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Flood
by James HeneghanWhen a flood kills eleven-year-old Andy Flynn's mother and stepfather, the only world he has ever known is gone and he is alone. Aunt Mona, whom he has never met, takes him to live with her in Halifax, on the opposite side of the country. During the flight, Aunt Mona tells him harshly that his father was not a war hero killed in battle, as Andy's mother led him to believe, but a no-good thief and drunk who is very much alive in Halifax. Andy is stunned, and as soon as they reach their destination, he runs away from his aunt to find his father. James Heneghan's remarkable gift for storytelling shines as strongly as ever in this moving and funny tale.
A Forest in the City (ThinkCities #1)
by Andrea CurtisThis beautiful book of narrative non-fiction looks at the urban forest and dives into the question of how we can live in harmony with city trees. “Imagine a city draped in a blanket of green … Is this the city you know?” A Forest in the City looks at the urban forest, starting with a bird’s-eye view of the tree canopy, then swooping down to street level, digging deep into the ground, then moving up through a tree’s trunk, back into the leaves and branches. Trees make our cities more beautiful and provide shade but they also fight climate change and pollution, benefit our health and connections to one another, provide food and shelter for wildlife, and much more. Yet city trees face an abundance of problems, such as the abundance of concrete, poor soil and challenging light conditions. So how can we create a healthy environment for city trees? Urban foresters are trying to create better growing conditions, plant diverse species, and maintain trees as they age. These strategies, and more, reveal that the urban forest is a complex system—A Forest in the City shows readers we are a part of it. Includes a list of activities to help the urban forest and a glossary. The ThinkCities series is inspired by the urgency for new approaches to city life as a result of climate change, population growth and increased density. It highlights the challenges and risks cities face, but also offers hope for building resilience, sustainability and quality of life as young people act as advocates for themselves and their communities. Key Text Features diagrams author's note glossary sources definitions Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.4.7 Interpret information presented visually, orally, or quantitatively (e.g., in charts, graphs, diagrams, time lines, animations, or interactive elements on Web pages) and explain how the information contributes to an understanding of the text in which it appears.
Forever Truffle
by Fanny BrittFanny Britt and Isabelle Arsenault are back with a new graphic novel, this time featuring Truffle, younger brother, best friend, aspiring rockstar … Meet Truffle in three linked stories: In “Truffle the Rockstar,” Truffle wants to form a band with his best friends Flo and Riad. They can already picture themselves on stage, wowing the crowd with epic songs. They still have to learn how to play instruments … but that’s just a minor detail! Ever since Truffle asked Nina to be his girlfriend, they have been shy around each other. In “Truffle Loves Nina,” Truffle asks his parents, his friend Riad, his big brother, Louis, and the man who works at the library, for advice on how to let his heart do the talking. In “Truffle Tackles Existence,” Truffle attends his great-grandmother’s funeral, which gets him thinking about the world around him. Are grandparents young once, too? Does Rocket, the dog that his family had to give up, still think about him sometimes? Do people stop loving each other if they don’t see each other anymore? Fans of Louis Undercover will be delighted that Truffle — Louis’s funny, music-loving little brother — now has his own book! Key Text Features comic comic strips illustrations Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.3.9 Compare and contrast the themes, settings, and plots of stories written by the same author about the same or similar characters (e.g., in books from a series) CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.5 Explain how a series of chapters, scenes, or stanzas fits together to provide the overall structure of a particular story, drama, or poem. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.7 Analyze how visual and multimedia elements contribute to the meaning, tone, or beauty of a text (e.g., graphic novel, multimedia presentation of fiction, folktale, myth, poem).
From Another World
by Ana Maria MachadoMariano and his friends are helping their parents turn an old Brazilian coffee plantation into an inn. The children sleep in a shed, which is being converted into guest rooms. One night they hear crying. Gradually, the ghost of Rosario, a young slave from the late 1800s appears to them and tells the story of why she is so sad. Hans Christian Andersen Award-winning author Ana Maria Machado's storytelling skills and social conscience come together in this powerful and moving book that reveals the evil of slavery in a real, immediate and unforgettable way.
