Sun Dogs 2024 Nominees
Apartment 713
- Kevin Sylvester 
Children's hardcover
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Secret ballrooms, hidden artwork and unlikely friends--welcome to the Regency, where even time moves in surprising ways!
Jake Simmons hates his new home.
The Regency is nothing more than floor after floor of peeling wallpaper and faded glory. Jake misses his old life. He misses the time when his mother was employed. He misses living in a house where the wind doesn't make the windows whistle.
Loneliness (and a trail of kittens) leads Jake to the apartment of an elderly lady, then to the bowels of the building and then to a part-time job assisting Larry the custodian. With each passing day, the building reveals more of its mysteries to Jake. The occupants grow on him too.
Unfortunately, Jake's feeling of belonging is short-lived: the city plans to demolish the Regency. Jake feels powerless. And then fate throws him a curveball. He's summoned to apartment 713. An apartment he's been told is off-limits. But when he opens the door . . . he travels to the past!
Alongside Beth, his new friend and guide, Jake begins searching for any clue that might help him save the Regency. As their friendship blooms, the mystery around the building's makers deepens. The Regency's own storied past will give Jake the key to saving his own future--if only he knows where to look.
Berani
- Michelle Kadarusman
Children's hardcover
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Reader Reward Price: $21.56
An honest and stirring novel about the choices made by young environmental activists, and the balancing act between consequence and triumph Malia has had a privileged upbringing in Indonesia, but since her Indonesian father died, her Canadian mother wants to return to her own family on the other side of the world. Malia is determined to stay. Indonesia is her home, and she loves it. Besides, if she leaves, how can she continue to fight for her country's precious rainforests? Ari knows he is lucky to be going to school and competing on the chess team, even if it means an endless round of chores at his uncle's restaurant. Back in his home village, he and his cousin Suni dreamed about getting a chance like this. But now he is here without her, and the guilt is crushing him. As if that weren't enough, he's horribly worried about Ginger Juice, his uncle's orangutan. The too-small cage where she lives is clearly hurting her body and her mind, but where else can she go? The rainforest where she was born is a palm oil plantation now. In Berani, Governor General's Award finalist Michelle Kadarusman spins together three perspectives: Malia, who is prepared to risk anything for her activism, Ari, who knows the right path but fears what it will cost, and Ginger Juice, the caged orangutan who still remembers the forest and her mother. The choices the young people make will have consequences for themselves, for Ginger Juice, and for others, if they are brave enough--or reckless enough--to choose.
Fire on Headless Mountain
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Children's paperback
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Reader Reward Price: $12.59
Separated from his siblings, 11-year-old Virgil must survive a dangerous forest fire using only his wits and the lessons his late mother taught him about the wilderness.
Virgil is making his older siblings trek to a mountain lake on a trip unlike any they've taken before. They carry precious cargo: the ashes of their beloved mother, who asked that her remains be scattered at her favorite spot. Then a forest fire is sparked by a bolt of lightning at the exact moment when their van breaks down, and the journey quickly turns to disaster.
Virgil finds himself separated from his brother and sister. With the fire moving closer and closer, he isn't sure he can make it alone in the wilderness. But with the memory of his late mother, a science teacher, and all her lessons about the ecosystem and fire safety to guide him, he quickly learns that survival starts with letting go of your fears and taking action.
Fire on Headless Mountain is a thrilling adventure tale that showcases not only the overwhelming beauty and terrifying power of nature, but also the gift of memory when facing great emotional and physical trials.
Praise for DEADMAN'S CASTLE
"Lawrence, the Canadian writer whose High Seas Trilogy encompassed three chilling historical novels, now offers a menacing, contemporary tale of dread, danger, and revenge. Portraying family dynamics and middle-school antics with equal insight and attention to detail, Igor's first-person narrative is absorbing."-Booklist
"Featuring effective worldbuilding, this is a great, suspenseful tale of terror for upper middle graders".-School Library Journal
"Friendship difficulties provide a contrast and an anchor to the terrifying threat, and the various plot elements are deftly tied together in a fitting twist that will have readers quickly turning the pages. Filled with suspense and intrigue."-Kirkus Reviews
Forever Birchwood
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Children's paperback
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Reader Reward Price: $14.39
The middle-grade debut of star picture-book author and illustrator Danielle Daniel
Adventurous, trail-blazing Wolf lives in a northern mining town and spends her days exploring the mountains and wilderness with her three best friends Penny, Ann and Brandi. The girls' secret refuge is their tree-house hideaway, Birchwood, Wolf's favourite place on earth. When her beloved grandmother tells her that she is the great-granddaughter of a tree talker, Wolf knows that she is destined to protect the birch trees and wildlife that surround her.
