The scientists live like prisoners while they look for the perfect carrier for anthrax among the island's many insects, trying at the same time to keep the local population in the dark. Until one of the islanders becomes ill. Eight decades later, in 2025, in the same region of Quebec, a heat wave unleashes horrendous swarms of horseflies, while humans fall prey to strange flights of rage and violence. Theodore is living a simple life, working double shifts at the factory and drinking to forget, when a horsefly bite stirs him from his apathy and he impulsively kidnaps from the nursing home his grandfather Émeril, whose dementia has him living in the past during the Grosse Ile biological weapons experiments. The two men end up on that same remote island, digging into the past. The horsefly, meanwhile, knows a few secrets. 2025.

7056944 Northern bull: a novel by Michelle N Swallow.

Over the course of one bitterly cold winter day in Yellowknife, Northern Bull takes readers on a joyful and hilarious journey of love and friendship as a quirky cast of characters sets out to find a missing moose head. It's a cold, dark January day in Yellowknife. A down-on-his-luck fisherman, Jacques, needs to convince his landlord not to tear down his ramshackle house. But when his volatile hunting buddy, Craig, accuses him of stealing a prized moose head, Jacques must put everything aside to find the bull before midnight, or there's no telling what Craig might do. Meanwhile, Jacques's next-door neighbour Maggie is trying to face her fears by writing a story for the annual community burlesque show. But when she accidentally breaks Jacques's window, she is determined to help save his home and find the moose head--and maybe something more. Over a single day, with flashbacks to the hunting trip that started it all and culminating in a wild night no one in Yellowknife will ever forget, we follow Jacques, Maggie and a quirky cast of supporting characters as they race against time--on snowmobiles--to find the moose, brave the stage, and take a chance on themselves and on love. 2026.

6972540 What I know about you by Éric Chacour.

A heartbreaking tale of a family and an impossible love, torn apart by secrets and traditions in late-twentieth-century Cairo. As a boy in 1960s Cairo, Tarek knows that his entire life is written in advance. He'll be a doctor like his father, marry, and have children. Under the watchful eyes of his mother and his sister, he starts to do just that – until Ali enters his life and turns it upside down. The two men, from very different worlds, embark on an unsayable relationship that threatens to tear apart Tarek's family. Years later, as Tarek is living a solitary life in Montreal, someone starts writing about him and to him, piecing together a past he wants only to forget. But who is the writer of this tale? And will he figure it out in time? 2024.

Historical fiction

6972922 Emily Wilde's compendium of lost tales: a novel by Heather Fawcett.

Emily Wilde has spent her life studying faeries. A renowned dryadologist, she has documented hundreds of species of Folk in her Encyclopedia of Faeries. Now she is about to embark on her most dangerous academic project studying the inner workings of a faerie realm--as its queen. Along with her former academic rival--now fiancé--the dashing and mercurial Wendell Bambleby, Emily is immediately thrust into the deadly intrigues of Faerie as the two of them seize the throne of Wendell's long-lost kingdom, which Emily finds a beautiful nightmare filled with scholarly treasures. 2025.

6972665 Everything is poison by Joy McCullough.

Sixteen-year-old Carmela Tofana finally gains access to her mother's apothecary in early 17th-century Rome, where she discovers that alongside healing remedies are dangerous potions that can change women's lives. 2025.

Indigenous peoples in Canada fiction

7062089 The baby train by Stella Shepard.

Thrust into the foster care system from an early age, Apple moves from house to house on Prince Edward Island without finding a home until she's a teenager and taken in by a couple who never managed to have children themselves. When she falls pregnant, her foster parents are keen to raise the baby with Apple still in the house-to live as a family. That opportunity is torn from Apple by members of the Catholic Church along with social workers and government officials. Their vicious practices take the babies of unwed mothers and give them to wealthy families in exchange for large "donations" to the church. Apple's beloved baby ends up with a rich couple in the U.S., and is lost to her. The Baby Train traces her life in the aftermath of that loss, raising subsequent children, creating deep bonds of friendship with other women struggling against society's rigid norms, and carrying underneath it all an unending love for her firstborn child. 2024.

