(3) YA Translated by Susan Ouriou. Illustrated by Daniel Sylvestre. Struggling with rejection at school and with her single mother's addiction, Ophelia is inspired when a visiting author gives her a blank notebook. Ophelia, a graffiti artist, claims an abandoned building for her art, which leads to friendship with fellow outsider Ulysses. Abstract collages and line drawings are effectively layered into a poetic text (translated from the French), creating a vivid representation of Ophelia's artistic journey.

Reviewer: Norah Piehl

(4) 4-6 Twelve-year-old Sebastian Kostantinov, the untalented son of a traveling circus's ringmaster, plans to save his family's livelihood by attending the prestigious Bonaventure Circus School in Montreal. But Seb and his new friends discover that the school, like his family's circus, is near financial ruin. The circus plot is appealing, but the story never quite soars, despite likable characters.

Reviewer: Carolyn Shute

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Irene Luxbacher. Malaika's (Malaika's Costume) Mummy returns to the Caribbean with her French Canadian fiancé and his daughter. When the mixed-race family returns to Québec, Malaika has trouble adapting to her new sister, climate, and school, and the winter carnival is nothing like Carnival back home. Video-chatting with Grandma helps Malaika embrace her situation. Mixed-media illustrations vibrantly capture both settings and the blended family's love. Glos.

Reviewer: Melinda Greenblatt

(4) 4-6 Sports Illustrated Kids: Time Machine Magazine series. Thirteen-year-old cousins Nate and Rachel discover that their grandfather's old Sports Illustrated magazines can transport them to famous moments in Olympic history, where they learn lessons about self-confidence and teamwork. While the heroes' awareness of the ultimate outcomes dampens the impact, sports fans should enjoy the front-row seats to spectacular Olympic triumphs. Dull black-and-white illustrations and appended facts are included. Glos. Review covers the following Sports Illustrated Kids: Time Machine Magazine titles: Grit and Gold, Harmony and Hoops, Pluck and Perfection, and Valor and Victory.

Reviewer: Russell Perry

(3) 1-3 Starring Jules series. Illustrated by Anne Keenan Higgins. A typical summer vacation is not in the cards for young actress Jules Bloom. This third book involves a road trip, her eighth birthday, her best friend being an ocean away in England, a stuck-up co-star, and her first major role in a spy movie. Ain's writing is refreshing, and Jules is a charming yet realistic character who grapples with real childhood problems.

Reviewer: Kari Allen

(3) YA After discovering, in a particularly brutal fashion, that both her father and her boyfriend are murderers, Valentina flees Miami and heads to Montreal, where she tries to make a fresh start under an assumed name. But it's not so easy to escape the past. Readers willing to suspend disbelief will enjoy this thriller's frequent twists and brisk plotting.

Reviewer: Norah Piehl

(3) YA Sloane Emily Jacobs, a figure skater, and Sloane Devon Jacobs, an ice hockey player, meet en route to different skating camps in Montreal. Both girls have had major setbacks on the ice and are dreading their summers--so they pull the old switcheroo. The far-fetched but compelling story features likable characters whose conflicts involving family, boys, and sports provide ample interest.

Reviewer: Jennifer M. Brabander

(4) YA Despite an initial athletic rivalry, Gil Marsh and new kid Enko Labette soon become inseparable friends. When Enko dies from leukemia, devastated Gil runs away to Quebec to visit the grave and to seek a supposedly immortal man about the possibility of resurrection. The contemporary take on the legend of Gilgamesh is interesting, but the writing is heavy-handed at times.

Reviewer: Randy Ribay

(2) 4-6 Times are a little hard this year, so sixth-grader Charlie and his younger brother Max will have a "stay-cation," making their own fun in their hometown of Montreal. With energy and enthusiasm, spelled out with many an exclamation point and with added illustrations for visual appeal, this book continues the adventures related in Travels with My Family and On the Road Again!

Reviewer: Dean Schneider | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2012

(3) 4-6 Illustrated by Michael Lauritano. This accessible biography of snowmobile inventor Joseph-Armand Bombardier opens with his two-year-old son feverish and needing a way to the hospital through snowy rural Quebec. Older goes on to explain the many motivations and challenges he faced in realizing his dream of creating a machine that could drive on snow. Lauritano's ink-and-pencil sketches capture the early-twentieth-century era; photographs are also included. Timeline. Bib., glos., ind.

Reviewer: Beth L. Meister

(3) YA Renée (Dead Beautiful) continues her training as a Monitor of the Undead while secretly searching for a way to keep herself and Dante--her Undead soulmate--from dying for good. As dangers and mysterious deaths increase, Renée becomes distrustful of Dante. An original take on the undead, this series continues to offer plenty of both spine-tingling suspense and romantic tension.

Reviewer: Katie Bircher

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Jared T. Williams. Catie, canine concierge at Boston's Copley Plaza Hotel, visits Quebec City with her doggie counterpart from the Château Frontenac. The story has minimal plot, but tourists or locals of either city may enjoy finding familiar landmarks in the illustrations (though the pictures don't always match the text).

Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth

(1) 4-6 At the end of the nineteenth century, Louis Cyr was widely regarded as the world's strongest man. Debon uses the book's graphic novel–style format to communicate immediacy and intimacy, as Cyr relates his life story to his daughter. The close-to-monochromatic palette dominated by warm earth tones is surprisingly pleasing to the eye. An afterword is illustrated with photographs. Bib.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2007

(3) K-3 Translated by Sheila Fischman. Illustrated by Sheldon Cohen. In this well-told, colloquial version of a classic French-Canadian folktale, eleven-year-old Baptiste, working in a logging camp, accompanies the other homesick lumberjacks as they paddle back to their Quebec village in a flying canoe for New Year's Eve. The digitally colored drawings' naive style matches the story's tone. A lengthy text and small typesize make this more useful with older children.

Reviewer: Carolyn Shute

(3) 4-6 Illustrated by Rajka Kupesic. Adapted from Hémon's seminal early-twentieth-century novel of French Canada, this elegantly somber book about Maria, a hardworking farm girl with numerous suitors, paints a lyrical picture of the seasons in the Quebec wilderness. Earthy paintings depict a close-knit community forging a living in this harsh, wintry land, where Maria ultimately decides to remain after the deaths of her fiancé and mother.

Reviewer: Christine M. Heppermann

(4) YA World in Conflict series. Written in a dry, reportorial style, this examination of Quebec's attempts to secede from Canada to preserve its cultural and ethnic identity is a thorough look at the roiling conflict within the French-speaking Canadian province. Chapters evenly detail the conflict's history and effects as well as measures being taken to solve the problem. Maps and photos appear throughout. Bib., ind.

Reviewer: Carolyn Shute

(2) 4-6 Illustrated by Regolo Ricci. Out of the few facts known about Dickens's 1842 visit to Montreal, Mark constructs a captivating fiction, skewering everything from the absurdities of celebrity culture to the false hierarchies of nineteenth-century Montreal society. In Mark's distinctly unflattering portrait, Dickens is pompous, unfeeling, greedy, and extremely loud in dress and demeanor. A wickedly enjoyable comedy of manners--or, in Mr. Dickens's case, the lack thereof.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2000