New Releases by Lesley Choyce

A witty, humorous and slightly magical novel about navigating the end of high school after losing a parent to ALS.

Nicolas is headstrong, wayward teen, flailing through school with no plans for a life. His now-departed father called him 'Hopeless', and the nickname stuck. How can you make it through anything wearing a tag like that? It turns out, having a fearless older brother, Garrett, can help...until Garrett makes an unexpected friend and sort of disappears from the family. Nicholas finds a surprise in that friend of Garrett's, and gets an unexpected assignment from a teacher that may yet save his high-school career. But add in near-death experiences, cross-country journeys and reunions that are far from joyful, and why would anyone hope to be hopeful?

After willing himself back to life with sheer stubbornness, ninety-year-old John Alexander MacNeil finds Death sitting at his kitchen table.

Key Selling Points In The Rules Have Changed, a teenage boy is shocked to learn that a lot has changed in the three years he’s been away. The book is set in a modern not-as-dystopian-as-one-might-think North American high school and is the author's commentary on the possible impact of the actions of the current US government. In this book themes of rebellion, governmental control and xenophobia are explored. The author has written many titles in the Orca Soundings line, including The Ledge, The Thing You're Good At and Kryptonite. New, enhanced features (dyslexia-friendly font, cream paper, larger trim size) to increase reading accessibility for dyslexic and other striving readers.

The award–winning author celebrates the everyday disasters and discoveries that shape a life in this memoir of love, loss, and adventure in Nova Scotia. If Lesley Choyce was not a surfer, he would not have dropped out of graduate school in Manhattan in 1978 and moved to Nova Scotia—a decision that made all the difference. In Saltwater Chronicles, he reflects on the ambitious, idealistic, and brash young man he once was, while the older man ahead of him beckons him forward with a mischievous grin. In between, Choyce adapts to the crisis of becoming a respectable citizen. He experiences the death of his father and of his family dog. He helps guide his wife through cancer as they ride the North Atlantic waves and record a most human range of sorrows and joys. In this, his one-hundredth book, Lesley Choyce takes readers along as he writes about nearly everything under the sun from his home by the sea on the North Atlantic coast of Canada—all of it most ordinary and extraordinary at the same time.

Sixteen-year-old Declan Lynch starts hearing the voice of a girl inside his head. It isn’t long until he starts falling in love and sets out on a quest that brings him to the shores of Ireland, and places where the “real” world seems like a thin veil stretched over someplace else, in the hopes of finding her.

Short-listed for the 2005 CLA Young Adult Canadian Book Award Sixteen-year-old Simon has always been considered odd. Three years ago, a skateboarding accident caused some minor brain damage and made him a little stranger. His career-driven parents mostly leave him alone, and he spends much of his time living in his imagination. When Andrea, whom no one else can see, appears to Simon in class, he is fascinated by her and strikes up a friendship, even though he knows she may be pure hallucination - he's had imaginary friends before. Andrea says she is there to ''''help'''' him, but before the story ends, Simon discovers that it is he who needs to help Andrea, not the other way around.

Sixteen-year-old Cody was born and raised “off the grid” deep in the wilderness by idealistic parents. When his father becomes seriously ill, the family is forced to move into the city so he can get treatment. Attending high school for the first time, Cody is an oddity and has a hard time adjusting. He finds unlikely allies in DeMarco, an inner-city kid, and Ernest, a philosophical homeless man, and he begins a tentative friendship with Alexis.
   When he comes to DeMarco’s defense in an altercation at school, Cody finds himself in trouble with the police. A second confrontation puts Cody in more trouble with the cops, and he is convinced he must escape to the family homestead or be arrested. But Cody is torn between fleeing the city or staying with his ailing father and facing whatever consequences come his way.

Tara's life in Halifax is about as good as it gets--she gets top marks in her class, her parents are cool, she has a good part-time job, her boyfriend Ron edits an alternative paper. Her life is especially good compared to her friend Janet's. Janet fights with her parents whenever she sees them, which isn't often. She spends more time begging for change on the street and crashing at the dismal squat locals call Hell's Hotel. Soon, however, cracks start to appear in Tara's perfect life. When Ron writes an exposé on the kids who live at the Hotel, Tara is forced to question his motives. Things start falling apart, one by one: her grades slip, her friends drop her, her mom leaves town. When catastrophe hits Hell's Hotel, however, Tara and Janet find themselves relying on each other more than either expected. Together they aim to make big changes, in their city and in themselves. Set against a gritty, inner-city background, Hell's Hotel examines the challenges teenagers face every day, in their comfortable homes and on the streets. This book was originally published in 1984 as Dark End of Dream Street.