7062085 Waiting for the long night moon: stories by Amanda Peters.

In her debut collection of short fiction, Amanda Peters describes the Indigenous experience from an astonishingly wide spectrum in time and place-from contact with the first European settlers, to the forced removal of Indigenous children, to the present-day fight for the right to clean water.In this intimate collection, Peters melds traditional storytelling with beautiful, spare prose to describe the dignity of the traditional way of life, the humiliations of systemic racism and the resilient power to endure. 2024.

LGBTQ+ fiction

7112552 Game changer (Game changers #1) by Rachel Reid.

New York Admirals captain Scott Hunter takes his pregame rituals very seriously. When a particular smoothie precedes Scott's breaking his on-ice slump, he's desperate to recreate the magic and to get to know the sexy, funny guy behind the counter. Kip Grady knew there was more to Scott's frequent visits than blended fruit, but he never let himself imagine being invited back to Scott's penthouse. Or kissed with reckless abandon--and more. What goes on between them is hot, incredible and frequent, but also only on Scott's terms and always behind his closed apartment doors. Scott needs Kip in his life, but with playoff season approaching, the spotlight on him is suddenly brighter than ever. He can't afford to do anything that might derail his career or the public's image of what a hockey captain should be. Kip is ready to go all in with Scott--but how much longer will he have to remain a secret? 2024.

6947565 The cure for drowning by Loghan Paylor.

Born Kathleen to an immigrant Irish farming family in southern Ontario, Kit McNair has been a troublesome changeling since, at ten, they fell through the river ice and drowned—only to be nursed back to life by their mother's Celtic magic. A daredevil in boy's clothes, Kit chafes at every aspect of a farmgirl's life, driving that same mother to distraction with worry about where Kit will ever fit in. When Rebekah Kromer, an elegant German-Canadian doctor's daughter, moves to town with her parents in April 1939, Rebekah has no doubt as to who 19-year-old Kit is. Soon she and Kit, and Kit's older brother, Landon, are drawn tight in a love triangle that will tear them and their families apart, and send each of them off on a separate path to war. 2024.

Romance

6947570 The riveter: A novel by Jack Wang.

A cross-cultural love story set against the dramatic backdrop of the Allied invasion of Europe in WWII. Vancouver, 1942. Josiah Chang arrives in the bustling city ready to serve his country in the war against fascism, but Chinese Canadians are barred from joining the army out of fear they might expect citizenship in return. So, Josiah heads to the shipyard to find work as a riveter, fastening together the ribs and steel plates of Victory ships. One night, Josiah spots Poppy singing at a navy club. Despite their different backgrounds, they fall for each other instantly and begin a starry-eyed romance that lasts until the harsh reality of their situation is made clear. Determined to prove himself, Josiah takes a train to Toronto where he's finally given the chance to enlist. After volunteering for the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion and jumping into Normandy on D-Day, he must fight through the battlefields of Europe to make it back to the woman he loves. 2025.

Serious and literary fiction

6921737 Days of feasting and rejoicing by David Bergen.

In this brilliant existential portrayal of identity, David Bergen introduces Esther Maile, an expat American living in Thailand in a house rented by the richer, more popular Christine. While on holiday in Bali, Christine is caught by an ocean wave and drowns. Esther rushes to save her, but in the chaos that ensues, the police arrive and confuse Esther for Christine. For someone who would prefer to be anyone but herself, this is the perfect solution — no matter the consequences. When a local Thai police captain, Net Wantok, begins to investigate Christine's death and seeks out Esther, he is caught between his curiosity — she is charming, evasive, and flirtatious — and the awareness that people around Esther are disappearing. Sensing danger, Esther acts out of fear and pulls the one person who loves her into her perilous world. 2025.