From the Top of a Grain Elevator
by Barbara NickelShort-listed for the 1999 CLA Book of the Year for Children Award Award-winning poet and playwright Barbara Nickel returns to her Prairie roots in a beautiful collection of seasonal poems that chart, with a bird’s-eye view of the western landscape, nature’s glorious playground. Nickel’s experimental verses are perfectly complimented by Kathy Thiessen’s black-and-white etchings, making this ideal for any young Canadian – Prairie-dweller, would-be poet, or otherwise.
Game Face
by Shari GreenThirteen-year-old Jonah is determined to prove that anxiety won’t stop him from succeeding as his hockey team’s goalie in this dynamic novel in verse. What-ifs rattle around his brain at the worst times, like when he’s in the middle of a playoff game. What if he lets his teammates down? What if he can’t make it pro? And the biggest what-if of all, the one he keeps to himself — what if he’s like his dad, whose life is controlled by anxiety that has only gotten worse since Jonah’s mom died in a car crash? To prove that he’s not like that, Jonah is determined to succeed in the high-stress role of goalie. He and his best friend Ty have big plans for their hockey futures. But when Ty suffers a medical crisis during a pivotal game, Jonah’s anxiety ramps up to new levels It takes courage to ask for help, but Jonah starts to realize that his team goes beyond the people who lace up their skates with him every week, and maybe it’s okay to look for support on and off the ice. From the adrenaline rush of sudden-death overtime to the weight of worrying about letting your teammates — and yourself — down, this novel in verse will hook readers from the first line. Key Text Features dialogue poems Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.3 Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., a character's thoughts, words, or actions). CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.5 Explain major differences between poems, drama, and prose, and refer to the structural elements of poems (e.g., verse, rhythm, meter) and drama (e.g., casts of characters, settings, descriptions, dialogue, stage directions) when writing or speaking about a text. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative language such as metaphors and similes.
The Gargoyle in My Yard
by Philippa DowdingCommended for the 2009 Resource Links Best Books and for the 2010 Best Books for Kids and Teens, short-listed for the 2012 Diamond Willow Award Chosen for the Toronto Public Library's 2015 Great Reads for Kids collection What do you do when a 400-year-old gargoyle moves into your backyard? Especially when no one else but you knows he’s ALIVE? Twelve-year-old Katherine Newberry can tell you all about life with a gargoyle. Hes naughty. He gets people into trouble. He howls at the moon, breaks statues and tramples flowers to bits, all the while making it look like you did it! He likes to throw apple cores and stick his tongue out at people when they aren’t looking. How do you get rid of a gargoyle? Do they help the gargoyle leave for good? If you’re like Katherine and her parents, after getting to know him, you might really want him to stay.
The Gargoyle Overhead
by Philippa DowdingShort-listed for the 2012 Silver Birch Express Award What if your best friend was a naughty 400-year-old gargoyle? And what if he just happened to be in terrible danger? It’s not always easy, but thirteen-year-old Katherine Newberry is friends with a gargoyle. His name is Gargoth of Tallus, and he lives in her backyard. Gargoth has lost the only creature on the planet who can help him. Her name is Ambergine, and she’s been his greatest friend for hundreds of years. What Katherine and Gargoth dont know is that Ambergine is searching for him too. But she is not alone. Gargoths greatest enemy is prowling the city, and it’s a race against time to find him first! In this sequel to The Gargoyle in My Yard (2009), The Gargoyle Overhead provides the historical backstory to Gargoths life, and further explores themes of friendship, courage and loneliness.
The Ghost of Soda Creek
by Ann WalshShort-listed for the 1990 CLA Book of the Year for Children Award Moving to Soda Creek, a former Gold Rush boomtown in the Cariboo region of interior British Columbia, Kelly Linden and her father try to begin their lives again after a tragic family accident.
