Youth Project

Who’s On Stage?

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In Pursuit of Global Justice

Deborah Ellis writes courageous books that give readers a glimpse into the lives of young people in harrowing circumstances and dangerous places—in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and right here in Canada. In her internationally acclaimed bestsellers The Breadwinner and Children of War, she explores the common ground that unites all peoples, quietly promoting the ideals of social justice between nations, races, and communities. That journey continues with two new and timely books: a novel for teen readers that lays bare the lives of modern-day young migrants, and a candid oral history that gives voice to victims of bullying aged nine to nineteen and offers solutions from those who have experienced it firsthand.

Your Backyard, 2050

Environmentalist and award-winning science writer Wayne Grady paints a grim future for Kingston in the face of unchecked climate change and species invasion. In a stimulating visual presentation, Grady draws on his sweeping study of the Great Lakes, his book tracking the first signs of global warming, The Quiet Limit of the World, his evolutionary essays Bringing Back the Dodo, and his latest exploration into the significance of technology in our past and future world. Is there anything we can do to change the picture?

Words Out Loud

Some say language evolved from music. This connection comes alive in spoken-word poetry, among the oldest of the arts—and the newest, too. Written to be said, not read, performance poems sink their roots into medieval ballads as well as contemporary rap, hip-hop, dub, and slam, drawing on the power of voice and gesture to give words meaning. Join Lara Bozabalian, spoken-word artist and English teacher with the York Region District School Board, as she guides young writers from the page to the stage. (Limited enrolment: 25)

Burmese Lessons

Karen Connelly knew from age 11 that she wanted to be a writer. At 17, she travelled to Thailand as a Rotary exchange student and lived for a year in a small village. She drew on this experience to write Touch the Dragon: A Thai Journal, which won a Governor General’s Award, making her the youngest writer ever to receive the prize. Choosing the university of life over a formal education, she has lived all over the world. Now in Burmese Lessons, a memoir of her travels through a country caught in the grip of a fierce military regime, she turns again to Southeast Asia for her literary inspiration.

In and Out of the Nest

A novelist and a memoirist take aim at the family and the nature of home in two perceptive and bitingly humourous works that speak to all ages. In Cordelia Strube’s Lemon, an acid-tongued teenager has every reason to flee: three mothers, one deadbeat dad, two dysfunctional friends, and a 60 percent average. Yet she cannot resist the need to find her true mother and a bond she scarcely believes possible.

Iain Reid’s nonfiction debut, One Bird’s Choice, recounts his flight from the family farm for university and work, and then his surprising—and unsettling—decision to return in his late twenties.

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