Young Adult: 2022 Releases

Dahlia Adler

Fairy tales have been spun for thousands of years and remain among our most treasured stories. In this anthology, a diverse group of authors reimagines an array of classic fairy tales. Among the 15 stories includes “Puss in Boots”, reimagined by Darcie Little Badger (Lipan Apache).

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Jen Ferguson (Michif/Métis)

Lou has enough confusion in front of her this summer. She’ll be working in her family’s ice-cream shack with her newly ex-boyfriend—whose kisses never made her feel desire, only discomfort—and her former best friend, King, who is back in their Canadian prairie town after disappearing three years ago without a word. But when she gets a letter from her biological father—a man she hoped would stay behind bars for the rest of his life—Lou immediately knows that she cannot meet him, no matter how much he insists. While King’s friendship makes Lou feel safer and warmer than she would have thought possible, when her family’s business comes under threat, she soon realizes that she can’t ignore her father forever.

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Eric Gansworth (Onondaga Nation)

Brian, a twenty-something reporter on the Niagara Cascade’s City Desk, is navigating life as the only Indigenous writer in the newsroom, being lumped into reporting on stereotypical stories that homogenize his community, the nearby Tuscarora reservation. But when a mysterious roadside assault lands Tim, the brother of Brian’s mother’s late boyfriend in the hospital, Brian must pick up the threads of a life that he’s abandoned. Forced to confront his buried past, Brian seeks to balance himself between Haudenosaunee and American life, between the version of his story that would prize the individual over all else and the version of himself that depends on the entire community’s survival.

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Monique Gray Smith (Cree, Lakota, and Scottish)

Nicole Neidhardt (Diné)

In her best-selling book Braiding Sweetgrass, Indigenous botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer demonstrated how all living things—from strawberries and witch hazel to water lilies and lichen—provide us with gifts and lessons every day. Adapted for young adults by Monique Gray Smith, this new edition reinforces how wider ecological understanding stems from listening to the earth’s oldest teachers: the plants around us. Includes sidebars, reflection questions, and illustrations from Nicole Neidhardt.

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A.R. Capetta and Wade Roush

What does the future hold? In this anthology, ten speculative short stories, including “The Weight of a Name” by Inupiaq author Nasugraq Rainey Hopson, imagine what the world could be through the lens of technologies emerging today. When the modification industry transforms how humans look, sound, and interact, a nonbinary teen braves the “reinvention room” to accept a gift from the dead. In an accidental city in space, a young apprentice holds neighborhoods together with braided carbon filaments until distraction and inspiration arrive in the wake of a visitor. Entitlement-fueled drug use alters the landscape of white privilege, robots remember the Earth, and corporate “walkers” stroll for unknown subscribers—until one hacks the system. The book is edited by A.R. Capetta and Wade Roush.

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Brian Koonoo (Inuit)

Ben Shannon

In this harrowing survival story, Brian Koonoo takes off on a hunting trip in Canada’s Arctic. After his snowmobile breaks down, his GPS loses signal, and his camping fuel runs low, he is left alone to survive for seven days. Inuunira is an Inuktitut term that means “how I’m alive,” and this account shows how Brian managed to do that—stay alive. He experiences close encounters with planes, blizzards, and hunger, all while much of his gear is lost. Walking 60 kilometres in search of safety, he uses the knowledge his father and Elders taught him—modern and traditional means of navigation, finding water, making shelters, and keeping his spirits up—to continue on.

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David A. Robertson (Norway House Cree)

Scott B. Henderson and Donovan Yaciuk

After finding out Mihko reinstated the Reckoner Initiative in Breakdown, Cole and Eva confronted Mihko head-on. But when Eva stumbles across a secret laboratory, she finds her worst nightmares come to life. After a vicious battle with Mihko’s newest test subject leaves Cole close to death, Eva is forced to continue their investigation without him. With Brady missing and Cole in recovery, Eva is on her own. What new terrors has Mihko created? Can they be stopped? And can Eva find Brady before it’s too late?

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Richard Van Camp (Tłı̨chǫ Nation)

Scott B. Henderson and Donovan Yaciuk

Shinobu has travelled to Fort Smith to reclaim his grandfather’s samurai sword and armour. But when he discovers that the sword was lost in a poker game, he must confront the man known as Benny the Bank. Along the way, Shinobu is helped by unlikely heroes: a young Tłı̨chǫ Dene boy named Sonny, his grandmother, and a visitor from the spirit world. Together, they face Benny and his men, including the giant they call Flinch. Will Shinobu be able to regain the lost sword and, with it, his family’s honour? And can Sonny and his grandmother help Shinobu while keeping the peace in their community?

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