What do you do when you’re being watched at every turn by creatures plotting to take over the world? Simon Carpenter is a normal 16-year-old living in Vancouver. Or is he normal? Any type of music drives him crazy. When walking by a homeless person, he can see the world through the drunken man’s eyes. And when visiting a pet shop he hears a rabbit speaking to him. To solve these mysteries, he takes the rabbit home, only to discover that a foreign "presence" lives inside it. To make matters worse, this "presence" belongs to an army of souls that has plans to supplant the human race.Who are these creatures? How do they plan to accomplish their goal? How is Simon connected to them? And if they can watch his every step, how can he stop them? These are questions he must answer … quickly. Nothing is what it seems to be and failure will lead to worldwide disaster.

Transmigration

Children's Books

Maes, Nicholas

Science Fiction & Fantasy

Dundurn Press

Commended for the 2009 Best Books for Kids &amp; Teens, long-listed for the 2009 CLA Book of the Year for Children Award Twelve-year-old Lewis Castorman is a master locksmith: there is no lock on earth that he is unable to open. He is therefore flattered when world-renowned chemist Ernst K. Grumpel invites him to his office in New York City and offers him a lock-picking assignment. His confidence quickly turns to dismay, however, when he learns this job will take him to Yellow Swamp in northern Alberta, the scene of a disastrous chemical spill a year earlier. He is also horrified to discover that Grumpel is utterly ruthless and, through his chemical inventions, can alter the rules of nature at his will. But the assignment is one that Lewis can’t refuse. How is Grumpel able to create such miraculous transformations? What secrets has he locked away and why has he taken pains to store them in Alberta? Despite the strange discoveries Lewis will make at every turn in his adventures, nothing will prepare him for the final encounter that awaits him in Yellow Swamp.

Locksmith (A Felix Taylor Adventure, 1)

Literature & Fiction

Born in Thamesville, Ontario, a student at Queen’s University in Kingston in the 1930s, and editor and later publisher of the Peterborough Examiner from the 1940s to the mid-1960s, playwright, essayist, critic, professor, and novelist Robertson Davies (1913–1995) was one of Canada’s pre-eminent literary voices for more than a half-century. Davies, with his generous beard and donnish manner, was the very epitome of the “man of letters,” a term he abhorred. Best known for his Deptford Trilogy of novels (Fifth Business, The Manticore, World of Wonders), he also wrote two other trilogies (Salterton and Cornish) and was at work on the third volume of another trilogy (Toronto) when he died. With a life as rich in character and colour as that found in his fiction and essays, Davies had a great fondness for magic and myth, both of which are found in abundance in his work, along with a prodigious streak of wry humour.

Robertson Davies: Magician of Words (Quest Biography, 24)

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

I don't want to know If your mama's a Jew If you're hung up on Islam Jesus Christ or kung fu --Fictional lyrics from "Melting Pot" by Leonard Skye Barvis Seventy-year-old Nathan Gelder has suffered a stroke. He is floating in a pool of tragic memories, half conscious of his family's visits and the ministering staff in a Toronto hospital. Past and present assail him unrelentingly. Born a half-Jew in Holland, and scarred by the loss of his parents to the Holocaust, Nathan has been forever at sea. His serene, middle class existence in Toronto, as a fastidious translator and family man, has neither prepared him for the exigencies of the late 20th century, nor helped him overcome his profound sense of loss. Confusion has led to obsession, and obsession has led to a cleansing act of retribution. As he lies suspended in his memories, his family catches wind of his crime. Is it possible this family man pushed mega-rock star Leonard Barvis to his death? The media descend. Even as their cameras besiege his paralysed body, and the rock star's fans stage riots world-wide, he pleads for vindication. Unfortunately he is on his own. Written in an elegant prose, with an equal mix of cantankerousness and mordant wit, Dead Man's Float is sweeping in its emotional impact. The result is a poignant, riveting juxtaposition of western history's darkest chapter and late twentieth century popular culture. Dead Man's Float will leave its readers gasping for air.

Dead Man's Float

Literary

Esplanade Books

It is the year 2213. Fifteen-year-old Felix Taylor is the last person on Earth who can speak and read Latin. In a world where technology has defeated war, crime, poverty, and famine, and time travel exists as a distinct possibility, Felix's language skills and knowledge seem out of place and irrelevant. But are they? A mysterious plague has broken out. Scientists can't stop its advance, and humanity is suddenly poised on the brink of eradication. The only possible cure is Lupus Ridens, or Laughing Wolf, a flower once common in ancient Rome but extinct for more than 2,000 years. Felix must project back to Roman times circa 71 B.C. and retrieve the flower. But can he navigate through the dangers and challenges of the world of Spartacus, Pompey, and Cicero? And will he find the Laughing Wolf in time to save his family and everyone else from the Plague of Plagues?

Laughing Wolf (A Felix Taylor Adventure, 1)

Teen & Young Adult

Historical Fiction