At last, Shelby Belgarden has put her crime-solving behind her and has returned to the life of an ordinary teenager. Now 16, she has taken her first job: working at a new local restaurant called The Steak Place. But when one of her co-workers -- a waitress named Nadine -- goes missing, Shelby suspects foul play. The police won't believe her. Neither will Shelby's boyfriend, Greg, who grows frustrated with her search for a criminal who may not exist.

With school over, Greg visiting relatives, and Betts on vacation with her family, it's looking like it will be a quiet summer for Shelby Belgarden. Until, that is, she finds out that Betts and her family have returned home suddenly, and Betts's mom faces criminal charges in the theft of a computer program from her workplace.

To save Mrs. Thompson's job and reputation - and to keep her out of prison - Shelby infiltrates the company in order to dig up clues. But with no clues to be found, can Shelby find the answers that will keep Betts's family together?

"No one pays much attention to you if you don't have much to say, so there was no way I could have predicted what would happen when I stopped talking altogether."

When his teacher announces that it's time for the yearly class speeches, Griffin Maxwell starts to sweat. His past experience with the dreaded speech was humiliating, to say the least, and he just knows there's no way he can go through that again. So Griffin's best friend, Bryan, comes up with a solution -- one that's so simple it just has to work. But neither boy can begin to predict the bizarre chain...

"I knew one thing I wasn t going to be rotting in that place for the rest of my life. I was getting out of there. That place turned people into the living dead. In that neighbourhood, it was hard to hear anything that didn t carry the sound of defeat."

Sixteen-year-old Porter Delaney has his future figured out, but his nice, neat plans are shaken when a man he believes may be his father suddenly appears in his Toronto neighbourhood. Porter knows that he wants nothing to do with the deadbeat dad who abandoned him and his sister twelve years earlier, but curiosity causes him to...

Lexie Malton is an average Vancouver teen with fairly typical issues. Her stepmother is far from her favourite person, she has a sister with special needs, and life outside the home is the usual mix of school, friends, and social events.

But Lexie has a secret. Her ex-boyfriend, Devlin Mather, is now a heroin addict living on the street, and only Lexie knows that she s the one who put him there. Guilt makes her give in to Devlin s demands for money time and time again, even though she knows how dangerous his drug use is.

Lexie finally gathers the strength to stop enabling...

Short-listed for the Forest of Reading Red Maple Award, 2012

Before you judge me, there are two things you should know about why I did it.

Shana Tremain is a good kid. She knows right from wrong and she's never been in any serious trouble. But when her best friend, Carrie, comes to her for help, Shana agrees to break the law to save Carrie from a molester. She even feels good about it for a while.

Then trouble starts. Someone in their group of friends is stealing from the others. As she searches for the truth, Shana uncovers evidence that...