Canada

Materials from Canada

X Doesn’t Mark the Spot: Tales of Pirate Gold, Buried Treasure, and Lost Riches

Anyone who has fantasized about becoming fabulously rich overnight can relate to this collection of treasure hunt stories–tales of buried pirate gold, of hidden outlaw loot, of wrecked ships loaded with valuable coins and jewels, and of “lost” gold mines. Some of the stories are tall tales based on little evidence. Many a dreamer wasted money, energy and perhaps even a lifetime chasing after a pot of gold that did not exist. But some hidden treasures are real, even if the stories about them are exaggerated. Many of the stories came down to us from an age in which pirates were said to be in league with the devil and supposedly used black magic to protect their hidden plunder.

Ed Butts’s tales of adventure, of shattered hopes, and, occasionally, of dreams come true expose the greed and the challenges that motivated the searchers. A few of them got lucky. But X didn’t mark the spot for most of these adventurers–and that means undiscovered treasures still lie ready to ignite the imagination.

Mazes around the World

Puzzling and mysterious, mazes and labyrinths have fascinated people around the world for centuries. From England to Egypt, Greece to South Africa and beyond, travel on an exciting journey as you discover the secrets of these patterns.

Sunwing

Shade, a young silverwing bat in search of his father, discovers a mysterious Human-made building containing a vast forest. Could his father be there? Home to thousands of bats, the indoor forest is warm as a summer night, teeming with insect food, and free from the tyranny of the deadly owls. But Shade and his friend Marina aren’t so sure this is paradise. Shade has seen Humans enter the forest and take away hundreds of sleeping bats for an unknown purpose. And where is Shade’s father? Before long Shade and Marina are on a perilous journey to the far southern jungle, where the vampire bat Goth rules as king of all the cannibal bats. Now Shade must use all his resourcefulness to find his father — and stop Goth from creating eternal night.

This is a companion to  Kenneth Oppel’s Silverwing.

Mcfig and Mcfly: A Tale of Jealousy, Revenge, and Death (with a Happy Ending)

From the unparalleled Henrik Drescher comes a wickedly funny story about the perils of runaway rivalry (with a happy ending). McFig lives with his daughter, Rosie, in a lovely little cottage far away from anywhere big and important. One day, McFly and his son, Anton, buy the land next door. At first McFig and McFly hit it off big-time and build McFly a cottage modeled exactly after McFig’s house. But then the two start to add things onto their houses — a medieval tower, a second-story playroom and soon McFig and McFly are in a lifelong competition to be bigger and better than each other.

Silent Observer

“I was born, like my seven brothers and sisters, in a house atop a hill overlooking lovely Bras d’Or Lake”. So begins Christy MacKinnon’s story of life as a little girl in 19th-century Nova Scotia, Canada. Through wonderful images created with her own words and her watercolors, she tells of a simple, charming life on the family farm; of learning with her father, the master of her town’s one-room schoolhouse; and of her eventual travel to Halifax to attend a “special” school. As with many children in the 1800s, Christy became deaf after a “seige of whooping cough”, a sickness common then, which she barely survived.

Silent Observer opens to young readers a world rarely seen today. They will be thrilled by her family’s ride in a horse-drawn sleigh over a frozen northern lake, and her close encounters with a noisy bull and a “gentleman” ram. Children and adults alike will warm to her cheerful memories of the simple pleasure of playing in a flower-filled field with her brothers and sisters. They will discover, too, that young Christy crossed paths with many vital figures of the day, beginning with frequent visits by Alexander Graham Bell, and later with a momentous meeting with Helen Keller.

Silent Observer is a delightful memoir told as it was seen through the eyes of a lively child. It is also a meaningful record of life for a deaf child and her family in the far reaches of Canada at the end of an era. Silent Observer is a beautiful, sensitive story that is sure to be enjoyed by everyone.

A Prairie Year

The year begins with hockey, icefishing, and a snowmobile race. Spring brings renewal: the arrival of piglets, baby chicks in the farm kitchen; and outside, the fields are seeded. In summer, there’s a dinosaur park to be visited; a calf is groomed for the fair and wheat tested between grandfather’s fingers. In fall, a farm auction becomes a party, trick-or-treating is done by pick-up truck, and Clydesdales are driven by teams competing at the world’s great farm fair.The glorious year ends with the arrival of Santa on the main street at night in a pickup truck, while beyond in the dark is the infinite mystery of the prairies.

Black Stars In A White Night Sky

Black Stars in a White Night Sky, Lawson’s second book of poetry for children, includes fractonyms, concretes, as well as short lyrics and poems that don’t rhyme. Lawson stretches the boundaries of what is normally thought of as children’s poetry, but not at the expense of the books entertainment value or clarity. The poems are written within hearing of both children and adults; philosophy and tomfoolery are equally at home in this exemplary new tome.

Porcupine

War-torn Afghanistan could not seem farther from Newfoundland, but it is about to change twelve-year-old tomboy Jack Cooper (or Jacqueline, as her mother insists on calling her) forever. When her father is killed in the war, she watches helplessly as her mother crumbles under sorrow and depression. Jack and her younger sister and brother, Tessa and Simon, end up across the country, living on a run-down farm in a small town on the Prairies with a great-grandmother they didn’t know existed. Worried that they will be abandoned again if Gran moves into a retirement home, Jack puts on a brave face and encourages Tessa and Simon to take on the challenges of their new life. In the process, she learns that families come in many different forms and that love, trust, and faith can build a home anywhere.

How to Catch a Fish

Thirteen linked verses and handsome, mood-drenched paintings show how we catch fish from New England to the Arctic, to Japan and Namibia and beyond. This lovely picturebook about fishing, geography, people and customs, and the bond between parent and child fishing together will appeal to everyone who’s cast a line in the water.