Quinn Dorfman a de la difficulté à l'école alors que sa famille se désagrège. Et depuis qu'il est déménagé à la ville, il n'a plus autant de plaisir à faire de la planche, sa passion.

When he is 16, Michael Grove is convicted of killing his girlfriend. Despite a confession from the actual murderer, Michael is still regarded as a criminal by most of the people he knows. His six months in jail before the real killer confesses have branded him as an ex-con, a danger to society. The next door neighbour, kids at school, even people he has never met look at him with disrespect and even contempt.

Taylor Colby grew up in the tiny Nova Scotia fishing village of Nickerson Harbour, but his guitar-playing skill led him to become a much sought-after studio musician in Los Angeles. Along with him went Laura, his childhood sweetheart and soulmate. In L.A., Laura becomes enamoured with the dark side of rock and roll life, leaving Taylor lost, distraught and deeply damaged. Taylor realizes he has to go back home to Nickerson Harbour, to confront Laura’s parents, to reunite with his father and to understand the truth of his own dysfunctional family. Back in Nova Scotia, Taylor learns that his mother, who had abandoned him as a child, wants to come home to reconcile with her own past. Taylor is haunted by his loss and grief but must also come to terms with some hidden truths about Laura. As he begins to make sense of his past, he befriends an American feminist professor who is trying to start life anew in Canada with her troubled twelve-year-old son. Cold Clear Morning is a novel about dreams realized and dreams shattered. It is about love and loss, hunting and healing, grief and forgiving. Taylor Colby speaks his story of what it takes to pick up the remains of a shattered life and find renewed purpose and hope. It is the story of going back to the home that you thought you could never return to. In his odyssey from Nova Scotia to British Columbia, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and back home, he attempts to find real meaning to his life of adventure and despair.

Whether he is yodelling into construction equipment, or driving his car over thin ice, Lesley Choyce believes that mistakes are what makes life interesting and offer us all a true learning experience. In this hilarious new work, Choyce freely shares his most entertaining misadventures along with some of his best advice on topics ranging from plumbing to bad jobs. With a lively, down-to-earth style and a wonderful talent for observation, How to Fix Your Head is sure to make the idea of self-help a lot more enjoyable.

Zach and Ashley have been going out for a while, and things are going well—until Ashley finds out she is pregnant. She is angry and blames Zach. She wouldn't be in this state if he hadn't been so careless. Insistent at first on an abortion, she turns against Zach. Confused, Zach struggles with what he should do and what his responsibilities are. Coming to terms with the reactions of their families and friends, Zach realizes that this is a decision that he and Ashley must make together. This short novel is a high-interest, low-reading level book for teen readers who are building reading skills, want a quick read or say they don’t like to read! Available in Spanish as Reacción.

Thunderbowl, la banda de Jeremy, está de moda y han conseguido su primera gran oportunidad: una serie de presentaciones en un bar local. El problema es que, aunque Jeremy debería estar al día con sus trabajos escolares, pasa casi todas las noches en el escandaloso club tratando de mantener a la banda unida. Equilibrar los sueños de éxito con las realidades de la industria musical obligará a Jeremy a tomar decisiones muy difíciles. Disponible en inglés: Thunderbowl.

Sixteen-year-old Nigel has written a class assignment about a world where teenagers become the leaders of society. Unexpectedly, Nigel's story is published, and he quickly becomes a celebrity.

After being the victim of an armed robbery, Sean should be terrified but he isn't. Sean finds he likes the rush that comes from danger and tries to recreate the feeling. But when his risk-taking leads him to some of the worst parts of town and he finds himself face-to-face with the original armed robbers, he finds he must do the right thing. This short novel is a high-interest, low-reading level book for teen readers who are building reading skills, want a quick read or say they don’t like to read!

Here is the complete history of the famous cove and the unique village that hosts thousands of visitors each year. The story begins with the formation of the rocks along these shores and the impact of the glaciers. The Mi'kmaq were the first to live here in the summers, harvesting the riches of the sea. A land grant in 1811 brought the first hardy settlers, who built homes and wharves and discovered that the sea could provide bounty but was also a source of great danger. The story includes the origin of the name, Peggy's Cove, and details about the everyday life of nineteenth-century families living here. A history of the famous lighthouse is included and there are excerpts from many of the famous and not-so-famous visitors who have written about the Cove through two centuries. The author explores the most damaging storms and the shipwrecks, the reports of sea monsters and other strange phenomena. Fishing was always a source of income, but it changed over the years. At times the fish prices were so low it was not worth the effort and, in recent years, dramatic changes to the ocean have seen the collapse of several important species of fish. In the twentieth century, Peggy's Cove attracted artists, writers and ultimately thousands of tourists. Sculptor William de Garthe made his home here and created his monument to the coastal fishermen out of the sheer granite outcropping in his backyard. In 1998, Swissair Flight 111 crashed off the shores of Peggy's Cove and the community opened its doors to the world in an effort to provide support for the rescue workers and the families of the victims. From the earliest days to the present, the story of Peggy's Cove has been a tale of natural wonder and human endurance.

