National Network for Equitable Library Service

Put away the knives because tensions are rising in this kitchen renovation. What could help patch up a marriage better than a home renovation? Wayne thinks he's doing his wife Julie a favour by hiring a young couple to help redo the kitchen (at a fraction of the cost she'd hoped for). But Julie has higher standards in mind. John and Maggie think they've found a way to make some quick money to pay off the land John bought. John just proposed, but Maggie hasn't given her answer yet.

This critical edition delivers a unique and comprehensive collection of the works of Ktunaxa-Secwepemc writer and educator Vera Manuel, daughter of prominent Indigenous leaders Marceline Paul and George Manuel. A vibrant force in the burgeoning Indigenous theatre scene, Vera was at the forefront of residential school writing and did groundbreaking work as a dramatherapist and healer. Long before mainstream Canada understood and discussed the impact and devastating legacy of Canada's Indian residential schools, Vera Manuel wrote about it as part of her personal and community healing.

Bertha Rand, Winnipeg's Cat Lady, was a familiar figure in the news; many knew her as the mad woman who lived in squalour with over fifty felines. In her tiny house on Queen Street, Bertha took in sick and abandoned cats, battling her neighbours and city hall to save them, taking her cause to the media. In The Queen of Queen Street, Maureen Hunter delves into Bertha Rand's tragic life of poverty and deprivation to bring us a richly layered drama of one woman's will to survive, and a universal story of hope and strength.

France, 1917. Four wounded Canadian soldiers recover in a field hospital in the wake of the battle for Vimy Ridge, waiting to find out where they'll be sent next: back home or back to the front. Along with a young nurse from Nova Scotia, they share their stories, reasons for fighting, and treasured memories. In Vimy, Governor General's Literary Award-winner Vern Thiessen brings us a classic play that is not about war, but a reflection of the everyday lives of soldiers-their hopes and their dreams-and how actions can define individuals and nations.

"She doesn't care about me; she doesn't even want to see me; she just pretends she does." Shy, fourteen-year-old Maddie wasn't expecting to have to worry about taking care of herself just yet. Her sixteen-year-old party-girl sister Bea has scandalously moved in with their mom's ex-boyfriend, and in turn their brassy mother Sheila has run straight to the comfort of another lover. Maddie is finding that an empty apartment is quiet and lonely, even though her time is normally spent reading comics in her closet.

From masturbation to motherhood, body shaming to burlesque, Catherine Hernandez reveals the reality of living as a queer woman of colour. Set to the music of her life, The Femme Playlist shows what it's like to be sexy and proud, slutty and loud, queer and brown. I Cannot Lie to the Stars That Made Me is an around-the-campfire guide to mourning and healing for women of colour, written after Hernandez and her daughter left an abusive relationship.

"I bore him fourteen children and he had me down here faster than lightning." In 1887, women were property and could be imprisoned for any reason. Jail was considered a place for the criminal, the disabled, the mentally ill, and the marginalized. In the basement prison below Toronto's largest market, two women named Mary-one a shunned, pregnant Irish immigrant, the other a vilified Mississauga woman-become an unlikely pair as they form a friendship within their cold, shared cell.

Two of the most produced, popular, and important Canadian plays for young audiences are back in an updated edition. In New Canadian Kid, Nick has just moved to Canada from a country called Homeland, where he is forced to grapple with his fears of a new culture and language as well as cope with classmates who taunt him for being different. After a series of confrontations, Nick, his family, and his peers start to learn how to accept one another and find a comfortable middle ground. In Invisible Kids, a group of children from a variety of backgrounds discover playground politics.

After Samantha's baba dies, her fractured family is summoned to pick through the house full of belongings and trash, leaving taped notes on whatever they want to take. Between old napkins, a closet full of ketchup packets, and a freezer full of rotting meat are gems like a grandfather clock and plastic deer statuettes that hold more sentiment. While her father David sifts through his own memories, all Samantha wants is to find a simple object that could represent her place in the family. When other family members arrive, tug of wars and passive-aggressive conversations commence.

Dr. Jon Lien is a risk-taker and respected researcher, working for over twenty years in the dangerous waters off Newfoundland to rescue massive humpback whales and save the fishing gear in which they're trapped. With his head down in freezing waters and armed only with a snorkel and knife, Lien saves the lives of over five hundred animals and earns the hard-won respect of Newfoundland's fishermen. But his toughest battle comes at the end, as his body is slowly conquered by a relentlessly progressing paralysis and dementia.