msjamgochian'sinfinitebooklist

Another creepy gothic thriller set in a small German town from the author of The Vanishing of Katherina Linden . Seventeen year-old Lin Fox is uprooted from her comfortable life in the UK when her father, a renown scholar in medieval history, decides to move to a tiny village to study the legend of the Allerheiligen Glass, a series of medieval stained-glass windows that may or may not be inhabited by demons. The problem is, nobody actually knows where the windows are, and the locals aren't exactly helpful. In fact, it quickly becomes clear that Lin's family isn't welcome when bodies start turning up, surrounded by shards of broken glass. Ms. Grant is a master of building suspense; you'll find yourself turning on lights and checking that the doors are locked if you read this late at night. Give this to fans of Agatha Christie or anyone living in a small German village. Grade 8+

There are two things you need to know about 17-year-old Michael. 1/He is a boxman: he can break into any safe any where any time. 2/He never speaks. Ever. When Michael was just 8, a traumatic event resulted in the death of his mother, his father, and his voice. Ten years later, Michael is imprisoned when his talent for lockpicking is discovered by some unsavory classmates and he finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. Thankfully, a bought (the guilty classmates aren't charged) yet lenient judge sentences Michael to do community service at the home of the man whose house was broken into. There, he meets the man's daughter, Amelia. She is a fellow artist, lost girl, and muse. Is there anything as sadly sweet as two people falling in love via surreptitiously and strategically placed hand-drawn comics that tell their respective tragic histories? Although TLA is billed as a thriller, for me, it is ultimately a story about the redemptive power of first love. Don't m...

Blink and Caution are two teens on the run from the past: one from a horrific accident and one from an equally nightmarish stepfather. Blink lives hand-to-mouth, and when he's lucky, he dons a Blessed Breakfast Uniform, heads for a posh Toronto hotel, and eats whatever leftovers he can find on room service trays left in the hallways. When he inadvertently witnesses the kidnapping of mogul Jack Niven, he thinks he has discovered a way out of his impoverished existence. Caution (aka Kitty Pettigrew)lives with drug-dealing super creep Merlin, one act in a series of self-destructive moves she makes to punish herself for her past. When these two broken wounded teens meet, the story kicks into high gear, and we discover their past as well as their future. The perfect companion book to Punkzilla by Adam Rapp, this book would also work well for Individual v Society units. Click here for the full Globe and Mail review and here for Wynne-Jones' website . Grade 8+