Little Miss Sunshine meets Room in this quirky, heartwarming story of friendship, loyalty and discovery.
It's Newfoundland, 1986. Fourteen-year-old Bun O'Keefe has lived a solitary life in an unsafe, unsanitary house. Her mother is a compulsive hoarder, and Bun has had little contact with the outside world. What she's learned about life comes from the random books and old VHS tapes that she finds in the boxes and bags her mother brings home. Bun and her mother rarely talk, so when Bun's mother tells Bun to leave one day, she does. Hitchhiking out of town, Bun ends up on the streets of St. John's, Newfoundland. Fortunately, the first person she meets is Busker Boy, a street musician who senses her naivety and takes her in. Together they live in a house with an eclectic cast of characters: Chef, a hotel dishwasher with culinary dreams; Cher, a drag queen with a tragic past; Big Eyes, a Catholic school girl desperately trying to reinvent herself; and The Landlord, a man who Bun is told to avoid at all cost. Through her experiences with her new roommates, and their sometimes tragic revelations, Bun learns that the world extends beyond the walls of her mother's house and discovers the joy of being part of a new family -- a family of friends who care.
WINNER
| 2019 White Pine Award
WINNER
| 2018 Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Awards
WINNER
| 2017 Alcuin Society Awards for Excellence in Book Design – Prose Fiction
AWARD
| 2019 YALSA Best Books for Young Adults
SHORTLIST
| 2018 Amy Mathers Teen Book Award
SELECTION
| 2018 USBBY-CBC Outstanding International Trade Book
SHORTLIST
| 2018 Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Awards
SHORTLIST
| 2018 Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People
AWARD
| 2017 Kirkus Reviews Best Teen Book
A Kirkus Reviews Best Teen Book of 2017 One of the Globe and Mail's 100 Best Books of 2017 One of Bank Street’s Best Children's Books of The Year (2017) One of Toronto Public Library’s Great Reads for Youth 2018 One of CCBC’S Best Books for Kids & Teens (2018) Selection – OLA Forest Teen Committee’s 2018 Summer Reading List One of CanLit for Little Canadians' must-read Canadian YA books
"There's an abundance of humour both subtle and overt, and a shattering of stereotypes and tropes. . . . This is a book that grabs readers by the heart and the head." --Starred Review, Quill & Quire
"Although Bun is 14, she possesses the endearing naiveté and honesty of a child, but her first-person narration isn't sappy or immature. . . . Bun O'Keefe will settle comfortably at home in readers' hearts." --Starred Review, Kirkus Reviews
"Heather Smith's second novel burns with nostalgia, wonder and sadness… a quietly profound, starkly Canadian account of being unwanted by family and society." --Globe and Mail
"Teens will truly dive into Bun’s mind and her surroundings through her understanding of the world… A nuanced, well-done novel about tough topics that deserves a place in most collections." --School Library Journal
"Smith's strength is her attention to setting details and character development. . . . Recommended." --CM: Canadian Review of Materials
HEATHER SMITH is the author of four published YA novels; three middle-grade novels, the most recent of which, Tig, has received two starred reviews and was shortlisted for the OLA Red Maple Award; and seven picture books: Angus All Aglow, A Plan for Pops, The Phone Booth in Mr. Hirota’s Garden, Slowpoke the Bell Island Mine Horse, Annie’s Cat is Sad, Waking Ben Doldrums and Granny Left Me a Rocket Ship. The books in her body of work have either won or been shortlisted for virtually every Canadian children's literature prize, and been translated into eight languages. She lives with her family in Waterloo, Ontario.
View titles by Heather Smith
Little Miss Sunshine meets Room in this quirky, heartwarming story of friendship, loyalty and discovery.
It's Newfoundland, 1986. Fourteen-year-old Bun O'Keefe has lived a solitary life in an unsafe, unsanitary house. Her mother is a compulsive hoarder, and Bun has had little contact with the outside world. What she's learned about life comes from the random books and old VHS tapes that she finds in the boxes and bags her mother brings home. Bun and her mother rarely talk, so when Bun's mother tells Bun to leave one day, she does. Hitchhiking out of town, Bun ends up on the streets of St. John's, Newfoundland. Fortunately, the first person she meets is Busker Boy, a street musician who senses her naivety and takes her in. Together they live in a house with an eclectic cast of characters: Chef, a hotel dishwasher with culinary dreams; Cher, a drag queen with a tragic past; Big Eyes, a Catholic school girl desperately trying to reinvent herself; and The Landlord, a man who Bun is told to avoid at all cost. Through her experiences with her new roommates, and their sometimes tragic revelations, Bun learns that the world extends beyond the walls of her mother's house and discovers the joy of being part of a new family -- a family of friends who care.
Awards
WINNER
| 2019 White Pine Award
WINNER
| 2018 Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Awards
WINNER
| 2017 Alcuin Society Awards for Excellence in Book Design – Prose Fiction
AWARD
| 2019 YALSA Best Books for Young Adults
SHORTLIST
| 2018 Amy Mathers Teen Book Award
SELECTION
| 2018 USBBY-CBC Outstanding International Trade Book
SHORTLIST
| 2018 Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Awards
SHORTLIST
| 2018 Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People
AWARD
| 2017 Kirkus Reviews Best Teen Book
Reviews
A Kirkus Reviews Best Teen Book of 2017 One of the Globe and Mail's 100 Best Books of 2017 One of Bank Street’s Best Children's Books of The Year (2017) One of Toronto Public Library’s Great Reads for Youth 2018 One of CCBC’S Best Books for Kids & Teens (2018) Selection – OLA Forest Teen Committee’s 2018 Summer Reading List One of CanLit for Little Canadians' must-read Canadian YA books
"There's an abundance of humour both subtle and overt, and a shattering of stereotypes and tropes. . . . This is a book that grabs readers by the heart and the head." --Starred Review, Quill & Quire
"Although Bun is 14, she possesses the endearing naiveté and honesty of a child, but her first-person narration isn't sappy or immature. . . . Bun O'Keefe will settle comfortably at home in readers' hearts." --Starred Review, Kirkus Reviews
"Heather Smith's second novel burns with nostalgia, wonder and sadness… a quietly profound, starkly Canadian account of being unwanted by family and society." --Globe and Mail
"Teens will truly dive into Bun’s mind and her surroundings through her understanding of the world… A nuanced, well-done novel about tough topics that deserves a place in most collections." --School Library Journal
"Smith's strength is her attention to setting details and character development. . . . Recommended." --CM: Canadian Review of Materials
HEATHER SMITH is the author of four published YA novels; three middle-grade novels, the most recent of which, Tig, has received two starred reviews and was shortlisted for the OLA Red Maple Award; and seven picture books: Angus All Aglow, A Plan for Pops, The Phone Booth in Mr. Hirota’s Garden, Slowpoke the Bell Island Mine Horse, Annie’s Cat is Sad, Waking Ben Doldrums and Granny Left Me a Rocket Ship. The books in her body of work have either won or been shortlisted for virtually every Canadian children's literature prize, and been translated into eight languages. She lives with her family in Waterloo, Ontario.
View titles by Heather Smith