Ghost Train
by Paul YeeThe story of a young Chinese girl who arrives in North America only to discover that her father has died building the railway. This powerful, unforgettable and multi-award-winning tale is based on the lives of the Chinese who settled on the west coast of North America in the early 1900s. Left behind in China by her father, who has gone to North America to find work, Choon-yi has made her living by selling her paintings in the market. When her father writes one day and asks her to join him, she joyously sets off, only to discover that he has been killed. Choon-yi sees the railway and the giant train engines that her father died for, and she is filled with an urge to paint them. But her work disappoints her until a ghostly presence beckons her to board a train where she meets the ghosts of the men who died building the railway. She is able to give them peace by returning their bones to China where they were born. Ghostly, magical and yet redeeming, this tale by Paul Yee is superbly illustrated by Harvey Chan. Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.3.7 Explain how specific aspects of a text's illustrations contribute to what is conveyed by the words in a story (e.g., create mood, emphasize aspects of a character or setting)
The Goat
by Anne FlemingWhen Kid accompanies her parents to New York City, she discovers a goat living on the roof of her Manhattan apartment building— but she soon realizes a goat on the roof may be the least strange thing about her new home, whose residents are both fascinating and unforgettable. When Kid accompanies her parents to New York City for a six-month stint of dog-sitting and home-schooling, she sees what looks like a tiny white cloud on the top of their apartment building. Rumor says there’s a goat living on the roof, but how can that be? As Kid soon discovers, a goat on the roof may be the least strange thing about her new home, whose residents are both fascinating unforgettable. In the penthouse lives Joff Vanderlinden, the famous skateboarding fantasy writer, who happens to be blind. On the ninth floor are Doris and Jonathan, a retired couple trying to adapt to a new lifestyle after Jonathan’s stroke. Kenneth P. Gill, on the tenth, loves opera and tends to burble on nervously about his two hamsters — or are they guinea pigs? Then there’s Kid’s own high-maintenance mother, Lisa, who is rehearsing for an Off Broadway play and is sure it will be the world’s biggest flop. Then Kid meets Will, whose parents died in the Twin Towers. And when she learns that the goat will bring good luck to whoever sees it, suddenly it becomes very important to know whether the goat on the roof is real. Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.6 Compare and contrast the point of view from which different stories are narrated, including the difference between first- and third-person narrations. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.6 Describe how a narrator's or speaker's point of view influences how events are described. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.9 Compare and contrast stories in the same genre (e.g., mysteries and adventure stories) on their approaches to similar themes and topics.
Grandfather and the Moon
by Stéphanie LapointeAn award-winning graphic novel from Quebec — for fans of Jane, the Fox and Me and A Year Without MomThis moving graphic novel tells the story of the affection between a girl and her grandfather. When the grandfather withdraws in grief after his wife dies, the girl is determined to live life fully herself and enters an extraordinary contest — the result is a sensitive portrayal of pursuing a dream.Grandfather, a man of few words, is devastated when his beloved wife succumbs to cancer, and he sinks into depression. His granddaughter (“Mémère,” as he calls her) has a different response. She decides to enter the Who Will Go to the Moon Contest, and when she actually wins, she hopes that Grandfather will be proud of her. She embarks on the thrilling journey and at first it is wonderful, but just as she is about to reach the moon, her journey takes an unexpected turn.Written by Stéphanie Lapointe and beautifully illustrated by Rogé, this imaginative graphic novel explores intergenerational relationships, love, death, dreams and illusions.Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.1Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.6Describe how a narrator's or speaker's point of view influences how events are described.
The Great Laundry Adventure
by Margie RutledgeThe Lawrence family (three children, one dog, one cat and two parents) has a crisis on its hands - too much laundry and no place to put it. Are the thirteen baskets they buy in the mysterious shop in the market the end of their problems? Or is it just the beginning of a grand and maybe dangerous adventure for Abigail, Jacob and Ernest? When the baskets become the gateway to another time, the children encounter mysteries which they must solve…before their parents disappear altogether.
Hate Cell: A Casey Templeton Mystery
by Gwen MolnarThirteen-year-old Casey Templeton has recently moved with his family to the southeastern Alberta town of Richford. One night Casey seeks refuge from a snowstorm in an abandoned farmhouse and stumbles upon his nearly frozen, unconscious science teacher, Mr. Deverell. Casey attempts to revive his teacher and searches the house for something to make a fire with. In the attic he makes a frightening discovery – a sophisticated office filled with computers, a printer, and racist posters and flyers! Richford is harbouring a vicious cell of white racists who are targeting everyone they deem "alien." Somehow Mr. Deverell is connected to the dangerous organization, and so, too, are other residents, young and old, in Casey’s new town. Soon the RCMP and Casey’s hacker brother, Hank, get involved in the mystery, but it’s Casey who leads the investigation into a warped world where hate is marketed on the Internet and innocent people are preyed on by bigots and bullies blinkered by their own prejudices.