6763236 Flesh: a novel by David Szalay.

From Booker Prize-shortlisted author David Szalay, a stunning and visceral portrait of a life full of attraction, desire, strength, fragility, and hurt. István grows up alone with his mother in a small town in Hungary. He is hard to know, uncommunicative and defined, mostly, by what happens to him. He seems to go along with whatever comes his way, and a lot does come his way, some of it in unmanageable doses: sex, prison, the army, some lowly jobs that take him from Hungary to London. It's here that a chance encounter changes his course completely. Leaving his modest beginnings behind, he suddenly finds himself among the super-rich. But just as he is slowly feeling comfortable in this new environment, the precarious edifice starts crumbling beneath him, until finally it comes crashing down altogether. 2025.

Short stories

6658168 Who will bury you?: And other stories by Chido Muchemwa.

Intimate stories about Zimbabweans in moments of transition that force them to decide who they really are and choose the people they call their own. Set in Toronto and Zimbabwe, the twelve elegant stories in Who Will Bury You? touch on themes of loss, identity, and inequality as they follow the lives of Zimbabweans who often feel like they are on the outside looking in. A mother and daughter navigate new relationship dynamics when the daughter comes out as a lesbian. Two sisters wonder what will hold them together after their grandmother's death. A daughter tries to tell her father she loves him as she prepares to leave home for the first time. A journalist takes her grieving mother on a trip to report on girls who are allegedly being abducted by mermaids. A girl born to be the river god's wife becomes a hero when chaos breaks out in the mighty Zambezi. A group of mothers discover just how far they are willing to go to protect their children during wartime. Ephemeral yet beautifully satisfying, the stories in Chido Muchemwa's debut collection ask what makes people leave home, what makes them come back, and what keeps them there 2024.

Suspense and thrillers

6972827 Cold as hell by Kelley Armstrong.

Haven's Rock is a sanctuary town hidden deep in the Yukon for those who need to disappear from the regular world. Detective Casey Duncan and her husband, Sheriff Eric Dalton, are starting a family now that they've settled into their life here. As Casey nears the end of her pregnancy, she lets nothing, including her worried husband, stop her from investigating what happens in the forbidden forest outside the town of Haven's Rock. When one of the town's residents is drugged and wanders too close to the edge of town, she's dragged into the woods kicking and screaming. She's saved in the nick of time, but the women of the town are alarmed. Casey and Eric investigate the assault just as a snowstorm hits Haven's Rock, covering the forest. It's there they find a frozen body, naked in the snow. With mixed accounts of the woman's last movements, the two begin to question who they can trust--and who they can't--in their seemingly safe haven. 2025.

Non-fiction for adults

Anthologies

6991188 As the earth dreams: Black canadian speculative stories by Terese Mason Pierre.

A groundbreaking anthology of haunting stories by Black Canadian writers Edited by esteemed poet Terese Mason Pierre, this bold and innovative anthology of speculative short fiction reveals and uplifts the spectacular imaginings, reveries, reflections, experiments, and hopes of Black writers in Canada. Featuring stories by: Trynne Delaney francesca ekwuyasi Whitney French Aline-Mwezi Niyonsenga Chimedum Ohaegbu Suyi Davies Okungbowa Chinelo Onwualu Lue Palmer Terese Mason Pierre Zalika Reid-Benta 2025.

Biography

6451680 All the Parts We Exile by Roza Nozari.

From a queer Muslim woman and artist, a generous, insightful memoir that traces her journey toward radical self-acceptance and of exile from her ancestral home. As the youngest of three daughters, and the only one born in Canada soon after her parents' emigration from Iran, Roza Nozari began her life hungry for a sense of belonging. From her early years, she shared a passion for Iranian cuisine with her mother and craved stories of their ancestral home. Eventually they visited and she fell in love with its sights and smells, and with the warm embrace of their extended family. Yet Roza sensed something was amiss with her mother's happy, well-rehearsed story of their original departure. In this memoir, Roza braids the narrative of her mother’s life together with her own on-going story of self, as she arrives at, then rejects, her queer identity, eventually finds belonging in queer spaces and within queer Iranian histories, and learns the truth about her family’s move to Canada. 2025.