But Wolf's mother doesn't understand this connection at all. Not only is she reluctant to engage with their family's Indigenous roots, she seems suspiciously on the wrong side of the environmental protection efforts in their hometown. To make matters worse, she's just started dating an annoying new boyfriend named Roger, whose motives--and construction company--seem equally suspect.
As summer arrives, so do bigger problems. Wolf and her friends discover orange plastic bands wrapped around the trees near their cherished hangout spot, and their once stable friendship seems on the verge of unravelling. Birchwood has given them so much--can they even stay together long enough to save this special place?
With gorgeous yet understated language, Danielle Daniel beautifully captures an urgent and aching time in a young person's life. To read this astonishing middle-grade debut is to have your heart broken and then tenderly mended.
The Grave Thief
- Dee Hahn
Children's hardcover
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Reader Reward Price: $21.59
A twelve-year-old grave thief gets caught up in a royal heist in this compelling middle-grade fantasy in the vein of Kelley Armstrong's A Royal Guide to Monster Slaying.
Twelve-year-old Spade is a grave thief. With his father and brother, he digs up the recently deceased to steal jewels, the main form of trade in Wyndhail.
Digging graves works for Spade -- alone in the graveyard at night, no one notices his limp or calls him names. He's headed for a lifetime of theft when his father comes up with the audacious plan to rob a grave in the Wyndhail castle cemetery. Spade and his brother get caught in a royal trap, and Spade must find the master of the Woegan: a deadly creature that is stalking the castle by night.
Along the way, he meets Ember, the queen's niece, and together they race to solve the mystery of the legendary Deepstones and their connection to the Woegan, the queen, a missing king and the mysterious pebble Spade finds in the Wyndhail cemetery.
This is a fantastic story of friendship, bravery, grief and acceptance.
Harvey Takes the Lead
- Colleen Nelson , Tara Anderson
Children's hardcover
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Reader Reward Price: $20.66
The award-winning Harvey Stories are back with a new story of acceptance, understanding, and the loving comfort of everyone's favourite Westie. There's nothing quite like the loving companionship of a loyal dog. When Harvey's status as Brayside's comfort dog comes into question, the elderly residents are quick to stand up for him. Mr. Kowalski, a longstanding Brayside resident, is struggling with his wife's recent hospitalization. As Harvey watches over him, Mr. Kowalski shares stories of his youth during World War II--tales which fascinates Harvey's friend Austin. At the same time, the newly appointed Assistant Director Hilary Appleby, the person who wants to get rid of Harvey, also creates unreasonable rules which make the residents of Brayside miserable. The new school season for Austin and Harvey's owner Maggie proves to be harder than expected. Maggie's audition for the school play of Annie doesn't go as planned, with the role she wanted going to Ndidi, who rarely comes out to rehearsals. Austin, for his part, is battling shame around not being able to afford a school trip. Award-winning author Colleen Nelson and illustrator Tara Anderson team up once again to deliver another engaging story where Harvey's exceptional nose leads Maggie and Austin to find resolution to the many challenges they face. Themes of acceptance, understanding, and intergenerational friendships are the strengths of this middle-grade novel.
Hidden on the High Wire
- Kathy Kacer
Children's paperback
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Reader Reward Price: $12.56
Irene grew up traveling around Germany with her family's circus, surrounded by her loved ones and thrilling the crowds with her performance on the high wire...until one day, the audience boos. The Lorch family is Jewish, and the increasing power of Adolf Hitler's Nazis has put them all in grave danger. When the circus is forced to shut down and Irene's father is taken away, Irene and her mother must go into hiding with another circus. Every day is a frightening new kind of balancing act, caught between the desire to perform and the need to hide--even in plain sight.
Peanut Butter And Chaos
- Anita Daher
Children's paperback
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Reader Reward Price: $11.66
Nominated for a 2023/24 Red Cedar Award
Nominated for the 2024 MYRCA Sundogs!
