Canada

Materials from Canada

Walking The Maze

Books can be dangerous, and so can imagination. This is the story of Annice, who has too much of both. Annice is fascinated by a picture in an art gallery. Taken by surprise, she finds herself going in to the picture, and watching the lives of the people there. She doesn’t realize the danger at first. Not until it’s too late. Annice finds herself sucked further and further into the world of the painting, until it becomes more real to her than real life. Like sleepwalking, like fantasy, she becomes part of other people’s lives, until she no longer knows what is real and what isn’t. Imagination, stories, and lies become so closely linked that Annice can’t distinguish between them. She’s told so many lies that she can no longer remember them all. Soon, she knows, she’ll be found out. And all the while, inside the world of the painting, there is an alternative life, a beautiful garden, and a tragedy waiting to happen. Interest age: 12+.

Skinny

Holly’s older sister, Giselle, is self-destructing. Haunted by her love-deprived relationship with her late father, this once strong role model and medical student is gripped by anorexia. Holly, a track star, struggles to keep her own life in balance while coping with the mental and physical deterioration of her beloved sister. Together, they can feel themselves slipping and are holding on for dear life.  This honest look at the special bond between sisters is told from the perspective of both girls, as they alternate narrating each chapter.  Gritty and often wryly funny, Skinny explores family relationships, love, pain, and the hunger for acceptance that drives all of us.

Theories of Relativity

Sixteen-year-old Dylan Wallace is living on the streets not through any choice of his own, unlike some of the teenagers he meets in the same situation. He’s been cut loose by his unstable mother, and lost most contact with his two younger brothers. He has nothing but his backpack stuffed with a few precious belongings and the homeless kids he meets. At least he has his theories. No one can take those away from him. Like how every fourth person throws him spare change; how no one does anything for anyone without a price; and how he just might be able to find a place in this complicated world.

My New Shirt

Receiving the yearly birthday gift from his grandmother has become David’s living nightmare. The “surprise” she always has for him never varies. How can he stop this never-ending flow of stiff, white, scratchy shirts — “perfect gentlemen” shirts that make him squirm and pull and shift and twitch? David closes his eyes and imagines a long line of shirts — one for every year of his life — stretching on forever. Then suddenly, without really intending to, he has done the unthinkable. “DAVID!” his mother screams. And when David opens his eyes, there are his mother, his father, and his bubbie staring at him. The shirt is no longer in his hands. He has thrown it out the window! Now it is out on the street, in the jaws of his dog, and the very merry chase is on. Bitingly funny and keenly observed, My New Shirt is graphically presented as a photo album commemorating David’s desperate act of liberation from a family tradition badly in need of a change.

The Mystery of the Martello Tower

Hazel and Ned are home for summer vacation and looking forward to long, lazy days of sleeping late, shooting hoops, building stink bombs, and spending time with their art-dealer father. But when he disappears without saying good-bye, their summer plunges into chaos. The babysitter leaves town, their apartment is burgled, and two menacing thugs start turning up everywhere. Ned and Hazel try escaping to an island castle belonging to long-lost relatives, only to find there’s no escaping this adventure. As the siblings work to untangle the threads that ensnare their father, they learn of a second, darker secret—one that surrounds their mother’s death years ago. Only by solving both mysteries can they bring their father home.

The House that Max Built

Having worked construction for many years, author and illustrator Maxwell Newhouse shows young readers step-by-step how houses are built in this picture book. From drawing up the plans to excavating the site to laying the foundation, the unique and colorful paintings move through the seasons as Max builds the house of his dreams. Watch the framing crew as they build a floor frame to hold the house, raise the walls into place, and make the roof frame. See them install the windows and doors, bricklayers build the outside walls with bricks and mortar, and roofers nail the shingles into place. Follow the plumber as he puts in the water lines, the electrician as he installs the wiring, and the drywaller as he places wallboard on the inside walls. Along come the tile setter, floor layer, cabinetmaker, and painter, who all do their part to make Max’s house beautiful as his mischievous little dog romps through the pages. Finally, when the property has been landscaped with plants, trees, grass, and stones, Max moves into his beloved new home.

With a list of all the trades and a description of what they do, The House That Max Built is a must-have for any child with a natural curiosity and a passion to build things.

The Long Road

Although life is difficult in José’s Central American village, he enjoys playing football with his friends, sharing the large meals cooked by his aunts, and even going to school. But a civil war breaks out in his country. Outspoken people like his mother are in danger, so José and his mother must flee.The road north to make a new home is arduous and very long, but it is only the beginning of hard times. They face days of paperwork and nights in a hostel for refugees. Even when his mother finds work as an office cleaner, they must rely on a food bank.Slowly, the pieces of this new life begin to come together as José and his mother realize that they have finally arrived at the happy end of a very long road.

Thing-Thing

Thing-Thing was neither a Teddy bear nor a rabbit; not a stuffed dog or cat. It was something like each of those, and nothing at all you could name. But it had something special. It had the hope that one day it would find a child to love it and talk to it and make it tea parties and take it to bed. A child it could love back. Certainly Archibald Crimp was not that child. He had just thrown Thing-Thing out the open sixth-floor window of the Excelsior Hotel. Oh, dear, thought Thing-Thing to itself. This is bad, this is very bad.

The Crazy Man

This novel in verse tells the story of a 11-year-old girl struggling to recover after a farm accident leaves her crippled and fatherless.

After Emaline, 11, is crippled by a farm accident with her father’s tractor, Daddy kills her beloved dog, Prince, and walks away from the farm. Mom takes in Angus from the local mental hospital to help with the farm work, but the neighbors complain about the crazy man on the loose. Emaline never denies Angus’ illness, but she sees his kindness and strength, and they help each other with their work and with their grief.