The Merit Birds

2015 Dewey Divas Pick
2016 Booklist Top Ten Multicultural Fiction List, Youth Spotlight

Cam is finally settling into his new life in Laos when tragedy strikes and he’s wrongfully accused of murder.

Eighteen-year-old Cam Scott is angry. He’s angry about his absent dad, he’s angry about being angry, and he’s angry that he has had to give up his Ottawa basketball team to follow his mom to her new job in Vientiane, Laos. However, Cam’s anger begins to melt under the Southeast Asian sun as he finds friendship with his neighbour, Somchai, and gradually falls in love with Nok, who teaches him about building merit, or karma, by doing good deeds, such as purchasing caged “merit birds.”

Tragedy strikes and Cam finds himself falsely accused of a crime. His freedom depends on a person he’s never met. A person who knows that the only way to restore his merit is to confess. The Merit Birds blends action, suspense, and humour in a far-off land where things seem so different, yet deep down are so much the same.

Kelley Powell has worked at a home for impoverished women and children in India, researched domestic violence in Laos, and served in the Canadian government's family violence prevention unit. She lives in Ottawa.