Archive for August, 2016

In Root Beer Candy and Other Miracles by Shari Green, 11-year-old Bailey knows spending her first summer with Nana Marie is just one more sign of many that her parents’ marriage is in trouble. While they go on a retreat to try and salvage their relationship, Bailey and her younger brother, Kevin, are left to […]

“When the private jet that Jared is aboard crashes in Northern Alberta, Jared is “rescued” by a Cree teenager who’s spending the summer with his grandparents and younger brother at their summer camp. The plane’s pilot is badly injured and there seems to be no way for Jared to make contact with the outside world, […]

“In the whimsical picture book Going for a Sea Bath, Andrée Poulin takes young readers on a trip to the ocean…right in the bathtub! Leanne does not want to take a bath because baths are boring, and there is nothing to play with in the tub. Her father, undaunted by his daughter’s reluctance, has an […]

Bad Pirate features lovely color drawings by Dean Griffiths as it tells of Barnacle Garrick, a bold pirate captain who has a shy daughter who likes being helpful. Augusta doesn’t fit in with the crew and her helpful ways are a problem, until the crew gets in trouble. Dog characters who form the crew and […]

Next Round: A Young Athlete’s Journey to Gold takes the podium as one of CBC Books’ selections in their “15 Books for Young Readers during the Rio 2016 Games.”

The 2016 Olympics are on in Rio and the media will be trumpeting the success stories of many an athlete, but Chechen-born Canadian boxer Arthur Biyarslanov has a story like no other.  And it’s a story that John Spray, benefactor of the TD Children’s John Spray Mystery Award, tells with inspiration and appreciation in Next […]

The crash landing of his father’s private jet in the Canadian wilderness leaves rich white kid Jared stunned and the pilot badly injured, but it soon becomes clear that those are the very least of the 15-year-old’s problems. Kyle, a Cree boy of the same age, comes to Jared’s aid but isn’t able to stop […]

“Pigs and flying are the stuff of idiomatic legend, but a porker named Ollie is determined to make it happen in this offbeat story from Coates (Rocket Man) and Del Rizzo (Gerbil, Uncurled). With help from a young human friend, Jack, Ollie tries several methods of getting airborne, such as strapping branches to his body […]

“Arthur looked around the small, two-bedroom apartment in Baku, Azerbaijan, in disbelief. This can’t be our new home, he thought, a lump in his throat. There was no yard to play in. There were no fruit trees to climb. He suddenly missed his home in Chechnya very badly. He closed his eyes and saw his […]

Eleven-year-old Bailey keeps her eyes open for miracles. She and her younger brother, Kevin, are spending the summer with their grandmother while their parents are in a marriage counseling program. Bailey’s fear that her parents may separate along with concern about her new friend, Daniel, who has cystic fibrosis, leads her to look for magic […]