Michael Maxwell McCallum lives in a world just like ours, but peopled by superheroes. When Michael's hero, Perfect Man, quits his job without warning, Michael isn't worried. He knows that Perfect Man will come back. He always does. So that September, when a new teacher shows up in his classroom, a teacher with a number of special powers, Michael figures it out right away. Mr. Clark is Perfect Man. Mr. Clark doesn't say yes and he doesn't say no to Michael's endless questions, but he does encourage Michael to find his own super powers.
Tom loves running through cow fields with his best friend, Peggy, and his dog, Amos-especially when he's pretending to be his favorite radio hero, the Lone Ranger. But when Tom learns the nearby Fraser River is about to flood, he may have to become a real-life hero and help save his family's herd of dairy cows. This story is based on real events that happened in the farming community of Agassiz during the Fraser River flood of 1948.
If you dug a hole to the other side of the earth, where do you think you would end up? In this wordless picturebook, pictures tell Ben's story of a midnight journey through the center of the earth and the surprising journey home. Ben's mother has dropped him off for a visit with his grandmother, a woman with a penchant for baking. Ben feels lost and lonely until he discovers a chest full of mining gear. He embarks on an adventure that will make him grateful for the hundreds of pies stacked in his grandmother's kitchen.
Yankel loves to tell stories, as long as they are someone else's. He does not see the hurt that his stories cause, the way they spread and change. Then the rabbi hands him a bag of feathers and tells him to place one on every doorstep in the village. Yankel is changed by what happens and finds himself with his best story yet, one of his very own.
Ben's Bunny Trouble is set in a near future in which the world has lost all its green space. When Ben decides that the city is not the best place for his bunnies, he embarks on an out-of-this-world journey to find them a better home. It takes a few false landings and help from a variety of aliens, but in the end, Ben finds his bunnies - which seem to have multiplied - a new place to live.
In Justine McKeen, Walk the Talk, the second book in the Justine McKeen series, Justine decides there are too many cars idling in front of her school. So she comes up with a solution that should help keep the air cleaner. But she soon discovers not many adults trust her crazy ideas.
In the summer of 1883 a famous clipper ship ran aground off the coast of Prince Edward Island near the home of a young girl named Lucy Maud Montgomery. Lucy Maud, who became one of Canada's most beloved writers, wrote about the grand adventure in her journals and reflected on it years later in her notebooks. The town of Cavendish was transformed by the presence of the crew, and the ship's captain stayed with Lucy Maud and her strait-laced grandparents. Lynn Manuel has taken Lucy Maud's memories and shaped them into a story that will transfix and enchant readers.
In this fresh take on a classic tale, a magic meat grinder helps a poor Jewish couple learn a little gratitude after the three wishes it grants them go awry. A cautionary story that questions today's consumerism and excessiveness, Kishka for Koppel, like the best folktales, can help children and adults alike to look both beyond and within.
Kioko had been watching the matatus come and go for as long as he could remember. But today, for his fifth birthday, he climbs aboard one with his grandfather. As the matatu pulls away from the market, the village dogs chase after them. When Kioko asks his grandfather why the dogs always bark and chase after matatus, his grandfather tells him an entertaining tale about a dog, a goat and a sheep. Set in East Africa, The Matatu is a colorful story filled with many unexpected turns and twists along the way.
Tova lives with her family on a small farm in the famous town of Chelm, a mythical village populated, according to Jewish folklore, by fools. Tova's farm has hens and even a rooster, but no cow. Her mother, Rivka, wishes they could afford to buy a cow, so they could have fresh milk and butter every day. One night Tova's father has a dream about how to get milk without actually owning a cow. He asks Tova to help him find a way to get milk from their hens, and the results are hilarious. Finally, to the family's joy and the hens' relief, the problem is solved by none other than the wise Rabbi of Chelm himself, and a little extra help from Tova.
Maxine loves her giant tree in the Walbran Valley, but as she gazes at clearcuts from the car window, she worries. What if her tree is gone? Her family and friends trek through the old growth forest, and Maxine runs on ahead to check. Yes, her tree is there. She stands at its foot and listens, but it doesn't make its special sound, "Keer, keer." She will soon learn that "Keer, keer" is the sound a marbled murrelet (a mamu) makes. The mamu is an endangered seabird that flies far from the sea to nest in the high flat branches of the Sitka spruce. When a tree-climber confirms the presence of a mamu nest, Maxine's tree will be safe forever.
Combining evocative haiku, informative text and luminous illustrations, The West Is Calling is a celebration, for our youngest readers, of one hundred and fifty years of British Columbia's history. Each detail-rich illustration depicts a particular moment in the province's dynamic saga, from pre-contact Haida culture, to the natural resources-fueled economic boom in the 1960s and beyond, to Expo 86, to the opening up of the North and the growing appreciation of First Nations' traditions.
Combining evocative haiku, informative text and luminous illustrations, Great Lakes and Rugged Ground is a celebration, for our youngest readers, of more than four hundred years of Ontario's history. Each detail-rich illustration depicts a particular moment in the province's dynamic saga from first European contact, the War of 1812, the building of the railroad and the Rideau Canal, the early development of the industries that have made the province the backbone of the national economy, through the emergence of a unique Canadian cultural identity, the hardships of two World Wars and modern industrial development. Great Lakes and Rugged Ground will give young readers a vivid sense of Ontario's rich history.
