Seventeen-year-old Alex Jackson comes home from school to find that his father, a CBC news cameraman, wants to take him to China's capital, Beijing. Once there, Alex finds himself on his own in Tian An Men Square as desperate students fight the Chinese army for their freedom. Separated from his...
Allie's life has just taken a turn for the worse; not only do her parents fight all the time, but she is failing more classes than not and now she thinks she might be pregnant. Unable to face up to her parents she decides to run away. She hooks up with her old friend Razz, a professional skateboa...
Lee wants to be a Tarantula – a member of the biggest, most powerful gang in his neighbourhood. But when his initiation goes wrong and the police catch him robbing an auto supply store, Lee’s father sends him to live with his aunt in New Toronto. Lee feels more lost than ever. His mother’s deat...
Poking around a sacred Indian burial ground in the middle of the night with her brother, John, isn't Karen Stone's idea of a great way to start off the summer. But she lets John talk her into it, and the two are plunged into a world they never imagined existed - a world where past and present ble...
One night, just before final exams, 18-year-old Franklin Crabbe - smart, rich, yet unhappy and semi-alcoholic - packs his gear and drives away into the woods to disappear completely. Totally unprepared for bush life, Crabbe nearly perishes until he meets someone else who has her reasons to hide.
They had bought the place when they were young — so long ago, Grandma always claimed, that it had been the only house on the street, surrounded by apple orchards. Over the years the city had grown towards it and eventually enveloped it. Grandpa Lane had driven a taxi since he and my grandmother h...
This morning Alma slid back the bolt and opened the milk box beside the outside door, removing the bottle of milk and loaf of bread left there during the morning’s delivery. She counted the change in the envelope her mother placed in the box each night with enough money for the milk and bread. Sh...
At home in my kitchen after work I spread a city map across the table and used the index to find the street I wanted. It connected to Spadina, near Mr. Bai’s office above the restaurant with the dragons. I had learned nothing new about the old man, but Chang had told me he was a property owner. I...
I drove under an arch with “Silverwood Estates” printed across a rising-sun motif and followed a winding blacktop track, slowing for the speed bumps, until I came to an egg-yellow modular unit with a sign saying “Office” nailed to a deck post. I got a set of keys and Roy Weeks’s handwritten instr...
I came back to the main facility just before eight o’clock for the weigh-in. The place was thronged with wrestlers, some outfitted in the latest threads, some going the other way, wearing worn grey track suits with holes in the knees and cut-off arms. I was hoping they paid less attention to trai...
Raphaella was in constant demand. MOO was gearing up for opening night, with a full rehearsal schedule. The show was coming together well, she told me. It was looking and sounding good. Mr. and Mrs. Director were getting along. Between MOO and her responsibilities at the Demeter, Raphaella was ru...
I wandered into Locheed’s room, lost in thought, a few minutes before class started and was immediately encircled by Vanni, Instant and Daneale. I gave them a quick update on the events at my house since the disastrous performance of the excerpt from The Taming of the Shrew, which Vanni now refer...
His armaments: soaps, creams and lotions; floss, brushes, swabs and his uncle’s safety razor. The field: the tiny bathroom of the Troupe bungalow, pulsing with rock music from a portable radio. His foe: his body, which seemed anxious to betray him at every turn. If his vigil was not constant, whi...