National Network for Equitable Library Service

2016 VOYA Top Shelf Fiction Selection CCBC’s Best Books for Kids & Teens (Fall 2016) — Starred Selection Hope leaves her small town for a fresh start, but her plans are derailed by an online romance and the appearance of her brother. Hope lives in a small town with nothing to do and nowhere to go. With a drug addict for a brother, she focuses on the only thing that keeps her sane, writing poetry. To escape, she jumps at the chance to attend Ravenhurst Academy as a boarding student. She’ll even put up with the clique-ish Ravens if it means making a fresh start.

A three-book bundle of essential advice for budding entrepreneurs, coming from one of the best in business. Includes: Everyday Entrepreneur – #1 Tim, whose career is stagnating despite his having a good job, has developed some software that could be the basis of his own successful business, but he can’t decide whether to set up on his own, which is how he ends up in a class on entrepreneurship conducted by a man named Sam.

An examination of the SOE, its accomplishments, and the Canadian connection to the organization. During the Second World War, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill created the Special Operations Executive (SOE) to conduct acts of sabotage and subversion, and raise secret armies of partisans in German-occupied Europe. With the directive to “set Europe ablaze,” the SOE undertook a dangerous game of cat and mouse with the Nazi Gestapo. An agent’s failure could result in indescribable torture, dispatch to a concentration camp, and, often, a death sentence.

Prominent Canadian rabbi John Moscowitz charts the shifts in his views over the years — controversial for some, exciting for others — on the issues that matter most to Jews today. John Moscowitz spent his early twenties as an anti-Vietnam War activist. Eventually dubious about the radical left and alive with love for Israel, he entered the rabbinical seminary in search of his own people.

An exciting vision of the blossoming new role gardening plays for this generation and the next. In The New Canadian Garden, Canada’s gardening guru, Mark Cullen, explores new trends that are redefining today’s gardening experiences. Many of us are utilizing small urban spaces — balconies, patios, and even rooftops — and growing our own fruits, vegetables, and herbs, both at home and through community gardens. Mark has lots of suggestions about which crops will work best for your particular space and how to attract birds, bees, and butterflies to your garden.

A look back on the brief and spectacular history of Canada’s Great Western Railway. This book chronicles the genesis and all-too-brief existence of one of Canada’s greatest early railways, the Great Western Railway of Canada (1853–1882), a major precursor to the Canadian National Rail system. Today, the Great Western Railway of Canada is a little-known historic line, overlooked even by many railway aficionados. But it was truly a railway ahead of its time.

Following a car accident in Vancouver, Robin Esrock set off on a worldwide expedition to tick off the many items on his personal bucket list. More than one hundred countries later, he realized that missing among his extraordinary adventures was his adopted home: Canada. Welcome to Robin’s acclaimed journey to discover the bucket-list-worthy experiences that define a nation. Travelling across Canada’s vast northern territories, Robin was delighted to find unique adventures for both visitors and locals alike.

From Robin Esrock, author of The Great Canadian Bucket List, comes a look at the best that Canada’s prairies have to offer. Having travelled to over one hundred countries on six continents, international travel guru and bestselling author Robin Esrock turns his attention to the Canadian prairies.

An extraordinary, newly discovered account from an ordinary Canadian on the ground in the crucial battles of the First World War. What was it like to be a field gunner in the Great War? Drawing on the unpublished letters and diary of field gunner Lt. Bert Sargent and his fellow soldiers, Thunder in the Skies takes the reader from enlistment in late 1914, through training camp, to the Somme, Vimy Ridge, Passchendaele, the Hundred Days Offensive, and home again with peace.

A history of Russian-American relations from 1776 to 1917, when these two states, mostly antagonists since, were warm friends. A compelling account of Russian-American relations from the American Revolution of 1776 to the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917. Long before the Cold War, there was a seemingly unlikely connection between the two countries — one a champion of liberty and progress; the other an absolute monarchy and defender of tradition.