New Releases by Beth Goobie

Autobiographical in nature, breathing at dusk follows the journey of one girl as she escapes her childhood home and all of the painful memories that home elicits – her memories largely centered around the physical and sexual abuse she experienced as a child at the hands of her father and the untimely death of her brother. Years removed from these experiences now, Goobie is able to cast an unblinking eye on her relationship with her father, and looks back at her emotional journey with fiercely striking language. Often with a focus on classical music and the beauty in nature, this collection, while painful, is a moving and elegant testament to Goobie’s strength and resolve as she heals and grows and finally chooses joy.

In this novel for teens, a young girl must come to terms with being a victim of rape and ultimately find the support to confront her attackers.

It''s 1977, and Mary-Eve Hamilton (Mary for the Mother of God, Eve for the mother of mankind) is plodding through her final year at Eleusis High School. Mary-Eve''s mother, famed prophetess at the Waiting for the Rapture End Times Tabernacle, regularly has visions, foams at the mouth, and falls down rigid. Her father, a popular deacon, hides his abuse behind a Sunday morning facade. Mary-Eve herself appears to be a dutiful teenager, her entire life regulated by the prescriptive rules of their church. Inside, she''s biding her time and waiting for emancipation from her family''s strictures and secrets. That day comes when Mary-Eve befriends Dee Eccles, an eighteen-year-old pagan goddess from the other side of everything. Dee instantly re-christens Mary-Eve with the name Jezebel, Jez for short, and begins her initiation into the women''s mysteries of makeup, tight jeans, and otherworldly glory. But Jez quickly learns that Dee has her own secrets, and that demons are not confined to the Waiting for the Rapture End Times Tabernacle.

"Meredith is determined to make her mark as she starts Grade 10-- and claiming the ''cool'' seat in home room is her first step. But that decision brings her unwanted attention from the school''s ''kingpin of the underworld,'' and her new enemy is smart, determined, and capable of holding a long-term grudge"--Page 4 of cove

A young girl struggles with her negative self-image and feelings of being a victim, as she learns to assert herself for the first time in her life.

When Dylan Kowolski agrees to create a display for her high school library, she has no idea of the trouble it''s going to cause—for the school principal, her family, her boyfriend Cam and his jock friends, her best friend Jocelyn and for Dylan herself. If only her English class had been studying a normal, run-of-the-mill, mundane book like Lord of the Flies instead of Foxfire things wouldn''t have gotten so twisted. Then the world wouldn''t have gone into such a massive funk. And then Dylan wouldn''t have had to face her deepest fear and the way she was letting it run her life. Hello, Groin presents a compelling, realistic and refreshing look at teen sexuality and one girl''s struggle to make the difficult choices that face her.

No one knows why she hurt herself, least of all Skey. After five long months in treatment for self-destructive behavior, Skey continues to dream of dark tunnels with mysterious designs carved into their stone walls, a place where she is safe and alone. Then she encounters another dreamer, a boy her own age, dreaming the same dream, wandering the same tunnels. A boy with secrets much like her own. While trying desperately to remember what happened that sent her away and who the boy is that she met in the dream tunnels, Skey''s life plummets farther out of control. When she realizes her friends do not have her best interests at heart and they may be the reason she is lost, Skey must face her fears and the truth of the dream tunnels, and find her way back to solid reality.

No one knows why she hurt herself, least of all Skey. After five long months in treatment for self-destructive behavior, Skey continues to dream of dark tunnels with mysterious designs carved into their stone walls, a place where she is safe and alone. Then she encounters another dreamer, a boy her own age, dreaming the same dream, wandering the same tunnels. A boy with secrets much like her own. While trying desperately to remember what happened that sent her away and who the boy is that she met in the dream tunnels, Skey''s life plummets farther out of control. When she realizes her friends do not have her best interests at heart and they may be the reason she is lost, Skey must face her fears and the truth of the dream tunnels, and find her way back to solid reality.

Sophie is in a lot of trouble. She is on probation for stealing and is doing poorly at school. Her mom doesn''t really talk to her, and the other adults in her life are pressuring Sophie to talk about her bruises. Sophie worries that if she tells, she will be sent to live in a group home. Her friend Jujube is the only person who knows the truth, and now Jujube, too, wants Sophie to speak up.

