BC Books for Teens

In celebration of BC Book Day (April 23, 2024) we've chosen some of our favourite BC authors and illustrators.

Updated April 6, 2024
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Greater Victoria Public Library
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Tremendous things : a novel
Nielsen-Fernlund, Susin
From Governor General's Literary Award--winning author Susin Nielsen comes a funny and heartfelt story about learning how to rise above your most embarrassing moment with humor, best friends and a killer triangle solo. We all have moments that define us. For the comically...
Zara Hossain is here
Khan, Sabina
Zara's family has waited years for their visa process to be finalized so that they can officially become US citizens. But it only takes one moment for that dream to come crashing down around them. Seventeen-year-old Pakistani immigrant, Zara Hossain, has been leading a fairly typical life...

Also available as an ebook through Overdrive/Libby.

Mountain Runaways
Withers, Pam.
Will their wilderness skills be enough to survive the dangerous Rocky Mountains? First a Canadian Rockies avalanche kills their parents. Then Children's Services threatens to separate them. That's when the three Gunnarsson kids decide to run away into the mountains...

Also available as an ebook through Overdrive/Libby.

Iron Widow
Zhao, Xiran Jay.
An instant #1 New York Times bestseller! Pacific Rim meets The Handmaid's Tale in this blend of Chinese history and mecha science fiction for YA readers. The boys of Huaxia dream of pairing up with girls to pilot Chrysalises, giant transforming...

Also available as an ebook or e-audio through Overdrive/Libby.

Comics will break your heart : a novel
Hicks, Faith Erin
A sweet, funny contemporary teen romance for the inner geek in all of us from graphic novelist Faith Erin Hicks. Miriam's family should be rich. After all, her grandfather was the co-creator of smash-hit comics series The TomorrowMen. But he sold his rights to the series to...

Also available as an ebook or e-audiobook through Overdrive/Libby.

The candle and the flame
Azad, Nafiza
Azad's debut YA fantasy is set in a city along the Silk Road that is a refuge for those of all faiths, where a young woman is threatened by the war between two clans of powerful djinn.Fatima lives in the city of Noor, a thriving stop along the Silk Road. There the music of myriad languages fills the...

Also available as an ebook and e-audiobook through Overdrive/Libby.

Surviving the city. [Vol. 1]
Spillett, Tasha
Miikwan and Dez are best friends. Miikwan is Anishinaabe; Dez is Inninew. Together, the teens navigate the challenges of growing up in an urban landscape--they're so close, they even completed their Berry Fast together. However, when Dez's grandmother becomes too sick, Dez is told she can't stay...

Also available as an ebook through Overdrive/Libby.

Green glass ghosts
Spoon, Rae
From writer and musician Rae Spoon: a rollicking yet introspective young adult adventure about screwing up, finding yourself, and forging a new life on your own. At age nineteen in the year 2000, the queer narrator of Green Glass Ghosts steps off a bus on Granville Street in...
The love & lies of Rukhsana Ali
Khan, Sabina
With a welcome mix of humor, heart, and high-stakes drama, Sabina Khan provides a timely and honest portrait of what it's like to grow up feeling unwelcome in your own culture. Fight for love. Fight for family. Fight for yourself. Seventeen-year-old Rukhsana Ali...
The fashion committee : a novel of art, crime, and applied design
Juby, Susan
Project Runway meets I'll Give You the Sun in a hilarious and surprising he-said, she-said story about a fashion competition that will change both of their lives, from acclaimed author, Susan Juby. Charlie Dean is a style-obsessed girl who eats, sleeps, and breathes...

Also available as an ebook through Overdrive/Libby.

Union
Cassidy, Sara
Tuck navigates new love, past trauma and standing up for what's right in this novel in verse. Grace has caught my eye I stare and stare at this girl I've missed since we were five Abuse at the hands of his mother's boyfriend has left fifteen-year-old Tuck...

Also available as an ebook through Overdrive/Libby.

