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Jane, the Fox and Me
by Isabelle Arsenault Fanny BrittA New York Times Best Illustrated BookHélène has been inexplicably ostracized by the girls who were once her friends. Her school life is full of whispers and lies - Hélène weighs 216; she smells like BO. Her loving mother is too tired to be any help. Fortunately, Hélène has one consolation, Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. Hélène identifies strongly with Jane's tribulations, and when she is lost in the pages of this wonderful book, she is able to ignore her tormentors. But when Hélène is humiliated on a class trip in front of her entire grade, she needs more than a fictional character to see herself as a person deserving of laughter and friendship.Leaving the outcasts' tent one night, Hélène encounters a fox, a beautiful creature with whom she shares a moment of connection. But when Suzanne Lipsky frightens the fox away, insisting that it must be rabid, Hélène's despair becomes even more pronounced: now she believes that only a diseased and dangerous creature would ever voluntarily approach her. But then a new girl joins the outcasts' circle, Géraldine, who does not even appear to notice that she is in danger of becoming an outcast herself. And before long Hélène realizes that the less time she spends worrying about what the other girls say is wrong with her, the more able she is to believe that there is nothing wrong at all. This emotionally honest and visually stunning graphic novel reveals the casual brutality of which children are capable, but also assures readers that redemption can be found through connecting with another, whether the other is a friend, a fictional character or even, amazingly, a fox.
The Jessica Scott Kerrin Bundle
by Jessica Scott KerrinThe Missing Dog Is SpottedTrevor Tower doesn’t worry about being short until he is assigned dog-walking duty with Loyola Louden, the tallest person in his class. But the dogs are a wonderful distraction, and even before Trevor and Loyola vow to solve the mystery of a missed spotted dog, they are becoming good friends.The Spotted Dog Last SeenWhile tracking clues from a secret code penciled in the margins of mystery novels at the public library, Derek Knowles-Collier discovers a time capsule that may finally put his haunting past to rest. Includes a secret code for readers to decipher!
The Jewels of Sofia Tate
by Doris EtienneFifteen-year-old Garnet Walcott is lonely and has a hard time making new friends when she moves to Kitchener, Ontario. Her mother, already preoccupied with work, has begun a search for a father she never knew. By chance, Garnet meets and befriends Elizabeth Tate, an elderly widow who tells Garnet that a priceless set of heirloom jewels dating back to Russian nobility may be hidden in her Victorian home. Elizabeth shows Garnet an intriguing portrait of her late mother-in-law, Sofia Tate, wearing sapphires and diamonds. Garnet is introduced to Dan Peters, one of the most popular boys at school, and when Elizabeth suffers a heart attack, Garnet persuades him to help her find the jewels for Elizabeth. Do the jewels really exist? Garnet believes they do, and drawing on that faith, she follows the clues left by Elizabeth’s late eccentric, religious father-in-law and discovers much more than she bargained for.
Just a Little Later With Eevo and Sim
by Henry Shykoff Marilyn Mets Peter LedwonJust a Little Later With Eevo and Sim is the continuation of Once Upon a Time Long, Long Ago, the adventures of Eevo and Sim. The story is set about 50,000 years ago in the time of prehistoric man. Their parents, Shim and Dedu, have just returned from their long trip to the Wetlands Clan, the former home of Shim. They discover that, together, Eevo and Sim had overcome many dangers, discovered fire, rescued two wolf cubs and saved their home from starvation.Now Sim and Eevo are off on a long, dangerous journey back to the Wetlands Clan, accompanied by the wolves. Caught in a fierce sandstorm, they are separated from Shim and Dedu. Once again, this sister and brother take on many challenges, make new discoveries, and even encounter the Great One: the much-feared crocodile of the Great River."Once Upon a Time Long, Long Ago was an incredibly popular book in my school library. The continuing tale, Just a Little Later With Eevo and Sim, proves to be an equally exciting story. Students from grades 3 to 8 will be enthralled by the adventures these two siblings encounter. From designing water bags made from an elk’s stomach to figuring out a way to capture a gigantic crocodile; from teaching the secret of fire making to planning how to hunt wild horses, Sim and Eevo prove how valuable they are to the clan. Both children make wonderful role models for all young people."- Lorna Embrey, Teacher-Librarian
Kabungo
