For as long as she can remember, Maisie has spent her summers at her grandparents' home on Kingfisher Island. She and her beloved cousin Una run wild—inventing elaborate games and treasure hunts—and Maisie feels the warm embrace of her big, extended family, even if she isn't a true islander. And this summer Maisie needs that escape more than ever. Her parents' home is full of painful silence, and as bad as Maisie feels leaving her mother behind to deal with her father's profound depression, she can't wait to get back to the island and to see her best friend.But now everything on Kingfisher has changed: Una has returned from her mainland high school a sophisticated young woman too mature for childish games, and even worse, she has an all-consuming infatuation with David Meyer, both an old friend and an older man. Soon Maisie finds herself playing second fiddle—jealous of Una and David's closeness, and unsure of what those feelings mean.When...

Can your whole life change in a single day?Emily dreams of birds. She feels constrained by nearly everything—her overbearing sisters, the expectation to be a proper young lady, and even her stiff white pinafore.Kitty feels undone. Her heart is still grieving a tragic loss, and she doesn't want to be sent away to a boarding school so far away from home.When the two girls meet by chance, on a beach on the outskirts of Victoria, BC, in 1881, neither knows that their one day together will change their lives forever.Inspired by the childhood of acclaimed Canadian artist Emily Carr, A Day of Signs and Wonders is a sensitive and insightful look at friendship, family, and the foundations of an artist, drawn over the course of a single day—a day in which a comet appears, an artist is born and an aching hole in one girl's heart begins to heal.

For five years Gavin and his sister Norah have lived in Canada as "war guests." But now, as 1945 approaches, the war is finally ending, and Gavin and Norah will soon be going back to England.Norah, who's fifteen, is eager to see her parents again, but ten-year-old Gavin barely remembers them. He doesn't want to leave his Canadian family, his two best friends and his dog.Then something happens that forces Gavin to make the most difficult decision of his life.The Lights Go On Again is the last book in the acclaimed series that began with The Sky Is Falling and Looking At The Moon.

In the summer of 1812, as rumours of a looming war become a reality, Susanna, her mother and sister are surviving as best they can while the men are fighting. As news of various battles reaches them, Susanna becomes even more concerned for the safety and well-being of her beloved brother and father. She is also torn between the loyalties of her best friend and her mother — both Americans living in Upper Canada — and her father's and brother's allegiance to General Brock and the King. But the night of the Battle of Queenston Heights, Susanna's main concern is for survival.

From Publishers WeeklyThe combination of her own desperate wishes and a dead writer's fantasy propel the nine-year-old heroine into a dream worldAor does it? Ages 8-12. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. From School Library JournalGrade 4-7. Wishes can come true, temporarily at least. Nine-year-old Theo desperately wants to be out of her gray, loveless existence and into the middle of a large and happy family like the ones she reads about in her wonderful library books. Often neglected by her young and immature mother, she is still reluctant to leave their Vancouver apartment and go to live with her aunt in Victoria. On the ferry trip, Theo makes a wish on the new moon and is amazed when it comes true. She wakes up as part of the perfect family, with nurturing and always happy parents and four caring siblings. Now she doesn't have to dance for money on the street or worry that her mother doesn't want her. But of course, it is too good to be true, and the magic doesn't last. While her real life isn't perfect like when she was "awake and dreaming," things are changing for the better and Theo is learning to be happy. Pearson deftly weaves fantasy and reality together into a charming novel much like Sylvia Cassedy did in Behind the Attic Wall (HarperCollins, 1983). Even minor characters are well developed, and this story is intriguing from start to finish. A mysterious ghost is carefully woven into the plot and into the resolution, but the focus of the book remains on Theo's very real concerns and emotions. As readers cheer for the child's happiness, they may also learn from her determination.?Leigh Ann Jones, Carroll Middle School, Southlake, TXCopyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Norah, an English "war guest" living with the wealthy Ogilvie family in Toronto, can hardly wait for August. She'll spend it at the Ogilvie's lavish cottage in Muskoka—a whole month of freedom, swimming, adventures with her "cousins"...But this isn't an ordinary summer. It's 1943, and the war is still going on. Sometimes Norah can't even remember what her parents look like—she hasn't seen them in three years. And she has turned thirteen, which means life seems to be getting more complicated.Then a distant Ogilvie cousin, Andrew, arrives. He is nineteen, handsome, intelligent, and Norah thinks she may be falling in love for the first time. But Andrew has his own problems: he doesn't want to fight in the war, and yet he knows it's what his family and friends expect of him.What the two of them learn from each other makes for a gentle, moving story, the second book in a trilogy that began with the award-winning The Sky Is Falling.

