Canada

Materials from Canada

Laura Secord

The war between Great Britain and the United States was a bitter one. For two years, from the summer of 1812 to the winter of 1814, fierce and bloody battles were fought. Laura Secord never thought of herself as brave. She was gentle, shy, and soft-spoken. But she was brave. When American officers took over her home, demanding food, she heard them boasting about a plan that would give them an easy victory over the British troops. Laura’s husband, James, would have gladly warned the British, but he had been badly injured. It fell to Laura to make the grueling trip. Janet Lunn, one of the country’s finest writers of historical fiction, recounts the tale of Laura’s dreadful journey with fresh detail and masterly prose. Her writing is perfectly complemented by Maxwell Newhouse’s astounding paintings.

Mr. King’s Things

Mr. King likes new things. When his stuff gets the slightest bit old, he just tosses it into the pond. But when a pond monster frightens Mr. King, he must think of new ways to deal with old messes — with delightful results!

Escape to Gold Mountain: A Graphic History of the Chinese in North America

This is a vivid graphic history of the Chinese experience in North America over the last 150 years, beginning with the immigration of Chinese to “Gold Mountain” (the Chinese colloquialism for North America) in the 1800s that resulted in decades of discrimination, subjugation, and separation from loved ones. Based on historical documents and interviews with elders, the book is also the epic story of the Wong family as they traverse these challenges with hope and determination, creating an immigrant’s legacy in their new home of North America.

Pier 21: Listen to My Story

Nowadays most newcomers to North America arrive by airplane, but it wasn’t always this way. Between 1928 and 1971, approximately 1.5 million people passed through Pier 21, on the cusp of new lives after arriving in North America by boat. In this pictorial, fact-filled book for young readers, author Christine Welldon shares the true stories of nine children who remember well their voyages over and their first experiences in a new place.

We meet Heili, an Estonian girl whose father captained a tiny 18-person boat crammed with 347 people fleeing communist rule in 1948, and Jamie, a Second World War guest child from Scotland who later returned to North America to live when he grew up. Also included are stories of immigrants from Italy, the Ukraine and the Netherlands, and the children of war brides who came over to reunite with their husbands.

With over forty photos, a glossary, timeline, and sidebar features on the pier itself and the home countries of those who passed through it, Pier 21provides an excellent introduction for children to this key landmark in immigration history.

You Are Stardust

This picturebook begins by introducing the idea that every tiny atom in our bodies came from a star that exploded long before we were born. From its opening pages, the book suggests that we are intimately connected to the natural world; it compares the way we learn to speak to the way baby birds learn to sing, and the growth of human bodies to the growth of forests. Award-winning author Elin Kelsey believes children are losing touch with nature. This innovative picture book aims to reintroduce children to their innate relationship with the world around them by sharing many of the surprising ways that we are all connected to the natural world.

Grounded in current science, this extraordinary picture book provides opportunities for children to use their imaginations and wonder about some big ideas. Soyeon Kim’s incredible diorama art enhances the poetic text, and her creative process is explored in full on the reverse side of the book’s jacket, which features comments from the artist. Young readers will want to pore over each page of this book, exploring the detailed artwork and pondering the message of the text, excited to find out just how connected to the Earth they really are.

Such Wicked Intent

When his grieving father orders the destruction of the Dark Library, Victor retrieves a book in which he finds the promise of not just communicating with the dead, but entering their realm, and soon he, Elizabeth, and Henry are in the spirit world of Chateau Frankenstein, creating and growing a body.

Shadows Cast By Stars

To escape a government that needs antigens in aboriginal blood to stop a plague, sixteen-year-old Cassandra and her family flee to the Island, where she not only gets help in communicating with the spirit world, she learns she has been chosen to be their voice and instrument.

Shannen and the Dream for a School

Presents the true story of Shannen Koostachin and the people of Attawapiskat, a Cree community just below the Arctic Circle, who have been fighting for a new school since 1979, when a fuel spill contaminated their original school building.