When twelve-year-old Sam is struck by a bolt of lightning out of a clear blue sky, he suddenly sees everything in pixels. His life is further upended by Flum, a non-binary being from a parallel world, a missing neighbour, and astonishing powers that may not last long. Science and magic collide as Sam races to solve a mystery and help Flum return home. But what happens when solving one mystery sparks another?
Peanut Butter and Chaos is a middle grade fantasy grounded in science.
Ravenous Things
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Children's hardcover
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Reader Reward Price: $20.69
"Beautifully written and spectacularly spooky, Ravenous Things is an instant new favorite!" --Claribel Ortega, New York Times best-selling author of Witchlings
Climb aboard the midnight train! Things wondrous and terrible await you...
Twelve-year-old Reggie Wong has a quick temper that's always getting him into trouble at school, while at home his mom struggles to get out of bed--let alone leave their apartment. That's why Reggie desperately needs his dad back. One problem: His dad is dead.
Enter the Conductor, a peculiar man who promises to make Reggie's wish to see his father just one more time come true. All he must do is climb aboard the man's subway train, which leaves St. Patrick Station promptly at midnight. Desperate to have his dad and happy family back, Reggie takes him up on the offer, only to discover the train is filled with other children who have lost a loved one, just like him. As he speeds through the wild, uncharted tunnels beneath the city, Reggie meets Chantal, an annoyingly peppy girl obsessed with lists and psychiatry, and Gareth, his arch-nemesis and bully since the fourth grade. As each kid steps off the train and into the arms of their lost family member, Reggie can't believe his impossible wish is about to come true.
But when Reggie comes to the end of the line and sees his father waiting for him, he soon discovers all is not as it seems. He and his unlikely new friends have been ensnared in a deadly trap. Together, the three must find a way to foil the Conductor's diabolical plot and find their way out of the underground subway where horrors worse than they have ever imagined lurk around every corner. The rats of St. Patrick Station have taken over and they're absolutely ravenous.
In this stunning debut, author Derrick Chow reenvisions the tale of the Pied Piper. Both terrifying and hauntingly beautiful, Chow masterfully uses literal and figurative monsters to explore the themes of grief and how we handle loss.
The Grave Thief
- Dee Hahn
Hardcover
$23.99 - Add to Cart
Reader Reward Price: $21.59
A twelve-year-old grave thief gets caught up in a royal heist in this compelling middle-grade fantasy in the vein of Kelley Armstrong's A Royal Guide to Monster Slaying.
Twelve-year-old Spade is a grave thief. With his father and brother, he digs up the recently deceased to steal jewels, the main form of trade in Wyndhail.
Digging graves works for Spade -- alone in the graveyard at night, no one notices his limp or calls him names. He's headed for a lifetime of theft when his father comes up with the audacious plan to rob a grave in the Wyndhail castle cemetery. Spade and his brother get caught in a royal trap, and Spade must find the master of the Woegan: a deadly creature that is stalking the castle by night.
Along the way, he meets Ember, the queen's niece, and together they race to solve the mystery of the legendary Deepstones and their connection to the Woegan, the queen, a missing king and the mysterious pebble Spade finds in the Wyndhail cemetery.
This is a fantastic story of friendship, bravery, grief and acceptance.
The Unique Lou Fox
- Jodi Carmichael
Children's hardcover
$23.95 - Add to Cart
Reader Reward Price: $21.56
Award-winning author Jodi Carmichael, who has ADHD herself, affirms and celebrates those who struggle with their uniqueness and triumphantly discover its gifts It isn't easy being Louisa Elizabeth Fitzhenry-O'Shaughnessy--especially with dyslexia. She prefers Lou Fox, the dream name she'll use one day as a famous Broadway playwright. In the meantime, Lou is stuck in fifth grade with Mrs. Snyder, a total Shadow Phantom of a teacher who can spot a daydream from across the room but doesn't know anything about ADHD. Mrs. Snyder's constant attention is ex-cru-ci-a-ting. If only she would disappear. Fortunately, life isn't all a-tro-cious. There's The Haunting at Lakeside School, the play Lou is writing and directing for her two best friends. And soon she'll be a big sister at last. Nothing could ruin the joy of those things...right?
This is a selection of our current Sun Dogs 2024 Nominees titles. To find other titles or authors, or just to browse, please use the search box.
