Lesley Choyce

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Lesley Choyce's Latest Book

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  • Bibliography:
    71 Books
  • First Book:
    October 1984
  • Latest Book:
    October 2023
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Book List in Order: 71 titles

  • Billy Botzweiler's Last Dance and Other Stories

  • Wave Watch

    Randy surfs the waves in April off his Lawrencetown, Nova Scotia home, dodging the ice pans and swimming with the seals. In fact he surfs year-round-in August and in February-and gets up before the sun to do it. Come summer, though, Lawrencetown Beac...

  • Magnificent Obsessions

    • / General Fiction
    • Buy Buy

  • The Ecstasy Conspiracy

    This literary whodunit pulls us into the world of American expatriate novelist Richard DeMille as he attempts to break the hold of his longtime friend and publisher Damien Carlyle. Now teaching at a quiet Nova Scotia university in addition to writing...

  • Skateboard Shakedown

    Gary Sutherland sits between two cops, busted for skateboarding on private property--as if there was anywhere else to skate. Gary and his friends pretty much live on their boards, so the harder the trick or the more outrageous the venue, the better t...

  • Second Season of Jonas McPherson

    Set on the East Coast, and focusing on sixty-nine year old Jonas, this novel reflects the title character’s energy, rage and humour as he looks upon his world, past and present, and is filled with memorable characters, adventures, and a perv...

  • Clearcut Danger

    The company proposing to build a new pulp and paper mill in East Harbour, Nova Scotia, claims it will bring a backward community into the twenty-first century. Ryan Cooper believes them--he thinks it'll bring badly needed jobs to the town and keep pe...

  • Wrong Time, Wrong Place

    Corey's told over and over in a hundred different ways where he doesn't belong. What's worse, he doesn't know where he belongs himself: his mother's black and his father's white; his mother thinks he should hang out with white kids; his girlfriend du...

  • Wrong Time Wrong Place



  • Falling Through the Cracks

    Melanie and Trent are fighters. They fight to hold their dead-end jobs and stay in school at the same time. They fight to stay off the streets, fight against a welfare system that is worse than useless for them. They fight to stay together. When they...

  • Go For It, Carrie

    Carrie wants to rollerblade, to zoom down the sidewalk at a hundred kilometres an hour. Her big brother Ernie says it isn't going to happen, that she's too young to do it. But her friend Gregory, a new kid in school with Down's syndrome, inspires her...

  • Trapdoor to Heaven

  • Trapdoor to Heaven: New Fiction

  • Good Idea Gone Bad

    A timely novel about high school rock bands and teen violence.

    Mick is a tough guy who likes playing the drums having a bad attitude. When he meets Darianna, he starts to realize there's more to life than beating up on people who are different....

  • Carrie's Crowd

    Carrie dreams about being a singer and starring in music videos. She dreams about being a kid that everybody likes, especially cool kids like Giselle and Kirsten with their cool clothes, their cool music, their saucy attitude. Tired of being called a...

  • World Enough

    When their farm gets expropriated to make way for the Point Lepreau nuclear power plant, Alexander McNab and his family move to Saint John. Without the magic of the Bay of Fundy, without the bright companionship of his little sister, Alex grows up...

  • Roid Rage

    Craig has finally made first string on the high school football team and is looking forward to the season ahead. But suddenly his best friend Ray is surpassing him and everyone else on the football field. When Craig learns his friend is on steroids, ...

  • Summer of Apartment X

    Lesley Choyce's novella The Summer of Apartment X is a beach book for grownups who remember how they got that way. Fred Winger and his two buddies, Richard and Brian, intend to take the beach resort town by storm. It's the fateful summer between high...

  • Far Enough Island

    Sarah's family has had a streak of bad luck. Her father is a fisherman and the fish have disappeared. Her mother is worried all the time. It seems that nothing is going right for her family. Sarah's best friend is her dog, Jeremiah, who came into her...



  • Carrie's Camping Adventure

    Carrie and her best friend Laura read about the Amazon rainforest-the monkeys, snakes and tarantulas-and decide they need to go to the wilderness themselves. Carrie's mom isn't keen to go camping, but changes her mind when Carrie offers to organize t...

