Summer of Fire

Summer of Fire

Karen Bass

Karen Bass

When Canadian teen Delora James finds herself banished to Germany for the summer, reading the professor's old journals seems like a good time- waster. Once Del begins to read the translated diary of Garda - a teenager in World War II, pregnant and desperate - she is engaged by Garda's compelling story. Through a series of rebellions, she begins to draw similarities between her own world and Garda's, and is able to see past her own hostility. Sixteen-year-old Delora has been shipped off to Hamburg, Germany to live with her controlling sister. Her 'behaviour' at home has caused considerable concern so she is under house arrest till she proves she can behave otherwise. Through her sister, she meets an English professor who asks her advice on a book she is working on. Del then encounters 16-year-old Garda, whose journals make up the professor's story. Del is transported back to Nazi Germany in the Fall of 1942, is riveted by Garda's story and draws parallels not only between the...
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Blood Donor

Blood Donor

Karen Bass

Karen Bass

Seventeen-year-old Jo McNair is one minute late for her curfew, and thanks to her controlling father, she's now locked out, cold and wandering the streets. She has no money and nowhere to sleep. Halfway through the night she meets someone who says they're with a group working with at-risk kids, helping them get back on their feet. Jo gratefully accepts the offer of shelter for the night, only to find she has walked into a kidnapper's trap. Now Jo and several other teens are being held prisoner. Their captors drug them regularly and force them to donate their blood. What is so special about the teens' blood? And how long before they're drained dry? When one of the teens doesn't return, Jo suspects their days are numbered. She has to find a way to escape before their time runs out.
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Two Times a Traitor

Two Times a Traitor

Karen Bass

Karen Bass

A fast-paced middle-grade offering from internationally acclaimed author Karen Bass Reluctantly touring Halifax with his family, twelve-year-old Laz Berenger accidentally stumbles through a time tunnel to a 1745 war zone. Caught by English sailors from the American colonies, his only hope for freedom is to spy for them in the French fortification at Louisbourg. But he finds himself torn in three directions when the commander at Louisbourg becomes closer to him than his own father. Angry over his family's recent move and current enforced holiday in Halifax, twelve-year-old Laz Berenger rebels against a guided tour of the Citadel and sets out to explore on his own. In one dark tunnel, his St. Christopher medal burns suddenly hot. There's a strange smell, and Laz blacks out. When he wakes up, everything happens at once. A sword is put to his throat. Men who look like extras from Pirates of the Caribbean hand him over to a ship's captain who strips him...
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Run Like Jäger

Run Like Jäger

Karen Bass

Karen Bass

When Canadian teen Kurt Schreiber goes to Germany to find out what his grandfather did during World War II, he learns more than he bargained for. A lot more.   Kurt's opa – grandfather – has never been willing to talk about his time as a German soldier, so Kurt has some deep concerns about what he might have done during the war. He's seen the movies, like Schindler's List, and he hopes and prays his grandfather couldn't have been involved in atrocities. Spending a year in Germany to do language training seems like a good chance to find out more, or at least to improve his German. One day, he visits the graveyard in the town he's staying in, just outside Berlin. An old man speaks to him, calling him by his grandfather's name, which was also Kurt Schreiber. It is Herr Brandt, the elder Schreiber's life-long friend. Kurt gets to know this man – the only one who can tell him all about his grandfather's time in the war – because he was there. Kurt learns...
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Uncertain Soldier

Uncertain Soldier

Karen Bass

Karen Bass

Seventeen-year-old Erich is a prisoner of war working at a northern Alberta logging camp. Twelve-year-old Max goes to school—reluctantly—in the nearby town. The two would be unlikely friends, except that neither has anyone else to turn to. At the height of World War II, nobody wants to befriend a German. It doesn't matter that Erich was forced into the military by his father, or that Max was proudly born in Canada. They are both easy targets for the locals' grief and anger against the Nazis. The other prisoners are no more welcoming, distrustful of Erich's perfect English and his dislike for Nazism. Still, when a series of accidents shake the logging camp, they pressure Erich to question the Canadians and find the saboteur—even if his questions get him into trouble. Caught between angry prisoners and suspicious captors, Erich is afraid to take any action at all. It is only when Max's schoolyard tormentors cross a dangerous line that Erich realizes that his real...
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Drummer Girl

Drummer Girl

Karen Bass

Karen Bass

Sid desperately wants to play drums in her school's most popular band, The Fourth Down. But how far is she willing to compromise herself to achieve her goal?
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