Search Results: 39 books from 1 publisher. Learn more

Peggy's Letters

Jacqueline Halsey (author)

Publisher: Orca Book Publishers ISBN: 9781551438344

In the final months of World War II, ten-year-old Peggy shelters with her mother and baby brother in a London butcher's shop during an air raid. They survive, but their home and everything in it are lost, including Peggy's most treasured possession, a biscuit tin of letters from her father. Their lives change dramatically and Peggy makes friends with a boy named Spud who has a passion for scavenging bombsites, leading to more than one surprising discovery.

Secret Signs

Jacqueline Guest (author)

Publisher: Orca Book Publishers ISBN: 9781551436012

The Depression has ruined Henry Dafoe's life: his father has left the family farm to look for work, his mother is sick and now she's decided to send Henry to Nova Scotia to work on his uncle's fishboat. But Henry has other ideas. He runs away from home to join his father, which proves more difficult than he imagined. Alone and scared in a strange city, he befriends an old hobo named Clickety Clack, who agrees to take him to find his father. As they make their way across the country, Clickety Clack teaches Henry about the secret signs that hoboes use to communicate with each other.

Runaway

Becky Citra (author)

Publisher: Orca Book Publishers ISBN: 9781551434421

Max is horrified when he sees Sam Black, a new neighbor, strike a boy who is in his charge, but Max still shouts, "Thief," and tries to catch the boy when he sees him steal from the General Store in The Landings. When the abused boy runs away and takes refuge in Max's secret fort in the woods, Max must decide where his loyalties lie. In the fourth volume of her historical series set in Upper Canada in the 1830s, Becky Citra tackles the serious subject of abuse while staying true to her characters and telling a gripping story.

Jo's Journey

Nikki Tate (author)

Publisher: Orca Book Publishers ISBN: 9781551435381

It's 1861 and orphan Jo has made it from Carson City, Nevada, to San Francisco without anyone figuring out that she's a girl in boy's clothing. When she hears talk of gold strikes in the Cariboo, Jo and her friend Bart sign on for what turns out to be a journey far more arduous and dangerous than anything Jo experienced as a Pony Express rider. Through it all, Jo keeps her true identity a secret. Strong men turn back but Jo forges ahead, unsure of what lies ahead but sure that her father and mother would be proud of her determination.

Lucky's Mountain

Dianne Maycock (author)

Publisher: Orca Book Publishers ISBN: 9781551436845

The year is 1935 and Maggie Sullivan's world has fallen apart. Maggie has grown up in a close-knit mining community perched atop a mountain in British Columbia. But now her father has been killed in a mine explosion and she is being forced to leave the only home she has ever known. To make matters worse, she must also leave behind her best friend Lucky, the three-legged dog that was a special gift from Pa.

Just Call Me Joe

Frieda Wishinsky (author)

Publisher: Orca Book Publishers ISBN: 9781551434223

The year is 1909 and Joseph has just immigrated to the United States from Russia. He thinks that life in New York City will be wonderful, but he has not bargained for the challenges of learning English and of resisting the pressures to skip school, steal and fight to earn a place among the boys in his neighbourhood. Just Call Me Joe presents a full picture of life in New York City for the working poor. Anna, Joe's older sister, struggles to cope with the terrible factory conditions of the time. Aunt Sophie must take in boarders to make ends meet. And Joseph must both accept change and remain true to himself in a new city with new challenges.

Jo's Triumph

Nikki Tate (author)

Publisher: Orca Book Publishers ISBN: 9781551433851

In the late 1850s in and around Carson City, struggles between the Indians and the local whites are growing. During the struggles, Joselyn, a young orphan, meets Sarah Winnemucca, a Paiute girl who becomes her friend and gives her some valuable advice. When Joselyn takes that advice and escapes from the Carson City Home for Unfortunate Children, she has no idea that her boy's disguise and her love for and expertise with horses will lead her straight to the Pony Express. Joselyn becomes Jo and turns to a life that demands all her inner strength and resources. Then the meanest man on the route learns her secret and uses it to extract a promise that kept or broken could mean death.

Jesse's Star

Ellen Schwartz (author)

Publisher: Orca Book Publishers ISBN: 9781551433738

Jesse's project about his immigrant ancestors is due tomorrow and he hasn't started. In a last-ditch effort to find some information about his great-great grandfather, Yossi, Jesse rummages through the mess in the attic until he finds a little battered travel case, full of pictures, and something else - a Star of David. At first it looks plain and unimportant, but as he holds it in his hand, the star begins to glow. Jesse is in for the surprise, and adventure, of his life as he finds himself becoming the star's first owner, his own great-great grandfather. Now a boy in Russia in the 1880s, Yossi lives in a little village, watched over by thieving soldiers who hate the Jewish community and often raid their crops before they can be stored for the winter. The whole village prays for the opportunity to slip away from their Russian keepers and escape to Canada, a land where they can be free. And nobody, even his parents, think Yossi is old enough to be of any help. But Yossi is out to prove them all wrong. If his plan works, he will set the whole village free. And he must do it alone. An adventure story for young readers, Jesse's Star is also a compelling history of one family's struggle to be free in the new world.

Emily's Dream

Jacqueline Pearce (author)

Publisher: Orca Book Publishers ISBN: 9781551438283

In the sequel to Discovering Emily, Emily Carr is determined to become an artist. But her parents have died, and she and her siblings are ruled by the iron-willed eldest, Dede. Dede is more concerned with decorum than with ridiculous dreams and is not averse to punishing Emily severely. In the face of such resistance, and in the conservative climate of nineteenth-century Victoria, Emily must find a way to make her dream come true.

Discovering Emily

Jacqueline Pearce (author)

Publisher: Orca Book Publishers ISBN: 9781551434506

Young Emily Carr has no interest in learning to be a lady. She loves animals and the outdoors, and she is beginning to discover that what she loves most of all is drawing and painting. Will she find a way to develop her talent in the straitlaced world of nineteenth-century Victoria, British Columbia?

Ellie's New Home

Becky Citra (author)

Publisher: Orca Book Publishers ISBN: 9781551433752

Ellie and her little brother Max find themselves moving from their grandmother's comfortable home in England to Upper Canada. Their mother is dead, Father wants to start over again, and in 1835 there are many opportunities for settlers in British North America. Despite the strangeness of this vast new world, Ellie is sure things will turn out all right, as long as the family stays together. But once they are in Upper Canada, Father leaves Ellie and Max with strangers on an isolated homestead, while he goes on ahead to find land and build a cabin. Although the mother and father are kind to her, Ellie makes an enemy of their daughter Mary, who is insulted by the newcomer's distant manners, fine clothes and talk of her London home. Ellie's loneliness and discomfort, however, gradually turns into a growing fear. Where is Father? Why hasn't he come back to them? A gripping story for young readers that explored the world of early settlers.

Belle of Batoche

Jacqueline Guest (author)

Publisher: Orca Book Publishers ISBN: 9781551434544

Belle, an 11-year-old Metis girl, and Sarah both want the coveted job of church bell ringer. An embroidery contest is held to award the position, and Sarah cheats. Before Belle can expose her, the two are caught up in the advancing forces of General Middleton and his troops as they surround Batoche in the 1885 Riel Rebellion. The church bell disappeared that day and remains missing to this day.

The West is Calling

Sarah N. Harvey (author), Dianna Bonder (illustrator)

Publisher: Orca Book Publishers ISBN: 9781551439389

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.

Great Lakes and Rugged Ground

Sarah N. Harvey (author), Kasia Charko (illustrator)

Publisher: Orca Book Publishers ISBN: 9781554691067

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.