6998192 Unseen: How I lost my vision but found my voice by Molly Burke.

When Molly Burke was four years old, she was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a rare degenerative eye disease that leads to eventual blindness, forcing her to see the world through new eyes—literally. Growing up disabled didn't stop her from playing sports, becoming a rock-climbing instructor, or winning a beauty pageant, but other people's narrow perceptions of her held her back. Years of relentless bullying, toxic work environments, a rodent-infested apartment, and life's lowest moments were juxtaposed with red carpets, first-class flights, and personal and professional achievements. Throughout her life, Molly has learned to appreciate the duality, and, most importantly, she's learned the beauty of being unapologetically yourself and standing up for what you truly believe in. 2025.

Canadian authors (Non-fiction)

7106185 Book of lives: a memoir of sorts by Margaret Atwood.

The long-awaited memoir of one of the most lauded and influential writers of our time, from her peripatetic childhood in Northern Ontario, through the writing of her seminal novel The Handmaid's Tale in occupied East Berlin, to her position today as revered truth-teller and literary icon. From the moment she published her first collection of poetry in 1966--sweeping up our most prestigious literary award while still a graduate student in Victorian literature at Harvard--Margaret Atwood has been ahead of her time. Chronicling oddball early jobs (teaching English to engineering students in a Quonset hut), a faltering early marriage, the bohemian gatherings and literary infighting of a generation of writers finding their voice, to her magical life with the wildly charismatic writer Graeme Gibson and their only daughter, Atwood shares the stories, anecdotes, behind-the-scenes machinations, and turning points that have made her one of the most important writers of her era. 2025.

7062086 John Candy: a life in comedy by Paul Myers.

From his humble beginnings in sketch comedy with the Toronto branch of Second City, to his rise to fame in SCTV and Hollywood film classics like Planes, Trains and Automobiles, The Great Outdoors, and Uncle Buck, John Candy captivated audiences with his self-deprecating humour, emotional warmth, and gift for improvisation. Now, for the first time since Candy's tragic death, bestselling biographer Paul Myers tells the full story of the man behind the laughs. 2025.

7078977 The finest hotel in Kabul: a people's history of Afghanistan by Lyse Doucet.

When the Inter-Continental Hotel opened in central Kabul in 1969, it reflected the hopes of Afghanistan: a glistening white edifice that embodied the country's dreams of becoming an affluent, modern power. Five decades later, the Inter-Continental is a dilapidated, shrapnel-damaged shell. It has endured civil wars, terrorist attacks, the US occupation, and the rise, fall, and rise of the Taliban. But its decaying grandeur still hints at ordinary Afghans' hopes of stability and prosperity. Lyse Doucet, the BBC's Chief International Correspondent, has been staying at the Inter-Continental since 1988. She has spent decades meeting its staff and guests, and listening to their stories. And now, she uses their experiences to offer an evocative history of modern Afghanistan. 2025.

Disabilities

6972938 Connecting dots: a blind life by Joshua Alexander Miele.

At the age of four, Joshua Miele was blinded and badly burned when a neighbor poured sulfuric acid over his head. It could have ended his life, but instead, Miele--naturally curious, and a born problem solver--not only recovered, but thrived. Throughout his life, Miele has found increasingly inventive ways to succeed in a world built for the sighted, and to help others to do the same. At first reluctant to even think of himself as blind, he eventually embraced his blindness and became a committed advocate for disability and accessibility. He chronicles the evolution of a number of revolutionary accessible technologies and his role in shaping them, including screen readers, tactile maps, and audio description. 2025.

