Escape the Mask

Coriko has never known a world beyond his cell and the fields where he toils all day. He does what he’s told and tries not to anger the Spears, the cruel, masked jailers who guard him and the other child slaves. If he gathers baskets of shards and keeps quiet and orderly, then he can spend time with his cellmate and best friend, Pippa. But without warning, the children’s orderly lives begin to change—slowly at first, with the arrival of a pair of siblings who speak Coriko and Pippa’s language. Soon after, violent events shake up the quiet world of Grassland, and Coriko must find the strength to grasp his freedom.

Caramba

Caramba is a fat, furry, striped cat with a big problem. “Every single cat in the world can fly,” he sighs, “except me!” Caramba would love to swoop and glide between the clouds, to feel the wind whistling through his fur. He tries to soar into the sky over and over again but always lands flat on his face, until finally he sadly accepts that he is earthbound. “Don’t be such a scaredy-cat,” cry his cousins. “All cats are meant to fly!” They grab his paws and whisk him up into the sky for an impromptu flying lesson that ends with a big splash and a surprising discovery.

A Song for Ba

In the Chinese opera, men traditionally sing both male and female parts. Wei Lim’s father, Ba, however, usually plays masculine characters and sings in a deep bass voice. But Wei’s grandfather played female roles, and has secretly taught Wei to sing these difficult parts. When the New World’s entertainments begin to cause a shrinking audience for the opera company, Ba is forced to play female characters.

Once upon a Full Moon

Elizabeth Quan’s father had made a success in the New World, but he longed for his home in China. So in the early 1920’s, he and his family set out on an arduous trip to the far side of the world. By train, ship, ferry, cart, and on foot, Elizabeth, her parents, and her brothers and sisters set off from Toronto to a village in China to visit the grandmother they have never met.From the mountain of luggage to the whales breaching in the Pacific and geishas on wooden sandals on the cobbled streets of Yokohama, Elizabeth Quan describes sights that would captivate any child. But hers is also a journey of personal discovery. Did she fit in in Canada, where her straight dark hair and even the foods she ate set her apart? Would she fit in in China where she was just as different to the people she met? In the course of her family’s travels she learns that home is a state of mind and that the moon can find us, no matter where we are.

Looking for X

Smart and independent, 11-year-old Khyber lives with her mom, Tammy, a former stripper, and her autistic twin brothers in a poor Toronto neighborhood. Though she doesn’t have a lot in common with her classmates, Khyber does have wonderfully eccentric friends: Valerie, Toronto’s meanest waitress, and X, a homeless woman in hiding from “the secret police.” Despite having to deal with pompous social workers who make her mother cry and ignorant kids who make remarks about her brothers, Khyber manages to enjoy herself, poring over atlases, planning exotic journeys, and taking peanut butter sandwiches to X. But when Tammy decides to move her sons to a group home for proper care, Khyber’s world starts to crumble. She fights with her mom and then gets expelled from school. To make matters worse, X suddenly disappears. Khyber sets out to find her in a wild all-night odyssey of self-discovery.

Wanda And The Frogs

On the way to school one morning, Wanda scoops some tadpoles into her sand pail. When she presents them to her teacher, the teacher agrees to let the class take care of them until they become frogs. But what will happen to the tadpoles once they grow legs and their tails begin to shrink? Wanda is worried. She wants to keep them. When she secretly moves the frogs into her own bedroom at home, Wanda’s family is in for a hilarious host of surprises. Sequel to Wanda and the Wild Hair.

Rex Zero and the End of the World

Why does everyone seem so scared? That’s what the new boy in town, Rex Norton-Norton, aka Rex Zero, wonders as he rides his bike through Ottawa’s streets. Is it spies? Kidnappers? Or is it because of the shadowy creature some say is stalking Adams Park? One thing is certain in this summer of 1962 as the Cold War heats up: nothing is quite what it seems. What’s a boy to do? If his name is Rex Zero and he has a bike he calls “Diablo,” five wild and funny siblings, an alpha dog named Kincho, a basement bomb shelter built of old Punch magazines, and a mind that turns everything inside out, he’s bound to come up with an amazing idea.

Swimming in the Monsoon Sea

The setting is Sri Lanka, 1980, and it is the season of monsoons. Fourteen-year-old Amrith is caught up in the life of the cheerful, well-to-do household in which he is being raised by his vibrant Auntie Bundle and kindly Uncle Lucky. He tries not to think of his life “before,” when his doting mother was still alive. Amrith’s holiday plans seem unpromising: he wants to appear in his school’s production of Othello and he is learning to type at Uncle Lucky’s tropical fish business. Then, like an unexpected monsoon, his cousin arrives from Canada and Amrith’s ordered life is storm-tossed. He finds himself falling in love with the Canadian boy. Othello, with its powerful theme of disastrous jealousy, is the backdrop to the drama in which Amrith finds himself immersed.

When The Bough Breaks

Millie’s is a small family — just a mother, a father, a small brother, Hamish, and her. Both her parents had been orphaned (and were introduced in Watts’ novel Flower), but the family they created was tight-knit and loving. When Millie’s mother announces that she is pregnant, it seems life is perfect. They have each other, and, although the Great Depression has brought hard times to their small town, Millie’s father’s services as a blacksmith are still in demand. But when her mother dies, suddenly everything changes. Her father retreats into depression and Millie, only thirteen, finds herself responsible for a newborn baby. When a stranger appears and threatens the remnants of the family even further, Millie musters courage she never dreamed she had to rebuild the home that means so much to her.Irene N. Watts’ memorable story is as complex and as comforting as family life itself.