Overview

Set in 1983, at the height of Canada's abortion debate, this powerful, nuanced YA novel follows fifteen-year-old Leesa as she grapples with an unplanned pregnancy. At fifteen, Leesa is preoccupied with friends, crushes, and schoolwork and looking forward to the freedom of earning her own money and learning to drive. Although she doesn't think much about politics, she has marched alongside her mother and friend Jenny, protesting the planned opening of an abortion clinic in her city. In her traditional, close-knit community, abortion feels like a black-and-white issue, with little connection to her real life. But after she is raped at a party, Leesa's life suddenly merges with the headlines of the day. Now she is the one dealing with an unplanned pregnancy, and everything she ever believed is turned upside down. As she struggles to make a decision that could determine her whole future, Leesa comes to realize that she is only one who should have the right to make a choice about her own body. But will opening up to her family and friends mean losing them forever?

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9781772035537

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Harriet Zaidman is an award-winning writer who applies extensive research to find the voice and detail necessary to animate her novels. She has always been interested in how important historical events impacted people and how we can learn from these experiences. Her middle-grade novel City on Strike was set during the turbulent times of the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919. Second Chances, written for young adults and recipient of the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People, tells the story of young people stricken during the polio epidemics of the 1950s. A former teacher-librarian, Harriet lives in Winnipeg and is the children's book columnist for Winnipeg Free Press.

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