Frost by Nicole Luiken

I was immediately drawn into this story. Kathy has her arms around Johnny as they speed through cold air on a snowmobile. But who is speaking inside Johnny's head? "You know what you have to do." What does Johnny have to do?

The setting is Iqaluit. Something is wrong with Johnny, a star hockey player and one of the most popular guys in school. He is behaving so strangely. His friends and his brother try to understand and help. But what can they do against Frost, a supernatural power older than humankind?

Wow! I'm so glad that some teenager suggested this title as one of the 10 to be chosen for next year's Teen Survivor Online Summer Reading Club. A colleague and I were sifting through the 130 or so titles that were nominated and neither of us was familiar with this one. I think it will make a fine contender. I'm also pleased to have an Edmonton author on the list.

There was a line from Johnny's Inuit ex-girlfriend that jolted me. Cheryl was telling him about a bird she'd seen that "made her think of her dead baby sister, and how in the old tales dead souls lived for a time in animal bodies before being reborn human." I was just reading Helen Frost's Diamond Willow yesterday, and in that book a baby sister (and other people) have animal form. I love these sorts of connections between books.