• Age: 14 to 18
• Grade: 9

On Resource Link's Best of 2008" List

On the Cooperative Children's Book Center Best-of-the-Year list for 2009

Canadian Children's Book Centre Our Choice, 2009 "Starred Choice

Ontario Library Association's Golden Oak Award nominee

OLA's Red Maple nominee 2010

Deborah Ellis's first collection of short stories explores the lives of children who have been affected directly, or indirectly, by drugs. Sometimes touching and often surprising, the stories are set against backdrops as diverse as the remote north and small town America to Moscow's Red Square and an opium farm in Afghanistan.

This is an unforgettable collection of stories that will elicit discussions about the toll drugs take on the lives of teenagers and their families.

Deborah Ellis is the internationally acclaimed author of more than twenty books for children, including The Breadwinner Trilogy; The Heaven Shop; Lunch With Lenin; Children of War: Voices of Iraqi Refugees; and Our Stories, Our Songs: African Children Talk About AIDS. She has won many national and international awards for her books, including the Governor General’s Award, the Vicky Metcalf Award, Sweden’s Peter Pan Prize, the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award, and the Children’s Africana Book Award Honor Book for Older Readers.Deborah knew she wanted to be a writer at the age of 11 or 12. Growing up in Paris, Ontario, she loved reading about big cities like New York. In high school, Deborah joined the Peace Movement, playing anti-Nuclear War movies at her school. Since then Deborah has become a peace activist, humanitarian and philanthropist, donating almost all of the royalties from her books to communities in need in Asia and Africa. Heavily involved with Women for Women in Afghanistan, Deborah has helped build women’s centers and schools, giving children education and finding work for women.In 2006, Deborah was named to the Order of Ontario. She now lives in Simcoe, Ontario.

Deborah Ellis' profile page

"Ellis's first collection of short stories for YAs exhibits the same fine writing quality that readers have come to expect from her. As occurs in the majority of her books, Ellis addresses a social concern, this time drugs and addictions, but she does so without engaging in any preaching or making of overt value judgements. Instead, she just lets readers draw their own conclusions from the stories' happenings.
Highly recommended."
— CM Magazine

"Lunch with Lenin, is a powerful and skillfully executed collection of short stories about the impact of drugs, alcohol, and addiction on the lives of young people. . . This collection is guaranteed to provoke discussion and debate among those who do read it, particularly at the junior high and early high school level, and is likely to attract teachers looking for accessible and interesting classroom reading."
— Quill & Quire

"The stories themselves are uniformly readable, and their subject is undeniably timely and urgently important."
— Booklist

"The variety of characters, settings, and perspectives make this a quality collection."
— School Library Journal

"Fabulous work.. ."
— The Hamilton Spectator

"In her first book of short stories, she lives up to her very fine reputation as a writer of thoughtful, current, and compelling fiction. Each [story is perfect for opening a discussion on issues that will resonate with many of the adolescent readers� be sure to include it in your list of books to share in your middle years or high school classroom, or with your teenager�. Thank You, Deborah Ellis for sharing your stories with us!"
— The Brandon Sun

"Deborah Ellis has written a marvelous collection of ten short stories presenting realistic and relevant problems to teenage readers. Her stories show how courageous individuals make difficult choices in a confusing and often dangerous world. One of the most powerful messages in the entire collection of stories is found in the words of Ms. Greer, a history teacher, "Stories� That's really all we leave behind us. Good stories and bad stories. Sometimes, we get to choose." (p. 147) Teenage readers will definitely choose these stories.
Rating: E - Excellent"
— Resource Links

Lunch with Lenin and Other Stories