Fiction
The outsmarters
ages 10 and up / grades 5 and up
-
August 2024 | 9781773068572 | Hardback | $18.99
What can you do when the adult world lets you down?
Suspended from school and prone to rages, twelve-year-old Kate finds her own way to get on with her life, despite the messed-up adults around her. Her gran, for one, is stubborn and aloof — not unlike Kate herself, who has no friends, and who’s been expelled for “behavioral issues,” like the meltdowns she has had ever since her mom dumped her with her grandmother three years ago. Kate dreams that one day her mother will return for her. When that happens, they’ll need money, so Kate sets out to make some.
Gran nixes her idea to sell psychiatric advice like Lucy in Peanuts (“You’re not a psychiatrist. You’ll get sued.”), so Kate decides to open a philosophy booth to provide answers to life’s big and small questions. She soon learns that adults have plenty of problems and secrets of their own, including Gran. When she finds that her grandmother has been lying to her about her mother, the two have a huge fight, and Gran says she can’t wait for Kate to finish high school so she’ll be rid of her at last. Kate decides to take matters into her own hands and discovers that to get what she wants, she may have to reach out to some unexpected people, and find a way to lay down her own anger.
-
⭐️ “An absorbing, smartly paced novel ... Narrated in Kate's tough yet sympathetic voice and replete with complex characters navigating difficult issues, this hard-hitting, hopeful story also holds warmhearted moments of friendship and community, which are even more powerful for being hard-won.” — Publishers Weekly, starred review
⭐️ “Ellis offers an emotional, inspirational, and relatable story ... A compelling and poignant book that celebrates a courageous young girl's journey toward growing up.” — School Library Journal, starred review
“Kate's first-person narration allows her quirky, perceptive, and wryly funny worldview to shine … An insightful young person makes a powerful difference in this emotionally astute work. ” — Kirkus Reviews
“The Outsmarters is an encouraging look at how hard work can bring about second chances.” — CM: Canadian Review of Materials
“Issue-filled but not issue-driven, well-paced, and not too modern to feel stuck in time, Ellis' tale of the families left behind by addiction will resonate with readers ... who seek strong-willed female protagonists that stick in your heart.” — Booklist
-
quotations
dialogue
literary references
signs
-
Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.2
Determine a theme or central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details; provide a summary of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments.CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.5
Analyze how a particular sentence, chapter, scene, or stanza fits into the overall structure of a text and contributes to the development of the theme, setting, or plot.
The Greats
ages 12 and up / grades 7 and up
-
September 2020 | Hardback | 9781773063874 | $18.95
September 2020 | Ebook | 9781773063881 | $10.99
With the unexpected help of a giant prehistoric sloth, ghostly grandfathers return to help a suicidal teenager.
Winning a national high-school geography competition should be the high point of Jomon’s life. So why does he find himself running through the streets of Georgetown, Guyana, later that same night — so angry and desperate? Why does he heave his hard-won medal through the front window of a liquor store?
Why does a teenaged boy decide life is not worth living?
Arrested by police and detained in a jail cell, Jomon is jolted out of his suicidal thoughts by the sudden appearance of another teenaged boy — who claims to be his great-great-grandfather ...
Meanwhile, across town, the pride of Guyana, the life-sized exhibit of a giant prehistoric sloth named Gather, disappears overnight from the Guyana National Museum. While museum officials argue over who is responsible for the disappearance and who is in charge of getting the sloth back, only Mrs. Simson, a museum cleaner, seems to understand what needs to be done.
And so begins a strange and marvelous journey, as Jomon is sentenced to a youth detention facility, and a succession of his dead grandfathers appears, each one of them having died by suicide. As the grandfathers argue among themselves and blame each other for their own fates, they keep a watch out for Jomon, to try to make sure he does not continue their family tradition.
In this short, fable-like story, Deborah Ellis comes at the timely and difficult issue of child suicide with restraint, compassion, and freshness, as the grandfathers overcome their own fraught histories to help their grandson, who in the end is aided by the appearance of a wondrous giant rodent, busy enjoying her own return to earthly existence.
-
“[An] impactful story.” — School Library Journal
The Cat at the Wall
ages 9 and up / grades 4 and up
-
September 2014 | Hardcover | 9781554984916 | $16.95
September 2014 | Paperback | 9781554987078 | $9.95
August 2014 | Ebook | 9781554984923 | $9.95
A remarkable and thought-provoking new novel set on Israel’s West Bank, by the author of The Breadwinner.
