All the Canadian books we're excited about in the first half of 2025
Looking for your next read? Check out the Canadian fiction, nonfiction, poetry, comics and children's books to read in the first half of the year.
If you're interested in poetry, the 2025 CBC Poetry Prize is currently accepting submissions. You can submit an original, unpublished poem or collection of poems from April 1-June 1.
Canadian fiction
Our top pick: The Book of Records by Madeleine Thien
In The Book of Records, Lina grows up in "The Sea," a building that serves as a home for migrants from all over the world, while caring for her sick father. She forms friendships with her fascinating neighbours, including a Jewish scholar exiled for his radical views and a poet from the Tang Dynasty, whose stories captivate her. However, her seemingly perfect life takes a startling turn when her father reveals the true reason they came to live at "The Sea."
When you can read it: May 6, 2025.
Madeleine Thien is a short story writer and novelist. She is the author of novel Do Not Say We Have Nothing, which won the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Governor General's Award in 2016 and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.
Canadian nonfiction
Our top pick: One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This marks Egyptian Canadian journalist and writer Omar El Akkad's nonfiction debut. In the fall of 2023, shortly after the bombardment of Gaza, he posted on social media a statement: "One day, when it's safe, when there's no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it's too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this."
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This expands on his powerful social media message and chronicles his thoughts on the fragile nature of truth, justice, privilege and morality.
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This is out now.
El Akkad is a Canadian journalist and author who currently lives in Portland, Ore. His novel American War, which was defended on Canada Reads 2018 by actor Tahmoh Penikett., and his novel What Strange Paradise won the 2021 Scotiabank Giller Prize and was defended on Canada Reads 2022 by Tareq Hadhad.
Canadian poetry
Our top pick: Unravel by Tolu Oloruntoba
In the poetry collection Unravel, Nigerian Canadian poet Tolu Oloruntoba reflects on themes of identity, belonging and agency by way of poems that fundamentally delve into what it means to be human in today's world.
Unravel is out now.
Oloruntoba is a writer from Nigeria who now lives in Alberta. He is the founder of the literary magazine Klorofyl. Oloruntoba won the 2021 Governor General's Literary Award for poetry for his debut collection The Junta of Happenstance.
Canadian comics
Our top pick: Muybridge by Guy Delisle
In 1870s Sacramento, photographer Eadweard Muybridge takes on a challenge from railroad tycoon Leland Stanford — to prove whether a horse's hooves ever leave the ground while galloping. In the process, Muybridge unknowingly pioneers time-lapse photography, laying the foundation for motion pictures as we know them.
Despite his groundbreaking discoveries, his life is marked by betrayal, intrigue and tragedy. Acclaimed cartoonist Guy Delisle captures the highs and lows of Muybridge's career, bringing his story to life with sharp detail and emotional depth.
Muybridge is out now.
Guy Delisle is an critically-acclaimed cartoonist originally from Québec City. His books include Burma Chronicles, Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City, Pyongyang, and Shenzhen.
Canadian YA
Our top pick: The Queen's Spade by Sarah Raughley
Inspired by real-life historical drama, The Queen's Spade is a novel about Queen Victoria's young African goddaughter, Sarah Bonetta Forbes, also known as Sally. In 1862, Sally is set one taking down the colonial system of Britain ruled by her godmother. As a former princess of the Egbado Clan, Sally resents the politics of court that have sought to take away her power and so she grows closer to the Queen's inner circle in a plot to dismantle it.
The Queen's Spade is out now.
Sarah Raughley is a fantasy novelist from Southern Ontario. Her YA Effigies series includes Fate of Flames, Siege of Shadows and Legacy of Light. Raughley was the 2022 judge for CBC's student writing challenge, The First Page.
LISTEN | Sarah Raughley talks The Bones of Ruin:
Canadian middle-grade
Our top pick: Something's Up with Arlo by Matteo L. Cerilli
In the middle-grade novel Something's Up with Arlo, 12-year-old Nero's best friend is a ghost called Arlo. Nero has relied on Arlo to look out for her — especially when the kids at school aren't being kind to her and her parents don't seem to notice. But when Nero is moved to a prestigious private school and is given the chance to 'start over' something weird and unsettling happens with Arlo, and Nero worries that her best friend is transforming into something scary.
Something's Up with Arlo is for ages 8 to 12 and is out now.
Matteo L. Cerilli is a transmasc writer and activist from Toronto. He is the author of the YA horror novel, Lockjaw. Something's Up with Arlo is his first novel for middle-grade readers.
Canadian picture books
Our top pick: The Bear Out There by Jess Hannigan
In The Bear Out There, the reader is invited into a cabin in the woods, by the book's young narrator, to escape from a bear. In this charming and fun picture book, we soon realize that our narrator might not be entirely reliable. And everything changes when a bear does in fact turn up.
The Bear Out There is for ages 4 to 8.
The Bear Out There is available now.
Jess Hannigan is writer and illustrator from Hamilton, Ont. Her debut picture book was Spider in the Well. She has also illustrated for publications such as the New York Times, Readers Digest Canada, the Washington Post.