by RolliTen-year-old Beverly is an ordinary girl with an extraordinary best friend. Her name is Kabungo, and she lives in a cave on Main Street. No one knows where she comes from or who she really is, but life is never dull when Kabungo is around.Beverly tries to teach her friend about the ways of the modern world — the importance of teeth brushing, understanding strange holidays like Halloween, learning how to read. But Kabungo doesn’t take well to being civilized, and she can be stubborn, bossy, and plain infuriating. Sometimes Beverly gets so mad that she just wants to move to Cincinnati.Besides, Kabungo is a skittish cavegirl, and it takes a while to win her trust, even among Star City’s eccentric denizens, such as Mr. Gobshaw, who owns the local drug shop (“We have everything!”) where you’ll find the stuffed tigers right next to the breath mints. And there is Ms. VeDore, who seems to float as she walks around her decrepit mansion, and who throws the most amazing Halloween parties.Then, just when you least expect it, Kabungo will do something surprising (and when you’re best friends with a cavegirl, you’re not easily surprised). Like planning an unexpected birthday treat for Beverly (even though it isn’t actually her birthday) — at the city dump.In other words, Beverly learns that there are times for teaching, and times for tipping your head back and laughing.Hilarious and poignant, Kabungo is the most originally voiced and endearing middle-grade heroine since Pippi Longstocking. Accompanied by quirky line drawings by Milan Pavlovic, this is a gently humorous novel about friendship and community that raises for young readers deeper questions about finding beauty in unexpected places, accepting and celebrating differences, and what it really means to be civilized.
The King's Daughter
by Suzanne MartelWinner of the Ruth Schwartz Award Jeanne Chatel has always dreamed of adventure. So when the eighteen-year-old orphan is summoned to sail from France to the wilds of North America to become a king's daughter and marry a French settler, she doesn't hesitate. Her new husband is not the dashing military man she has dreamed of, but a trapper with two small children who lives in a small cabin in the woods. With her husband away trapping much of the time, Jeanne faces danger daily, but the bravery and spirit that brought her to this wild place never fail her, and she soon learns to be truly at home in her new land.
Last Days in Africville
by Dorothy PerkynsShort-listed for the 2004 CLA Book of the Year for Children Award, for the 2005 Diamond Willow Award and for the 2005 Hackmatack Children’s Choice Book Award On the shores of Bedford Basin in Halifax, 12-year-old Selina Palmer is growing up in the community of Africville in the 1960s. Struggling with what it means to be the only black student in her Grade 6 class, Selina takes comfort in the fact that every day she goes home to a loving and vibrant neighbourhood, where friends and family accept her as she is. But ugly rumours are starting to surface about the fate of Africville…
The Last Superhero
by Kristin ButcherCommended for the 2011 Best Books for Kids and Teens When doing the right thing turns all wrong Sometimes a guy just cant mind his own business, no matter how hard he tries, and sometimes that guy gets mired in predicaments which are not of his making. Thats what happens to Jas, a Grade Seven boy who is putting all his energy into completing the artwork for an adventure comic he hopes will be his ticket into an elite summer art program. But when he meets Wren, an eccentric, crusading classmate, his efforts are derailed. Initially, Jas has no interest in getting involved, but circumstances and Wrens overpowering personality keep drawing him in until there is no going back. Wren is a person of values. She believes that if youre not part of the solution, youre part of the problem. When she sees things that are wrong, she sets out to correct them. Eventually she becomes the target of bullies, then, because of Jass inadvertent interference, the bullies turn their attention to him. They destroy his comic and his chances of getting into art school. What can Jas and Wren do to end the bullies’ reign of terror?
Last Week
by Bill RichardsonA child cherishes every second of their grandmother's last week of life in this sensitive portrayal of medical assistance in dying (MAiD). “In this last week, there are seven days.” That's one hundred and sixty-eight hours. Or ten thousand and eighty minutes. Or six hundred four thousand and eight hundred seconds. A child counts every second because this is their grandmother’s last week of life. As friends and family come to call on Flippa—as Gran is fondly known—the child observes the strange mix of grief, humor, awkwardness, anger and nostalgia that attends these farewell visits. Especially precious are the times they have alone, just the two of them. Flippa, the child sees, has made up her mind. Like time, she is unstoppable. So as Sunday approaches, the child must find a way to come to terms with Flippa’s decision. What is the best way to say goodbye? Beautifully illustrated in black and white—with one unexpectedly joyful splash of color—Last Week is a nuanced look at what death with dignity can mean to a whole family, with an afterword and additional resources by MAiD expert Dr. Stefanie Green. Key Text Features illustrations afterword explanation resources Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.3 Describe how a particular story's or drama's plot unfolds in a series of episodes as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution.
