Me on a Canada Day YA Reading List

Hi there! It's Canada Day! We've been an actual country for 148 years now, which isn't that long when you look at world history. England, France, Spain, Italy, Egypt, Israel, India, China, Japan. Their recorded history goes back hundreds of years, if not thousands. It makes 148 years look like a drop in the ocean.

Since it's Canada Day, I thought I'd put together a reading list for all of you. Books set in Canada. Books written by Canadians. Books about Canada.

The Story of Owen and Prairie Fire by E.K. Johnston. People are chomping at the bit for Kate's upcoming fall book A Thousand Nights, but you need to read her first two books. Kate has shifted and twisted and re-worked Canadian, and world, history so it feels like dragons and dragon slayers have always existed in the world as we know it. These books are clever, witty, and don't pull punches. There are consequences, and there are friends, and there are life lessons. Kate's words are some of the best words.

Dark Inside and Rage Within by Jeyn Roberts. Finally, a post-apocalyptic series that doesn't totally ignore Canada. ;) When a massive earthquake hits, when people start acting strange, 4  points of view eventually collide in Vancouver.

The Fallen World trilogy (The Way We Fall, The Lives We Lost, The Worlds We Make) by Megan Crewe. Another series that doesn't forget about Canada.

The Hemlock trilogy (Hemlock, Thornhill, Willowgrove) by Kathleen Peacock. If you like werewolves and heroines who investigate mysteries and locations that are out to kill her, you might like this series.

Sorrow's Knot by Erin Bow. Mysterious and atmospheric and secretive and complicated.

Anything by Courtney Summers. ANYTHING. SERIOUSLY.

This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki. The classic Canadian summer setting: the cottage. It never changes, but people do. They get older, they drift apart, they hide their pain.

Above by Leah Bobet. I've seen that some people have been put off by the narrator's voice. Stick with it. This is all about people and the other, how we accept those who look "normal" and shun or lock away those who don't.

Ultraviolet and Quicksilver by R.J. Anderson. More clever and witty heroines. These books are like if you took actual real life and mixed in some suspicious aliens. Also, yay for an asexual heroine.

Friends with Boys by Faith Erin Hicks. All friendship and family and the horror that is your first day in high school. Plus a ghost. I need more of Faith's books in my life.

The Never trilogy (Once Every Never, Every Never After, Once and For Never) by Lesley Livingston. Clare and Allie are awesome friends, accepting and protecting but also arguing and reasoning. You want a teen girl friendship that isn't catty or about one getting something from the other? You want an honest friendship? Read these books. Also read them for the time-travelling hijinks.

The Guests of War trilogy (The Sky is Falling, Looking at the Moon, The Lights Go On Again) by Kit Pearson. I read this series so much when I was a kid. Norah and Gavin are British children sent to Canada in 1940 in order to be safe from the war brewing in Europe. These books are their five years in Canada, their struggle with being safe while their family is in the UK, and their relationship with the two women who take them into their home.

So many more books by Susan Juby, Susin Nielson, Kenneth Oppel, Arthur Slade, Carrie Mac, Charles de Lint, Eric Walters, Monica Hughes, Kelley Armstrong, Tim Wynne-Jones, Joëlle Anthony, Eileen Cook, Morgan Rhodes, Eve Silver, Michelle Krys, Kat Kruger, Caroline Pignat, and many many more authors.

Do you have any go-to authors or books when looking to read about a piece of Canada? Is there anyone/any book you'd add to the list here?