National Network for Equitable Library Service

At a time of great sacrifice in Canadian history, we are welcomed into the homes, the hearts, and the minds of mothers, sons, fathers, and friends as we follow Syd Smith and his high-school brotherhood of 13 when they answer the call to duty in 1941. Written with his son, David, Lifting the Silence is also a father-and-son journey of discovery that uncovers a remarkable letter that serves as testament to what still defines Canada today.

Samuel de Champlain has long been known as the founder of Quebec and as a tireless explorer. No one knows for sure where he was born or who he really was. Still, his career was packed with interesting details and his early life prepared him for greatness.Without Champlains own detailed records, the years 1600 to 1640 in Canada would be almost a mystery. Possibly Canadas first multicultural advocate, he dreamed of creating a new people from French and Aboriginal roots. However, his efforts to establish a colony encountered setbacks in France.

Short-listed for the 2014 Forest of Reading - White Pine Award for Non-Fiction Canada was young during the First World War, and with as many as 20,000 underage soldiers leaving their homes to join the war effort, the country’s army was, too. Jim, at 17, was one of them, and he penned countless letters home. But these weren’t the writings of an ordinary boy. They were the letters of a lad who left a small farming community for the city on July 15, 1915, a boy who volunteered to serve with the 79th Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders.

Zahava Hanan's struggle to save her ranch in Alberta from the threat of industrial pollution makes Heading for Home a modern tale on an epic scale. For twenty years she fought for her rights in Western Canada. Heading for Home gives a very warm account of her companions throughout those years from cowhands to lovable animals; from concerned neighbours to the formality of the company man, some of whom too, eventually became firm friends.

The North Runner is a true and moving story of the building of trust between a man and an exceptional dog that was half wolf, half Alaskan Malamute, and the resulting mutual affection and respect between them.

A number of years ago, R.D. Lawrence acquired a patch of Ontario wilderness, soon known as "The Place." Here Lawrence and his wife built a cabin and became immersed in studying the ways of the wild. "The Place" was home to a variety of wildlife, from black bears, wolves, beavers and raccoons through to hawks, snapping turtles and singing mice.

What do experienced field naturalists discover when they explore the heavily populated Lake Ontario shoreline as if they were surveying a wilderness for the first time? In this beautifully illustrated book, Aleta Karstad takes you on a journey of discovery along the route of the Lake Ontario Waterfront Trail. Listening for calling frogs in spring, turning stones, sampling shoreline drift, identifying plants and animals, Karstad and her husband, herpetologist Frederick W. Schueler, discover a wealth of natural life, sometimes in unexpected places.

Carol and Bruce Hodgins began leading canoe trips in 1957 for Camp Wanapitei on Lake Temagami in Northern Ontario, initially to the great rivers of that region and on into Quebec. Their first venture north of 60 found them on the South Nahanni, soon to be followed by the Coppermine River, and by the 1990s their annual tripping took them to the Soper River on Baffin Island.

The working life of the distinguished surveyor Guy Blanchet reflects the story of northern Canada in the first half of the twentieth century. Beginning his career in the boreal forests of Alberta and Saskatchewan, using pack horses and dog teams, Blanchet went north to map large areas of the Barrens by canoe, and soon became caught up in pioneer northern aviation. His story encompasses the Great Depression and the Second World War, which in turn led to his work finding the routes for oil pipelines.

A charming account of the author's special relationship with the birds and wild creatures who shared her northern homesite at Pimisi Bay, near Mattawa, Ontario. The Loghouse Nest is another Natural Heritage classic by Canada's internationally acclaimed nature writer, Louise de Kiriline Lawrence. Delightfully illustrated throughout by no less than Thoreau MacDonald, with endpaper drawings by the author.