• Age: 12 to 15
• Grade: 7 to 10
• Reading age: 12 to 15

2012 Manitoba Young Reader’s Choice Award — Shortlisted
2010 Cybils Award — Shortlisted

A Victorian garden, a fishing lure, and a ghost named John
Absolutely nothing is going right for Max Green. His parents have just uprooted their family from Vancouver to the bleak suburbs of Toronto, he has no friends, and everybody at his new high school is ignoring him. To make matters worse, he’s in love with an older girl who’s completely out of his league.
When Max discovers a local library rumoured to be haunted by ghosts, he’s immediately drawn to it. With the help of some cryptic messages, he begins to piece together the identity of the teenage ghost and the mysterious chain of events that have connected its spirit to the building for more than a century. But just who was John, anyway? Why has he chosen to contact Max? And what does an old fishing lure have to do with solving the mystery?

Cynthia Phillips' profile page

Deborah Kerbel is the author of the teen novels Mackenzie, Lost and Found and Girl on the Other Side, which was nominated for the 2010 Canadian Library Association Young Adult Book Award. She is also the co-author of the Quizmas series of family Christmas trivia books. Born in London, England, Deborah now lives and writes in Thornhill, Ontario.

This story will chill a skeleton of even a toughest adolescent!

The Elliot Review

Lure is a little gem. Looking for a shorter book to read that still packs a punch? Lure is your book.

The Bodacious Pen

The more I flipped the pages, the more I fell in love with the style and layers of the book.

Mrs. V's Reviews

Deborah Kerbels novel Lure is steeped in the stuff that makes up a good urban legend: a mystery with a twist at the end, an unsolved local murder, and a ghost story where the ghost tells of his own demise.

Canadian Childrens book News

Demonstrating her skill as a writer, Kerbel is able to create two unique voices that combine to narrate the novel in a cohesive manner. Canadian readers, especially adolescents in the Greater Toronto Area, will be drawn to this true ghost story set in their own backyards.

Canadian Materials Magazine