National Network for Equitable Library Service

The second volume in the trilogy that revisions Homer’s Odyssey is once again told from the viewpoint of Alexi, the young Trojan boy. Captured by Odysseus after the fall of Troy, Alexi is forced to accompany the Greeks on their sea journey home to Ithaca.

Lois Donovan’s new historical fiction, The Journal, begins in 2004 when thirteen-year-old Kami receives a bizarre offer involving a historic house in Edmonton, from her estranged grandfather. A move to Edmonton was definitely not part of Kami’s “best-year-ever” plan, but her mother insists it is an opportunity to reconnect with the father she hasn’t heard from in two years. When Kami discovers a journal from 1929, newspaper clippings inside send Kami hurtling back in time where she becomes an eye-witness to two of Alberta’s biggest stories of the year.

What thirteen-year-old boy wants to travel on a hopeless quest to India with his grandmother? Not Ben Leeson, whose anger about his father’s recent death has led him to escape into the isolated world of computer games. India is the last place Ben ever thought of visiting and his grandmother is the last person he’d ever dreamed of travelling with, but the ticket is already bought and Ben finds himself in India on a search for Gran’s long lost pen pal, Shanti.

Recently granted registration papers for his submarine, Alfred is no longer an outlaw and is filled with conviction to become an active environmentalist. But in Perth, Australia, he is mistakenly accused of sabotaging an oil tanker, forcing him to escape overland and to Tasmania. There he meets up with Merwin Hughes, an environmentalist- hippy. Al and Merwin strike a deal, whereby Merwin will share all he knows about environmentalism, in exchange for a voyage on Al’s sub.

The fifth volume in the “Forging a Nation” series begins in 1791. The year a new province is created in the country that will one day be called Canada. The year Hope Cobman’s life turns around. At thirteen, she must leave the orphanage where she has lived since her mother’s death one year ago. Alone in the world, she dreams of finding her father and three brothers — all complete strangers to her, for even before her birth the American Revolution had scattered her family.

Two-and-a half millennia after it was created, Homer's Odyssey remains one of humanity's most memorable adventure stories. In this re-creation of Homer's classic as a young adult novel, we see the aftermath of the Trojan War through the eyes of Alexi, a fifteen-year-old Trojan boy. Orphaned by the war and enslaved by Odysseus himself, Alexi has a very different view of the conquering heroes of legend. Despite a simmering anger towards his captors, Alexi gradually develops a grudging respect for them.

"A perfect sequel to the beloved classic From Anna. Just as Anna is about to enter a new school, she hears news on Papa's radio -- Canada is at war with Germany. What will that mean for the Soldens, who immigrated from Germany just a few years ago? She soon finds out. Customers stop shopping at Papa's store, a teacher in her school bullies any students with German surnames, and Rudi is threatening to enlist, even though he is torn about fighting against the people of his homeland.

Twelve-year-old Fiona Macgregor receives a diary for her birthday and uses it to record the arrival of the Spanish Flu epidemic in Toronto in 1918 and the impact it has on her family. Includes factual historical information about the Spanish Flu in Canada.

In this sequel to Rescue Pup, Shakespeare, the unusual Seeing Eye dog who understands humans, must win over his new master, a desperately unhappy young man who was recently blinded in an accident.

"Meg, the youngest in the Copeland family always feels out of place. She has to share a room with her older sister Sally and they constantly bicker. Everyone in the house thinks she's too rowdy and she is always getting into trouble without meaning to. To make it all worse, she's struggling in school and probably won't move on to the next grade. The promise of a room all her own seems to be the answer to everything. But when Grandma Kent unexpectedly comes to live with the Copelands, instead of a room to herself, Meg has to learn to live with yet another person.