I Lost My Kisses

“Where do you find kisses?” “What do kisses look like?” Matilda Rose loves to kiss. But one day, something goes terribly, horribly wrong. She loses her kisses, just before her daddy is going to come home. Matilda goes on the hysterical and thoughtful search to find her kisses. Matilda Rose learns that you can never really lose your kisses — they will always be there when you need them.

Mao’s Last Dancer

Chosen from millions of children to serve in Mao’s cultural revolution by studying at the Beijing Dance Academy, Li knows ballet would be his family’s best opportunity to escape the poverty in his rural China home. From one hardship to another, Li perseveres, never forgetting the family he left behind.

Being Bindy

Eighth grade is torture–at least it is for Bindy!(1) Her best friend since kindergarten becomes her worst enemy.(2) She’s stuck taking yoga in sports ed, where she unleashes the Very Bad Thing that gets the whole school talking.(3) She suffers total humiliation when certain unmentionables are tossed around at assembly.What’s more, Bindy’s divorced parents are behaving badly.(1) Her laid-back father looks like he’s falling for–could it be?– none other than her ex-best friend’s mother. Which means that . . .(2) . . . Bindy’s worst enemy might just end up as her sister!(3) Her domineering mom always wants Bindy to do things her way.Enough is enough! To survive the drama in her life, Bindy must make some tough decisions in this funny, searching novel about being true to yourself.

My Saucy Stuffed Ravioli: The Life of Angelica Cookson Potts

While preparing for and going on vacation to Italy with her friends and family, food-loving English teenager Angelica deals with her unrequited love for Sydney, her fear of being seen in public in a bikini, and her worries that her mother might be having an affair.

Escape from Shangri-La

When the strange man who has been watching their house turns out to be the grandfather she has never seen, eleven-year-old Cessie couldn’t be happier — at first sight. But then he has a stroke and actually has to come live with them. Popsicle, as she calls him, is impossible to live with: moody, forgetful, clumsy. Only Cessie loves him and believes in him. So when he is sent off to a home for the elderly, she helps him escape. And plays first mate to him on a dramatic nighttime boat trip across the English channel to unravel a secret only the two of them know. This Morpurgo story makes the reader want to cheer — young people, the elderly, and courage at any age.

Dancing through the Shadows

Into the pattern of Ellen’s days, filled with dance practice and vacation plans, comes an unwelcome surprise: her mother has breast cancer. Suddenly her family’s life hinges on endless rounds of hospital visits and support groups, cancer nurses and chemotherapy. Ellen learns to cope with her mother’s illness as she helps uncover an ancient secret that holds special meaning for her. As they work and learn together, her friends and teachers guide her through her own healing process shaped by life-giving water and life-affirming dance. In Dancing Through the Shadows, Theresa Tomlinson describes a family faced with a devastating crisis.

The Carbon Diaries, 2015

It’s the year 2015, a time when global warming has begun to ravage the environment. In response, the United Kingdom becomes the first country to mandate carbon rationing–a well-intentioned plan that goes tragically awry. This story of one girl’s attempt to stay grounded in a world where disaster has become the norm is told in short diary entries.

Mom and Me

A picture book collaboration that celebrates life the world over in an affectionate look at the many ways mothers and children relate to and rely upon each other. When nourishment, assistance, instruction, comfort, and special hugs are needed, Mom can offer them in special ways that only their children will ever know. The deep bond they share is beautifully depicted in these storytelling images.This delightful series is the result of the collaboration between Tundra Books and World Vision Canada to bring an array of exceptional photos from around the world to very young children. Each book centers on a universal theme, familiar by its very nature, yet new due to faraway settings and ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic diversity. Each remarkable photo essay will foster discussion, observation, and many smiles as children compare and contrast their own experience to that of others.

The Hollow Tree

Winner of the 1999 Canadian Governor General’s Award. It is 1777, and 15-year-old Phoebe Olcott is thrown headlong into the turmoil of war when her beloved cousin Gideon is hanged for being a British spy. When she finds a secret message from Gideon, containing the names of Loyalist families to be protected by the King’s soldiers, she decides to deliver it to the British general at Fort Ticonderoga. Thus begins an enthralling wilderness journey, where Phoebe is accompanied by a cat, a bear cub, and Jem Morrissay, a young Loyalist heading to British Canada himself. Award-winning author Janet Lunn has brought a little-known piece of our history to vivid life.