Kit Pearson's most recent and critically acclaimed novel tells the story of the 5 Bell children, each of them coping in various ways in the aftermath of their mother's death. Set in the 1950s and seen through the perspective of the middle child, 11-year-old Corrie, A Perfect Gentle Knight illustrates how a rich fantasy life both helps and hinders children trying to cope with loss, loneliness, and growing up.While elder sister Roz is growing up and out of the desire for fantasy games, eldest brother Sebastian, who fancies himself Sir Lancelot in their Round Table game, continues to need it as much as ever, creating tension in the family and concern for Corrie, who worries that he may have lost his grip on reality.

It is the summer of 1940, and all of England fears an invasion by Hitler's army. Norah lies in bed listening to the anxious voices of her parents downstairs.Then Norah is told that she and her brother, Gavin, are being sent to Canada. The voyage across the ocean is exciting, but at the end of it Norah is miserable. The rich woman who takes them in prefers Gavin to her, the children at school taunt her, and as the news from England becomes worse, she longs for home.As Norah begins to make friends, she discovers a surprising responsibility that helps her to accept her new country.

It is 1932. Polly and her older sister, Maud, travel by trainand boat from Winnipeg to an island between Vancouverand Victoria. Polly will live with their grandmother, the sisters'new guardian, and attend the small school on the island, while Maud will go to boarding school in Victoria.Their extended family welcomes the girls warmly. New-school jitters give way to new friendships and even a new puppy, and slowly Polly feels that she is becoming part of a larger family she never knew until now. But Polly and Maud have a dramatic secret, and they have promised each other never to tell anyone. A surprise arrival on the island, however, threatens Polly's newfound happiness andtests the bonds of family love. Can Polly keep the secret and her new life on the island?

In these eleven original stories, characters bravely face the challenges of settling into a new life.In this wonderful new short story anthology, eleven of Canada's top children's authors contribute stories of immigration, displacement and change, and explore the frustration and uncertainty those changes can bring. Told in first-person narratives, this collection features a diverse cast of boys and girls, each one living at a different point in Canada's vast landscape and history.With unforgettable protagonists — such as Miriam, a Warsaw-ghetto survivor, now reunited with her family in Montreal; Wong Joe-on, a young Chinese immigrant who faces racism in a small Saskatchewan town; and Insy, an Ojibwe girl who makes her first trip to a "white" town in Northern Ontario — young readers will be moved by the opportunities and difficulties that these characters face, as each one ponders what it means to be Canadian, and struggles to fit...

At first Eliza is happy with her new life at boarding school, settling into the Yellow Dorm, making new friends, learning the rituals of school life and doing well in her classes. But a bond begins to develop between Eliza and Helen, a mischievous, unpopular girl who defies authority, plays practical jokes and doesn't seem to care what others think of her. It is Helen who starts the daring game among the first girls in the Yellow Dorm.

Kit Pearson's endearing heroine from The Whole Truth, Polly, is now thirteen and following in her sister's footsteps to a boarding school in Victoria. The adjustment is difficult— all those rules!— and Polly often escapes into her dreams of becoming an artist. At least her family is intact again, and there are no more dark and difficult secrets to be kept hidden . . . that is, until her teenage sister, Maud, makes a dramatic confession. Will Polly be able to keep this new secret? Will it tear her family apart again?

When Patricia's mother sends her to her cousins' cottage for the summer, Patricia doesn't want to go. She doesn't know her cousins at all, and she's never been good at camping or canoeing, let alone making new friends.