  • Refuge Cove

    Greg is an avid sailor. On a solo trip off the rugged Newfoundland coast, he stumbles upon a family of desperate refugees stranded in a lifeboat. Fearing for their lives if they are deported to their homeland, the family convinces Greg to help them, ...

  • Shoulder the Sky

    Winner of the 2003 Ann Connor Brimer Award, short-listed for the 2004 White Pine Award Martin Emerson's family, friends, and even his therapist have trouble figuring him out. He never showed much of a reaction to the death of his mother, and his beha...

  • Sea of Tranquility

    For Sylvie, Ragged Island - and the whales who swam around it - is the only world she has ever known. It is the place where she was born and raised, where she lived with her four late husbands, and where she plans to live out her remaining years.It i...

  • William Lyon MacKenzie King

    For Sylvie, Ragged Island - and the whales who swam around it - is the only world she has ever known. It is the place where she was born and raised, where she lived with her four late husbands, and where she plans to live out her remaining years.<...

  • Carrie Loses Her Nerve

    Carrie has made a demo tape and wants to sing in her brother's band at an outdoor festival. Ernie lets her sing one song. Full of confidence from her first public performance, Carrie goes off to her first day of school. All her friends are in another...

  • Smoke and Mirrors

    Short-listed for the 2005 CLA Young Adult Canadian Book Award Sixteen-year-old Simon has always been considered odd. Three years ago, a skateboarding accident caused some minor brain damage and made him a little stranger. His career-driven parents mo...

  • Thunderbowl

    Jeremy's band is hot--really hot. Thunderbowl is on the way up and they have had their first big break--a long-term gig at a local bar. The only problem is that while Jeremy should be doing his homework and keeping up in school, he is spending most n...

  • Sudden Impact

    When Kurt is hurt in a soccer game and ends up in the hospital Tina tries to help him, but nobody will tell her what is wrong.Even Kurt's parents don't want her around. Tina learns that Kurt needs a donor with a rare blood type, and she finds a match...

  • Deconstructing Dylan

    The year is 2014. Dylan Gibson is 16 and knows there is something unusual about him, but he doesn't know what - aside from his fascination for things like insects, opera, old Japanese sci-fi movies, playing the didgeridoo, and the Loch Ness monster. ...



  • The Republic of Nothing

    Winner, Dartmouth Book AwardShortlisted, Atlantic Booksellers Choice AwardA small Canadian island declares its independence to the world and benign anarchy reigns. A god-like ocean deposits many a thing, yet it also takes away. The 1960s blaze off sh...

  • Skunks for Breakfast

    Everyone knows there are no skunks in Nova Scotia...Right? Well, that's what Pamela thinks, until she wakes up one morning to a terrible smell.

    Now Pamela stinks, her father stinks, her sister stinks, and her mother stinks. Soon her life s...

  • Wave Warrior

    Ben is determined to learn to surf. In the rough North Atlantic waters near his home, only the tough can make it on the water. His first attempt is a disaster. Then he meets Ray, a surfing veteran from California. Ray promises to teach him to surf --...

  • The End of the World as We Know It

    ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Awards finalist (Juvenile Fiction category), 2007

    Alberta Children's/Young Adult Book of the Year Nominee, 2008

    White Pine nominee, 2008

    CCBC's Best Books for Kids and Teens, 2008

    ...

  • Book of Michael

    Michael Grove was sixteen years old when he was convicted for the murder of Lisa Conroy, the girlfriend he loved very much. The circumstances surrounding her final hours attract considerable media attention, especially because Michael and Lisa had se...

  • Skate Freak

    Dorf is all about skateboarding and so far that's worked out fine.But now that he's in a new city, the terrain has changed. He's no longer free to skateboard where he wishes, school is more difficult, and his passion for skateboarding garners him the...

  • Hell's Hotel

    Tara's life in Halifax is about as good as it gets―she gets top marks in her class, her parents are cool, she has a good part-time job, her boyfriend Ron edits an alternative paper. Her life is especially good compared to her friend Janet's. Ja...

  • Running the Risk

    After being the victim of an armed robbery, Sean should be terrified but he isn't. He finds he likes the rush that comes from danger and tries to recreate the feeling. But when his risktaking leads him to some of the worst parts of town and he fi...

