Books in Lorimer Side Streets series

Fifteen-year-old Birmingham has a hot girlfriend who wants to "do it" anytime, anywhere. But to his (and his best friend's) surprise, it just leaves him feeling hollow, and he finds himself longing for something more. Then his school hires a substitute music teacher, and Birm feels an instant connection with her. They both share a deep love for music―and she seems to have feelings for him too. They begin meeting outside of school hours until, one day, Birmingham's girlfriend catches him in a lie. Jealous and angry, she tells anyone who will listen that he is having an affair with the teacher. Birmingham is forced to defend himself in a formal inquiry, while he wonders whether he's the one who has done something wrong.

Gina is the kind of girl who works hard to keep up her appearance—not just focusing on her hair and makeup, but going so far as breast-enhancement surgery and diet pills. When tall, athletic, good-looking Colter wants to be her boyfriend, Gina jumps at the chance. She thinks they’ll be the perfect couple and ignores the warning signs that things aren’t right with him. That includes rumors that his past girlfriend has a restraining order against him. But when Colter’s actions put Gina in physical danger, she is finally forced to wake up to what Colter is really like.

After a gang of thugs beat him up, Paul's parents decide they've had enough of Glasgow's tough streets and move the family to Winnipeg. Still healing from his injuries, Paul also has deep inner scars that will make his new high school, in this new country, even more of a battleground. New Blood is an edgy yet moving account of violence, bullying, recovery, and hope.

After her mother suddenly leaves her family for good, Sandra is left behind with her alcoholic father—and a lot of anger. At first, Sandra is more concerned with getting a job and getting on with her life, but then the people around her start pushing Sandra to at least try to find her missing mother. What will Sandra say to her mother if they are reunited? And how do you find a person who may not want to be found?

Zadie thinks she's tough and indestructible, like the superheroes she draws in her graphic novels. She'll fight any girl who dares to take her on, and she always wins—until, one day, she loses. Beat up and riled up, she quickly gets her revenge and hospitalizes the next girl she challenges. Scared that this time she may have gone too far, Zadie tries to keep out of trouble. But when some girls launch a cyberbullying campaign against her, meant to spur her into violence, Zadie decides that enough is enough, and the lines between superhero and supervillain become blurred. A story written by a fresh young voice about violent teen girls and society's general ineptitude in understanding and helping them.

To an outsider, it might seem like an uneventful summer, but to Jackie it's a whole new world. Her father has a new girlfriend―a young tattoo-artist named Nicole. Her mother seems more interested in Theresa, the sick girl living across the street, than she is in her own daughter. The only thing keeping Jackie from disappearing altogether is the small butterfly tattoo she lets Nicole give her. But when Jackie's Mom forces her to spend time with Theresa, Jackie learns to value the vibrancy in her own life, by adding a bit of color to someone else's.

Trent and Adam were best friends and rally racing buddies until a terrible accident, when Adam was at the wheel, puts Trent in the hospital. After a long separation, the teens try to pick up their friendship where it left off, but Adam's guilty feelings and Trent's odd behaviour make it tough. Why is Trent hanging around Marcus, a guy he says he can't stand? And why isn't his Ritalin working anymore? When Adam discovers Trent is dealing with the dark side, it's a race to save his friend from himself. Racing Fear is an action-packed ride that takes a hard look at the selling of prescription drugs. [Fry Reading Level - 5.2

It begins with a chance encounter: teenage Emily and her friends come to the aid of a stranger who is being bullied by a gang. Emily forgets about the incident, but the young man she helped becomes fixated on her. Only when her real love interest is attacked does she begin to understand that the stranger's interest in her has become a full-blown obsession. Every Move is a realistic but chilling look at this threatening and all-too-common form of harassment.

Sixteen-year-old Avvy Go straddles the line—the line between the immigrant neighborhood were she lives and works and the established neighborhood where she attends high school, the line between right and wrong, and the line between telling secrets and keeping them. Set in an urban Chinatown neighborhood, Thief Girl is a frank look at the challenges faced by one teen caught between two worlds.

Ever since Ariel's mom has been too sick to work they've been moving to progressively lower-income neighborhoods. Then they seem to hit rock bottom—Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, Canada's poorest postal code. Here Ariel gets on the wrong side of a gang of tough girls at school after receiving unwanted attention from their boyfriends. Now she's stuck with a reputation and a label she doesn't know how to deal with.

Gina is the kind of girl who works hard to keep up her appearance—not just focusing on her hair and makeup, but going so far as breast-enhancement surgery and diet pills. When tall, athletic, good-looking Colter wants to be her boyfriend, Gina jumps at the chance. She thinks they’ll be the perfect couple and ignores the warning signs that things aren’t right with him. That includes rumors that his past girlfriend has a restraining order against him. But when Colter’s actions put Gina in physical danger, she is finally forced to wake up to what Colter is really like.