Prince of pot
Kyi, Tanya Lloyd
Legalizing weed doesn't mean that living on a secret, family-run grow-op is easy, especially when your new girlfriend turns out to be the daughter of a cop. Isaac loves art class, drives an old pickup, argues with his father and hangs out with his best buddy, Hazel. But his life is...
Nice try, Jane Sinner
Oelke, Lianne
"Jane Sinner snarked her way into my heart, and she's never leaving. Prepare to fall hard for this hilarious, heartfelt gem of a book."--Becky Albertalli, author of Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda It's Kind of a Funny Story meets Daria in the darkly hilarious tale...
Confessions of a teenage leper
Little, Ashley
Cheerleading, mean girls, shopping . . . and leprosy? High school is about to get complicated. For fans of Before I Fall and Exit, Pursued By a Bear. Abby Furlowe has plans. Big plans. She's hot, she's popular, she's a cheerleader and she's going to break out of her...
You are the everything
Rivers, Karen
Can you want something--or someone--so badly that it changes your destiny? Elyse Schmidt never would have thought so, until it happened to her. When Elyse and her not-so-secret crush, Josh Harris, are the sole survivors of a plane crash, tragedy binds them together. It's...
When everything feels like the movies
Reid, Raziel
Inspired by a true story, When Everything Feels like the Movies is an edgy, extravagant novel for young people and others, full of gender-bending teen glamour, dark mischief and enough melodrama to incite the paparazzi. A boy who smells like Chanel Mademoiselle, calls Blair Waldorf his biggest...
When morning comes
Raina, Arushi
It's 1976 in South Africa In the black township of Soweto, Zanele, who also works as a nightclub singer, is plotting against the apartheid government. The police can't know. Her mother and sister can't know. No one can know. On the affluent white side of town, Jack Craven plans to spend...

Also available in e-audiobook format through Overdrive/Libby.

Hunger journeys : a novel
De Vries, Maggie.
"First, that is a lie. You are not trying to take a train to Germany. Second, your papers are false. Do you think you can trump up false papers and just walk onto one of our trains?" (Hunger Journeys) It's World War Two in Amsterdam. Lena leaves her starving family to travel by train with...
Wildfire
Mac, Carrie
Into the Wild meets The Serpent King in this story about Annie and Pete, two best friends on a dangerous and emotional trek through the woods. Annie and Pete have been best friends since they were little. They know each other better than anyone, and they've been on...
The revolutionary spirit in France and America
Fačy, Bernard
Finalist, 2023 Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize - BC and Yukon Book Prizes A beautifully illustrated collection of inspiring life stories of fifty extraordinary historical women from BC and the Yukon. This fascinating, informative, and charming book...
Facing the sun
Mather, Janice Lynn
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants meets The Education of Margot Sanchez in this Caribbean-set story about four friends who experience unexpected changes in their lives during the summer when a hotel developer purchases their community's beloved beach. Change...
No fixed address
Nielsen-Fernlund, Susin
From beloved Governor General Literary Award--winning author Susin Nielsen comes a touching and funny middle-grade story about family, friendship and growing up when you're one step away from homelessness. Felix Knuttson, twelve, is an endearing kid with an incredible brain for...
Dreams. Volume 1,Visions of the crow
John-Kehewin, Wanda
"Your ancestors have called us to help you." "I think y'all have the wrong number." Damon Quinn just wants to get through his senior year unscathed. His mom struggles with alcohol and is barely coping with the day-to-day. Marcus and his cronies at school are forever...
Hopeless in Hope
John-Kehewin, Wanda
We live in a hopeless old house on an almost-deserted dead-end street in a middle-of-nowhere town named Hope. This is the oldest part of Hope; eventually it will all be torn down and rebuilt into perfect homes for perfect people. Until then, we live here: imperfect people on an imperfect...
Poison Town
Campbell, Elyssa
Fourteen-year-old Addie's town is built around a lead and zinc smelter. The company has done an extensive cleanup of its operations, but everything in the town still seems sick; even the crows are having trouble flying. Addie decides to find out if the smelter is still poisoning local...
Catfish Rolling
Kumagai, Clara
A debut young adult coming-of-age book with magic realism elements, Catfish Rolling is perfect for fans of Studio Ghibli films and Laura Ruby's Bone Gap. There's a catfish under Japan, and when it rolls, the land rises and falls. At least, that's what Sora was...
The space between here & now
Suk, Sarah
Perfect for fans of They Both Die at the End and You've Reached Sam, this gripping, atmospheric YA novel follows a teen with a mysterious condition that transports her to the past when she smells certain scents linked to specific memories. Seventeen-year-old Aimee Roh has Sensory Time Warp...

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