A Little Something
by Sarah Hartt-Snowbell June BradfordWhen Sandy’s daddy leaves for work in the morning, he blows Sandy a kiss. What follows is a wild adventure through the town, the countryside, the bogs and the marshes of the Land of Everywhere… to try to catch up to Daddy’s kiss!
Locksmith: A Felix Taylor Adventure
by Nicholas MaesCommended for the 2009 Best Books for Kids & Teens, long-listed for the 2009 CLA Book of the Year for Children Award Twelve-year-old Lewis Castorman is a master locksmith: there is no lock on earth that he is unable to open. He is therefore flattered when world-renowned chemist Ernst K. Grumpel invites him to his office in New York City and offers him a lock-picking assignment. His confidence quickly turns to dismay, however, when he learns this job will take him to Yellow Swamp in northern Alberta, the scene of a disastrous chemical spill a year earlier. He is also horrified to discover that Grumpel is utterly ruthless and, through his chemical inventions, can alter the rules of nature at his will. But the assignment is one that Lewis can’t refuse. How is Grumpel able to create such miraculous transformations? What secrets has he locked away and why has he taken pains to store them in Alberta? Despite the strange discoveries Lewis will make at every turn in his adventures, nothing will prepare him for the final encounter that awaits him in Yellow Swamp.
Looking for X
by Deborah EllisWinner of the Governor General's Literary Award In this urban adventure story, Khyber, a smart, bold, eleven-year-old girl from a poor neighborhood, sets out to find her friend X, a mysterious homeless woman who has gone missing. The desperate search takes Khyber on a long, all-night odyssey that proves to be wilder than any adventure she has ever imagined.
Lord and Lady Bunny — Almost Royalty!: Almost Royalty!
by Polly HorvathLiterature’s most endearing rabbits are back in this sequel to Mr. and Mrs. Bunny — Detectives Extraordinaire! While the Bunnys' human friend, Madeline, worries about saving money for college, Mrs. Bunny is more concerned about how to become a queen.Unexpectedly, Madeline’s family inherits a sweet shop (candy store!) in England, and it looks for a while as if everyone’s problems are solved. England proves to be full of eccentric characters, strange customs, and even royalty — but holding onto money is difficult for Madeline’s family, and becoming a queen proves harder than Mrs. Bunny had expected.Lord and Lady Bunny is written by Mr. and Mrs. Bunny,* translated from the Rabbit by multi-award-winning author Polly Horvath, and beautifully illustrated by Sophie Blackall. It’s a sequel that children will laugh over and love.* Mr. and Mrs. Bunny lives in Rabbitville in the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. They have twelve children.
Lost Shadow (Song Dog Adventure #2)
by Claire GilchristIn the sequel to Street Shadows, city coyote Pica is carried far away, into the land of wolves. Will she survive and make it back to Scruff?Winter is here, and coyotes Pica and Scruff are having trouble finding enough food to survive. Their only option may be to steal food from humans, which Scruff thinks is a necessary risk, while Pica thinks it’s too dangerous. After they get into a bitter fight, the unthinkable happens: Pica gets locked into a delivery truck and driven far away from the city, into the land of the wolves.When Pica disappears and doesn’t return for weeks, Scruff is devastated. He doesn’t know if the fight drove her away or if something happened to her. Not knowing what else to do, he eventually moves on and meets a new pack. However, these new friends rely heavily on human food, and he knows that by joining them he’s playing a dangerous game.Pica, alone in the wilderness, must call on all of her strength and courage to survive in this new landscape. She has to get back to Scruff before it’s too late. The clock is ticking, and leg traps, wolves, and a giant icy mountain range stand between Pica and her home.
