Prison Boy

Little Kai is brought to the orphanage run by Bell, a fearsome Englishwoman whose dedication to her charges is unflinching. There, an older child, Pax, immediately takes Kai under his wing. It soon becomes apparent that Kai is a brilliant child, and given the right circumstances, could go on to achieve great things. Penniless and living amidst political strife and constant uncertainty, the children are nonetheless taken care of and protected, until Bell dies and they are left on their own. Pax is determined to keep Kai safe, and to make sure he gets the education he deserves. But life on the streets is tough, and dangerous.

Shadow Scale

The kingdom of Goredd: a world where humans and dragons share life with an uneasy balance, and those few who are both human and dragon must hide the truth. Seraphina is one of these, part girl, part dragon, who is reluctantly drawn into the politics of her world. When war breaks out between the dragons and humans, she must travel the lands to find those like herself—for she has an inexplicable connection to all of them, and together they will be able to fight the dragons in powerful, magical ways.

The Scorpion Rules

Greta is the Crown Princess of the Pan Polar Confederacy, a superpower formed of modern-day Canada. She is also a Child of Peace, a hostage held by the de facto ruler of the world, the great Artificial Intelligence, Talis. The hostages are Talis’s strategy to keep the peace: if her country enters a war, Greta dies. The system has worked for centuries. Parents don’t want to see their children murdered.

Best Friends Through Eternity

Inspired by the true story of a teen who was killed at a railway crossing, the author weaves the tale of fourteen-year-old Paige, who, taking a shortcut alongside the tracks to avoid the school bullies, is tragically hit by a train and transported to a surreal world where she encounters Kim, who died seven years before. Convinced she is only dreaming, Paige must discover a way to return to her former life.

Untwine

Giselle Boyer and her identical twin, Isabelle, are as close as sisters can be, even as their family seems to be unraveling. Then the Boyers have a tragic encounter that will shatter everyone’s world forever.
Giselle wakes up in the hospital, injured and unable to speak or move. Trapped in the prison of her own body, Giselle must revisit her past in order to understand how the people closest to her — her friends, her parents, and above all, Isabelle, her twin — have shaped and defined her.

Dance of the Banished

Ali and his fiancée Zeynep dream about leaving their home in Anatolia and building a new life together in Canada. But their homeland is controlled by the Turkish government, which is on the brink of war with Britain and Russia. And although Ali finds passage to Canada to work, he is forced to leave Zeynep behind until he can earn enough to bring her out to join him. When the First World War breaks out and Canada joins Britain, Ali is declared an enemy alien.

Join the discussion of Dance of the Banished as well as other books centered around relocation on our My Take/Your Take page.

See the review at WOW Review, Volume 8, Issue 2

Powder Necklace: A Novel

Rendered a foreigner among her own people when her mother sends her to school in their native Ghana, a young woman learns about the painful economic circumstances affecting the region, which sharply contrasts with her divorced parents’ homes in England and America.

See the review at WOW Review, Volume 8, Issue 2

The Seventh Most Important Thing

“In 1963, thirteen-year-old Arthur is sentenced to community service helping the neighborhood Junk Man after he throws a brick at the old man’s head in a moment of rage, but the junk he collects might be more important than he suspects. Inspired by the work of American folk artist James Hampton”–

See the review at WOW Review, Volume 8, Issue 2