BC Books From the Mainland/Southwest

The new kid at Darkmont High, Cat Peters is already desperate to get out. So when she hears that Grimoire, the private school nearby, is offering scholarships to the winners of a Halloween soccer match, Cat jumps at the chance to apply, despite her sister Sookie’s warnings that there’s something creepy about the old school on the hill. Sookie’s worries are confirmed when they uncover a mystery about an entire soccer team that disappeared many years ago. Further investigation leads Cat to a …

Winner, Silver Birch Award

Finalist, BC Young Readers’ Red Cedar Award

Finalist, Saskatchewan Young Readers' Diamond Willow Award

The new kid at Darkmont High, Cat Peters is already desperate to get out. So when she hears that Grimoire, the private school nearby, is offering scholarships to the winners of a Halloween soccer match, Cat jumps at the chance to apply, despite her sister’s Sookie’s warnings that there’s something creepy about the old school on the hill. Sookie’s worries …

"Starred Selection," Best Books for Kids and Teens, Spring 2016

In the thrilling third installment in the popular Shenanigans series, Cody, Eric, and Rachel are back in the present after their time travelling adventure and ready to return to their boring lives in the sleepy town of Sultana, Manitoba. But no sooner have they settled into their old routine than they run into a suspicious pair of divers who claim to be on a mission to recover a sunken military plane. Always curious, the kids go on …

Everybody has a train story. Whether it comes from a distant relative who worked on the railways or from a family train trip that formed a lasting impression of the Canadian landscape, trains inspire a sense of wonder and nostalgia. They are embedded in the history of Canada as a whole and western Canada in particular, and for generations they were how most people travelled and saw the country. Today, trains get the most attention in the context of tragedy, in the aftermath of rare but catastrop …

Everybody has a train story. Whether it comes from a distant relative who worked on the railways or from a family train trip that formed a lasting impression of the Canadian landscape, trains inspire a sense of wonder and nostalgia. They are embedded in the history of Canada as a whole and western Canada in particular, and for generations they were how most people travelled and saw the country. Today, trains get the most attention in the context of tragedy, in the aftermath of rare but catastrop …

Although the 1848 discovery of gold in California was the first bonanza to trigger an invasion of migrants to North America’s Pacific Coast, it was relatively short-lived. Soon, grander findings farther north led to an even greater influx of gold hunters. In 1851, a twenty-seven-ounce gold nugget was found on Haida Gwaii, ushering in fifty years of gold fever that brought a wave of Californians to the Fraser River and then farther inland to the gold-laden creeks of the Cariboo.

In this masterfu …

This delightful book, with its vivid photos and simple text, will introduce young children to the enchanting world of newly born birds and the anxious dotings and feeding techniques of their moms and dads. Highlighting over forty bird species, this collection invites birdwatchers everywhere to get kids started early in enjoying North America’s most popular pastime. Baby Birds in the Wild is the perfect companion for aspiring birders of all ages.

The World, I Guess is a substantial book, six sections that demonstrate a command of a broad poetic range, a catholic range of interests, and echoes of a lifetime of reading and learning from Pound, Williams, Stanley, and others. The centrepiece is "The Flood," a long, complex, discursive poem whose subject is poesis and whose interest is in the world around the writer. But the book ends with a suite of translations of the "modern" Canadian poetry canon, from Charles G.D. Roberts and Archibald L …