6718448 Fallosophy: my trip through life with MS : a memoir by Ardra Shephard.

A memoir based on columnist, fashion-show TV host, podcaster and MS advocate Ardra Shephard's award-winning blog, Tripping on Air. Twenty-three-year-old Ardra Shephard is sleeping with the wrong guy, living in a crappy apartment, and spending money she doesn't have on designer shoes, boozy brunches and weekends in NYC. She hates her office job, but it pays for the lessons she needs to make it as an opera singer. She isn't thrilled about her current situation, but she isn't panicked. She knows she's got time! Making mistakes while you figure stuff out is what your twenties are all about. But then when a doctor tells Ardra she has MS, those two letters split her life into a Before and After. 2025.

Family and relationships

7143188 If only love: a memoir of second chances by Shelley Saywell.

In 1973, a seventeen-year-old Canadian girl meets an American boy on her first day of school in Japan and falls in love, not realizing that he is also a goner for her. When they finally connect, they only have two months together before school's out and she has to head home. Bad timing and swirling emotion botch their attempt to stay together and they fall out of touch. Long after she loses him, she still thinks of him, and even sets out on a journey to find him, one that fails in the most traumatic of ways. 2026.

Indigenous peoples in Canada

7078976 We survived the night: an Indigenous reckoning by Julian Brave NoiseCat.

A stunning debut work of narrative nonfiction from one of the most powerful Indigenous story-tellers at work in Canada today, We Survived the Night combines investigative journalism, colonial history, Salish Coyote stories and a deeply personal father-son journey in a searing yet uplifting portrait of contemporary Indigenous life. Born to a charismatic Sécwepemc artist from a tiny reserve in the interior of B.C. and a Jewish-Irish woman from Westchester County, N.Y., Julian Brave NoiseCat grew up in a swirl of contradictions. He was the spitting image of his dad, but was raised mostly by his white mother in the urban Native community of Oakland, CA. He became a competitive powwow dancer, travelling the North American circuit, but despite being embraced by his family, he felt like an outsider when he spent time on his home reserve--drawn to his father's world, his Indigenous heritage and identity, but struggling to make sense of his place in it. We Survived the Night paints a profound, inspiring and unforgettable portrait of Indigenous life, entwined with a deeply powerful reckoning between a father and a son seeking a path to a future full of possibilities--for himself and all the children of Turtle Island. 2025.

Medicine

6921754 In this faulty machine: A memoir of loss and transformation by Kathy Page.

An exquisite memoir of the author’s life since being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease—informative, funny, and moving all at once. Acclaimed novelist Kathy Page had just completed a promotional tour for her award-winning book Dear Evelyn when a fall during a hike injured her hand. That relatively minor accident seemed to set in motion a cascade of other seemingly unrelated physical issues. Many months of appointments, and of waiting for appointments (including during the COVID lockdown) ensued, until the day that pulled everything together in a single, frightening diagnosis: Parkinson's disease. In This Faulty Machine is an eye-opening, often lyrical and very funny report from that "other kingdom" of illness, from an observant, wise, and honest involuntary resident. 2025.

Social issues

7046255 Encampment: Resistance, grace, and an unhoused community by Maggie Helwig.

The housing crisis plaguing major urban centres has sent countless people into the streets. In spring 2022, some of them found their way to the yard beside the Anglican church in Toronto's Kensington Market, where Maggie Helwig is the priest. Encampment tells the story of Helwig's life-long activism as preparation for her fight to keep her churchyard open to people needing a home. 2025.

6991180 Life after ambition: A "good enough" memoir by Amil Niazi.

Channeling the subversive and sharp-eyed voice showcased in her popular column for The Cut, this memoir stylishly interrogates the aspirations of young adulthood, early middle age, motherhood and life after ambition— for readers of Ada Calhoun, Jia Tolentino, Jessi Klein, and Maggie Smith. Building off her wildly popular viral essays “Losing My Ambition” and “The Mindfuck of Mid-Life,” rising star Amil Niazi explores what life looks like “post-ambition.” With sly humor and a deep literary sensibility, she interrogates her own evolving ambitions, and how they intersect with adulthood, motherhood, age, identity, class, and race, and how it has shaped her and a generation of Millennials. And, most importantly, now that she is “done with ambition”—what happens next? 2026.