National Network for Equitable Library Service

Nancy McDonald's career as a journalist included the television programs W5, Canada AM, and Marketplace; she then went on to become a sought-after freelance writer, penning everything from documentaries to live-action scripts to comic books. Boy from Berlin is her first full-length novel. She's working on a sequel. Nancy lives in Stratford, Ontario, where she revels in Shakespeare, takes theatregoers on tours of the Costume Warehouse, and treads the boards with the Perth County Players.

Intrigued by the unlikely invitation from a detective in Vienna to prove she murdered her lover, Harry Lindstrom finds himself in a strained alliance with a woman who seems to have stepped out of a painting by Klimt. His chaotic pursuit to unravel her story leads him home to Toronto, then back to Vienna, Salzburg, and salt mines near the ancient village of Hallstadtt, where stories from the past and present merge with horrific finality. Lindstrom's Progress is the second in a trilogy, between Lindstrom Alone and Lindstrom Unbound.

"It was February 29 again, and I was wondering which member of my family would try to kill me this time." From this intriguing premise, the stories in this collection of short fiction by new Canadian writers map out fifteen wildly different approaches to the same terrain. From comedies about vampire conversions and French-Canadian werewolves to tense family dramas about humanoid robots and fairy-zombie hybrids, these stories chart a new set of possibilities for short fiction in Canada today.

Yale Templeton, an undistinguished professor of History at a university in Toronto, has made a shocking discovery: Abraham Lincoln was not, in fact, assassinated, but faked his own death so that he could assume a new identity and move to Canada. And the reason for Lincoln's ruse? Even more shocking. When the news breaks, the sitting President enlists his chief security officers to find the incriminating evidence and silence Templeton. Lincoln's Briefs is both a burlesque of university life and a satiric unravelling of Canadian - and American - national identity.

Shortlisted for the Canadian Library Association's Book of the Year for Children Award. Becca has often gone with her parents to visit Gran at her rustic cabin by the sea. But this year Becca's mother is expecting a baby, and Becca visits her grandmother on her own. The prospect of spending time at Gran's - with her peculiar plumbing and ridiculous Scrabble rules - is hardly appealing. Then, on her very first night, Becca finds an oyster full of pearls. One pearl for every adventure to come?

Charity takes small steps to escape her controlling father. Jasmine endures the rumors about her at school, even though no one really knows what happened last summer. The Oh! So Perfect Hair Dolly wishes for just the right child to take her home from the store. Nicola has a run-in with a classmate on her first day at a new school in the big city - or is the classmate a wolf in disguise? A squirrel ruminates on the nature of life and death. Dani fights for her dream, in spite of her father's insistence that her older brother should be the one to play hockey.

When a circus train derails in Toronto in 1925, a lion escapes and finds shelter in High Park, a four-hundred-acre park in the west end of the city. No one knows about the creature except for Sadie Menken, the feisty daughter of a pie-maker. As various squirrels, dogs and an expensive peacock meet unfortunate ends, and the park "beast" is spotted by visitors, the lion's presence draws the attention of the authorities. Can Sadie save the lion? Can she resist the temptation to try to make a pet of a creature that is wild at heart?

Thirteen-year-old Jewel has been holding her life together ever since her older sister, Charmaine, suddenly left home with no forwarding address. She tried to find Charmaine once, but that only brought her family to the attention of the police. Now Jewel keeps her head down at school, looks after her special-needs brother as well as she can, tries to steer clear of her parents and their shady friends. Until one of her father's friends comes into her bedroom at night, and finally Jewel understands why Charmaine had to leave home.

When eleven-year-old Becca returns to her grandmother's rustic cottage for another summer, she finds herself seeing her beloved island in new ways. A hunting owl mistakes a bobbing ponytail for prey. A cozy sleepover on the beach takes on the tinges of a nightmare when a family of river otters shows up to claim their territory. An argument between a nestbound baby eaglet and its haranguing mother reaches operatic dimensions. Becca finds a dead bear on the beach and helps to give it a burial at sea. Then there are dramas of the human variety.

Ava travels to Beijing for the premiere of her secret lover Pang Fai's latest film, Mao's Daughter. After the screening, a distraught Fai tells Ava that she is being blackmailed by senior officials of the China Movie Syndicate. The Syndicate seeks sexual favours in return for their continued support of Fai's career and films. When Fai resists, the threats become increasingly violent and far-reaching, including the release of scandalous videos of the young Fai that could end her career entirely.