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AMELIA FRANCES HOWARD-GIBBON AWARD(CANADIAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION)
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JUST LIKE NEWAINSLIE MANSON
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Many children in war-torn England will not get Christmas presents, so each child in Sally's Sunday school class must bring a gift for White Gift Sunday. The gift must be wrapped in white paper and, to make the giving especially meaningful, it must be something that the giver really loves. Her brother cheats and wraps up a book he hates but Sally knows that she must give away Ann Marie, her prettiest doll. Her heart is torn in two. Will the little girl who receives Ann Marie cherish her as much as Sally does? Set in the 1940s, this beautifully illustrated story conveys the joy of giving to children of any period.
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GHOST TRAINPAUL YEE
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On one level, Ghost Train tells the story of impoverished Chinese immigrants who were exploited and killed during the construction of the transcontinental railway. On another level it tells of the bond between Choon-yi, an artistic child, and her father, one of the construction workers who lost his life. Visiting her in dream sequences after his death, Ba encourages Choon-yi to create a perfect painting of a fire-car to transport the souls of the dead Chinese workers back to their homeland so that they may rest in peace. Hauntingly beautiful oil paintings, evocative of the talent of Choon-yi, complement the finely honed narrative perfectly.
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OF THINGS NOT SEENDON AKER
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This is a finely tuned novel about family violence in which the protagonists, a 16-year-old and his mother, struggle to maintain a fragile peace within the family and the appearance of normalcy without. It is an impossible task because the only sure thing in their lives is the ferocious unpredictability of the stepfather's rage. Ben knows the importance of silence and solitude. When he "lets his guard down" with his girlfriend, his English teacher, and an octogenarian neighbour, his awful secret becomes less secure and the stage is set for a final reckoning with his stepfather and the chance to live a normal life. Ben's story, told with honesty and sensitivity, is heartbreaking but it is not without hope.
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MISTAKEN IDENTITYNORAH McCLINTOCK
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When Zanny Dugan's overprotective father dies a violent and mysterious death shortly after her picture appears in the paper, Zanny learns that there's a lot about her past that she doesn't know and that there are few people in the present that she can trust to help her. Determined to learn more about her dad, she searches through old newspapers at the public library only to discover that he was accused of stealing ten million dollars from a Chicago crime family 14 years ago. Nothing in this fast-paced mystery, however, is what it seems and Zanny and the reader have to keep their wits about them to find the right answers.
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HOW CAN A FROZEN DETECTIVE STAY HOT ON THE TRAIL?LINDA BAILEY
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Although warned about Winnipeg winters, Stevie Diamond is completely unprepared for the breathtaking cold which greets her when she and Jesse Kulniki visit Jesse's grandmother, Bobbi, during the Christmas holidays. Thawing out in Bobbi's living room shortly after their arrival, the mystery-solving duo are almost immediately thrust into a new case. Jesse's 16-year-old uncle has been accused of stealing some rare carnivorous plants from a local horticultural club and Bobbi expects them to clear his name. The detectives follow false leads, hatch ineffectual schemes, and generally blunder their way through the case before a strange twist of events leads them to the culprit, the one person they least suspected.
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THE TINY KITE OF EDDIE WINGMAXINE TROTTIER
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From the moment he gets up until the moment he goes to sleep, Eddie thinks of nothing but kites and kite flying. Because his family is too poor to buy him a kite, Eddie has to make do with his imagination and his dreams. His resourcefulness and determination inspire the other children to cheer for the invisible kite which he flies over the hill tops. Eventually, Eddie's love of kites inspires Old Chan, who organizes the annual Festival of Kites, to realize his own neglected dream of becoming a poet. Old Chan, in turn, helps to make Eddie's dream come true.
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UNCLE RONALDBRIAN DOYLE
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At 112 years of age, Mickey McGuire cannot remember the names of his nurses or what he ate for lunch. He can, however, recall "in vivid detail" the events of November 1895, when he and his mother fled from his abusive father. Sent to stay with Uncle Ronald, a gentle giant of a man, who lived north of Ottawa in the village of Low, Mickey wasn't even afraid when the army invaded. Freed temporarily from the fear of his father's violence, he was secure, for the first time in his childhood existence, in the loving embrace of his mother's cockamamie family. This bitter-sweet "memoir" is told with the humour and wisdom of a 100-year-old perspective.
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SELINA AND THE BEAR PAW QUILTBARBARA SMUCKER
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When Selina's Mennonite family moves to Upper Canada to escape the death and destruction of the American Civil War, Grandmother gives Selina a Bear Paw quilt (reproduced on the book's endpapers). The scraps of cloth in Selina's quilt come from her own baby clothes, her aunt's favourite dress, and even her grandmother's wedding dress. A link across the miles and between the generations, it is truly a precious memento which eases the heartache of so abrupt a move. This gorgeous picture book looks back in time to celebrate the importance of family history and traditions.
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REBELLION: A NOVEL OF UPPER CANADAMARIANNE BRANDIS
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In the fall of 1837, 14-year-old Adam Wheeler travels to Upper Canada aboard a crowded immigrant ship with his disparaging uncle and family. Sensitive to his uncle's scorn and to his own need for independence he quickly finds work in a paper mill on the outskirts of Toronto. He finds also that the festering malevolence between William Lyon Mackenzie's followers and the Family Compact touches everything and everyone that autumn. His uncle supports the rebels, his upper-class friends (the de Grassi sisters) support the Tories, his employers waffle, and he becomes implicated.... This is the universal story of one boy's search for self-knowledge told against a backdrop of Canadian history.
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GHOST TRAINPAUL YEE
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On one level, Ghost Train tells the story of impoverished Chinese immigrants who were exploited and killed during the construction of the transcontinental railway. On another level it tells of the bond between Choon-yi, an artistic child, and her father, one of the construction workers who lost his life. Visiting her in dream sequences after his death, Ba encourages Choon-yi to create a perfect painting of a fire-car to transport the souls of the dead Chinese workers back to their homeland so that they may rest in peace. Hauntingly beautiful oil paintings, evocative of the talent of Choon-yi, complement the finely honed narrative perfectly.