Nellie Joanne Kinnan is an Advanced Cadet in the Black Core Program at the Detta training center. Weapons and violence are second nature to this twelve-year-old, but she is never exactly sure what it is she is being trained for. Nellie is a dedicated and skilled cadet. She knows she wants to serve the Goddess and the Empire. But there is so much that she doesn''t understand. When a weapons training session brings her face-to-face with her twin, Nellie''s world is thrown into turmoil. Suddenly she questions her commitment to the violence that has dominated her young life. As she slowly learns to trust her rebellious twin, she comes to realize that much of what she has been taught about life in both the Interior and the Outbacks is not true. Faced with this reality, Nellie must find new weapons and new strength in her struggle to continue to serve the Goddess.

Several years earlier Nellie and her mother fled the Interior and its hated security police for the Outbacks, a loose-knit resistance of small cities, towns and rural areas. Since then her mother has disappeared and twelve-year-old Nellie is on her own, scrounging a living where she can find it. When loneliness opens her mind to flux, the ability to alter her vibratory state in the molecular field, she learns to travel to other levels of reality. When a prank by the Skulls, an unruly gang of boys, reveals several large scars on her scalp, Nellie is forced to confront the terrifying truth that her vague memories of experiments that took place while she lived in the Interior are real. Befriended by fourteen-year-old Deller, leader of the Skulls, Nellie learns of the disappearance of his younger brother Fen. Using her ability to travel the levels, she eventually finds Fen trapped in an experimental laboratory deep in another reality. Although Nellie is unable to free him, her discovery precipitates a series of events that lead her and Deller back to the Interior, and straight into the memories she has been trying so hard to forget.

Kelly Paddik is locked up. Sent to a secure facility because she is a "danger to herself," Kelly wants only to escape. But her painful past continues to haunt her until she is forced to face up to the most painful memory of all. A searing look at one girl''s struggle for self respect.

Every student at Saskatoon Collegiate knew that all the most important aspects of school life were controlled by a secret club called Shadow Council. Each fall, Shadow held a traditional lottery during which a single student''s name was drawn. The rest of the student body called the student the lottery winner. But Shadow Council knew better; to them, the winner was the lottery victim. Whatever the label, the fated student became the Council''s gofer, delivering messages of doom to selected targets. In response, the student body shunned the lottery winner for the entire year. This year''s victim was fifteen-year-old Sally Hanson.

Dime is fifteen and angry all the time. Her parents don''t like the way she dresses, her boyfriend, her attitude. Her older brother Darren was paralyzed in an accident she walked away from, and Dime is sure her parents wish she were the one in the wheelchair. When the fights and accusations finally become too much, Dime moves in with her brother. At first she is overjoyed with the change of scenery and lack of parental control. But when her troubles follow her she finds that maybe it isn''t everyone else who is the problem, and realizes that she has to start taking some responsibility for her actions. This short novel is a high-interest, low-reading level book for teen readers who are building reading skills, want a quick read or say they don’t like to read! The epub edition of this title is fully accessible. Available in Spanish as Ni un dia más.

Key Selling Points New, enhanced features (dyslexia-friendly font, cream paper, larger trim size) to increase reading accessibility for dyslexic and other striving readers.

Having barely survived a brain aneurysm two years earlier, fifteen-year-old Adrien, working at her Aunt Erin''s summer camp, is caught between the land of the living and the spirit world, unsure where she belongs. As she struggles to understand the message delivered by the spirits of the five young women that only she sees, she learns of the tragic consequences of their connection to her aunt. Faced with the knowledge that another aneurysm could strike her at any time and mostly shunned by the other staff because she is the boss''s niece, Adrien finds a soulmate in Paul, the camp handyman, who is convinced that he has seen his own death foretold.

YA. Sharon has no self-confidence. After moving to a new school she finds safety in friendship and for the first time ever she is free to examine the truth behind the names her family has called her for as long as she can remember. 11 yrs+

Nominee, Governor General''s Literary Award for Children''s Literature - Text Jill Gilbert doesn''t like the high school Lovely Legs Contest. For one thing, it''s sponsored by the football team headed by her brother. For another, the school newspaper she writes for came up with the idea. But more important, it boils her blood that guys like her brother make so many assumptions about what girls like. So why does she end up entering the competition? Maybe for the same reason she tried out for the football team. Maybe for the same reason she''s obsessed with the movie The Mission. Jill is nobody''s pushover. Mission Impossible is a tough sensitive teen novel. Jill, the narrator, is wickedly funny and heartbreakingly honest as she wrestles with sexism in her school and demons in her head. She comes close to going over the edge in more ways than one but triumphs in a way she could never have predicted. Right now, though, she''s stuck in a jungle of tangled thoughts and leg hairs on what seems like an impossible mission.