The Forest of Reading is a Canada-wide program designed to promote a love of reading and promote books by Canadian authors.
The "forest" is made up of several different "trees" (book lists) for different grades and ages. Each tree features 10 books nominated as "the best" of Canadian literature. Visit the program website to learn more about the Forest of Reading.
The trees for our Middle School students are Red Maple (fiction) and Yellow Cedar (nonfiction).
Scroll down on this page to find links to Red Maple and Yellow Cedar books in our library catalogue (Destiny Discover). Scroll down further to watch book talk videos prepared by our book ambassadors.
Students choose which they'd like books to read from a "tree." If you read at least 5 of the books listed on the tree, you are eligible to vote for your favourite in April (TBD) 2026. In May (TBD) 2026, the Festival of Trees will be held, where the winners of each Forest of Reading program will be announced. Students participating in the program can go!
To get started, visit the library circulation desk to grab a Reading Passport so you can document the books you've read from each tree and student sign-up here . All of the Red Maple and Yellow Cedar titles are available in the MS/SS Library's print collection, with eBook editions also available on Sora. Once you've finished a book, check in with its book ambassador to get their signature before Voting Day.
Our MS Voting Day at The York School will be held on April (TBD) 2026. Make sure that you have all of your books read by then, and that they are signed off by our book ambassadors so that you're ready to vote. We will be holding a Book Ambassador Signing event one week before Voting Day at lunch so you can meet all ambassadors in one place.
Dom’s life revolves around cars and baseball until a chance connection to a high school audition hands him a major role in a psychological thriller. This would be exciting enough, except that real life begins to shadow the script in a very creepy way as an elusive girl and a local murder draw Dom out of his otherwise quiet shell.
With a nod to Frederick Knott’s famous play “Wait Until Dark” and its subsequent film, this book has it all ― drama, mystery, thrills aplenty, and contemporary teen humour.
Book Ambassador: Ms. Sotnik
A thrilling novel of self-discovery that is part adventure, part mystery, and part Celtic myth, set in Dublin in 1913.
Fifteen-year-old Finnegan Wilde steals to survive. Always on the run from gangs and police, Finn is also fleeing her own mysterious past, glimpsed only through nightmares and an unusual Celtic mark on her arm. When, in a chance encounter outside the museum, she scores a journal filled with strange diagrams, maps, and a drawing identical to her mark, Finn hungers for more than the next meal. She wants answers, and more than anything, she wants to find her family.
Eddie Moore, a young apprentice archaeologist, has spent months trying to decipher an ancient manuscript he and his father excavated from a bog. The Moores believe it was written by Tomas, a 9th century monk, and that it holds the clue to finding the legendary Cauldron of Plenty, one of four Treasures of Ireland. But when Eddie’s father is seriously injured by a gang in an attempted robbery, Eddie alone must find the Cauldron.
When their search brings them together, Finn and Eddie realize the mark on her arm and his ancient manuscript are connected. Finn doesn’t trust this awkward scholar from the rich side of town. Eddie is just as suspicious of this wild girl with no home, no past, and no rules. But if they can work together, perhaps – as Tomas hoped – they will make the greatest discovery of all.
Book Ambassadors: Mr. Medved
Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle is no stranger to misfortune. Bullied at school and struggling with problems at home, he dreams of the day he can leave it all behind him. That’s when he receives an unexpected opportunity: an invitation to join the Factory — a top-secret research facility that’s supposedly developing renewable energy — and Asher will be paid handsomely for his participation. It seems like the answer to all his problems.
But not everything is as it seems at the Factory. The other kids in the program are tired and sullen, almost as if they’ve had the life sucked out of them, and the staff members are clearly hiding something. What’s more, Asher discovers he wasn’t chosen at random; someone in the program desperately wants him to participate. Asher can’t help but feel that whatever the Factory is doing, it’s not what he or any of the other kids signed up for.
To Asher’s horror, it turns out that the Factory isn’t developing renewable energy at all. So what is the Factory up to, and more important, why? As conditions in the Factory worsen, Asher must team up with the other kids to uncover the sinister truth behind the experiment — and his personal connection to it — before someone gets seriously hurt.
Book Ambassadors: Mr. Cooper
So what if Harmony has to be the grown-up?
