msjamgochian'sinfinitebooklist

Warning: the culminating scene will make you cry. Friends and family are stunned when Levi's big brother Boaz announces that, rather than heading off to the Ivy league school of his choice with his classmates, he is joining the Marines and leaving to serve in a war that Levi doesn't understand. Two years later, Levi is looking forward to Boaz's return and what he thinks will be the resulting restoration of his family, who have essentially been on pause since his superstar brother's departure. Someone who looks like Boaz shows up, but Levi realizes his brother is profoundly changed: he doesn't leave his room, he screams in the night, he won't ride in cars, and he is planning a secret trip using Levi's old atlas. When he makes a rare appearance to announce his intentions of hiking the Appalachian Trail, Levi knows it is a hoax - he has been snooping through Boaz's browser history. Levi sets out to reveal his brother's real plan, along with best frien...

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+