Book picks similar to
Last Chance by Lesley Choyce


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Dumped by Popular Demand


P.G. Kain - 2007
    When she arrives at her new school, she immediately sets out to determine who is the most popular and how they got that way. She quickly deduces it's a group of girls whom she dubs the Holly Trinity. And the one thing that connects them is their shared experience of having gone out with and been dumped by the arrogant Grant Braddish. One she determines this, Dorie is quickly on her way with a plan to win the heart of, and then get dumped by, Grant.Dorie soon discovers Grant isn't as arrogant as some would think and maybe she would rather be with him than with the popular girls.

Knifepoint


Alex Van Tol - 2010
    She didn't realize that the money was terrible, the hours long and the coworkers insufferable. After a blow-up with her boss, she takes a single man into the mountains for a ride, only to find that he is a dangerous killer. When Jill fights back and manages to escape, she is in a desperate race to survive and make it to safety.Also available in Spanish.

Voyageur: Across the Rocky Mountains in a Birchbark Canoe


Robert Twigger - 2006
    Mackenzie travelled by bark canoe and had a cache of rum and a crew of Canadian voyageurs, hard-living backwoodsmen, for company. Two centuries later, in a spirit of organic authenticity, Robert Twigger follows in Mackenzie's wake. He too travels the traditional way, having painstakingly built a canoe from birch bark sewn together with pine roots, and assembled a crew made up of fellow travellers, ex-tree-planters and a former sailor from the US Navy. After the ice has melted, Twigger and his crew of wandering spirits finally nose out into the Athabasca River . . . Three Years . . . two thousand miles . . .over one thousand painfully towing the canoe against the current . . . several had tried before them but they were the first people to successfully complete Mackenzie's diabolical route over the Rockies in a birch bark canoe since 1793. Subsisting on a diet of porridge, elk and jackfish, supplemented with whisky and a bag of grass for the tree planters, and with an Indian medicine charm bestowed by the Cree People of Fox Lake, the voyageurs embark on an epic road trip by canoe . . . a journey to the remotest parts of the wilderness, through Native American reservations, over mountains, through rapids and across lakes, meeting descendants of Mackenzie and unhinged Canadian trappers, running out of food, getting lost and miraculously found again, disfigured for life (the ex-sailor loses his thumb), bears brown and black, docile and grizzly. Voyageur is a moving tale of contrasts from the bleak industrial backwaters of Canada to the desolate wonder of the Rocky Mountains.

Starting Out In the Afternoon


Jill Frayne - 2002
    She decided to pack up her life and head for the Yukon.Driving alone across the country from her home just north of Toronto, describing the land as it changes from Precambrian Shield to open prairie, Jill finds that solitude in the wilds is not what she expected. She is actively engaged by nature, her moods reflected in the changing landscape and weather. Camping in her tent as she travels, she begins to let go of the world she’s leaving and to enter the realm of the solitary traveller. There are many challenges in store. She has booked a place on a two-week sea-kayaking trip in the Queen Charlotte Islands of British Columbia; though she owns a canoe, she has never been in a kayak. As the departure nears, she dreads it. Nor does it work any miracle charm on her, as she is isolated from her fellow travellers; yet the landscape and wild beauty of the old hunt camps gradually affects her. Halfway, as she begins to have energy left at the end of the day’s exertions, she notes: “This is as relaxed as I have ever been, as free from anxious future-thinking as I have ever managed.”From there she heads north, taking ferries up the Inside Passage and using her bicycle and tent to explore the wet, mountainous places along the way. Again, she feels self-conscious when alone in public, but once she strikes out into nature, the wilderness begins to work its magic on her, and she begins to feel a bond with the land and a kind of serenity. Moreover, she comes to realize that this self-reliance is an important step. Many travel narratives involve some kind of inner journey, a seeking of knowledge and of self. Set in the same part of the world, Jonathan Raban’s A Passage to Juneau ended up being “an exploration into the wilderness of the human heart.” Kevin Patterson used his months sailing from Vancouver to Tahiti to consider his life in The Water in Between, while the Bhutanese landscape worked a profound transformation on Jamie Zeppa in Beyond the Sky and the Earth. In This Cold Heaven, Gretel Ehrlich chose not to put herself into the story, but described the landscape with a similar hunger and intensity, while Sharon Butala has written deeply and personally about her physical and spiritual connection with the prairies in The Perfection of the Morning and other work.In Starting Out in the Afternoon, Frayne struggles to come to terms with her vulnerabilities and begins to find peace. In beautifully spare but potent language, she delivers an inspiring, contemplative memoir of the middle passage of a woman’s life and an eloquent meditation on the solace of living close to the wild land. Eventually what has begun as a three-month trip becomes a personal journey of several years, during which she is on the move and testing herself in the wilderness. She conquers her fears and begins a new relationship with nature, exuberant at becoming a competent outdoorswoman. “Despite a late start I expect to spend the rest of my life dashing off the highway, pursuing this know-how, plumbing the outdoors side of life.”

