• Age: 10 to 17
• Grade: 7 to 12
• Reading age: 10 to 17

Everyone likes Wheels at Degrassihe plays in a rock band with his buddies Joey and Snake and thinks about being a musician full-time, like his birth father.
But Wheels's life slams to a halt when his parents are killed in a car accident. He fights with his best friend, hangs around downtown with rough street kids, and gets into serious trouble with the law. Still his friends refuse to desert him, and Wheels learns he can count on the people around him when he really needs them.
Based on the groundbreaking Degrassi Junior High television series, this book offers a sensitive and engaging look at the challenges of teenage life.

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