• Age: 14 to 18
• Grade: 9 to 12

A young adult novel about inner-city teens who live on a razor's edge and understand that chosen family is just as important as blood

Michie and her best friend, Trissa, grew up like sisters in a ramshackle duplex owned by their single moms. But now that they're sixteen, their differences in identity and experience have caused a rift. Michie's an introvert obsessed with a book called A Girl's Guide to Murder. Shiny, extroverted Trissa, on the other hand, dances at the hottest nightclub in town.

One night, Michie wakes up to find Trissa missing, having left only a cryptic note. The cops write her off as a party girl who's probably already met a foul end, and the mothers fall apart from fear and grief, but Michie refuses to believe it. Enlisting help from her friend Anwar, who she's been in love with forever, Michie sets off to look for Trissa, knowing she's the only one who will. The search takes them into unfamiliar, dangerous territory: the backrooms of Trissa's luxury nightclub, dark alleyways, the online sex industry, and rural cottage country.

As she begins to unravel Trissa's secrets against a backdrop of cold authority figures, shady characters, and a serial killer targeting girls in the city, Michie knows she's plunging into danger - but she's determined to find her chosen sister and to bring her home safe.

Ages 14 and up.

Emily Pohl-Weary is an award-winning author and creative writing instructor at the University of British Columbia. Her audio play, The Witch's Circle, was recently produced by Odyssey Theatre. Her books include the YA novel Not Your Ordinary Wolf Girl, Ghost Sick (winner of the Fred Cogswell Award for Excellence in Poetry), and Better to Have Loved: The Life of Judith Merril (winner of a Hugo Award). Originally from Toronto, she now lives in Vancouver.

Emily Pohl-Weary's profile page

In How to Be Found, teenagers dance on the precipitous line between childhood and adulthood, shocked by their conflicting desires for freedom and love. Emily Pohl-Weary celebrates the families that teens create for themselves and examines the value of bold, powerful, and transformative childhood friendships. This is a rich and inclusive portrait of modern adolescence and its rejection of the patriarchal idea of family. -Heather O'Neill, author of Lullabies for Little Criminals and When We Lost Our Heads

How to Be Found stands out for its memorable characters, its focus on an unbreakable relationship between two girls, well-portrayed disability representation, and sly nods to detective tropes like Nancy Drew. Fast-paced and impossible to put down. -Jes Battis, author of The Winter Knight

Emily Pohl-Weary's wonderfully entertaining novel teems with the exuberant vitality of two teen girls who - despite obstacles that are sometimes serious and at other times hilarious - insist on defining themselves on their own terms and living freely and with self-confidence. -Lawrence Hill, author of Beatrice and Croc Harry and The Book of Negroes

An endearing portrait of the power of friendship and found family, Emily Pohl-Weary's YA novel, How to Be Found, is an engaging mix of mystery and coming-of-age, set in a gritty Toronto neighbourhood. Not to be missed. -Uzma Jalaluddin, author of Much Ado About Nada and Hana Khan Carries On