Hey Dad!
by Brian DoyleA family car trip across Canada brings Megan and her dad face to face with how sad and happy growing up can be.
A Hole in My Heart
by Rie CharlesStarting a new life after the death of her mother, Nora learns how to be strong. Are there wounds too deep to heal, pains too sharp to share? And if a family survives by cutting the ties that bind them, can they ever be whole again? After losing her mother to illness and her father to his work, Nora Mackenzie must leave her home in the interior of B.C. for a North Vancouver school. Estranged from her classmates, her family, and the life she’s lost, Nora walls herself off from the people around her. At the same time, her young cousin Lizzie is facing an uncertain future as one of the first children to undergo open-heart surgery. As the operation approaches, Nora discovers that she is not the only person in her family isolated by fear and grief.
Home Is Beyond the Mountains
by Celia LottridgeFinalist for the IODE Violet Downey Book Award Samira is only nine years old when the Turkish army invades northwestern Persia in 1918, and she and her parents, brother and baby sister are driven from their tiny village. Taking only what they can carry, they flee into the mountains, but the journey is so difficult that only Samira and her older brother, Benyamin, survive. When Samira finally arrives in a refugee camp, it is her friendship with another orphan, Anna, that pulls her out of her sadness. And when the two girls are given a toddler named Elias to care for, they form a new kind of family. Over the years the children are shunted from one refugee camp to another, from Persia to Iraq and back again, and finally end up in an orphanage, where it seems that they will live out their childhood. Then a new orphanage director arrives -- Susan Shedd, a woman whose authority and energy Samira has never seen before. And Samira’s respect turns to amazement when Miss Shedd decides that she will take the three hundred children back to their home villages to make new lives for themselves. It will be a journey of three hundred miles, through the mountains, and it will be made on foot.
The Honey Jar
by Rigoberta Menchú Dante LianoIn this book, Nobel Peace Prize winner and Maya activist Rigoberta Menchú Tum returns to the world of her childhood. The Honey Jar brings us the ancient stories her grandparents told her when she was a little girl, and we can imagine her listening to them by the fire at night. These Maya tales include creation myths, a classic story about the magic twins (which can also be found in the Popol Vuh), explanations of how and why certain natural phenomena came to exist, and animal tales. The underworld, the sky, the sun and moon, plants, people, animals, gods and demi-gods are all present in these stories, and through them we come to know more about the elements that shaped the Mayas’ understanding of the world. Rich and vibrant illustrations by noted Mazatec-Mexican artist Domi perfectly complement these magical Maya tales. Key Text Features illustrations Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.3.2 Recount stories, including fables, folktales, and myths from diverse cultures; determine the central message, lesson, or moral and explain how it is conveyed through key details in the text.
How Emily Saved the Bridge: The Story of Emily Warren Roebling and the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge
by Frieda WishinskyThe amazing story of Emily Warren Roebling, the woman who stepped in to oversee the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, which was completed in 1883.Emily was not an engineer, but she was educated in math and science. She married Washington Roebling, the chief engineer of the famous bridge. When Washington became ill from decompression sickness, Emily stepped in, doing everything from keeping the books, to carrying messages for her husband, to monitoring the construction of the bridge. She was the first person to cross the Brooklyn Bridge when it opened.Emily, who went on to study law among many other accomplishments, is an inspiration to all, as demonstrated through Frieda Wishinsky’s informative and engaging text and Natalie Nelson’s distinctive collage illustrations. Speech bubbles revealing imagined dialogue add a playful note to this historical account, which includes fascinating facts about the Brooklyn Bridge and a further reading list.Key Text Featuresfurther readingspeech bubblesCorrelates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.1Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text.CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.3Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., a character's thoughts, words, or actions).
