BC Books From Vancouver Island & the Coast

Five minutes. That's all it takes for Sylvia to fulfill a life's ambition and simultaneously blast fracture lines through her most important relationships.

Sylvia, fourteen, rides her horse in a cross-country competition, proving herself as an athlete, despite being an undeveloped shrimp with Turner Syndrome.

Unfortunately, her coach is furious that Sylvia rode too fast, and her cousin considers her irresponsible. Her mother would prefer that Sylvia focus on her health, start hormone treatment and …

Susan Telfer's intense poems in Ghost Town are possessed of a wild brilliance all their own. There is a raw, unruly, exhumed energy coming to the surface of these poems, which is the source of their power. This book's themes are identity, a struggle for self, invention and re-invention, against the undertow of family dysfunction, of ancestral influences, of grief and loss. They are rooted in the West Coast, explicitly located on the fault line as well as in dreams. Sometimes poetic forms offer t …

Waiting for the Albatross is Sandy Shreve's fifth collection of poetry. It features found poems composed using fragments from a diary her father, Jack Shreve, wrote in 1936 when, at age 21, he embarked overseas as a deck hand on a freighter. The five-month trip took him from Halifax, through the Panama Canal and across the Pacific to New Zealand and Australia; then back again, docking at Montreal. Shreve's poems are illustrated with photos from the journey, taking the reader into the life of a y …

Miranda Pearson's exquisite poems in The Fire Extinguisher reveal the individual psyche in a way that is both painstakingly beautiful and generous. No detail is too small to find a place in her constantly shifting vision of how we live in the contemporary world. Conscious of how vulnerable she is in this detached gypsy life many of us are forced to live, she longs for something more stable, more permanent. To find an answer, she travels the globe and asks the question, how do we cope with the un …

On the last day of high school, Sophie's boyfriend breaks up with her. It turns out he thinks she is too predictable, too responsible, too mature...too boring.
When Sophie turns to her best friend, Ella, for comfort and reassurance, Ella just confirms what her boyfriend has said. And that hurts even more.
Then Ella comes up with a plan to help Sophie find her wilder side. In the ninety days between the end of high school and the start of university, she is going to arrange for Sophie to do am …

Cricket McKay is on the case!

Cricket McKay and her best friend, Shilo, are enjoying the last few weeks of summer vacation when they discover that something is killing bats around Grandpa McKay's farm. Could the new wind turbines be the cause? The kids do some detective work and then jump into action coming up with a plan to save the bats.

Bats in Trouble is the third book featuring animal-activist Cricket MacKay. The epub edition of this title is fully accessible.

The compelling story of one family’s life among the rugged landscapes of British Columbia's Coast Mountains, converting youthful ideals, raw land and a passion for the outdoors into a practical off-grid homestead.

Rob Wood grew up in a village on the edge of the Yorkshire Moors, where he eventually developed a preoccupation with rock climbing. After studying architecture for five years at the Architectural Association School in London, England, he made his way to Montreal and ended up in Calgar …

A colourful, imaginative story for adventurers of all ages that dream of falling asleep on a beach made of stars at the edge of the world.

Surf’s up and it’s time for another Nuptse and Lhotse adventure!

When the cats find Salish, a Purple Ochre Starfish, in a puddle, Nuptse and Lhotse are determined to help Salish get back home. The trio will travel across mountains and orchards, explore a coastal city’s many attractions, take an extraordinary ferry ride along the bottom of the Salish Sea …