  • Last Chance

    The odds are stacked against Melanie and Trent, who are trying to stay in high school while holding down part-time jobs to survive. They can't live at home, and they canít rely on the social support system. They're going to have to help each other i...

  • Reaction

    Zach and Ashley have been going out for a while, and things are going well--until Ashley finds out she is pregnant. She is angry and blames Zach. She wouldn't be in this state if he hadn't been so careless. Insistent at first on an abortion, she turn...



  • Reckless

    Josh knows he's riding recklessly when he knocks down the old man he suspects is the hermit of Loggerman Creek. But he is shocked when the hermit walks into the forest with his bike after the accident. Being without his beloved bike for a week motiva...

  • Living Outside the Lines

    Nigel is a 16-year-old high school student who writes a class assignment about a world in which teenagers become the leading actors in society, politically, economically, socially and medically. Unexpectedly, a publisher expresses interest, the b...

  • Random

    Selected as 2011 White Ravens Title "If you think life makes sense, do not read this book." It's this credo that sixteen-year-old Joe Campbell lives by. You see, his birth parents were killed in a car accident, and four years later he's still tryin...

  • Gone Bad

    Cody and his friends call it street cleaning―four of them beating up on one guy they don't like the looks of. Cody partakes in the action, even though he'd rather be taking out his aggression on his drum kit. A drummer without a band is one lost...

  • Raising Orion

    Raising Orion tells the tale of an eccentric, timeless woman, Molly, a second-hand bookshop owner, and her childhood as the daughter of the last lighthouse keeper of Devil's Island at the mouth of the Halifax Harbour. At its core, Raising Orion is a ...

  • Cold Clear Morning

    Taylor Colby grew up in the tiny Nova Scotia fishing village of Nickerson Harbour, but his guitar-playing skill led him to become a much sought-after studio musician in Los Angeles. Along with him went Laura, his childhood sweetheart and soulmate. In...

  • Dumb Luck

    As he approaches his 18th birthday, Brandon DeWolf knows he is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. He failed a grade in an undistinguished school career, and is contemplating spending two more years in school when most of his friends will be gradua...

  • Breaking Point

    Cameron has been in trouble with the law more than once for breaking and entering. After his latest conviction, he's sent to an outdoors program for young offenders rather than a standard juvenile detention facility. There he meets Brianna, a girl wh...

  • Rat

    Colin is tired of school bullies and other students' refusal to speak up or "rat" on the real troublemakers. When Colin does speak out against a couple of school thugs, they post an embarrassing photo of him on a social networking website. Colin make...

  • Crash

    Just when sixteen-year-old Cameron thinks he's going to straighten out his troubled life, his parents break up and he ends up living on the street with his dog, Ozzie. He meets a girl named Mackenzie, who has been sleeping in a pup tent in the park. ...



  • Jeremy Stone

    Jeremy Stone, the new young adult novel from acclaimed author Lesley Choyce, is told in free verse format. After moving from a residential school to a new school in a new community, Jeremy, a First Nations teenage boy is trying to find out where he ...

  • Dance the Rocks Ashore

    Lesley Choyce writes rings around most Canadian authors. And in this collection, we have choice Choyce.Dance the Rocks Ashore contains substantial stories including "Dance the Rocks Ashore," a bittersweet account of an elderly couple's decl...

  • Into the Wasteland

    Dixon Carter wants to share his life manifesto. Don't worry -- there won't be any violence. Dixon doesn't believe in violence. But Dixon is seeing things differently. He has gone off his meds -- the drugs deaden him to the world. He i...

  • Off the Grid

    Sixteen-year-old Cody was born and raised "off the grid" deep in the wilderness by idealistic parents. When his father becomes seriously ill, the family is forced to move into the city so he can get treatment. Attending high school for the first time...

  • Scam

    Josh’s mother always had issues -- with drugs and just getting by. And Josh has always been the one who kept them together. But when his mom dies, he really is on his own and must find a way to look after himself. On his way to his mother’s funer...

  • Closing Down Heaven

    In this whimsical free-verse novel, young Hunter quite literally propels himself out of this world and into the next after pushing his bike just a little too far. In fact, he flies right off a cliff only to awaken in a place called Heaven. Here h...