On Israel’s West Bank, a cat sneaks into a small Palestinian house that has just been commandeered by two Israeli soldiers. The house seems empty, until the cat realizes that a little boy is hiding beneath the floorboards.
Should she help him?
After all, she’s just a cat.
Or is she?
It turns out that this particular cat is not used to thinking about anyone but herself. She was once a regular North American girl who only had to deal with normal middle-school problems — staying under the teachers’ radar, bullying her sister and the uncool kids at school, outsmarting her clueless parents.
But that was before she died and came back to life as a cat, in a place with a whole different set of rules for survival.
When the little boy is discovered, the soldiers don’t know what to do with him. Where are the child’s parents? Why has he been left alone in the house? It is not long before his teacher and classmates come looking for him, and the house is suddenly surrounded by Palestinian villagers throwing rocks, and the sound of Israeli tanks approaching.
Not my business, thinks the cat. And then she sees a photograph, and suddenly she understands what happened to the boy’s parents, and why they have not returned. And as the soldiers begin to panic, and disaster seems certain, she knows that it is up to her to diffuse the situation.
But what can a cat do? What can any one creature do?
-
Commended, OLA Best Bets (Junior Fiction, Honorable Mention), 2015
Commended, Cooperative Children's Book Center Choices, 2015
Commended, Bank Street's Best Children's Books of the Year, 2015
Short-listed, Red Maple Award, 2016
-
“Quietly moving, full of surprises and, with Clare's colloquial and spirited voice, highly readable.” — Kirkus Reviews
“There are no black and whites here, only ordinary people caught in the tangle of history, misunderstanding, and fear.” — Booklist
“The ultimate message that every one has a story and that everyone has a chance at redemption is a hopeful one … a useful fictional counterpart to Ellis’ nonfiction work.” — Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
“The characters’ complexities are slowly revealed, adding layers to the story. Readers are plunged into the narrative, in the same way Clare must face her new feline life.” — School Library Journal
“Ellis's premise is an unusual one, but with it she crafts a thought-provoking and sensitive story about the power of empathy and selflessness.” — Publishers Weekly
“Without editorializing, Ellis’s suspenseful and thought-provoking novel offers a touching, humane context for one of the world’s most intractable situations.” — New York Times
“Ellis takes quiet characterizations and situations, using gently eloquent descriptions and dialogue to immerse the reader in the raw tension.” — Library Media Connection
-
Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.3
Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., how characters interact).
No Ordinary Day
ages 9 to 12 / grades 4 to 7
-
September 2011 | Paperback | 9781554981083 $9.95
August 2011 | Ebook | 9781554981762 $9.95
Shortlisted for the SYRCA 2013 Diamond Willow Award, selected as an American Library Association 2012 Notable Children's Book, a Booklist Editors' Choice, nominated for the OLA Golden Oak Tree Award, and a finalist for the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children's Book Awards: Young Adult/Middle Reader Award, the Governor General's Literary Awards: Children's Text and the Canadian Library Association Book of the Year for Children Award
There's not much that upsets young Valli. Even though her days are spent picking coal and fighting with her cousins, life in the coal town of Jharia, India, is the only life she knows. The only sight that fills her with terror are the monsters who live on the other side of the train tracks -- the lepers. Valli and the other children throw stones at them. No matter how hard her life is, she tells herself, at least she will never be one of them.
Then she discovers that she is not living with family after all, that her "aunt" was a stranger who was paid money to take Valli off her own family's hands. She decides to leave Jharia … and so begins a series of adventures that takes her to Kolkata, the city of the gods.
It's not so bad. Valli finds that she really doesn't need much to live. She can "borrow" the things she needs and then pass them on to people who need them more than she does. It helps that though her bare feet become raw wounds as she makes her way around the city, she somehow feels no pain. But when she happens to meet a doctor on the ghats by the river, Valli learns that she has leprosy. Despite being given a chance to receive medical care, she cannot bear the thought that she is one of those monsters she has always feared, and she flees, to an uncertain life on the street.
