Hockey Night in Transcona by
Cody Powell has graduated from playing pick-up hockey on the streets of Winnipeg to skating with his community club team, the Transcona Sharks. Coach Brackett is impressed with Cody's speed and stickhandling ability, and promotes him to the team's first line. Unfortunately, Cody takes Stu, Coach Brackett's son's, spot. Cody is worried that coach is too hard on Stu, and that Stu has as much right to play on the first line as he does. As the pressure to win games mounts, Cody is torn between loyalty to his coach and loyalty to his friend. Hockey Night in Transcona is a story about the conflicting pressures young hockey players face in their quest to succeed. [Fry Reading Level - 4.0
Melanie Bluelake's Dream by
The spirited heroine of Betty Dorion's juvenile novel certainly makes the best of things. She forms a close friendship with Rachel, a fellow Cree, and refuses to be bugged by Tanya, a classmate who seems determined to make her life miserable. But Melanie finds herself pulled between the familiar and the strange. She likes her new friend but never stops thinking of the gang on the reserve. She supports her single mother's efforts to better their lives by finishing high school, but longs for the loving comforts of Kokum, her grandmother back home. Melanie Bluelake's Dreamprovides a vivid child's-eye glimpse into a process happening every day on streets and in schools throughout Canada. With refreshing clarity, it captures the ambivalence felt by many Native people struggling to feel at home in an urban world of someone else's making. Betty Dorion's first novel, Melanie Bluelake's Dream, was a finalist for the Silver Birch Award in Ontario, the Young Readers' Choice Award in Manitoba, and two Saskatchewan Book Awards.
Anywhere but Here by
The prospect of a boring summer vacation turns to adventure when eleven-year-old Marjorie discovers stolen pesticides on her family's farm. It's a mystery that turns the summer on its ear and an experience that makes Marjorie see her home in a startling new light.
Where have you been, Billy Boy? by
When the old man who has taken him in becomes sick, a young orphan boy decides to take a ride on the unusual carousel that the man runs and finds himself transported from 1908 to 1993.
Forest of Reading 1997 nominee.
Silver Birch Fiction award nominee 1997.
Cougar Cove by
Eleven-year-old Sam's first visit to the remote west coast of Vancouver Island is nothing like she'd expected. Her older cousins tease "the city kid" mercilessly, when they're not ignoring her altogether. She often finds herself left to her own devices. Still, the woods and beaches around Brackenwood Point offer plenty of room to explore. Then, one day, Sam comes face-to-face with a wild cougar and her two cubs, and her summer vacation suddenly gets much more exciting.
Jacob Two-Two's First Spy Case by
Things turn sour at Privilege House, Jacob Two-Two’s private school, when the headmaster, Mr. Goodbody, is replaced by the despicable I.M. Greedyguts. Now everything is unbearable, from geography class to the ghastly lunches made by Perfectly Loathsome Leo Louse. Worse yet, nobody’s parents believe how bad it really is. Fortunately, Jacob has a new friend he can turn to for help: X. Barnaby Dinglebat, Master Spy.
Starshine on TV by
Starshine's fascination with spiders is as keen as ever, and once again she uses her arachnological interest to get herself into and out of some unique situations. This time, Starshine is working on a research project for her friends at the American Association of Arachnology. Along the way, of course, she has many adventures, including a television audition, an encounter with a burglar, and her usual frustrations with her off-the-wall parents and precocious little sister.
Finders Keepers by
Short-listed for the Sheila A. Egoff Award for Children's Literature, 1996, the Violet Downey IODE Book Award, 1996 and the Silver Birch Award, 1997 While walking through a neighbourhood field in Alberta, Danny finds an 8,000-year-old arrowhead. His friend Joshua, who lives on the Peigan reserve at Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, joins him on buffalo hunts, powwows, archaeological digs, and a break-in at the local museum. In the process Danny learns about history and gains the self-confidence to overcome dyslexia.
Summer of the mad monk by
In 1932, Pip Tyler and his family suffer the ravages of dust storms in southern Alberta, Canada.
Forest of Reading 1997 nominee.
Silver Birch Fiction award nominee 1997.
Stars by
Silver Birch Award-winning Blue Heron Award-winning Children's Book Centre Choice Award Nominated for the Manitoba Young Readers Award Joseph had never known the sky could be so big. But somehow out here in the wilderness everything was clearer. A guy noticed things he couldn't see in the city. Maybe he had just been to busy stealing and running and hiding from the cops to look up. Or maybe being stuck with a bunch of losers and social worker was beginning to get to him. Whatever it was, the sky was huge, and full of stars. The stars were what Joseph liked best.
Stars by
Silver Birch Award-winning Blue Heron Award-winning Children's Book Centre Choice Award Nominated for the Manitoba Young Readers Award Joseph had never known the sky could be so big. But somehow out here in the wilderness everything was clearer. A guy noticed things he couldn't see in the city. Maybe he had just been to busy stealing and running and hiding from the cops to look up. Or maybe being stuck with a bunch of losers and social worker was beginning to get to him. Whatever it was, the sky was huge, and full of stars. The stars were what Joseph liked best.