Here are the 2022 White Pine Award finalists: 10 great Canadian books for readers in Grades 9-12
CBC Books | | Posted: October 22, 2021 7:46 PM | Last Updated: May 17, 2022
Ten Canadian books are finalists for the 2022 White Pine Award, which celebrates fiction books for readers in Grades 9-12.
The White Pine Award is part of the Forest of Reading program, in which students from kindergarten to high school are encouraged to read from a selection of shortlisted books and vote for their favourites over several months.
The Forest of Reading program is organized by the Ontario Library Association. The 10 finalists in each category are chosen by a committee of library practitioners.
More than 270,000 students across Canada participate each year through their schools, public libraries, literacy centres and at home. Those with a subscription can tune in through Curio, CBC's educational service. The awards will also be available at CBC Books.
On Day One of the festival (May 17, 2022), the Blue Spruce Award (10 a.m. ET), Red Maple Award (11:30 a.m. ET) and the White Pine Award (1:00 p.m. ET) are announced. You can see the complete schedule here.
Blood Like Magic by Liselle Sambury
The YA novel Blood Like Magic is a dark fantasy story about Voya Thomas, a Black Canadian teen witch from Toronto who is fated to sacrifice her first love to save her family's magic. But when Voya does eventually fall in love with her soulmate, she is forced to make the choice between her morality and her duty to her bloodline.
Liselle Sambury is a Trinidadian Canadian YA author and vlogger from Toronto currently residing in northern Ontario. Blood Like Magic is her debut YA novel and is also a finalist for the 2021 Governor General's Literary Award for young people's literature — text.
Bruised by Tanya Boteju
Bruised is a YA novel about Daya Wijesinghe, a teen girl who navigates first love and identity after a family tragedy. After a tragic accident results in the death of her parents, Daya has taken to bruising herself as a way to cope with her grief. It leads her to the physical and colourful world of roller derby. Bruised explores Daya's healing process and journey to wellness.
Tanya Boteju is an author and educator based in Vancouver. Her debut YA novel, Kings, Queens and In-Betweens, followed a high school student named Nima and explored themes of gender identity and belonging.
Don't Breathe a Word by Jordyn Taylor
In Don't Breathe a Word, Eva has never fit in at the fancy New York boarding school Hardwick Preparatory Academy. So when she's invited to join an elite secret society called the Fives she jumps at the chance. Decades earlier, a girl named Connie volunteers to be one of six students to test Hardwick's nuclear fallout shelter. Eva and Connie's stories become intertwined as Eva unravels the mystery of why six students entered the fallout shelter but only five returned.
Jordyn Taylor is a Canadian YA author, editor and journalist currently based in New York. Her debut YA novel was The Paper Girl of Paris.
Fight Like a Girl by Sheena Kamal
In thriller writer Sheena Kamal's first YA novel Fight Like a Girl, Trisha grew up with an abusive father who would come and go as he pleased. In an effort to break the chain of violence in her family, Trisha chooses to channel her violent impulses into Muay Thai kickboxing.
Kamal is a Vancouver-based writer of crime novels including The Lost Ones which won the 2018 Kobo Emerging Writer Prize, and It All Falls Down. Fight Like a Girl is her first YA novel.
The Forest of Stolen Girls by June Hur
Set in 1426 Korea, The Forest of Stolen Girls is a YA novel about a young woman named Hwani who seeks to know the truth about a past crime that affected her family. But when her detective father vanishes after looking into the mystery, Hwani is forced to locate her family and solve the mystery that forever changed all their lives.
June Hur is a South Korea-born writer based in Toronto. She has a degree in history and literature from the University of Toronto. Her work is inspired by her personal journey. She is also the author of The Silence of Bones.
Gutter Child by Jael Richardson
Gutter Child is about a young girl growing up in a world divided: the Mainland, where people of privilege live, and the Gutter, a policed state where the most vulnerable reside. A social experiment results in 100 babies born in the Gutter to be raised in the Mainland. One of those babies is Elimina Dubois. But when Elimina's Mainland mother dies, she is sent to an academy with rules and a way of life Elimina doesn't understand.
Jael Richardson is the founder and the artistic director of the Festival for Literary Diversity (FOLD) and the books columnist for Q on CBC Radio. She is also the author of the nonfiction book The Stone Thrower, which was also adapted into a picture book of the same name. Gutter Child is her first work of fiction.
The Montague Twins: The Witch's Hand by Nathan Page, illustrated by Drew Shannon
The first book in The Montague Twins series of YA novels,The Montague Twins: The Witch's Hand follows magical teen detectives Alastair and Pete on a thrilling journey to find out the truth around their abilities. When three girls go missing in their coastal town of Port Howl after casting a spell, the twins realize there are forces at work they could never have imagined.
Nathan Page is an Ontario therapist and author. His other books include The Devil's Music and Who Was the First Man on the Moon?
Drew Shannon is a Toronto-based illustrator born in London, Ont. His other books include The Devil's Music and Finding Home.
Nothing But Life by Brent van Staalduinen
Nothing but Life is about a teen named Dills, a hot summer and a sensational crime that haunts his family. When Dills and his mother move to their hometown of Hamilton, Ont., Dills is still affected by the fact that his stepfather was responsible for a horrific crime. But Dills still refuses to speak about what happened that fateful day — and his connection to his stepfather begins to affect his new home and school life.
Brent van Staalduinen is a novelist and short story writer from Hamilton, Ont. His previous YA books include Boy and Saints, Unexpected. He made the 2020 CBC Short Story Prize longlist for The Echoes Are All Mine.
What Unbreakable Looks Like by Kate McLaughlin
What Unbreakable Looks Like is the story of a girl named Lex who moves in with her aunt and uncle after surviving being trafficked. After her new sense of safety is shattered by a sexual assault, she decides to confront her past and use what happened to her to help others.
Kate McLaughlin is an author from Nova Scotia currently based in Connecticut. Her other books include the Steampunk Chronicles series and the upcoming YA novel Daughter.
The Wild by Owen Laukkanen
In YA thriller The Wild, a girl named Dawn finds herself at a wilderness boot camp called Out of the Wild with a group of other troubled teens. When the life lessons they are there to learn are not what any of them expect, things start go very wrong and Dawn is more scared then she's ever been.
Owen Laukkanen is a thriller writer based in PEI. His other books include Deception Cove and Lone Jack Trail.