Storytelling at its finest. -- Terry Fallis, two-time winner of the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humor Sixteen-year-old ace knitter and equation wiz, Bliss Adair, runs the Help Desk at her parents' yarn store and has no difficulty solving the most challenging math problems. But she discovers that helping her friends isn't anything like fixing a knitting mistake or prepping for a math contest. Should she get involved when giving advice could get her into trouble? But what if she doesn't? And does the first rule of knitting - don't look too far ahead - always apply to life? For Bliss, coming of age means sorting out the complex threads of all sorts of situations in this contemporary read about friendships, mathematics, yarn, and love.

Larkin Day is a messed up 15-year-old. She just escaped a nasty Grade 10 year to spend summer with her grandmother in seaside Nova Scotia. It's the perfect setting to seek healing by putting all her energies into a local café project. If you're hurting, she learns, one of the best solutions is to invest yourself in something that can make you feel like you're part of something bigger than yourself. But when an arsonist attempts to destroy the project, Larkin is forced to figure out a way to expose the criminal while keeping her life from coming off the rails again.

Hockey player Griffin Tardiff is starting Grade 11 in a new school, new home, new town. He has not been able to play hockey for months because of a broken arm and now is also cut off from his hockey friends and his on-again, off-again girlfriend. Floundering to find a new focus, he gets an opportunity for school credit to work at the local radio station with the hockey guy. It's a break (no pun intended) that fits with his abilities as a writer and his fascination with the game. It's not long before he has made a strong positive impression. In his new neighborhood, Griff befriends a young boy, Noah, as he practices his ball hockey shots in the driveway. The boy would love to be a hockey player but his mother has vetoed that because of the costs of the hockey program. And Noah's older sister does not seem interested in encouraging her brother or in the older boy who has become a mentor to Noah. Then one night, Noah bursts in to Griff's home terrified because of something that has been happening at his home. Now Griff must face a complicated reassessment about his radio station mentor and several aspects of his new life. Jean Mills' astute insights into the hockey world as well as her ability to penetrate the emotional lives of teenagers makes this a compelling page-turner.

"Music, performing arts, sports and hockey collide in this young adult novel about family, commitment, and friendship set against coming-of-age social issues of two exceptionally gifted young adults who are both facing uncommon pressures to succeed. --