National Network for Equitable Library Service

Surrey Stories connect is a time-capsule: a snapshot of Surrey in the fall of 2016. The stories here were written and created on three separate afternoons at three different locations: Cloverdale, Strawberry Hill, and Historic Stewart Farm. These Surrey stories are 'moments created in one sitting' whre individual voices are able to shine.

They are just some of the 1,421 Nova Scotia place names whose origins, where they are known, are explained in this book. The history of each name is succinctly chronicled with an emphasis on events past and current that are historically significant, offbeat, or humorous. This quirky and informative guide also contains a treasure trove of the province's little-known facts and occurrences and 95 mini-biographies of famous, infamous, and not-so-famous-but-still-very-interesting Nova Scotians, folks who achieved something outstandingly positive, or negative, during their lifetimes.

Felix Opatowski is only fifteen years old when he takes on the perilous job of smuggling goods out of the Lodz ghetto in exchange for food for his starving family. It is a skill that will serve him well as he tries to stay alive in Nazi-occupied Poland. With dogged determination, Felix endures months of harrowing conditions in the ghetto and slave labour camps until he is deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in the spring of 1943.

Born and raised in Fort McMurray, Damian Asher was a fifteen year veteran and captain in the city's fire department. On May 1, 2016, when a raging wildfire struck the city and forced the entire population to evacuate, Damian and his crew were on the front lines of the fire, and after weeks of fighting the wildfire that appeared insatiable, the firefighters finally managed to regain control of the city.

Animal Metropolis brings a Canadian perspective to the growing field of animal history, ranging across species and cities, from the beavers who engineered Stanley Park to the carthorses who shaped the city of Montreal. Some essays consider animals as spectacle: orca captivity in Vancouver, polar bear tourism in Churchill, Manitoba, fish on display in the Dominion Fisheries Museum, and the racialized memory of Jumbo the elephant in St. Thomas, Ontario.

Mrs. Strange was thrust, unprepared, into hard farm life on a Canadian ranch, with a background of London, gentle upbringing, a bit of the rough with the smooth in her war experiences, but with no training for hard labor and domestic slavery on an ill-equipped, rough frontier farm. But the fight challenged her -- and she made good. Her account of the experience is stimulating.

Beyond the Blue Mountains details Woodcock’s life in the British Columbia bush, his close and longstanding relationship with the Doukhobors, his battles with US immigration officials. We learn of the founding of the influential Canadian Literature review, and we follow Mr. Woodcock on his extended and beautifully-described tours of India and the South Seas. George Woodcock is not only a revered literary critic. He is also a gifted and witty raconteur. Beyond the Blue Mountains allows us further insights into the life of this fascinating man.

On the 2nd of September, 1998, near the small fishing village of Peggys Cove, N.S., a Swissair passenger jet carrying 229 people crashed into the ocean with a complete loss of life. This book is the true story of the crash investigation as told by the RCMPs main crime scene investigator who worked on the investigation from start to finish. For more than four years, he searched for the truth amid the remains of human flesh, and the debris of the aircraft. What he found was not what was presented to the public.

The Stump Farm, by Robert J. Adams, follows the trials of Bobby during the time Canada brought its soldiers back from the Second World War. The hardships of the time go unnoticed by a young boy more concerned with genuine moose hide moccasins, his grandfather's .22 and a Marilyn Monroe pin-up on the outhouse wall. Through this naïve youth we see a world without cynicism and harsh realities – a time when our needs were simple and laughter came easily.

Stories from a Canadian fish and wildlife officer.