National Network for Equitable Library Service

Why was Canada not preparing for the Second World War when the rest of the world was ready to meet Hitler’s threats? Despite Canada’s active participation in the First World War, which many claimed made Canada a nation, the country was almost defenceless in September 1939 when war was declared again. Larry D. Rose, a long-time journalist and a military specialist, examines the military’s own failures, the hidden agenda of Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, and the divisions within Canada leading up to Canada’s entry into the war.

When a child-abuse scandal is uncovered at an unlicenced daycare in small-town Saskatchewan, it polarizes the community. Frann Harris, a rookie court reporter assigned to the trial the longest in Saskatchewan history starts to wonder if the scope of the alleged crimes is dwarfed by something even more startling: a botched police investigation and inappropriate courtroom procedures.Harris' narrative alternates between the stories of child sexual abuse and whimsical recollections of her own childhood, using the odd touch of humour.

Frederick Banting was a surgeon and a decorated war hero when he had the idea to develop insulin in 1920, This achievement earned him the 1923 Nobel Prize for medicine, a knighthood, and the gratitude of diabetics around the world.

First published in the 1960s and long out of print, Edmund Cosgrove recounts the lives of Canada’s outstanding pilots and their exploits in the two world wars. From the brilliant individualists who flew in the First World War to the tough and dedicated bomber crews of the Second, this is the story of Canadian airmen and their remarkable contribution to the war effort. An essential book for any aviation and history enthusiast, the superbly readable original text that made this book a classic in its day is now supplemented with new and unpublished photos.

Poison Ivy Acres, 250 acres of wilderness in Renfrew County, Ontario, long dedicated to the preservation of natural habitat, has been home to nature writer Carol Bennett McCuaig for many years. Her keen powers of observation, coupled with her insights into wildlife behaviour and her evocative writing style, have produced this captivating collection of stories.

The courageous, historic story of a great fighting ship of the Second World War. White Ensign Flying tells the story of HMCS Trentonian, a Canadian corvette that fought U-Boats in the Second World War. Trentonian escorted convoys on the North Atlantic and through the deadly waters near England and France. The ship was attacked by the Americans in a friendly-fire incident during Operation Neptune and later earned the dubious distinction of being the last corvette sunk by the enemy. Litwiller has interviewed many of the men who served in Trentonian and collected their stories.

A richly illustrated story from the glory days of passenger travel on the Great Lakes. For decades Canada Steamship Lines proclaimed itself as the world’s largest transportation company operating on inland waters. Its passenger and freight vessels could be found on the Great Lakes as far west as Duluth, Minnesota, and as far east as the Lower St. Lawrence River. The passenger steamers were known collectively as the Great White Fleet. These ships – from day-excursion vessels to well-appointed cruise ships – had rich histories.

An amusing collection of lives and stories from the eccentric side of Canada’s history. A joyous romp through the back pages of Canadian quirkiness, Canadian Folk provides a fresh look at the saints, sinners, oddballs, and outright nutbars who have populated the Canadian landscape.They were perpetually northbound or south; they were inveterate walkers, or world class runners, millionaires in ill-advised Citroen half-tracks.

The latest research on child development may hold the key to the parenting of the future. Combining the expertise of its author – a celebrated expert in parent-infant mental health and mother of two – with the latest findings in gene-by-environment interactions, epigenetics, behavioural science, and attachment theory, Scientific Parenting describes how children’s genes determine their sensitivity to good or bad parenting, how environmental cues can switch critical genes on or off, and how addictive tendencies and mental health problems can become hardwired into the human brain.

2014 Dayton Literary Peace Prize — Nonfiction Runner Up The complex histories and memories of Jewish and Palestinian Israelis today frame Israel’s future possibilities for peace. 1948: As Jewish refugees, survivors of the Holocaust, struggle toward the new State of Israel, Arab refugees are fleeing, many under duress. Sixty years later, the memory of trauma has shaped both peoples’ collective understanding of who they are. After a war, the victors write history. How was the story of the exiled Palestinians erased – from textbooks, maps, even the land?