-
Short-listed, Governor General's Award: Children's Text, 2011
Commended, ALA Notable Children's Books List, 2012
Winner, Booklist Editors' Choice: Books for Youth, 2012
Commended, CCBC Choices Best of Year, 2012
Short-listed, Ruth and Syliva Schwartz Young Adult/Middle Reader Book Award, 2012
Commended, South Asia Book Award Honor Book, 2012
Long-listed, OLA Tree Awards, 2013
Long-listed, TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award, 2012
-
“...solid and worthy of attention by both its intended audience and adults alike...Ellis continues to write what needs to be read...Recommended.” — CM Magazine
“Ellis's straightforward language and uncompromising depictions of Valli's unimaginably harsh and gritty world combine with believable character development to create a strong and accessible novel.” — Publishers Weekly
“A true-to-life portrait of a young girl’s cheerful selfishness in this surprisingly optimistic novel of unrelenting poverty.” — Kirkus Reviews
⭐️ “The story highlights not only the overcoming of adversity, but also the importance of education and literacy. It also brings to light the issue of leprosy, which is misunderstood. An important, inspiring tale.” — School Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
⭐️ “...compelling and accessible...” —Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
⭐️ “Ellis writes with great skill...” — Horn Book Magazine, STARRED REVIEW
“Ellis is a passionate and respectful teacher.” — Quill & Quire
“I would recommend this book to middle grade readers as a way to learn more about the world – and about supporting important causes.” — Amy Reads
“Deborah Ellis does not back down from world issues that need addressing.” — Sal's Fiction Addiction
“Ellis...creates a remarkable narrative voice, both detached and immediate...” — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
“A powerful and outstanding book...” — Waking Brain Cells
“Once again, Ellis writes a poignant, penetrating story about the difficult challenges of being a girl in the developing world.” — BookDragon
-
Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.3
Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., a character's thoughts, words, or actions).CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.3
Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., how characters interact).CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.6
Explain how an author develops the point of view of the narrator or speaker in a text.
No Safe Place
ages 14 and up / grades 9 and up
-
September 2010 | Paperback | 9780888999740 | $9.95
September 2010 | Ebook | 9781554981601 | $9.95
Finalist for the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children's Book Award
Orphaned and plagued with the grief of losing everyone he loves, fifteen-year-old Abdul has made a long, fraught journey from his war-torn home in Baghdad, only to end up in The Jungle -- the squalid, makeshift migrant community in Calais.
When an altercation at the soup kitchen ends up with him accidently stabbing a policeman, Abdul has to flee, and in desperation he takes a spot in a small boat heading to England. A sudden skirmish leaves the boat stalled in the middle of the Channel, the pilot dead, and four young people remaining -- Abdul; Rosalia, a Romani girl who has escaped from the white slave trade; Cheslav, gone AWOL from a Russian military school; and Jonah, the boat pilot's ten-year-old nephew.
The four of them end up hijacking a yacht and, despite their fear and mistrust, they form a kind of makeshift family. And as the authorities close in on them, they find refuge in an unusual place -- a child's secret cave on the English coast.
-
Commended, OLA Best Bets, 2010
Short-listed, SYRCA Snow Willow Award, 2011
Commended, Resource Links' Year's Best, 2010
Commended, CCBC Best Books for Kids & Teens, 2011
-
⭐️ “What the best literature for young readers can be-simple, elegant language crafted to tell a story as full and rich as life itself. Eminently memorable.” — Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
“Flashbacks involving the effects of war and poverty on communities and families drive this fast-paced and heart-wrenching narrative, which deals honestly with countless harsh realities.” — Publishers Weekly Online
“Flashbacks to each character's personal story are interwoven with the present-tense violence, prejudice, kindness, and community that the young characters find on their journey.” — Booklist
⭐️ “Ellis' young readers love her because she speaks to them as intelligent, empathetic beings who will soon have agency in the world, and in No Safe Place, this gift is still powerfully evident.” — Quill & Quire, STARRED REVIEW
⭐️ “This novel moves fast and furiously...exciting and moving.” — School Library Journal, STARRED REVIEW
Looking for X
ages 9 and up / grades 4 and up
-
September 1999 | Paperback | 9780888993823 | $9.95
September 1999 | Paperback | 9781554980222 | $9.95
Winner of the Governor General's Literary Award
In this urban adventure story, Khyber, a smart, bold, eleven-year-old girl from a poor neighborhood, sets out to find her friend X, a mysterious homeless woman who has gone missing.
The desperate search takes Khyber on a long, all-night odyssey that proves to be wilder than any adventure she has ever imagined.
-
Winner, Governor General's Literary Awards: Text, 2001
Long-listed, OLA Silver Birch Award, 2001
Commended, PPYA (Books that Don't Make You Blush), 2006
-
“All of the characters seem real and natural...Khyber is a likable protagonist and readers will appreciate how she copes with her issues...they will enjoy the story.” — School Library Journal
“Khyber's strong spirit and believable personality will draw readers in.” — Booklist
“Marvelous characterizations and fiercely close family ties...Unlike many coming-of-age stories, in this novel the odyssey is less important than the warm, redemptive homecoming.” — Horn Book