Casey Lyall

The League of Littles is an international organization that protects and supports the needs of youngest siblings—and trainees Lexi, Mo, and Eli are finally ready for their first mission. Another student at their elementary school has lost her big sister’s hamster, Chester, after she borrowed him for show and tell without permission. Gabi needs the L.O.L.’s help to find Chester before the Band of Bigs (protecting and supporting the needs of—you guessed it—oldest siblings) find out that Chester is missing.

Casey Lyall

You may not have heard of the Vampire Jam Sandwich, but it's time you learned the truth. Once upon a time, a vampire (maybe his name is Terrence) took a bite of a jam sandwich (maybe he thought the jam was... something else). And you know what happens when a vampire bites you... That's right. The jam sandwich has become... A VAMPIRE JAM SANDWICH. Terrifying, stalking the streets at night, sneaking into people's homes in an endless search for MORE JAM!

Michiko Aoyama

This tribute to the magic of libraries, friendship and community follows Tokyo's most mysterious librarian, Sayuri Komachi, as she gives her visitors one unexpected book, which has life-altering consequences, giving the borrower the motivation they didn't realize they need to change their life.

Suggested by Cassie, Parkhill Branch Assistant

Miriam Toews

"You're a small thing," Grandma writes, "and you must learn to fight." Swiv's Grandma, Elvira, has been fighting all her life. From her upbringing in a strict religious community, she has fought those who wanted to take away her joy, her independence, and her spirit. She has fought to make peace with her loved ones when they have chosen to leave her. And now, even as her health fails, Grandma is fighting for her family: for her daughter, partnerless and in the third term of a pregnancy; and for her granddaughter Swiv, a spirited nine-year-old who has been suspended from school. Cramped together in their Toronto home, on the precipice of extraordinary change, Grandma and Swiv undertake a vital new project, setting out to explain their lives in letters they will never send. 

Suggested by Laura, Interim Library Technologies Specialist

Ann Aguirre

Renting a room in Iris Collins's house, which is a haven for lost souls, wealthy app designer Eli Reese becomes enchanted by the misfit boarders and even more so by Iris, his first crush from long ago, and wonders if he's finally found a person and a place to call home.

Suggested by Vanessa, Strathroy Branch Assistant

Roza Nozari

Roza Nozari began her life hungry for a sense of belonging. From her earliest years, she shared a passion for Iranian cuisine with her mother and craved stories of their ancestral home. Eventually they visited and she fell in love with Iran's sights and smells, and with the warm embrace of their extended family. Yet Roza sensed something was amiss with her mother's happy, well-rehearsed story of their original departure.
As Roza grew older, this longing for home transformed into a desire for inner understanding and liberation. She was lit up by the feminist texts in her women's studies courses, and shared radical ideas with her mother—who in turn shared more of her past, from protesting for the Islamic revolution to her ambivalence about getting married.

Suggested by Katie, Thorndale Branch Assistant

Emily J. Taylor

Seven years ago, Maeve Abenthy lost everything: her world, her father, even her name. Desperate to escape the stain of her father’s crimes, she lives under a fake name, never staying in one place long enough to put down roots.

Then she receives a mysterious letter with four impossible words: Your father was innocent.

To uncover the truth, she poses as an apprentice for the Otherwhere Post, where she’ll be trained in the art of scriptomancy—the dangerous magic that allows couriers to enchant letters and deliver them to other worlds. But looking into her father’s past draws more attention than she’d planned.

Suggested by Zoë, Strathroy Supervisor

Grady Hendrix

They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they’re sent to Wellwood House in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families to have their babies in secret, to give them up for adoption, and most important of all, to forget any of it ever happened.

Everything the girls eat, every moment of their waking day, and everything they’re allowed to talk about is strictly controlled by adults who claim they know what’s best for them. Then Fern meets a librarian who gives her an occult book about witchcraft, and power is in the hands of the girls for the first time in their lives. But power can destroy as easily as it creates, and it’s never given freely. There’s always a price to be paid...and it’s usually paid in blood.

Suggested by Melissa, Parkhill Branch Assistant