Louis Undercover
by Fanny BrittA stunning graphic novel from the award-winning creators of Jane, the Fox and Me.In this powerful new graphic novel from Fanny Britt and Isabelle Arsenault, we meet Louis, a young boy who shuttles between his alcoholic dad and his worried mom, and who, with the help of his best friend, tries to summon up the courage to speak to his true love, Billie.Louis’s dad cries — Louis knows this because he spies on him. His dad misses the happy times when their family was together, just as Louis does. But as it is, he and his little brother, Truffle, have to travel back and forth between their dad’s country house and their mom’s city apartment, where she tries to hide her own tears.Thankfully, Louis has Truffle for company. Truffle loves James Brown lyrics, and when he isn’t singing, he’s asking endless questions. Louis also has his friend Boris, with whom he spots ghost cop cars and spies on the “silent queen,” the love of his life, Billie.When Louis and Truffle go to their dad’s for two weeks during the summer, their father seems to have stopped drinking. And when Truffle has a close call from a bee sting, their mother turns up and the reunited foursome spend several wonderful days in New York — until they reach the end of the road, again.A beautifully illustrated, true-to-life portrayal of just how complex family relationships can be, seen through the eyes of a wise, sensitive boy who manages to find his own way forward.Key Text Featuresspeech bubblesCorrelates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.3Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., how characters interact).CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.4Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative language such as metaphors and similes.
Lucy Maud and Me
by Mary Frances CoadyIt is 1942, and 12-year-old Laura Campbell arrives in Toronto, a city bustling with the war effort and news from abroad. While looking for something to do in the grandfather’s quite neighbourhood, she meets the reclusive woman living across the street. Laura is stunned to realize she is in the presence of Lucy Maud Montgomery, the very same writer who penned her favourite novels.
Mackenzie, Lost and Found
by Deborah KerbelFifteen-year-old Mackenzie Hill knows something is up when she arrives home to find her father making a home-cooked dinner, instead of his standard delivery pizza. But nothing prepares her for the bombshell announcement: Mackenzie and her dad, alone since the death of her mother a year ago, are moving to Jerusalem, where her father has taken a position as a visiting professor at a university.The adjustment from life in Canada to life in Israel is dramatic - though it’s eased somewhat when Mackenzie is befriended by an American girl in her new school. The biggest shock of all comes when Mackenzie faces the wrath of her new friends, new community, and even her own father after she begins dating a Muslim boy.
Maggie Lou, Firefox (Maggie Lou #1)
by Arnolda Dufour BowesMaggie Lou’s grandpa doesn’t call her Firefox for nothing. She’s always finding ways to make life more interesting – even if this means getting into big trouble. When her grandfather Moshôm finally agrees to teach her how to box, she decides that the rank odors, endless drills and teasing won’t stop her from wearing a tutu to the gym. Joining her father’s construction crew uncovers a surprising talent — besides learning how to use a broom — and a great source of scrap wood to build a canine hotel for her dogs. And when she turns thirteen, she figures out an ingenious way to make some smokin’ good camouflage to wear on her first deer hunt, where she joins a long family tradition. Through it all she is surrounded by her big extended gumbo soup of a family, pestered by annoying younger siblings, and gently guided by her strong female relatives – her mother, her kohkom and her ultra-cool cousin Jayda. “Keep taking up space,” Maggie’s mother says. “You’re only making room for the girls behind you.” A heroine for today, Maggie Lou discovers that with hard work and perseverance she can gain valuable new skills, without losing one iota of her irrepressible spirit. Key Text Features author’s note biographical note chapters dialogue epigraph illustrations
Malala Speaks Out (Speak Out)
by Malala YousafzaiMalala Yousafzai was denied education when the Taliban took control of her town in Pakistan. She decided to speak up, despite the danger it put her in. Her story is the story of many girls. When Malala was fifteen years old, she was attacked by the Taliban for defending girls’ rights to education. She survived and recovered to become a world leader in education rights. In 2014, at the age of seventeen, she was the youngest person to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. This is her acceptance speech, in which Malala tells her story — the story of 66 million girls around the world deprived of education. Malala entreats her fellow children to decide to be the last generation “that sees empty classrooms, lost childhoods and wasted potentials.” Her speech is strikingly illustrated and followed by an analysis written by Clara Fons Duocastella that provides context about Malala’s early life in Swat Valley, Pakistan, and examines what makes her call to action so powerful. The Speak Out series publishes the most inspiring speeches of our times, then deconstructs them to give young readers a deeper understanding of global issues and the power of language to influence them. Key Text Features biographical information definitions explanation facts headings historical context illustrations informational note Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.5.3 Explain the relationships or interactions between two or more individuals, events, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text based on specific information in the text. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.5.8 Explain how an author uses reasons and evidence to support particular points in a text, identifying which reasons and evidence support which point(s). CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.6.3 Analyze in detail how a key individual, event, or idea is introduced, illustrated, and elaborated in a text (e.g., through examples or anecdotes). CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.6.6 Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text and explain how it is conveyed in the text.
