Special Collections

Can Your Outfit Change the World?

What you choose to wear becomes part of your identity, but it doesn't affect just you. Your clothing sends a message to the world, whether you want it to or not! And often we don't know what that message really is. Can Your Outfit Change the World? looks at how and where clothes are made, how the people who make the clothes are treated and how the companies who sell the clothes affect the health of our planet. Armed with information, you can follow the book's guide to spending your fashion dollars in a responsible and eco-friendly way. Your outfits have more power than you might realize!

Date Added: 03/15/2018

Shark

Seventeen-year-old Mark "Shark" Hewitt is good at playing pool. Really good. When he, his mom and sister move to a new town, Mark immediately seeks out the local pool hall. He loves to play, but even more than that, he just loves hanging out with the regulars. It reminds him of good times with his dad, who is no longer in the picture. When one of the patrons notices Mark's natural gift for the game, he forces Mark to use his talent for profit. Now Mark has to find a way to get out from under this sleazeball's thumb and protect his family.

Date Added: 03/15/2018

Escalate

Team Retribution has been contacted by a teen who is being blackmailed into handing over secrets from the family business. Jace, with the help of his brother, Bentley, start to investigate and soon learn that the teen's family, like his own, is not what it appears to be. Jace, after learning he was switched at birth, then sets out to track down his birth family. The Retribution series is made up of six books, the original three, Burned, Exposed and Unleashed, and the three sequels, Terminate, Infiltrate and Escalate, by authors Natasha Deen, Judith Graves and Sigmund Brouwer.

Date Added: 03/15/2018

Big Water

Seventeen-year-old Christina McBurney has led a sheltered life. But when her twin brother, Jonathan, dies of consumption, Christina, unwilling to be farmed out as a nursemaid or teacher, runs away from home and her destiny. In Owen Sound she boards the Asia, a steamship that transports passengers and freight throughout the Great Lakes. She doesn't really have a plan other than to get to Sault Ste. Marie. She'll figure things out once she's settled.

But a violent storm suddenly rises on Georgian Bay, and the overloaded and top-heavy steamship begins to sink. Christina is tossed overboard. Pulled to safety just before she loses consciousness, she finds herself on a lifeboat, surrounded by a number of bedraggled and terrified passengers and crew. One by one they succumb to their injuries, until only Christina and a brooding young man named Daniel are left alive.

The usual rules of society no longer apply—Daniel and Christina must now work together as equals to survive.

Big Water is a fictional account of the real-life story of the only two survivors of the sinking of the SS Asia in 1882.

Date Added: 03/15/2018

Casting Lily

Fourteen-year-old Ava is thrilled when she lands a part in a play based on the true story of orphans sent to Canada in the 1800s to work on farms. But is she good enough to hold her own in a professional production? As the rehearsal pressures crank up, Ava struggles with her character, with the vocal demands of outdoor theater and with the annoying ego of her castmate Kiefer. But as she learns more about the historical Lily on which her part is based, things begin to fall into place. Then one bad decision jeopardizes Ava's chances of being able to perform on opening night.

Date Added: 03/15/2018

Murder Among the Pines

Small-town police chief Maxine "Max" Benson is just settling into her new life when her ex appears on the scene. Apparently, he and his new young lover just happen to be visiting her area on holiday. Max left her marriage and the Toronto police to become chief in Port Ainslie, where she runs a three-person department with few problems and enjoys a different pace of life. That's all about to change when Max's ex-husband is accused of killing his young lover right in Max's own backyard. It seems that only Max's superior detection abilities can save him from an almost certain conviction. This is the third book in the Maxine Benson mystery series.

Date Added: 03/15/2018

The Big Dip

Joe and his friend Skip are enjoying the thrill of the Big Dip, a famous rollercoaster, until they learn the old man in front of them has been shot. The old man mutters with his dying breath something about getting a Margaret Rose to the police. Joe leaves the crime scene to get on with his life. But someone is desperate for the Margaret Rose and thinks Joe has it. When his sister is kidnapped, Joe is in a race against time to solve the puzzle.

Date Added: 05/25/2017

Fraud Squad

When Trevor, Nick and Robyn visit the Royal Tyrrell Museum, Robyn is inspired to raise funds for a dinosaur dig that will close soon if it doesn't find funding. The kids are caught up in another mystery when a chain of suspicious events, including the disappearance of important fossils and a fraudulent discovery at the dig, leads them to wonder what's going on. Is the new visiting scientist behind the fraud, or did Robyn's enthusiasm to save the dig lead her astray?

Date Added: 05/25/2017

Hockey Night in Transcona

Cody Powell has graduated from playing pick-up hockey on the streets of Winnipeg to skating with his community club team, the Transcona Sharks. Coach Brackett is impressed with Cody's speed and stick handling ability, and promotes him to the team's first line.Unfortunately, Cody takes Stu, Coach Brackett's son's, spot. Cody is worried that coach is too hard on Stu, and that Stu has as much right to play on the first line as he does. As the pressure to win games mounts, Cody is torn between loyalty to his coach and loyalty to his friend.Hockey Night in Transcona is a story about the conflicting pressures young hockey players face in their quest to succeed.

Date Added: 05/25/2017

Suspended

Shay and his pal Toby are among the players on the school soccer team who fall foul of the "fair play contract" introduced by the new school administration.

Date Added: 05/25/2017

Ice Attack

Alex and Bill are unbeatable linemates on the Lakers hockey team: Alex is a tough grinder who sets up team captain Bill for goal after goal. When Bill's showing off becomes too much, however, Alex stops feeding him the puck. Soon, best friends become worst enemies, and the whole team turns against Alex. Alex is ready to quit the game, until he and Bill are forced to confront what's pushing them apart--both on and off the ice. Ice Attack is a story about the stresses of family life, and how friendship helps overcome them.

