National Network for Equitable Library Service

The tiny community of Deeper Harbour is in trouble-and so is young Roland MacTavish. Roland's mom wants to move with him to Ottawa, away from his father, his weird friend Dulsie, and his even weirder grandfather. So Roland does what any sane teenager would do: he invents a sea monster. Unfortunately, the plan quickly spins out of control, and he has to go to greater and greater lengths to keep up the illusion. Then Roland must deal with a situation far more terrifying than any sea monster.

Lexie Ivy loves her little house in Cape Breton, her big family, and the endless sea that surrounds her. She wouldn't trade her life for anything, but at thirty she's starting to feel like something's missing. Enter Adrian, a charming backpacker who takes a wrong turn at the U.S. border and ends up on Lexie's doorstep, and Joss, an irresistible man who disappears just as quickly as he arrives. Lexie's peaceful life has suddenly become more complicated than she ever imagined. Lesley Crewe's funny, whip-smart debut novel brims with Cape Breton style humour.

A Nova Scotia classic, The Nymph and the Lamp is the story of Isabel Jardin, a strong and sensitive woman, and the men in her life--the stoic Matthew Carney, a living legend, the passionate Gregory Skane, and the innocent but infatuated Jim Sargent. Set in the 1920s, the story unfolds against the wild desolation of Marina, a wind-swept island off the coast of Nova Scotia, as the characters come to terms with their personal contradictions and the demands of isolated island life.

Fourteen-year-old Alex's life is in ruins. Her family ripped apart by tragedy, she is stuck on Brier Island for the summer with her aunt. At first, Alex is desperate to escape this place where everyone's business is public knowledge and there is too much time to think. But the island begins to work its magic, with its quirky characters, rugged landscape, and whale-filled ocean, and Alex forms a special bond with an adventurous baby whale she names Daredevil. Through her attachment to Daredevil and the beauty of Brier Island, Alex slowly begins the long journey toward healing.

Fifteen-year-old Andrea Baxter is thrilled when she?s offered a summer job in Cape Breton. Although her mother worries that she is too young to move so far away, Andrea welcomes the chance to strike out on her own. It seems the perfect opportunity to escape from all the changes that have come into her life with her mother's recent marriage: a new stepfather, a new school, and a new house in the suburbs, worlds away from all her old friends.

It's 1998 and Antony Williams is about to meet his match. A native of Windsor, Ontario, Antony makes his living as a house painter by day before catapulting loads of Canadian weed across the river to Detroit by night. Then he meets Kate Chan, a beautiful, street-smart law student, who calls his bluff and picks apart his personal mythology. Ultimately she presents him with his own hard choice and forces him to realize he's been smuggling much more than he knows.

Thirteen-year-old Grace is grieving over her father's mysterious death, dealing with her distraught mother's erratic parenting, and evading her creepy nosy neighbour, Mr. Stuckless. She and her friends like to get away from it all by hunting for fossils near their secret hideaway in an abandoned mine. But when Grace receives a strange note about her father's death, it sets off a chain of events that leads to Grace and her friends trying to solve the mystery behind her father?s disappearance.

"Cammie Deveau began life with a few strikes against her. She's visually impaired, abandoned by her mother at birth, her father was a casualty of the Second World War-and if all that isn't enough, she's being raised by her bootlegging aunt. No wonder she dreams of starting a brand new life. When Cammie learns about a school for blind and visually impaired children she becomes convinced a new life is waiting for her in Halifax, but how will she ever convince her aunt to let her go?

"Fred has had a rough summer. His secret crush on Mai is going strong, his mother has barely recovered from a battle with cancer, and his unreliable father's diving business has gone completely underwater. Now Fred, Mai, and Grace, extraordinary fossil hunters, are at the Fortress of Louisbourg hunting a different kind of treasure. They are secretly excavating the historic site, trying to find a mass of jewels Fred's ancestor may have buried there; jewels that could save Fred's family.

"Pru Burbidge lives a simple life on the family homestead on Dalhousie Road in 1940s rural Nova Scotia until her father abandons the family and her mother falls ill. Her life is turned upside-down by these events, and she is forced to take on the role of primary caregiver to her siblings, Jessie, Flora, and Davey. Things go from bad to worse when Pru's mother dies, leaving Pru and Jessie, her older brother, to care for the family in secret so they are not separated and sent away to foster homes, or worse the orphan house.