I hate the world and everything in it. And that includes me." Asked to write something for English class that expresses who he really is, 16-year-old Carson takes pleasure in blistering the page with hate for everything in his life. Stuck in a private school for kids who have repeatedly flunked out elsewhere, Carson knows he's got nowhere lower to sink to. "Flunk Out Academy" is the last resort for Carson and his classmates, in a small town where its deeply troubled students are decidedly unwelcome. Then Carson meets someone who is even less optimistic than he. Christine struggles to get by, living in a trailer by herself, abandoned by her mother and father, so desperate that she has become almost immune to the pain and loneliness. Confronted by her deep sadness, Carson starts to care for her and she for him. Once focused on someone other than himself, he begins to notice the world around him and realize that there is beauty as well as hopelessness, love as well as hate. Together the two teenagers struggle to work out how they are going to live in an imperfect world. There are no easy happy endings, but somehow the journey eventually makes the pain worthwhile."

Novelist Lesley Choyce weaves together his real-life adventures living by the sea at Lawrencetown Beach on Nova Scotia's Eastern Shore. He writes of his love for the rugged coast and tells tales of the ordinary and the extraordinary. His story includes accounts of what it's like surfing in the Canadian North Atlantic through all four seasons including the frigid depths of winter. Also threading its way through this narrative is the story of Minnie's piano. There is music here in word and spirit along with the lessons learned from the old and the young. Driving Minnie's Piano is an eloquent personal memoir about the precious and fateful moments that change our lives. It is an exploration of what makes us tick and prompts us to be both heroes and fools in the daily enterprise of living.

Key Selling Points New, enhanced features (dyslexia-friendly font, cream paper, larger trim size) to increase reading accessibility for dyslexic and other striving readers.

Jeremy's band is hot—really hot. Thunderbowl is on the way up and they have had their first big break—a long-term gig at a local bar. The only problem is that while Jeremy should be doing his homework and keeping up in school, he is spending most nights in a rowdy club, trying to keep the band together while his life is falling apart. Trying to balance his dreams of success with the hard realities of the music business, Jeremy is forced to make some tough choices. This short novel is a high-interest, low-reading level book for teen readers who are building reading skills, want a quick read or say they don’t like to read! Available in Spanish as Los Pandemónium.

Lesley Choyce's poetry is transcendental, joyful and at times ecstatic, though rooted securely in the world. The new poems in Revenge of the Optimist are charged with a kind of soulful music and are distinguished by wide tonal flavours and range. Lesley Choyce has said of his writing that "Poetry arises from events, real or imagined, that stir the intellect and emotions to re-create, through words, the full impact of life's greatest challenges... the best poetry comes about from the compassion that develops in a writer, the compassion necessary to understand the pain and joy of others while at the same time being able to work with one's own suffering as a source for emotional honesty in all that is written." Book jacket.

For Sylvie, Ragged Island - and the whales who swam around it - is the only world she has ever known. It is the place where she was born and raised, where she lived with her four late husbands, and where she plans to live out her remaining years. It is also the home to a community whose love for the island is immense. But when the Nova Scotia government decides to shut down the ferry service that is the lifeblood of Ragged Island, the residents see their world beginning to disappear. Sea of Tranquility is the lyrical and moving story of an island struggling to survive. Lesley Choyce’s seventh novel, it contains the elements for which the author is known: engaging characters, page-turning storyline, and uproarious humour. Choyce is in top form.

Carrie says she'll organize everything for a camping trip if only her mother will take her and her brother and their best friends for a first-ever night in the woods. Once they arrive at the campground, they find out Carrie forgot to pack the food. Mom leaves the kids to figure out how to pitch the tent, make a fire and entertain themselves.

Halifax's surfing poet Lesely Choyce, throws Caution to the Wind, in a new collection of poetry that dives deep into the swells of experience, and dances nimbly at the breakers' edge. In a refreshing maturity of voice Choyce surfs on the surface of language and plunges into the oceanic heart of being, encountering fear and wonder. A most integrated and fully realized volume of poetry by the author of Beautiful Sadness. --Ekstasis Editions.