• Age: 12 to 18
• Grade: 7 to 12

From Governor General's Literary Award--winning author Susin Nielsen comes a funny and heartfelt story about learning how to rise above your most embarrassing moment with humor, best friends and a killer triangle solo.

We all have moments that define us. For the comically clueless Wilbur, his moment happened on the first day of middle school, when someone shared his private letter with the entire student body. It revealed some of Wilbur's innermost embarrassing thoughts that no one else should ever know.

Now it's the start of ninth grade and Wilbur hasn't been able to escape that major humiliation. His good friend Alex stuck by him, but Alex doesn't have as much time since he started dating Fabrizio. Luckily, Wil can confide in his best
friend: his elderly neighbor Sal. Also, Wil's in the school band, where he plays the triangle. They're doing an exchange program with students from Paris, and Wilbur's billet, Charlie, a tall, chic young woman who plays the ukulele and burps with abandon, captures his heart. Charlie likes him, but only as a friend. So Alex, Fabrizio and Sal host a Queer Eye-style intervention to get Wil in shape and to build his confidence so he can impress Charlie when their band visits Paris, and just maybe replace humiliation with true romance in the City of Love.

Susin Nielsen got her start feeding cast and crew on the popular television series, Degrassi Junior High. They hated her food, but they saw a spark in her writing. Nielsen went on to pen sixteen episodes of the hit TV show. Since then, Nielsen has written for over 20 Canadian TV series. Her first young adult novel, Word Nerd, was published in 2008 to critical acclaim. It won multiple Young Readers’ Choice Awards, as did her second novel, Dear George Clooney: Please Marry My Mom. Her third novel, The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen, was published in August 2012. It went on to win the Governor General’s Literary Award, the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Award, the Canadian Library Association’s Children’s Book of the Year Award, and a number of Young Readers’ Choice Awards. Author Wally Lamb named it his top YA pick for 2012 in his “First Annual Wally Awards,” and recently Rolling Stone magazine put it at #27 in their list of “Top 40 Best YA Novels.” Her books have been translated into multiple languages. Susin’s new novel, We Are All Made of Molecules, will be published in Canada, the US and the UK in Spring of 2015. She lives in Vancouver with her family and two naughty cats.

Susin Nielsen's profile page

• Winner, Manitoba Young Readers' Choice Awards (MYRCA) - Northern Lights Award
• Winner, National Chapter IODE Violet Downey Award
• Nominated, Red Maple Award
• Short-listed, Oklahoma Sequoyah Young Adult Book Award
• Nominated, Carnegie Medal
• Short-listed, Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Awards

One of CCBC’s Best Books for Kids and Teens, Fall 2021 — Starred Pick
A Canadian Children's Book Centre Favourite Book of the Year (2021)

“Nielsen presents a realistic teen experience with raw emotions. A heartwarming addition for collections looking for titles with fewer than 200 pages.” —School Library Journal
“Written in first person, the novel is humorous and well-paced with a truly great, heartwarming ending. Highly Recommended.” —CM Reviews
“. . . Worthy of reading by thoughtful and mature teens and pre-teens.” —Winnipeg Free Press