This gentle and humorous story gives youngsters the reassuring message that the world cherishes children. Wizzo the Wizard, who lives on the moon, becomes bored while his wife is away on a trip, so he decides to bake a batch of cookies. But he makes a mistake in the recipe and, when Ms. Wizzo returns, she finds the house full of real, live babies – one hundred and forty-four, to be exact! Of course, she loves them all!
In a new town, in a new school, fourteen-year-old Terra is experiencing many of the trials and tribulations that face her peers. She isn’t finding it easy to make new friends, nor leave behind her old ones. And while some of the new Inglewood girls seem kind of exciting, is that the crowd she really wants to hang out with? And what about that cute guy Glenn from the new school? Could he possibly want to be friends with Terra – or more? Terra has many, ultimately crucial, choices to make. All of these are normal stresses for a teenaged girl. But on top of all of these, Terra, who has always known she was adopted, is panicked at the thought of meeting her birthmother for the first time. Why didn’t this woman want to keep her baby fourteen years ago, and why has she decided she wants to meet Terra now? This is the follow-up to A Hole in the Hedge, which was shortlisted for the Canadian Library Association Children’s Book of the Year and brings to the page another moving story about the angst of being a teen.
New Year’s 1955 is coming up fast, and eleven-year-old Vivian is determined to buy a snazzy new diary. The diary is soon put to good use, as Vivian must untangle the web of problems in her life, including a stolen keepsake of her grandfathers and her constantly arguing parents. Does her grandfather suspect her when he realizes one of his greatest treasures is missing? Does her father really mean it when he says hes leaving? Compelled to do everything in her power to keep her family together, Vivian, a natural trouble-magnet and her own worst enemy, must work through these humongous problems.
Homicide becomes more than an academic study for Toronto criminologist Ted Boudreau when his own suburban home is burglarized, with deadly results. Was his computer targetted because of his interest in a secretive biker gang? Teds attempts to deal with the aftermath bring him into conflict with family, police detectives, and the Crown prosecutor assigned to the caseas well as with his university colleagues, whose penal philosophy Ted no longer believes can stand the test of real-life experience. His pursuit of justice must compete with his duty not to compromise the source of his dossier on the ruthless Dark Arrows Motorcycle Club.
The life of fiftyish Jessie Dearborn takes an unexpected turn when a ruthless developer threatens to cut down century-old trees in her small northern town in order to build a condominium. Surprising even herself, she steps in front of a chainsaw to defend the trees she loves. As the fight to save the trees intensifies, a group of gutsy, quick-witted older women joins the battle and explodes the issue into the newsmedia. At this turning point in her life, a native man helps Jessie by teaching her to trust her own instincts. Passion erupts between them and Jessie discovers a middle-aged sexuality as hot as the midday sun. Like a Group of Seven painting, Tree Fever is a love affair with nature, its wisdom, raw colours and elemental beauty.
Short-listed for the 2008 Red Maple Award Keira, kidnapped from Ireland by Vikings, is a slave living in legendary Vinland. Two native bands, the Beothuck and the Thule, are also fighting over the land, thrusting the Norsemen into war. While the Vikings search for a new home, an accident at sea leaves Keira miraculously saved by a Beothuck warrior. Keira settles into the Beothuck way of life, learning their customs and coming to care for them. But she dreams of risking everything in order to find a way home. Ultimately, she is torn between the cultures in which she has livedher homeland, the Viking world in which she was welcomed, and her new Beothuck family. This is a thrilling adventure and an exciting introduction to the history of Canada.
Thirteen-year-old Jane Covington doesn’t want to go to Sky Lake to visit her grandmother for the summer holidays – she wants to visit her father in the north. But when she returns to the cottage on the lake with the tall cliff, she is happy to be back in the golden country sunshine. However, Jane soon involves herself in a mystery when she finds a seventy-year-old cry for help in the form of a very old letter. She traces it to the story of a suspicious fire that took place long ago. With the help of her friend Corrie and the troubled, handsome Jess, Jane researches the age-old mystery to an exciting conclusion. This suspenseful tale will appeal to all pre-teens who love the fun of the outdoors and a good mystery.
Short Candles is a novel about possibility, choice and acceptance and is remarkable for its insights into human nature. Opening in the 1960s, it spans some forty years in the life of Suzanne Cardinal, who has the giftor bears the burdenof foresight. While she becomes a visionary to some people in her home town, to her family she is the difficult child who was unable to warn them of an impending death. But Suzanne has little control over the manifestation of her gift. She speaks only when she has a vision and ends by hurting both those she warns and those she does not warn. Suzanne grows up confused, with her mental health in question, as she careens through her youth obsessed with Marc Bolan and the British band T.Rex. Early in the new century, she faces a decision that is the culmination of her internal struggle with freedom and responsibility. In the end it is her understanding of neither, but of love, that guides her.
In this Christmas classic, six-year-old Sarah is determined to make the very best snowman possible, without the help of her older brother. When she sees her snowman, Max, come to life in a Christmas Eve frolic, her family refuses to believe her story. Although Sarah thinks she has proof that it was not all a dream, she decides in the end to keep the knowlege of her snowman friend as her very own special secret.
Feeling somehow to blame for her father’s absence, thirteen-year-old Jennifer Bannon struggles to hang on to her dream that he will return and they can be a family again – a dream that doesnt include her mother’s new boyfriend, nights of looking after her little sister or a ninth grade year that is rapidly going down the toilet. Finally after two years of waiting Jennifer learns that her father is back in town, and suddenly the dream seems within reach. However, hope quickly turns to horror when Jennifer witnesses an event that threatens to tear apart her family and perhaps destroy the life of someone she loves. Will Jennifer be able to unravel the mystery in time, or will keeping a secret turn deadly?