Books for young people

Artists first

A necessary reminder that it’s the creators behind

Building bridges

Family history and futuristic architecture collide in Kerri Sakamoto’s fable-like novel, Floating City

On the border

As Indigo prepares for its American expansion this summer, experts weigh in on the book retailer’s potential for success

Cruel to be kind

Find an early reader for your manuscsript who isn’t afraid to give you the hard truths

Voices carried

Remembering diverse-kidlit hero and Groundwood publisher Sheila Barry

Exhibiting Power

Kent Monkman’s artistic alter ego, Miss Chief Eagle Testickle, finds her voice in a new

Faking It

People who denigrate the performative aspects of The Bachelor are missing the point, writes

Misrepresentation and the truth of Ktunaxa consent

A response from Ktunaxa Nation Council

Mom’s the word

Provocative interdisciplinary artist Jordan Tannahill draws on his own life experience in his debut novel, an experimental but tender portrait of a young man’s deep love for his mother

Searching in the dark

Naben Ruthnum (writing as Nathan Ripley) works to subvert genre conventions in his debut thriller

Fiction

New novels, story collections, and poetry

Non-fiction

A season of provocative stories and insights

For the love of stories

This season’s fiction for young people is terrifyingly dark, playfully adventurous, and as silly as a baby hashtag book

Just the facts

Books that inspire, awe, and teach

Mind games

A psychiatrist uses his traumatized wife as fodder for his psychotropic experiments in Elisabeth de Mariaffi’s terrifying thriller

History’s underbelly

Terry Watada’s epic novel examines the infamous period of Japanese-Canadian internment during the Second World War

Pushing the needle

Lee Maracle and M. NourbeSe Philip address issues of colonial violence and systemic racism in new volumes of essays

The element of surprise

The stories in Daniel Karasik’s debut collection go off in unexpected directions; Tehmina Khan’s debut proves less adventurous

Full-throttle technique

Three poets run the gamut from stylistic pyrotechnics to subtle plain-spokenness

Speaking in tongues

Heidi Sopinka’s debut novel addresses the nature and purpose of art, but sacrifices narrative momentum

Cats Will Be Dogs

In this Simpsons-esque book, two laboratory felines build themselves a robotic dog suit and take on an evil (alien) baby

Poise And Propriety

A fictional French café owner and a revered English writer are the charming protagonists in picture books from Canadian illustrators

You can never go home

David A. Robertson’s latest thriller, the first in a series, fires on all cylinders

The ballad of ophelia and ulysses

Teenage outcasts overcome severe insecurities to find love and their voices

Scenic view

A formidable new art book pays homage to Canada’s physical landscape