How to Bee
by Bren MacDibbleA story about family, loyalty, kindness and bravery, set against an all-too-possible future where climate change has forever changed the way we live. In a world where real bees are extinct, the quickest, bravest kids climb the fruit trees and pollinate the flowers by hand. Peony lives with her sister, Magnolia, and her grandfather on a fruit farm outside the city. All Peony really wants is to be a bee. Even though she is only nine — and bees must be ten — Peony already knows all there is to know about being a bee and she is determined to achieve her dream. Life on the farm is a scrabble, but there is enough to eat and a place to sleep, and there is love. Then Peony’s mother arrives to take her away from everything she has ever known. Peony is taken to the city to work for a wealthy family. Will Peony’s grit and quick thinking be enough to keep her safe? How to Bee is a beautiful and fierce novel for younger readers, and the voice of Peony will stay with you long after you read the last page. Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.6 Describe how a narrator's or speaker's point of view influences how events are described.
I Am a Taxi (The Cocalero Novels)
by Deborah EllisWinner of the Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children's Book Award For twelve-year-old Diego and his family, home is a prison in Cochabamba, Bolivia. His parents farmed coca, a traditional Bolivian medicinal plant, until they got caught in the middle of the government's war on drugs and were mistakenly convicted of drug possession. Diego's parents are locked up, but he can come and go: to school, to the market to sell his mother's handknitted goods, and to work as a "taxi," running errands for other prisoners. But then his little sister temporarily runs off while under his watch, earning his mother a heavy fine. The debt and dawning realization of his hopeless situation make him vulnerable to his friend Mando's plan to make big money, fast. Soon, Diego is deep in the jungle, working as a virtual slave in an illegal cocaine operation. As his situation becomes more and more dangerous, he knows he must take a terrible risk if he ever wants to see his family again. Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.6Describe how a narrator's or speaker's point of view influences how events are described.CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.6Explain how an author develops the point of view of the narrator or speaker in a text.
I Saw Santa
by Thelma Carey-ThompsonLittle Dwayne grew up in rural Jamaica in the loving care of Granny. Like other little girls and boys he loved to play. Santa Claus, he learned, was somehow part of toys and games and very important at Christmas. Dwayne even had a treasured picture of Santa’s face. One day some special visitors from Canada came to his Basic School. Imagine Dwayne’s surprise when a tall white man with a white beard got off the bus. Dwayne just knew this was Santa. This publication is in support of The Adopt-A-Basic-School Project of Women for P.A.C.E. (Canada).
Idaa Trail: In The Steps Of Our Ancestors
by Wendy StephensonEtseh, Etsi and their three grandchildren have just embarked on a month long canoe trip in the Northwest Territories -- from the town of Rae to Hottah Lake. They are following the Idaa trail, a trade route that the Dogrib people have traveled for hundreds of years. Etseh and Etsi traveled the Idaa trail when they were children and as they paddle north with their grandchildren they pass along their knowledge of special sites along the way and explain how their people survived in the old days -- building birch bark canoes, fishing with willow lines and muskrat-tooth hooks, and ambushing herds of caribou. This remarkable work, based on ten years of archaeological research, documents the past and present of one of the most intact tribal cultures of North America.
An Island of My Own
by Andrea SpaldingShort-listed for the 1999 Silver Birch Award and for the 2001 Manitoba Young Readers’ Choice Award Fifteen-year-old Rowan, the daughter of foreign correspondents in Africa, finds herself beached for a summer with her cousins near Tofino, British Columbia. Desperate for a summer project, she camps on a neighbouring island to monitor the progress of an endangered group of sea otters, further threatened by the development plans of a real estate agent trying to sell the property for tourism.
Jake and the Giant Hand
by Philippa DowdingThe first in a series of scary tall tales from award-winning children’s novelist Philippa Dowding. Why is Grandpa acting so weird? And why are there so many giant flies? Jake spends every summer on his grandpa’s farm. But this year, things are a little weird. First, there are huge flies everywhere. Second, Grandpa is acting kind of funny. And third, Jake’s friend Kate keeps trying to scare him with creepy stories. Last year’s tale about the swamp creature was bad enough, but this year’s story about a hand that someone found in a farmer’s field is even worse. And it wasn’t just any hand either. It was a giant’s hand! It might just be the creepiest story of all. It can’t be real. Can it?