  • Identify

    Ethan is an anxiety-ridden loner who relies on medication to get through his day. During one of his fairly frequent panic attacks, a girl from school named Gabriella comes to his rescue. Gabe, as she prefers to be known, is facing her own inner turmo...

  • The Unlikely Redemption of John Alexander MacNeil

    Shortlisted for the 2017 Jim Connors Dartmouth Book Award!

    John Alexander MacNeil is eighty years old. Sharp-tongued and quick-witted, he lives alone in rural Cape Breton, but he still cooks breakfast for his wife, who’s been dead for thirty...

  • The Mi'kmaq Anthology

    A varied and spirited collection of work by the Mi’kmaq writers of Atlantic Canada, this volume brings together young and old and includes short stories, autobiography, poetry and personal essays. Valuable as a landmark of an ancient culture, The M...

  • Nova Scotia Love Stories

    In Nova Scotia Love Stories, Lesley Choyce has assembled some of the province’s most beloved authors who explore through fact and fiction the myriad ways in which a love story exists. These writers with a strong emotional connection to this shaped-...

  • Thin Places

    A dazzling story told in verse of sixteen-year-old Declan Lynch and the girl whose centuries-old voice rings in his head. One day, Declan Lynch, a restless teenager, starts hearing a girl’s voice inside his head. Eventually, he even begins to see h...

  • Plank's Law

    Trevor has known since he was ten years old that he has Huntington's disease, but at sixteen he is informed that he has one year to live. One day while he's trying to figure stuff out, an old man named Plank finds him standing at a cliff by the ocean...

  • Kryptonite

    Jackson knows how to get what he wants. Whether it's sweet-talking his friends into buying lunch or convincing teachers to give him extensions, he feels entitled to take whatever he wants -- even a day off school or a new pair of shoes. Now he's set ...

  • The Thing You're Good At

    Jake's friend Maria is the daughter of undocumented immigrants who have been living and working in the country for a long time. But the new government has implemented a crackdown. Maria's parents are detained and quickly sent out of the country. Mari...

  • Broken Man on a Halifax Pier

    SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2021 EVERGREEN AWARDA tale of one man’s shipwrecked life and an unlikely crew of rescuers. Fifty-five-year-old Charles Howard has lost his long-time journalism job and has been swindled out of his life savings. Standing by the e...

  • The Ledge

    Nick was used to being good at everything. Hockey, football, track, they all came easy to him. Surfing was his latest passion. That is, until the accident.  Now partially paralyzed, Nick is angry, depressed and getting far too fond of his presc...

  • Sid the Kid and the Dryer

    Milton the washing machine and W. P. (Whirlpool) the dryer are being delivered to a new home in Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia. The pair are excited to start their new jobs in the Crosby home, and are just getting settled in to the basement when “the ki...

  • Notes on Everything Under the Nova Scotia Sun

  • The Rules Have Changed

    Key Selling Points  In The Rules Have Changed, a teenage boy is shocked to learn that a lot has changed in the three years he’s been away. The book is set in a modern not-as-dystopian-as-one-might-think North American high school and...

  • Face the Music

    Tyler and Mason dream of escaping to the big city and getting started on their lives.One night, Mason convinces Tyler to help him steal a car and they are soon having the adventure of a lifetime. Until they run out of gas. Stranded on the side of the...

  • High Water Mark

    High Water Mark is an anthology of short fiction from some of the finest writers of Atlantic Canada over the last forty years. Included are writers from various communities throughout the region and stories that reflect a wide range of writing talent...

  • The Untimely Resurrection of John Alexander MacNeil

    John Alexander MacNeil is back with another astonishing adventure. The ninety-year-old still lives alone on the blessed isle of Cape Breton. He still sometimes makes tea for his wife, who died decades ago. He accepts his lonely life, ignoring the wor...

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Lesley Choyce has published 71 books.

Lesley Choyce does not have a new book coming out soon. The latest book, The Untimely Resurrection of John Alexander MacNeil, was published in October 2023.

The first book by Lesley Choyce, Billy Botzweiler's Last Dance and Other Stories, was published in October 1984.

No. Lesley Choyce does not write books in series.
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