Loan Stars is the readers’ advisory tool that allows libraries across Canada to indicate popular upcoming titles every month. Loan Stars lists are now produced using On Order numbers from LibraryData. The forthcoming titles with the most orders become Loan Stars top picks!
We would like to congratulate Cherie Dimaline, Lucy Cousins, Shannon Hale, Dean Hale, and illustrator LeUyen Pham on being selected for Loan Stars’ Junior Top 10 lists for March and April 2023.
Funeral Songs for Dying Girls
By Cherie Dimaline
280 Pages | Ages 14 and up | Hardcover
ISBN 9780735265639 | Tundra Books
After inadvertently starting rumors of a haunted cemetery, a teen befriends a ghost in this brand-new young adult novel exploring grief and belonging by the critically acclaimed and bestselling author of The Marrow Thieves series. Winifred has lived in the apartment above the cemetery office with her father, who works in the crematorium all her life, close to her mother’s grave. With her sixteenth birthday only days away, Winifred has settled into a lazy summer schedule, lugging her obese Chihuahua around the grounds in a squeaky red wagon to visit the neglected gravesides and nursing a serious crush on her best friend, Jack. Her habit of wandering the graveyard at all hours has started a rumor that Winterson Cemetery might be haunted. It’s welcome news since the crematorium is on the verge of closure and her father’s job being outsourced. Now that the ghost tours have started, Winifred just might be able to save her father’s job and the only home she’s ever known, not to mention being able to stay close to where her mother is buried. All she has to do is get help from her con-artist cousin to keep up the rouse and somehow manage to stop her father from believing his wife has returned from the grave. But when Phil, an actual ghost of a teen girl who lived and died in the ravine next to the cemetery, starts showing up, Winifred begins to question everything she believes about life, love and death. Especially love.
Maisy’s Ambulance
By Lucy Cousins
18 Pages | Ages 0-3 | Boardbook
ISBN 9781536230758 | Candlewick
Nee-nah, nee-nah! Maisy’s ambulance is on its way! A shaped-board-book adventure for little ones on the go. Maisy and Charley are driving their ambulance today. What an important job! All the cars on the road move aside as they make their speedy way to Eddie’s house. The poor elephant fell over while roller-skating and hurt his trunk! Good thing the friendly ambulance crew are there with a first-aid kit to make him feel better!
Maisy’s Recycling Truck
By Lucy Cousins
18 Pages | Ages 0-3 | Boardbook
ISBN 9781536230741 | Candlewick
Get your empty bottles and cans ready—Maisy’s here to recycle them! A shaped-board-book adventure to please every truck-loving fan. It’s trash day today, and here come Maisy and Tallulah in a big, noisy recycling truck. Quick, Charley, they’re only one house away! Whoosh—his bin goes up into the truck. Next it’s Cyril’s bottles and cans, making a clink-clank-clunk noise. Eddie’s old cardboard gets squished, and Dotty adds her yogurt and juice containers to the mix. Everyone’s on board to send their old things to a factory to be made into new things. Recycling can be fun!
The Princess in Black and the Prince in Pink
By Shannon Hale and Dean Hale
Illustrated by LeUyen Pham
96 Pages | Ages 5-8 | Hardcover
ISBN 9781536209785 | Candlewick
When plans for a ball run a-fowl, Princess Magnolia accepts the help of a valiant new hero to save her secret decorations—and the entire evening! Princess Magnolia is at the Flower Festival prepping for the evening ball when suddenly she hears a commotion. Oh no! She isn’t prepared to fight a monster or . . . a grumpy emu! To her surprise, a knight in shining armor comes to the rescue, but not before the princess’s prized decorations are stomped on and destroyed. Luckily, the gallant Prince Valerian has his own secret identity—the Prince in Pink—and has been yearning for a chance to show off his special skills, with the help of some twinkle-twinkle and major glam. Glitter has been restored, but then the angry emu returns—with friends! Can the party heroes step up to save the day again?