Americas

Materials from the Americas

Nowhere Else On Earth

You don’t have to live in the Great Bear Rainforest to benefit from its existence, but after you read Nowhere Else on Earth you might want to visit this magnificent part of the planet. Environmental activist Caitlyn Vernon guides young readers through a forest of information, sharing her personal stories, her knowledge and her concern for this beautiful place. Full of breathtaking photographs and suggestions for ways to preserve this unique ecosystem, Nowhere Else on Earth is a timely and inspiring reminder that we need to stand up for our wild places before they are gone.

Visit http://www.greatbearrainforest.ca to find teacher and student resources, view the online photo gallery, or read a sample chapter from the book. To access the free teacher’s guide for Nowhere Else on Earth, click here:http://orcabook.com/nowhereelseonearth/guides/teachersguide.pdf.

A Troublesome Boy

Teddy can’t believe how fast his life has changed in just two years. When he was twelve, his father took off, and then his mother married Henry, a man Teddy despises. But Teddy has no control over his life, and adults make all the decisions, especially in 1959. Henry decides that Teddy should be sent to St. Ignatius Academy for Boys, an isolated boarding school run by the Catholic church.

St. Iggy’s, Teddy learns, is a cold, unforgiving place — something between a juvenile detention center and reform school. The other boys are mostly a cast of misfits and eccentrics, but Teddy quickly becomes best friends with Cooper, a wise-cracking, Wordsworth-loving kid with a history of neglect. Despite the priests’ ruthless efforts to crack down on the slightest hint of defiance or attitude, the boys get by for a while on their wits, humor and dreams of escape. But the beatings, humiliation and hours spent in the school’s infamous “time-out” rooms, and the institutionalized system of power and abuse that protects the priests’ authority, eventually take their toll, especially on the increasingly fragile Cooper.

Then one of the new priests, Father Prince, starts to summon Cooper to his room at night, and Teddy watches helplessly as his friend withdraws into his own private nightmare, even as Prince targets Teddy himself as his next victim.

Mayfly

School is over! Hurry, pack up all your summer clothes (don’t forget your bathing suit!), load everything into the car, and find a spot in the backseat. Summer is about to begin. The siblings in Marthe Jocelyn’s new picture book can’t wait to get to the cottage. The smell of pine needles, the first swim off the dock, playing summer games, and greeting their old friend, the rowboat Mayfly, are among the summer fun that young readers will identify with. Delightfully illustrated with Jocelyn’s signature collages, Mayfly captures the incomparable excitement of the beginning of summer vacation and those seemingly endless days that follow, which children (and grown-ups) look forward to all year round.

Mia’s Secret

Mia is little and feeling utterly powerless. She has promised to keep a secret, but now this secret feels wrong. And now that she has played the secret game, she is frightened — frightened that “he” will be angry if she tells, frightened that no one will understand. Only her stuffed bear, Tikki, has seen everything and knows how much this secret hurts. He comes again and again. Mia tries to stop him, but now he’s angry with her. If only she hadn’t made the promise. Then, Mia has an idea. Tikki has promised nothing. Maybe Tikki can speak to her mother and stop the hurt at last.

Something Good (Classic Munsch)

Tyya’s dad won’t buy anything good at the store – no ice cream, no candy, no cookies. But when the saleslady puts a price sticker on Tyya’s nose, Daddy is finally forced to buy something good.ot;Michael Martchenko’s illustrations…are lively, simple and expressive. The characters practically jump off the page.”/>- Quill & Quire