After months living in a foster home (again), Harmony convinces a judge that she can move back in with her mother. Her mom even finds an apartment that the social worker, Gloria, can’t find fault with. But now Harmony has an even bigger battle ahead―trying to keep her mom on the straight and narrow, or at least keep Gloria from finding out when she slips. Which she does. A lot. Often left to fend for herself, Harmony finds an ally in Mr. Khaled, the owner of the convenience store across the street. He helps Harmony out with food in exchange for some part-time work. And at school, her principal seems to be on her side. Even so, it feels like Harmony’s life is always one step from falling apart, and she can’t really trust anyone. Harmony knows the question is less about whether she’ll return to foster care and more about when she’s ready to do it.
Finding Harmony is the prequel to the Governor General’s award-winning The King of Jam Sandwiches.
Book Ambassadors: Ms. Wolfe
If you can’t trust your parents, who can you trust?
Cameron and Lewis Larsen are identical twins living normal, suburban lives … until their mom and dad kill two uninvited guests at a neighborhood barbecue and then disappear. Following cryptic instructions their parents left behind, the twins make their way to a small hotel in Edinburgh. Too conspicuous as twins, they hide by pretending to be one person, each gathering clues on alternate days. The closer they get to the truth, only one thing is clear: Someone is following them. Will they uncover their parents’ secrets before their own is discovered? With no idea who’s after them, or why, the twins race to discover the truth about their parents. And, in the process, they learn a lot about themselves – and the unbreakable bond they share.
Readers will be obsessed with finding out what happens next in this highly suspenseful coming-of-age story with a deadly twist.
Book Ambassador: Mr. Black & Mr. Deighton
London feels stuck. His school friends think he’s this confident kid who likes video games and will kick your butt if you get on his bad side. His high-achieving parents think he’s a genius coder and are pushing him to pursue that as a future career. None of this is true. London feels anxiety in crowds, and what he really wants to do is be by himself and read books.
Not knowing what else to do, London starts an anonymous online comic called “Is There A Boy Like Me,” where he expresses his true feelings and explores what his life would be like if he could just be who he wanted to be. When the comic goes viral, it starts a global conversation about what being a boy really means, with London directly in the middle of it all.
Book Ambassadors: Mr. Regner
The wannabe-cool, Tamil-nerd vibes of Never Have I Ever meets the hidden life of Stand Up, Yumi Chung! by Jessica Kim in this funny, poignant coming-of-age middle grade debut from Maria Marianayagam.
Ajay Anthonipillai has a million-dollar problem.
Ajay has lived his life dutifully following the rules set by his Tamil parents.
Rule #3: Straight As only
Rule #5: There is no such thing as a no-homework day.
Rule #10: Never watch scary movies.
However, moving to a new school gives Ajay a new rule: to get on seventh-grade all-star Jacob Underson’s good side.
When Jacob asks him to steal a Mercury bar from Scary Al’s convenience store, Ajay feels this is his chance to finally “get cool” and stop eating alone. But Jacob rejects the stolen chocolate bar, leaving Ajay to unwrap it and discover that it contains Mercury’s Twenty-fifth Anniversary Grand Prize…one million dollars.
Faced with an extreme dilemma, Ajay will have to bear the weight of his actions and battle his morality in deciding whether to claim the prize that may change the life of his family forever.
Book Ambassadors: Ms. Pielsticker
Dexter is twelve years old and lives at The Pines Retirement Village with his grandmother. He’s been home-schooled by the residents since he was six – until the day the truant officer shows up and announces that Dex has to go to the local public school.
Dex does not fit in at middle school. He gets along better with senior citizens than he does kids his own age. He dresses like a grandpa and his taste in movies and music is decades out of date. Only a few students—like Gianna Greco, a reporter at the school’s newspaper looking for a bit story — want to talk to him. For most, he is a weirdo . . . or a target.
Dexter would do anything to get out of middle school and go back to his old life at The Pines. But when his wish finally seems to be coming true, his old and new worlds collide in a way that surprises everyone—and Dexter most of all.
Book Ambassador: Mr. Grosman & Ms. Wolfe
It’s 1902 and twelve-year-old orphan Malcolm McKenzie’s world is falling apart.
His mentor, clockmaker Jack Alexander, was found dead inside a locked clock tower.
His best friend — and Jack’s son — Peter is dying of a mysterious disease.
His only hope: a puzzle inside a seemingly broken pocket watch that even Jack couldn’t fix.