Mary Ann Alice
by Brian DoyleWinner of the IODE National Chapter Award, and a Horn Book Fanfare Top Ten List selection In this brillant and poetic novel, Brian Doyle returns to the Gatineau River near Ottawa, the world of his novels Up to Low and Uncle Ronald. Mary Ann Alice McCrank was named for the pretty church bell in the steeple of St. Martin's Church in the Martindale. She has the soul of a poet and Mickey McGuire Jr. is in love with her. Mary Ann Alice is passionately interested in many things, especially the geology of her part of the world. Her teacher, the wonderful Patchy Drizzle, shares her passion for rocks and fossils, many of which can be found along the river and in caves under the famous Paugan Falls. But a new project to dam the river at Low places rocks, fossils, falls as well as many farms in danger. The dam must go ahead. And, as with much technological change, it brings both benefits and tragedies to the community.
Mary Anning's Curiosity
by Monica KullingThe amazing story of how the world’s greatest fossilist found her first huge find at the age of twelve.Mary was born in 1799 in Lyme Regis, England, to a poor family. She and her older brother were the only two of ten children to survive. Her father, a carpenter and part-time fossil hunter, taught his children to look for fossils.When her father injured himself and was unable to work, Mary quit school and took up fossil hunting full-time to help support her family, a task that became even more important when her father died, leaving the Annings in debt. At the age of twelve, Mary, with her older brother Joe, found what they believed to be the skeleton of a gigantic crocodile, the Great Croc of the legends. Between dodging her rival fossil hunter, the Curiman, and the sheer work of carefully digging out the fossil, Mary took almost a year to excavate what would later be termed the Ichthyosaurus. Mary Anning may have been uneducated, poor and a woman, but her life’s work of fossil hunting led her to make many discoveries that influenced our understanding of prehistoric creatures and the age of the Earth. In 2010, Mary was named among the ten British women who have most influenced the history of science. Charles Darwin even cited Mary’s fossilized creatures as evidence in his book On the Origin of Species. In this triumphant novel about scientific discovery, Monica Kulling brings Mary Anning and her world to life for young readers. Key Text Featuresauthor's notehistorical contextresourcesfactsfurther reading
Me in the Middle
by Ana Maria MachadoOne day Isabel finds a box in her mother's closet and, inside, a photograph of a girl dressed in old-fashioned clothes. Ten-year-old Bel is enchanted to discover that the girl is her great-grandmother Beatrice, her Bisa Bea, and that she and her great-grandmother look very much alike. Bel convinces her mother to let her borrow the treasured photo promising to look after it carefully. To her dismay, by the time she returns home from school, the picture is missing. But something unusual has happened. Suddenly it is as if Bisa Bea is alive inside her, telling Bel what life was like when she was a girl. Bel loves hearing the stories about the old days -- until Bisa Bea starts to tell her how to behave. Bel learns that her great-grandmother lived in a very different time, when girls were expected to be proper young ladies.
