BC Books for BC Schools

Within forty-eight hours in the fall of 2014, buyers in the Sotheby’s and Christie’s New York auction houses spent $1.7 billion on contemporary art. Non-taxed freeport warehouses around the globe are stacked with art held for speculation. One of Jeff Koons’ five chromium-plated stainless steel balloon dogs sold for 50 percent more at auction than the previous record for any living artist. A painting by Christopher Wool, featuring four lines from a Francis Ford Coppola movie stencilled in b …

In the next decade, a 60-metre-high wall of compacted earth will stretch more than a kilometre across the main stem of the Peace River, causing the waters behind it to swell into a 93-square-kilometre artificial lake, drowning the best topsoil left in the BC north. The waters will swallow fifty islands and a valley that is home to farmers, ranchers, trappers and habitat to innumerable creatures big and small.

Over four days in late September 2015, Christopher Pollon paddled the 83-kilometre sect …

Naive and talented, Hana Knight is a young classical pianist who has been gifted with a musical upbringing, a magnificent Steinway piano, a place at Juilliard and a patron who arranges everything, from her Manhattan apartment to her first European tour.

In the midst of her meteoric career, Hana becomes increasingly aware of an unusual follower, a homeless woman named Jacqueline who sells handmade mittens and collects empties to buy tickets to Hana's concerts. She manages to track down the evasiv …

Price Paid: The Fight for First Nations Survival untangles truth from some of the myths about First Nations at the same time that it addresses misconceptions still widely believed today.
The second book by award-winning author Bev Sellars, Price Paid is based on a popular presentation Sellars created for treaty-makers, politicians, policymakers, and educators when she discovered they did not know the historic reasons they were at the table negotiating First Nations rights.
The book begins with g …

The West has long attracted visionaries and schemers from around the world. And no other region in North America can outstrip British Columbia for the number of utopian or intentional settlement attempts in the past 150 years. Andrew Scott delves into the dramatic stories of these fascinating, but often doomed, communities.

From Doukhobor farmers to Finnish coal miners, Quakers and hippies, many groups have struggled to build idealistic colonies in BC's inspiring landscape. While most discovered …

Red Robinson details the life and career of Red Robinson, one of Canada's most celebrated pioneers of rock and roll. Robinson began spinning hits while in high school in the early 1950s, laying the foundation for what would become a glamorous, impossible-to-stop and ultimately fulfilling career that has made him a household name west of the Rockies.

Raised by a single mother, Robinson worked as a delivery boy to help support the family. From such humble beginnings, he developed a strong work eth …

A River Captured explores the controversial history of the Columbia River Treaty and its impact on the ecosystems, Indigenous peoples, contemporary culture, cross-border politics and recent history of the Pacific Northwest.

Long lauded as a model of international co-operation, the Columbia River Treaty governs the storage and management of the waters of the upper Columbia River basin, a region rich in water resources and with a natural geography well suited to hydroelectric megaprojects. The Tre …

A YA novel about Keira, a figure skater just entering high school who's intrigued about kissing both boys and girls.

In this compelling novel for young adults, Keira is a quirky but shy teen entering her first year of high school; she navigates her growing interest in kissing both girls and boys, while not alienating her BFF, boy-crazy Sita. As the two acclimate to their unfamiliar surroundings, they manage to find new lunchmates and make lists of the cutest boys in school. But Keira is caught "i …