The watch, a precious heirloom passed down through a family of proud physicians, must be the key to solving Jack’s murder and a miracle cure for Peter. But shadowy figures stalk the streets of Edinburgh, scheming to steal the watch and its secrets for themselves. Malcolm, alongside pickpocket and fellow orphan Maddie, must outsmart and outrun their enemies to solve the watch’s puzzle and save the family that saved him … before Peter’s time runs out.
Book Ambassador: Ms. Yu
When her unconventional parents finally agree to settle down in one place, twelve-year-old Cayenne’s dreams come true—but the reality of fitting in is much harder than she imagined. Acclaimed author Jessica Vitalis crafts an unforgettable historical novel-in-verse about belonging, family, and social class for fans of Lisa Fipps’s Starfish and Jasmine Warga’s Other Words for Home.
Cayenne and her family drift from place to place, living in their van. It hasn’t been a bad life—Cayenne and her mother birdwatch in every new location, they have a cozy setup in the van, and they sing and dance and bond over campfires most nights. But they’ve never belonged anywhere.
As Cayenne enters seventh grade, her parents decide to settle down in a small Montana town. Cayenne hopes that this means she will finally fit in and make some friends. But it turns out that staying in one place isn’t easy.
As her social studies class studies the Titanic tragedy (the wreckage has just been discovered and her teacher is obsessed), Cayenne sees more and more parallels between the social strata of the infamous ship and her own life. Will she ever squeeze her way into the popular girls’ clique, even though they live in fancy houses on the hill, and she lives in a tiny, rundown home with chickens in the front yard? Is it possible that the rich boy she likes actually likes her back? Can she find a way to make room for herself in this town? Does she really want to? Maybe being “normal” isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Unsinkable Cayenne is a character-driven novel-in-verse about family, friendship, first crushes, and fitting in. Set in the mid-1980s, this literary novel is for readers of Megan E. Freeman’s Alone and Erin Entrada Kelly’s We Dream of Space.
Book Ambassador: Ms. Vassallo
Meet 13 inspiring hijabi athletes who are changing the rules.
Many of these women were the first in their sport to compete while wearing the hijab. Some were up against cultural traditions that didn’t allow girls to play sports. And, some fought to have institutional anti-hijab rules changed so that they, and Muslim girls after them, would be able to compete.
Discover the stories of Egyptian beach volleyball player Doaa Elghobashy, UAE hockey player Fatima Al Ali, Afghani soccer player Hajar Abulfazl and Syrian-American runner Rahaf Khatib, among many others. Game Changers shows the next generation of Muslim girls that they don’t have to choose between following their religion and following their dreams.
Crows are all around us, shouting from lamp posts, poking around on lawns, and generally taking a bright-eyed interest in everything that moves. But most of us don’t know much about their lives. In How to Know a Crow, award-winning author Candace Savage invites us into the fascinating world of these big, brash, and surprisingly brainy birds.
From the moment baby crow Oki pokes her egg tooth through her shell and emerges into her nest, we are her constant companions. As we follow her through the seasons of her life, we explore how crows see and sense the world.
Book Ambassador: Nicholas Regner
Through the Squamish language and cultural traditions, learn about Indigenous plant relationships and how we are all connected to nature through plant-based foods, medicines, and materials.
The best way to learn about plants is through observing and interacting with living examples. Join Held by the Land author Leigh Joseph and her children in The Land Knows Me, an educational and hands-on journey to discover the wonderful uses and gifts of the plants around us. Through the Indigenous traditions of Squamish culture, you’ll learn how to ground yourself on the land, how to introduce yourself in the Squamish language to your plant relatives, and the many teachings about plants, cultural stories, and learnings related to the flora seen on your walk.
This essential and colourful introduction to Indigenous plant knowledge includes informative sidebars, reflection questions, and plant names in both Squamish and English so you can learn a new language.
With their blue blood, big brains and eight arms, octopuses are dramatically different from any other being.
Octopuses are masters of camouflage and are known for their incredible escapes from tight spots. New research shows that they are highly intelligent creatures, and while they prefer to be alone, they will interact with humans and display unique personality traits.
In Octopus Ocean, discover the mysteries and histories of octopuses big and small—their biology, habitat and habits—and explore the top threats to their future, including warming oceans, over-fishing and pollution.
The stories of the flavours we love are steeped in history, mythology and cultures from around the world.
Did you know that salt has been around for nearly 5,000 years or that pepper was once called ‘black gold’? Have you heard that two billion cups of coffee are consumed every day and that tea was first discovered by the Chinese emperor Shennong in 2737 BCE?