Sticks and Stones


Beth Goobie - 2002
    She is not so happy when the rumors start flying at school. Pretty soon her name is showing up on bathroom walls and everyone is snickering and sniping. When her mother gets involved, Jujube's reputation takes another hit. Deciding that someone has to take a stand, Jujube gathers all the other girls who are labelled sluts--and worse--and tries to impress on her fellow students the damage that can be done by assigning a label that reduces a person to an object.Also available in Spanish.

I.D.


Vicki Grant - 2007
    Chris has a hard home life, does not do well in school, and cannot get the girl he wants, so when he finds a wallet on the sidewalk that appears to belong to someone with a better life, he is tempted to steal its owner's identity.

Blob


Frieda Wishinsky - 2010
    Her best friend is ashamed to hang out with her, and she's become the focus of a schoolmate's cruelty. Determined not to be that pathetic fat girl at school, Eve struggles with a diet and forces herself to join a mentoring program. The diet only makes her food obsessed, and she feels she is failing as a mentor. How can a lonely fat girl gain the confidence she needs to succeed?

Royal Ransom


Eric Walters - 2003
    His surprise turns to astonishment when he discovers the group includes the young Princess Victoria and Prince Andrew, who are next in line for the British throne!When kidnappers strike, taking the grownups in the group hostage, Jamie and the rest of the children are forced to battle their way back to civilization alone. Encounters with bears, rapids and the menacing kidnappers threaten to stop them at every turn, but thanks to Jamie's level headedness and Victoria's quick thinking, the children outwit their pursuers ... but they're not out of danger yet!

Painting Caitlyn


Kimberly Joy Peters - 2006
    But as things get serious, she discovers Tyler's jealous side. Once she realizes her "perfect" boyfriend is as controlling as he is caring, Caitlyn is faced with a choice: she can either let this relationship define her, or find the courage to break away.

Bull Rider


Marilyn Halvorson - 1989
    His dad was one ride away from a National Championship when he got trampled to death. Layne wants to be able to give his dad that championship--by winning it for him. What he doesn't want, though, is to end up like his father and die in the rodeo arena. When the chance comes, Layne realizes he must face up to his greatest fear. With the help of his friend Jana, and his bratty younger sister, Layne learns to reach deep inside and trust himself.Also available in French.

The One


Ed Decter - 2009
     And what Chloe wants...Chloe gets.

Trash


Sharon Darrow - 2006
    Now on the run in search of their big sister Raynell, ironically they are forced to rely on their trash-picking skills for sustenance and shelter. Reunited at last with Raynell in St. Louis, Boy and Sissy shed their old identities, reinvent themselves as graffiti artists, and splash their new names on city bridges and walls. But one night's expedition goes horribly wrong, and Sissy looks again to trash, this time as the beginning of something artful and beautiful.

In the Skin of a Lion / Running in the Family


Michael Ondaatje - 1993
    

Fifteen Candles


Veronica Chambers - 2010
    But for Alicia Cruz and her three best friends, Carmen, Jamie, and Gaz, they were also just part of the background--until now.

Salem Witch


Patricia Hermes - 2006
    Devils and witches are an accepted fact of life and religion. When some girls in the village begin having fits and tremors, their torments are attributed to the action of witches. Elizabeth Putnam and her parents are different from many of the other village folk, and they doubt the superstitions that terrify the town. As Elizabeth struggles to find her way among the alarming events, she also finds herself at odds with George, her best friend and companion since babyhood. Things come to a head when Elizabeth herself is accused of witchcraft, and George must make a difficult choice between what his community believes and what he knows to be true. Readers start the story in Elizabeth's voice and finish thestory in George's voice, where they learn how he finds a resolution to his heartwrenching predicament and the conclusion of his own side of the story.