Iz the Apocalypse
Emily and Sam
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Susan Currie
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A spark ignites inside fourteen-year-old Iz Beaufort when she hears school music group Manifesto perform. Even though she hasn’t written a song since That Place, she recognizes herself in the moving performance and longs to be part of the group, certain that they might actually understand her.
But Manifesto is based at the prestigious Métier School, and Iz has bounced through twenty-six foster homes. Plus, there’s no way Dominion Children’s Care would ever send a foster kid to a private school when a public option is available. So Iz does what any passionate, broken, off-the-chart wunderkind might and takes matters into her own hands.
Iz fakes her way in only to face a new set of challenges: tuition fees, tough classwork, and new classmates she can’t immediately identify as friends or foes. And if she can’t handle all this while keeping how she got into Métier a secret, she’ll risk getting kicked out of both school and her current home.
But a life with music—a life where Iz gets to have a voice—might be worth risking everything.
A Forest of Reading White Pine Award Nominee
A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
A BookLife Editor's Pick
Listed in CBC Books' "25 Canadian YA books to read in fall 2023" and Quill & Quires "2023 Fall Preview: Young Adult and Nonfiction"
Praise:
"A compassionate, character-driven story that will particularly resonate with music lovers." – Kirkus Reviews
"Its descriptions of music ... are beautiful, feeding into sentences that flow like music themselves, with visceral and embodied images. Music—as an art, a study, and a form of expression—is treated with profound care." – Foreword Reviews
"An endearing musical story beautifully spun out in words" – Booklife
"Iz is very well-developed and accurately reflects the life of a child in care." – CM: Canadian Review of Materials
"A highly readable, affecting story of an exceptional young teen, centred around music and second chances." – Quill and Quire
About the Author:
Susan Currie is an elementary teacher in Brampton, Ontario (22 years and counting). Before she entered the public school system, she earned a living as an accompanist, pit musician, music director, choir director, organist, dinner musician, leader of various music programs for children, and piano teacher. She has written two other books—Basket of Beethoven (Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 2001) and The Mask That Sang (Second Story Press, 2016). Susan is an adoptee
who was in the foster care system briefly as a baby, and only learned of her Haudenosaunee heritage (Cayuga Nation, Turtle Clan) as an adult. She is happily married to John and has a wonderful daughter named Rachel.
About the Illustrator:
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