Date Added: 05/25/2017

Mud Run

When Matt is too late to register for his new school's hockey team, he decides to join the cross-country running club instead. At first it's every one for themselves--no one runs with the pack, until finally a new coach demonstrates that tough competitors know the value of teamwork. When the championship finals arrive pouring rain makes the course a slippery mess, and forces the runners to make some hard choices. Mud Run is a fast-paced, humorous story about team spirit and taking life one step at a time.

Date Added: 05/25/2017

Me, Myself and Ike

Seventeen-year-old Kit is paranoid, confused and alone, but neither he nor his family and friends understand what is happening to him.

Date Added: 05/25/2017

Jumper

Reese loves horses and longs to be a competitive show-jumper. When the leased horse she rides is sold she is left riding the orneriest horse in the stable. She decides she must find a horse of her own. Her parents can't afford a trained horse so she decides to buy a wild horse at auction. Outbid, she discovers that many of the wild horses are will be sold for slaughter. Determined to save the horses from a terrible fate she finds herself in deeper than she expected and fighting for her life.

Date Added: 05/25/2017

The Enforcer

Can Jack's hockey team adapt to his Grandpa P.J.'s old-school methods when he becomes their coach?

Date Added: 05/25/2017

Sticks and Stones

Jujube is thrilled when Brent asks her out. She is not so happy when the rumors start flying at school. Pretty soon her name is showing up on bathroom walls and everyone is snickering and sniping. When her mother gets involved, Jujube's reputation takes another hit. Deciding that someone has to take a stand, Jujube gathers all the other girls who are labelled sluts -- and worse -- and tries to impress on her fellow students the damage that can be done by assigning a label that reduces a person to an object.

Date Added: 05/25/2017

Cobra Strike

After discovering tainted water in the creek near his grandmother's cabin in the Kentucky hills, senior Roy Linden slowly uncovers a connection between his high school team's new star quarterback, his own football future, and the source of the pollution. Roy Linden should be thrilled. His high school football team, the Johnstown Striking Cobras, just got a new quarterback, and that means a chance at a winning season and a college scholarship for Linden, the team's senior receiver. But then he stumbles onto a deadly secret in the small coal-mining town. Revealing this toxic threat may cost him his best friend and his football career. But remaining silent could cost him much more.

Date Added: 05/25/2017

Venom

Spencer is sure someone is doping the racehorses at the stable where he works, but no one will listen to him until he gets some proof. (Orca Sports)

Date Added: 05/25/2017

All In

Todd Lerner's never been much of a student, but he's got plenty of street smarts and he's a mean poker player. Todd's always had a thing for Claire, the most beautiful girl in grade eleven -- but Claire likes nice things. If Todd wants to date her, he'll need cash and plenty of it. Soon, a weekly poker game turns into a costly and dangerous obsession, and Todd's luck begins to change. Inspired by true events, All In journeys into the high-stakes worlds of gambling, addiction, and fraud.

Date Added: 05/25/2017

Home Ice

Tori is staying with family near Toronto while her parents deal with troubles back home. To keep a sense of normalcy, she joins the Rangers--the worst hockey team in the league.

Date Added: 05/25/2017

Dead in the Water

Despite his father's opposition, Simon "Spacey" Drake is determined to become a long-distance sailor, so he signs up for a week-long live-aboard sailing course. The trip gets off to a rough start, but the real trouble begins when Simon and Olivia, another student, get curious about a nearby cabin cruiser in an anchorage. They investigate and stumble upon an abalone poaching operation, but the poachers have far too much at stake to let a couple of kids get in their way. Simon has always believed that the only person you can count on is yourself, but when he and Olivia find their lives in danger, he knows they will have to work with the rest of the crew if they are to survive.

Date Added: 05/25/2017

Racing Fear

"Racing Fear" is an action-packed ride that takes a hard look at the selling of prescription drugs.

Date Added: 05/25/2017

Roughing

Fast-paced sports action novels that get kids reading. In this sequel to Interference, Josh is off to an elite hockey camp for the summer, where he shares a room with a talented player from the Northwest Territories named Peter Kuiksak. Peter is skilled enough to give Kevin, the star junior player, some serious competition, which creates trouble on and off the ice. In Roughing, differences and special challenges lead to some tough team dynamics that will take strength, understanding, and courage to overcome.

Date Added: 05/25/2017

Rooster

Rooster Cobb is in trouble--with his school, with his mother, with his girlfriend. He smokes too much and he hates his stepfather. In fact, he might not graduate from high school. But he just doesn't seem to care. That is until the guidance counselor and the principal come up with a plan to get Rooster through grade twelve, out of their lives forever and possibly on the right track with his life. The last thing Rooster wants to do is coach The Strikers, a bowling team of special-needs adults, especially when he finds out he's going to be mentored by the most unpopular girl in school, the principal's daughter, Elma. When he starts to take coaching seriously, his friends make fun of him, and his girlfriend accuses him of taking the easy way out. But when one of The Strikers dies unexpectedly, Rooster discovers there are as many ways to be a hero as there are ways to mess up.

Date Added: 05/25/2017

Somebody's Girl

Martha knows she is adopted, but she's well-loved and popular, at least until her mother gets pregnant and she feels her parents' attention start to shift. Upset and confused, Martha lashes out at—and loses—her friends. She also makes no secret about her annoyance at being forced to do a school project about sturgeon with Chance, a difficult boy whose foster parents are family friends. To add insult to injury, Martha's birth mother announces that she is getting married and moving away. Now Martha isn't number one in anybody's life. When her mom goes into labor prematurely, Martha realizes that she needs to figure out a way to be a better friend and daughter, and a great sister.

Date Added: 05/25/2017