New Releases by Martine Leavitt

Based on true-life histories, Buffalo Flats shares the epic, coming of age story of Rebecca Leavitt as she searches for her identity in the Northwest Territories of Canada during the late 1800s. Seventeen-year-old Rebecca Leavitt has traveled by covered wagon from Utah to the Northwest Territories of Canada, where her father and brothers are now homesteading and establishing a new community with other Latter-Day Saints. Rebecca is old enough to get married, but what kind of man would she marry and who would have a girl like her—a girl filled with ideas and opinions? Someone gallant and exciting like Levi Howard? Or a man of ideas like her childhood friend Coby Webster? Rebecca decides to set her sights on something completely different. She loves the land and wants her own piece of it. When she learns that single women aren’t allowed to homestead, her father agrees to buy her land outright, as long as Rebecca earns the money —480 dollars, an impossible sum. She sets out to earn the money while surviving the relentless challenges of pioneer life—the ones that Mother Nature throws at her in the form of blizzards, grizzles, influenza and floods, and the ones that come with human nature, be they exasperating neighbors or the breathtaking frailty of life. Buffalo Flats is inspired by true-life histories of the author’s ancestors. It is an extraordinary novel that explores Latter-Day Saints culture and the hardships of pioneer life. It is about a stubborn, irreverent, and resourceful young woman who remains true to herself and discovers that it is the bonds of family, faith, and friendship—even romance--that tie her to the wild and unpredictable land she loves so fiercely.

National Book Award Finalist A young woman makes a bargain with Death himself—and only true love can set her free—in this spellbinding young adult fantasy romance for fans of Robin McKinley. For most of her sixteen years, beautiful Keturah Reeves has mesmerized the villagers with her gift for storytelling. But when she becomes hopelessly lost in the king’s forest, her strength all but diminished, she must spin the most important of tale of life. With her fate hanging in the balance, she charms Death himself—a handsome, melancholy, and stern lord—with a story of a love so true that he agrees to give her a one-day reprieve. Now, she must find her true love in the next twenty-four hours, or else all will be lost. Keturah searches desperately while her village prepares for an unexpected visit from the king. But Lord Death’s presence is never far, hovering over all as mysterious happenings start to alarm her friends and neighbors. If she is to save her soul and the souls of the people she adores, Keturah must confront Lord Death one last time . . .

Heck is used to getting by on his own; his mother is unreliable, at best. But even a boy with a rich imagination is going to have a tough time managing when he and his mother find themselves without a home. It''s a good thing Heck has wit, strength, and a lot of optimism.

From the author of the National Book Award finalist "Keturah and Lord Death" comes a classic story of animals and survival in the vein of "Watership Down." Tuk, a bighorn sheep of the Canadian Rockies, leads his herd beyond the snares of man and the wiles of predators to the freedom of the Blue Mountain.

Sixteen-year-old Angel struggles to free herself from the trap of prostitution in which she is caught.

Fifteen-year-old Tom is on the run, a kid on the streets out on his own, living by his wits. Tom also gets involved in a quest to find another lost teenager whose First Nations father is desperate for news of his son. In the process, Tom learns to survive and begins to get a sense of his own inner strengths. Tom knows that somewhere in his former life Mozart''s The Magic Flute has been crucially important to him. Though he doesn''t know when or how, when he finally gets to the opera''s performance, the past explodes his consciousness. Who, now, will he be? The Tom of the past? Or the new Tom, the person he has built out of his street experiences and emerging convictions?

American Association of Mormon Letters Award Canadian Library Association Notable Book Canadian Children''s Book Centre Our Choice Citation When news of dragon trouble comes, Marwen doesn''t scoff even though dragons haven''t flown in the land of Ve for many generations. Her destiny has been woven, and it will lead her to lost lands, to the powerful magic of the Wizard''s staff and to a mystery no one should have to face alone.