National Network for Equitable Library Service

A children's book inspired by the true story of Jewish orphans who came to Canada to learn farming only to find their way to Carnegie Hall. Thirteen-year-old Jacob's life is hard in 1920s Poland, where he lives in an orphanage for Jewish children. His days are brightened by playing in the mandolin orchestra. When an American benefactor arrives with the promise of a new life at the Canadian Jewish Farm School--and even the dream of playing a benefit concert at New York's Carnegie Hall--Jacob and his friends are thrilled. But can they trust this man to keep his promises?

Inspired by real events and a real-life "cookie war." Life in her traditional Mennonite community is peaceful if a little dull for twelve-year-old Beth, who dreams of being an artist. One day excitement shows up in the form of a determined lawyer from New York who insists she needs a family cookie recipe to win a million-dollar lawsuit. Beth's parents are bemused, but her grandmother is determined that the recipe will not leave her kitchen.

From internationally acclaimed crime writer Andrée A. Michaud, a brilliant and original tragicomic thriller about one man's search for peace and sanctuary amid invasive neighbours and a mysterious death. Retired fifty-something Robert Moreau flees a society he can no longer bear for Mirror Lake, Maine. Little does he suspect that an intrusive neighbour and a mysterious death will quickly dispel any illusions he may have had about finding sanctuary in isolation. The misanthropic Moreau quickly learns that his Thoreau-like vision is a fiction.

Thirteen glittering, surprising, and darkly funny stories of people testing the boundaries of their lives, from two-time Scotiabank Giller Prize finalist Alix Ohlin. In the mordantly funny 'Money, Geography, Youth,' Vanessa arrives home from a gap year volunteering in Ghana to find that her father is engaged to her childhood best friend. Unable to reconcile the girl she went to dances with in the eighth grade and the woman in her father's bed, Vanessa turns to a different old friendship for her own, unique diversion.

A Boring Wife Settles the Score marks the return of Diane, the raunchy and entertaining heroine of the prize-winning and bestselling Autopsy of a Boring Wife. Despite the end of her marriage, Diane still has plenty of love to give. Determined not to waste her days -- that's just not her style -- she finds a job in a daycare and solace in cocktails with her best friend, Claudine, who convinces Diane her love life is not over.

From the Prologue: Wonderland. The Lions Gate suspension bridge joins central Vancouver to the North Shore and the mountains beyond. It's a little over one mile long. Two hundred feet beneath it are the First Narrows, where the Burrard Inlet meets English Bay. The design is similar to that of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, and it is likewise considered to be beautiful.In good weather, the traffic cameras on the north end of the bridge, pointing south, would show the whole sweep of its three-lane highway, as well as the pedestrian and cycle paths attached either side of it.

In the opening pages of this historical novel, sixteen-year-old Kate Harding is desperately trying to assist her mother who is about to give premature birth to a child in their home in the small colonial community of Victoria in 1861.The experience is gruelling for mother and daughter, and in the end, though a local midwife gets there in time to assist, the baby does not live more than a few hours. It's ironic because Kate's father is one of only a few doctors in the colony, but was out tending patients while his wife was going through this tragic ordeal.

As Rebecca is about to turn twelve years old, she begins to realize that Joe, her father, is not the most supportive of parents. Rather he seems to want to turn her away from friendships, from involvement with others, from anyone who might intrude on their two lives. When it seems their affectionate neighbour is becoming too inquisitive, Joe abruptly arranges for himself and Rebecca to make a quick move to another place in the city. And as she reflects on things, Rebecca realizes that this is what has always happened.

The Byrne family is strong, but are being tested everyday as life becomes more and more desperate in 19th century rural Ireland, forcing the family to leave their homeland.

Jack is 14 going on 15. For the past seven years, he and his younger brother and sister, and his mother and father, have lived in a remote cabin on the Athabasca River west of Edmonton. It's the late 1930s, and the river is almost as wild and untamed as it was before humans began settling along the riverbanks. The reason for the Whyte family living there has a good deal to do with Malcolm, Jack's father, and what we would call his PTSD after serving in World War One.