In Salt, Pepper, Season, Spice, discover where our favourite spices, condiments and confections come from and how they’re grown, harvested and prepared. Find out how they’re used to enhance and create flavours in the foods we know and love today. A tasty read guaranteed to get your mouth watering!
WARNING: NOT FOR THE FAINT-HEARTED. This revolting history of medicine through the ages by Jelena Poleksic is full of blood, guts, and gore!
If you don’t like going to the doctor, spare a thought for your ancestors. Got a headache? We can drill into your skull! Need to buy medicine? Can we recommend a dose of ground-up Egyptian mummy? Want to fight off diseases? Try smelling a stinky cesspit.
It’s well-known that to make advances in science, you have to make a few mistakes along the way. In this hilarious history book, kids will be whisked around the world—from ancient Rome to imperial China—to meet the medical innovators who pushed the boundaries of what was possible, with sometimes disastrous effects. They’ll learn about the use of leeches, maggot therapy (as gross as it sounds), dancing plagues, public dissections, grave robbers, electric eel treatments, exploding teeth, and much more!
Written by a doctor, everything in this book has been scrupulously researched, and readers will learn about the development of some of our greatest inventions, from vaccines to X-rays. Amusing illustrations by Ella Kasperowicz make this a book kids will want to return to again and again.
Dive into the most mysterious waters around the world (if you dare) in Spooky Lakes, an illustrated nonfiction book from TikTok star and educator Geo Rutherford. An instant New York Times bestseller!
From Geo Rutherford—the creator of the hit series Spooky Lake Month (over 65 million likes!)—comes this thrilling nonfiction book that plumbs the depths of 25 unusual lakes around the world.
Backed by extensive research and packed with all-new content—including eerie and eye-popping watercolour illustrations in full colour—Spooky Lakes takes readers on an adventure through weird and wild waters.
Some of Earth’s strangest—and creepiest—wonders lie deep below the surface…
There’s Lake Natron, a Tanzanian lake so briny that its waters can mummify any creature that touches its surface; Lake Maracaibo, a Venezuelan tidal bay where a constantly brewing storm sends an average of 28 lightning bolts per second into the water; and at the bottom of Lake Superior, the crew of the USS Kamloops—which mysteriously disappeared in 1921—remains somehow almost perfectly preserved to this day.
Readers will learn not only about the science of hydrology but also why understanding the natural world is crucial to protecting it from pollution and climate change.
In 1841, a 12-year-old enslaved boy, Edmond Albius, made history when he discovered a method for hand-pollinating vanilla plants using a bamboo twig.
Until that time, only bees in Mexico could pollinate the plant—botanists couldn’t figure out another way. With his master, Edmond travelled around Réunion Island to share his technique, le geste d’Edmonde (Edmond’s gesture), which is still in use today. Despite his essential achievement as an enslaved person, Edmond didn’t receive payment or recognition for his contribution to science, eventually dying in poverty after being freed from slavery in 1848. Today, it is recognized that Edmond’s method of pollination was key to bringing vanilla to the world, helping to create a billion-dollar industry and giving us the flavour we love to use in cooking, baking, medicine, and, of course, ice cream.
Junko Tabei dreamed of a life climbing mountains. But men refused to climb with her. Sponsors told her to stay home. And gloves were not made to fit her hands. Junko, eager and unstoppable, wouldn’t let these obstacles get in her way. Instead, she planned an expedition to summit Mount Everest with an all-women team. Battling icy peaks, deep crevasses, and even an avalanche, Junko refused to give up. She climbed step by step… up, up, ever up! After summiting the world’s tallest peak, Junko took on a new challenge: protecting the wild spaces she loved for future generations. This gorgeously illustrated celebration of a trailblazing climber who shattered gender stereotypes invites us to dare to reach our dreams—no matter how big.
A new look into a unique part of the natural world from the series that includes Buzz About Bees, Lowdown on Earthworms and Bite Into Bloodsuckers.
Co-authors Kari-Lynn Winters and Catherine Rondina delve into the world of zombies, the popular creatures of film and television. Along the way, they discover many examples of natural zombies in the real world, from amber snails and carpenter ants to foot fungus, wood ticks and tardigrades.
Zoom in on Zombies helps young readers identify “zombies” in the world around us, using quizzes, activities, fun sidebars, and humorous trivia and stories.