Middle of Nowhere
by Caroline AddersonWinner of the Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize, shortlisted for the CLA Book of the Year for Children Award and the Manitoba Young Readers' Choice Award, and selected as an OLA Best Bet for 2012 At first Curtis isn’t that worried when his mother doesn’t come home from her all-night job at the local gas bar. She’ll be back, he’s ten out of ten positive. After all, she promised she would never leave him again. Besides, Curtis is used to looking after himself and his five-year-old brother, Artie, and for a time he manages things on his own, keeping their mother’s absence a secret. He knows exactly what will happen if any of the teachers find out the truth. He remembers his last horrible foster home all too clearly. Curtis gets pretty good at forging his mother’s signature, but when the credit card maxes out and the landlord starts pressuring for the rent, it’s more than a twelve-year-old can handle. Just in time, Curtis and Artie make friends with Mrs. Burt, the cranky, lonely old lady who lives across the street. And when the authorities start to investigate, the boys agree to go with Mrs. Burt to her remote cabin by the lake, and the three of them abscond in her 1957 Chevy Bel Air. At the lake, the boys’ days are filled with wood-chopping, outhouse-building, fishing, swimming and Mrs. Burt’s wonderful cooking. But as the summer sails by, Curtis can’t stop thinking about his mother’s promise. Then the weather grows colder, and Mrs. Burt seems to be preparing to spend the winter at the cabin, and Curtis starts to worry. Have they really all just absconded to the lake for a summer holiday? Or have the two boys been kidnapped? Set in Vancouver and the B.C. wilderness (the trip to the cabin involves a hilarious white-knuckled road trip through Hope), this is a book that reflects Caroline Adderson’s many writerly strengths — her "wit and a facility for dialogue, good pacing and a brisk, clean prose style" (Globe and Mail), her "close observation of telling details" (Quill & Quire) and her ability to "celebrate a child’s imagination in a realistically humorous way" (Canadian Materials).
Moses, Me, and Murder: A Barkerville Mystery
by Ann WalshIn the first novel in the Barkerville Mystery series, protagonist Ted MacIntosh tries to unravel a suspicious murder with possible fatal consequences. lt’s summer in 1866 in the Cariboo gold fields, and a man has disappeared. Young Ted learns from the local barber, Moses, that his friend Charles, who was travelling to the gold fields, has failed to arrive. And a forbidding stranger named James Barry has arrived in town wearing a gold nugget pin that belonged to the missing man. What could have happened to him? Was James Barry responsible for his disappearance? Moses and Ted are suspicious – but they’re also afraid for their own safety. Slowly, with several adventures and close calls, they unravel the story of a cruel murder. But have they identified the right criminal? Shortlisted for the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction, based on true events, and set against the exciting backdrop of the Gold Rush era, Moses, Me, and Murder offers a captivating tale of betrayal, thievery, and redemption.
The Mostly True Story of Pudding Tat, Adventuring Cat
by Caroline AddersonThe delightful adventures of a visually impaired barn cat and his annoying flea, as they set off to experience the world and find themselves participants in some of the most remarkable events of the early twentieth century.Pudding Tat is born on the Willoughby Farm in 1901 — just another one of Mother Tat’s kittens. But it turns out that Pudding is anything but ordinary. He is pure white with pink eyes that, though beautiful, do not see well, and hearing that is unusually acute. He finds himself drawn to the sweet sounds of the world around him — the pattering heartbeat of a nearby mouse, the musical tinkling of a distant stream.Soon the sounds of adventure call to Pudding, too. But before he can strike out into the wide world on his own, he hears a voice — coming from right inside his own ear. A flea has claimed Pudding as his host. The bossy parasite demands that Pudding take him away from the lowly barn and the drunken singing of his fellow fleas. He doesn’t want adventure but a finer life — one where he can enjoy a warm bed and blood flavored not with mice, but with beef tenderloin and cream.Fortunately for this mismatched pair, the world is an extremely interesting place in 1901. Over the next decade and a half, Pudding and his flea find themselves helping to make history — a journey over Niagara Falls in a barrel, a visit to the Pan-American Exposition on the day President McKinley is shot, a luxurious stay in Manhattan with songwriter Vincent Bryan, a terrifying trip on the airship America, and a voyage on the ill-fated Titanic.Through each narrow escape, the call to adventure for the cat, and luxury for his disgruntled flea, beckons them on, right to the devastation of a World War I battlefield. Then Pudding is filled with a new longing, one that brings him, with his flea’s help now, full circle and back home.Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts: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).CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.2Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text, including how characters in a story or drama respond to challenges or how the speaker in a poem reflects upon a topic; summarize the text.CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.7Analyze 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).CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.3Describe how a particular story's or drama's plot unfolds in a series of episodes as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution.