Dundurn Press

Short-listed for the 2012 Silver Birch Express Award

What if your best friend was a naughty 400-year-old gargoyle? And what if he just happened to be in terrible danger? It’s not always easy, but thirteen-year-old Katherine Newberry is friends with a gargoyle. His name is Gargoth of Tallus, and he lives in her backyard. Gargoth has lost the only creature on the planet who can help him. Her name is Ambergine, and she’s been his greatest friend for hundreds of years. What Katherine and Gargoth dont know is that Ambergine is searching for him too. But she is not alone. Gargoths greatest enemy is prowling the city, and it’s a race against time to find him first! In this sequel to The Gargoyle in My Yard (2009), The Gargoyle Overhead provides the historical backstory to Gargoths life, and further explores themes of friendship, courage and loneliness.

Commended for the 2009 Resource Links Best Books and for the 2010 Best Books for Kids and Teens, short-listed for the 2012 Diamond Willow Award 

Chosen for the Toronto Public Library's 2015 Great Reads for Kids collection

What do you do when a 400-year-old gargoyle moves into your backyard? Especially when no one else but you knows he’s ALIVE? Twelve-year-old Katherine Newberry can tell you all about life with a gargoyle. Hes naughty. He gets people into trouble. He howls at the moon, breaks statues and tramples flowers to bits, all the while making it look like you did it! He likes to throw apple cores and stick his tongue out at people when they aren’t looking. How do you get rid of a gargoyle? Do they help the gargoyle leave for good? If you’re like Katherine and her parents, after getting to know him, you might really want him to stay.

In Karen Hood-Caddy’s third inspiring novel featuring environmentalist heroine Jessie Dearborn, Jessie is concerned about the health of the water in her northern town. Harley, Jessie’s Ojibway partner, declares he wants to move further north to where the real wilderness is. She is torn between her allegiance to Harley and her devotion to the land. The Guerrilla Grannies, a group of feisty seniors, start a door-to-door campaign to raise environmental awareness. Trouble erupts when Jessie and Elfy, one of the more cantankerous seniors, get into a scrap with a local hockey hero and end up getting arrested. But this is also the story of Dan Goreman, whose life is in disarray from a bitter divorce. He decides to to accept a job his father has arranged for him at a water-treatment plant near Jessie’s home town. Dan falls in love with Meagan, whose family owns a resort in the area. Dan becomes very attached to Meagan’s six year-old son, but she is concerned about Dan’s unresolved past and asks him to see a therapist. Begrudgingly, Dan agrees and meets Jessie, who challenges him to be more truthful about his past. When the resort’s sewage lagoons burst and some of the waste gets into the town’s water, Dan makes a fatal mistake that could kill someone that he loves. Now Jessie has many more problems to solve in her quest to save Elfy from a jail term, help protect the lands and lakes which she loves and begin to understand the patterns in her own life.

Etienne is called on an adventure in the new world… In 1647, ten-year-old Etienne yearns for a life of adventure far from his family farm in Quebec. He meets an orphan destined to apprentice among the Jesuits at Fort Sainte-Marie. Making the most impulsive decision of his life, Etienne replaces the orphan and paddles off with the voyageurs into the north country. At Sainte-Marie, Etienne must learn to live a life of piety. Meanwhile, he also makes friends with a Huron youth, Tsiko, who teaches him the ways of his people. When the Iroquois attack and destroy the nearby village, Etienne must put his new skills into practice. Will he survive? Will he ever see his family again?

Winner of the 2008 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Novel

In 1840, the theatre world in London is shocked by the brutal killing of one of its youngest and most successful entrepreneurs, bludgeoned in his house. The discovery of a contentious theatre contract, a collection of promissory notes and a walking stick, its bloodied ivory head in the shape of a dog, are the only leads. Inspector Owen Endersby, of the recently formed London Detective Police Force, is called upon to apprehend the culprit before Christmas Eve. The inspector has six days to chart the by-ways of the Criminal Mentality. The case soon involves street vendors, downstairs servants, money lenders and the greatest performers of the stage. Who had motive to batter the young man to death? Without the techniques of the modern-day detective, Inspector Endersby must root out the villain any way he can by disguise, break-and-enter, bribery, mail tampering and physical force.

The life of fiftyish Jessie Dearborn takes an unexpected turn when a ruthless developer threatens to cut down century-old trees in her small northern town in order to build a condominium. Surprising even herself, she steps in front of a chainsaw to defend the trees she loves. As the fight to save the trees intensifies, a group of gutsy, quick-witted older women joins the battle and explodes the issue into the newsmedia. At this turning point in her life, a native man helps Jessie by teaching her to trust her own instincts. Passion erupts between them and Jessie discovers a middle-aged sexuality as hot as the midday sun. Like a Group of Seven painting, Tree Fever is a love affair with nature, its wisdom, raw colours and elemental beauty.

Finally, the Canadian story of Thanksgiving, celebrating our past and educating our children about Canadian history and traditions. Presented in storybook form with 35 colourful illustrations, this Canada 125 Project also contains the words and music to a lively, original Thanksgiving song.

Short-listed for the 2008 Red Maple Award

Keira, kidnapped from Ireland by Vikings, is a slave living in legendary Vinland. Two native bands, the Beothuck and the Thule, are also fighting over the land, thrusting the Norsemen into war. While the Vikings search for a new home, an accident at sea leaves Keira miraculously saved by a Beothuck warrior. Keira settles into the Beothuck way of life, learning their customs and coming to care for them. But she dreams of risking everything in order to find a way home. Ultimately, she is torn between the cultures in which she has livedher homeland, the Viking world in which she was welcomed, and her new Beothuck family. This is a thrilling adventure and an exciting introduction to the history of Canada.

Josiah Hensons life is an epic tale of one mans battle against evil and ignorance. By the time he was six, Josiah had been sold three times. When he was nine, his familys owner beat him for trying to learn to read. In spite of his physical pain and emotional heartache, he never lost the sense of morality that was his bedrock. After his escape, Josiah became an advocate for those still in bondage. As a conductor on the Underground Railroad, he led 118 slaves to safety in Canada. Working for Freedom is the story of a man who proved that one person can make a difference in defending and promoting human rights.

This newest anthology of short crime fiction from the Ladies’ Killing Circle takes a spirited look at baby boomers as they go from young, hairy and hip to old, bald and bad. The children of the sixties are are up to no good in another wicked anthology from this prolific collective of writers. The editors, themselves celebrated short crime fiction writers, have assembled such luminaries of crime fiction as Barbara Fradkin, H. Mel Malton, Vicki Cameron and Melanie Fogel, as well as Arthur Ellis Award winners Barbara Fradkin, Mary Jane Maffini and Sue Pike.

Homicide becomes more than an academic study for Toronto criminologist Ted Boudreau when his own suburban home is burglarized, with deadly results. Was his computer targetted because of his interest in a secretive biker gang? Teds attempts to deal with the aftermath bring him into conflict with family, police detectives, and the Crown prosecutor assigned to the caseas well as with his university colleagues, whose penal philosophy Ted no longer believes can stand the test of real-life experience. His pursuit of justice must compete with his duty not to compromise the source of his dossier on the ruthless Dark Arrows Motorcycle Club.

This gentle and humorous story gives youngsters the reassuring message that the world cherishes children. Wizzo the Wizard, who lives on the moon, becomes bored while his wife is away on a trip, so he decides to bake a batch of cookies. But he makes a mistake in the recipe and, when Ms. Wizzo returns, she finds the house full of real, live babies - one hundred and forty-four, to be exact! Of course, she loves them all!

In the third action-packed thriller of the West Quebec series, Meg Harris is back more determined than ever to fight against injustice, but sometimes the line between right and wrong is fuzzy. During a wild, whitewater paddle down a wilderness river, Meg discovers the skull and bones of a woman whose very existence takes the archeological world by storm. But when her neighbours, the Migiskan Algonquin, declare their rights to the ancient remains, Meg becomes embroiled in a fight that pits ancient beliefs against modern ones and can only lead to murder. As Meg races to catch the killer, she finds herself once more daring the rivers fury, this time with the added horror of a raging forest fire. In this book R.J. Harlick explores the controversy surrounding ancient human remains. Who owns them, the museums that house the archeological finds or the First Nations descendents? Should they be used to further mans knowledge or returned to the earth to maintain peace and harmony? Questions to which there are no easy answers, as Meg Harris discovers when she tries to balance her love for Eric Odjik and her friendship with the Migiskan with her beliefs as a modern woman.

This is the third book in the Meg Harris Mystery series. The next book is Arctic Blue Death.

The Osler family has just moved into the old Clifton House, with its unusual little rooftop room. Dropping in at his dads shop, Joel overhears a stranger demanding money. Suddenly, it looks like they might lose the house. If that happens, Joel wont be able to keep his dog. He is desperate for a solution. Can the houses historical connections provide the answer?

Eva is a seventeen-year-old from Edmonton in 1979 who is experiencing a world of trouble at home. To escape the trouble, she decides to visit her family’s homeland of Poland for the summer, staying with an older half-sister, Hanna, whose existence Eva has only recently discovered. In Communist Poland, she experiences a different way of living, one where the conveniences she has taken for granted do not exist. She finds, however, the rich cultural traditions both fascinating and compelling. She meets a mysterious, charming young man named Mark, who shows her around the city, but his anger and disenchantment disturb her. The first seeds of the Solidarity Uprising are starting to grow and the workers, peasants and intellectuals are beginning to unite under the leadership of the church. Eva’s visit also takes place during the Papal visit to Poland which galvanized the people to strike their blow for freedom. Against this tumultuous backdrop, Eva learns about the resilience in herself and her politically maturing people.

Something is haunting the Laingford Pioneer Village Park, a mysterious presence that seems determined to get Alan and his two friends in trouble. They are spending the tail-end of the summer working as costumed helpers at the historical site, and when things get weird, the Alan Nearing detective agency starts investigating. Is the poltergeist just a prankster, or are there sinister forces at work?

Poor Fiona Silk is broke again. Her romance writing career is tanking, and her tiny house in the lovely community of St. Aubaine may be sold for unpaid taxes. But Fiona’s new agent has a planFiona can write an erotic cookbook. This project would be easier if Fiona had a sex life or a working oven. Soon bad things start to happen to people, but, oddly, only when Fiona is nearby. Before long, her tiny home is in flames and the body count is rising. Will Canada’s most reluctant sleuth stop a killer before her own goose is cooked?

Short-listed for the 2012 Pacific Northwest Young Readers Choice Award and for the 2011 Hackmatack Children’s Choice Award

Nine-year-old Michiko Minagawa bids her father good-bye before her birthday celebration. She doesn’t know the government has ordered all Japanese-born men out of the province. Ten days later, her family joins hundreds of Japanese-Canadians on a train to the interior of British Columbia. Even though her aunt Sadie jokes about it, they have truly reached the "Land of No". There are no paved roads, no streetlights and not streetcars. The house in which they are to live is dirty and drafty. At school Michiko learns the truth of her situation. She must face local prejudice, the worst winter in forty years and her first Christmas without her father.

Another freezing winter descends in seeming peace upon the Northern Ontario lake where realtor Belle Palmer lives genteelly with her dog, tropical fishes and classic film collection. But the snow-laden tranquillity is tragically disturbed when a good friend is lost in a freak snowmobile accident on an isolated lake. Or so it seems. Belle and others suspect foul play, but a motive and a criminal prove hard to find. Resort owners, anti-environmentalists and the new local drug dealers may all have had reason to want Jim Burian quietly removed, and information isn’t forthcoming. Belle is determined to find out what happened to this decent man, but she is shocked when she discovers what twisted roots underlie this savage crime on idyllic northern ice.

Winner of the Canadian Children’s Book Centre Choice: Best Books for Kids & Teens

Seventeen year-old Nathan is running – running from his past and running from his present. Raised by a white mother and never having known his native father, he must cope with prejudice and stereotypes. When he meets Sally, the beautiful outsider, he finds someone who believes in him. But when Sally’s house is put to the torch by an arsonist, suspicion falls on Nathan and he finds himself embroiled in an intrigue and murder that threaten to drive the two teenagers apart.

Struggling for Perfection is the story of the famous pianist, an enigmatic figure who made some of the most acclaimed classical recordings of the last century. A former child prodigy and an unpredictable, passionate man, Glenn Gould was known as much for his eccentricities as his vast musical genius. After retiring prematurely from performing, Gould branched out into work in film and radio and helped bring classical music recording technology into a new age. He has became a national icon in Canada. Vladimir Konieczny delivers a sensitive and affectionate portrait of this imposing figure in music history. The book is illustrated with sketches and archival photos.

After a summer of intense competition, Alberta’s Theo Tams emerged as the 2008 Canadian Idol champion. He had earned the admiration of the public and his fellow contestants with his soaring vocals, emotive piano playing and unmatched ability to mine the emotional core of a song.

Theo Tams: Inside the Music is a candid and photo-rich look at the life experiences that prepared him for the Idol stage. It also provides a behind the scenes peek at the Idol experience itself, with testimonials and anecdotes from his fellow competitors and interviews with the Idol personalities.

Theo Tams: Inside the Music is the first chapter in the career of an exciting new voice from the Canadian music scene. It includes excerpts from Theo’s private journals, adventures from his time in India, anecdotes from his fellow competitors, interviews with Idol personalities such as Ben Mulroney and Zack Werner, hundreds of candid photos and much, much more.

Portia White, born in 1911, had a dream: to sing on stage. Even as a little girl in Halifax, Nova Scotia, she could imagine an audience before her, clapping as she took her bow. But how could a poor girl growing up in a family with ten siblings make that dream come true? At that time, there were few opera roles available for black singers. To become a recital singer, she would have to go to Europe to study. How could she ever afford that? But Portia was not only a talented contralto, she was determined. With the support of her family and community, she eventually climbed onto stages across Canada, the United States, and Central and South America in the late 1930s and early 1940s. She crossed the colour barrier to enter concert halls and sing before white and black audiences on both continents. Later, she became a teacher and mentor of other well-known and successful singers. When Portia White died in 1968, she left a legacy of living to her belief that "first you dream and then you lace up your boots."

A tiny speck imprisoned in a world of white… This is an exciting adventure novel told through the eyes of eleven-year-old ships boy Jeremy. It is both history and fiction. The merchant ship Henrietta Maria has been trapped in the ice of Hudson Strait for two months. It is August 6, 1631, when she finally breaks free to search for a northwest passage. The crew knows that it must leave Hudson Bay by early October to avoid being caught in the ice for the winter. The ship is leaking badly and the crew is ravaged by scurvy. Finally, Captain James announces that they cannot make it back to Hudson Strait before freeze-up. With half the crew suffering from scurvy and even lacking boots, will anyone survive in this cold and desolate place?

David Thompsons story is one of the great tales of North American adventure. His life was a mixture of truth and legend, but he was without a doubt one of the greatest surveyors and mapmakers of the North American continent. Raised in a charity school in London, England, and apprenticed to the Hudsons Bay Company as a teenager, he then travelled extensively, recording valuable navigational information. His life was one of adventure and hardship but also of incredible accomplishment.

In the fourth and final instalment in the Jennifer Bannon mystery series, Jennifer begins Grade Eleven at Springhills High, where her life is far from settled. Her mother has moved to L.A. with her new husband, Jennifers boyfriend moves to McGill to study pre-med and Jennifer fears their relationship will not survive the separation. She’s worried about her best friend Ambie who has been secretly e-mailing the biological father she has never met. This story deals with themes of belonging, friendship and loss. While Jennifer struggles to find her place in a family separated by divorce and with friendships marked by change, she must learn how to rely on herself.

After surviving the horrors of the Great War, Paul Shenstone works as a police detective in 1920s Toronto, rooting out petty criminals and rumrunners. The unusual murder of a prominent industrialist gives him the biggest case of his career and a not entirely welcome opportunity to make his name on the force. The waters are muddied when the investigation starts uncovering connections between the deceased Digby Watt and soldiers Shenstone knew in Flanders. What will Shenstone’s choice be if he has to arrest one of his own comrades? He has promised Watt’s attractive and independent daughter that he will bring the perpetrator to justice, but bonds forged in war are not easily broken. In the end, what does justice require, restitution or punishment?

Jeanie and Frank are both involved in demanding careers and have young children who are clamouring for their share of their parents’ time. Just as Jeanie decides to leave her job as a horse trainer, deferring to her husband’s movie industry career, one of the principals of the race track where she works is murdered and she is thrown back into the maelstrom of racetrack politics and the care of the valuable horses. Frank’s seeming indifference to the pressures of her life puts the marriage into jeopardy. When the entire family heads off to Jamaica for a well-earned vacation, Frank’s increasing absences lead Jeanie to question the very foundations of their relationship. However, an unusual bequest in the murdered owners’ will puts Jeanie in a situation where she must make the biggest decision of her life and brings the novel to an exciting climax where Jeanie has the most to lose.

Ten-year-old Elizabeth is spending the summer at her Great-Aunt Germaines, in rural Caradoc County. Also along for the visit is her brother, Eddie, and her mother. Great-Aunt Germaine seems to be a forbidding character, and Beth does not warm up to her. Between her relationship with Aunt Germaine and Eddies antics, Elizabeth feels overwhelmed. She discovers her aunts emporium, a former tourist attraction. It is a fascinating place, filled with memorabilia, including old newspaper reports of a mysterious swamp monster. Elizabeths own adventure begins when she finds a perfectly egg-shaped stone in the local graveyard. Its brilliantly white, warm, and pulsing with energy and it feels like theres something inside. Encouraged by her eccentric great-aunt, Beth builds a nest for the egg stone. When the egg hatches, Elizabeths imagination guides her in a fantastical search for the runaway hatchling. Her investigations, abetted by her great-aunt, lead her to believe that the hatchling is the legendary Caradoc Swamp Monster. Elizabeths efforts to prove her deductions bring her into ever more fiery conflict with Eddie. What hatches is a zany adventure involving quick mud, skunk cabbage, swamp monsters, dragon dives, bonfires, fiery words and broiling tempers. Its a summer of dragons. The solution to both the mystery of the egg stone and the problem of sibling rivalry are satisfyingly reached in the humorous and imaginative conclusion of Summer Dragons.

Feeling somehow to blame for her father’s absence, thirteen-year-old Jennifer Bannon struggles to hang on to her dream that he will return and they can be a family again - a dream that doesnt include her mother’s new boyfriend, nights of looking after her little sister or a ninth grade year that is rapidly going down the toilet. Finally after two years of waiting Jennifer learns that her father is back in town, and suddenly the dream seems within reach. However, hope quickly turns to horror when Jennifer witnesses an event that threatens to tear apart her family and perhaps destroy the life of someone she loves. Will Jennifer be able to unravel the mystery in time, or will keeping a secret turn deadly?

Thirteen-year-old Norah Bingham and her mother plan to spend Christmas in the country with Caroline Stoppard, Norah’s great-aunt. When her mother is called away on business, Norah goes on her own to stay with the aunt, someone she has never even met. From the start, the woman makes it plain that she does not welcome Norahs company, nor that of Norah’s cousins, Andrew and Becca, who arrive two days later. The isolated Stoppard mansion is as dismal as the Ontario winter. But the cousins soon discover there are puzzles to solve. Great-aunt Caroline has many secrets. Among them is the identity of the boy Norah sees in the backyard. Who is he? And why is he watching the house?

Thirteen-year-old Mark Rogers knew that his Grandpa Luigi had Alzheimer’s but he hadn’t counted on it turning his life upside-down. When his mother suggests that the two of them move in with Grandpa and help care for him, Mark reluctantly agrees because his grandfather has always been something of a hero to him. He doesn’t know, however, how strange Grandpa’s behaviour has become or that the kids in his new school have a nickname for him: Crazy Luigi.

Thirteen-year-old Jane Covington doesn’t want to go to Sky Lake to visit her grandmother for the summer holidays - she wants to visit her father in the north. But when she returns to the cottage on the lake with the tall cliff, she is happy to be back in the golden country sunshine. However, Jane soon involves herself in a mystery when she finds a seventy-year-old cry for help in the form of a very old letter. She traces it to the story of a suspicious fire that took place long ago. With the help of her friend Corrie and the troubled, handsome Jess, Jane researches the age-old mystery to an exciting conclusion. This suspenseful tale will appeal to all pre-teens who love the fun of the outdoors and a good mystery.

In the fourth Polly Deacon mystery, pregnant and grumpy, Polly yearns to escape the increasingly annoying advice of family and friends. When an opportunity comes up to travel to England to attend a puppetry conference, she jumps at it, in spite of her "delicate condition". The trouble starts when someone tries to steal her luggage at the airport, and by the time she arrives in Canterbury, she knows someone’s stalking her. When another woman is found dead, a mangled puppet nearby, the question arises - is Polly next? Set against the backdrop of the ancient town where Thomas Becket was murdered, this fourth Polly Deacon mystery places puppet-maker Polly in the middle of a pea-souper fog, eluding a persistent thug, refusing to cooperate with the police and desperately trying to stay out of trouble. This is hard to do - when you’re sleuthing for two.

In this Christmas classic, six-year-old Sarah is determined to make the very best snowman possible, without the help of her older brother. When she sees her snowman, Max, come to life in a Christmas Eve frolic, her family refuses to believe her story. Although Sarah thinks she has proof that it was not all a dream, she decides in the end to keep the knowlege of her snowman friend as her very own special secret.

Jade is a curious nine-year-old who likes to help out at her family’s Chinese restaurant, The Fragrant Garden, after school. Though she is often allowed to help set tables or clean up, she longs to be part of the more exciting tasks such as helping in the kitchen or using the cash register. Her father thinks she is too young for these responsibilities - until a fire breaks out in the kitchen. Jade’s quick-thinking response wins her praise and her father reconsiders her request for more responsibility at the Fragrant Garden. This playful character will win the hearts and minds of all who know and love a lively, precocious youngster.

Dora’s father owns a dressmaking shop in the bustling garment district of Toronto in the 1940s. Every day after school, ten-year-old Dora runs to help her father in the shop. As she works, she dreams of being a designer herself and dressing the soberly attired mannequins in her own beautiful creations. In Dora’s imaginings, the mannequins seem to urge her on in her fantasy as Dora’s busy father pays scant attention to daughter’s activities. One late afternoon after the shop has closed and while her father is working at his desk, Dora begins dressing up the mannequins. She uses remnants of bright cloth, ribbons and buttons that she finds lying around the shop floor, adding a bright scarf here and a sequin covered hat there. When her father suddenly decides they’ve stayed long enough, Dora is forced to leave her gaily dressed mannequins in the window, with very unexpected results.

The parents of beaver kits Nip and Tuck think their offspring are too young to help build the new dam. Nip and Tuck insist that they’re old enough to help, but to no avail. One day, when disaster strikes the dam in their parents’ absence, the other animals fear that the pond is doomed. They are convinced that Nip and Tuck are too young to fix the damage themselves. But, much to everyone’s surprise, Nip and Tuck spring to the rescue, fixing the dam, saving the pond and becoming the heroes of the day.

In this dark and moving young adult novel, sixteen-year-old Naomi’s best friend has moved away, and Naomi herself is starting at a new high school. Curtis, the artistic guy she likes, seems to be avoiding her, making her feel alone and lonely. On top of lots of difficult homework and an awful part-time job, she also has problems at home. Her dying aunt has come to live with her family, Naomi’s mother seems to be on the verge of a breakdown, and her Polish father is absent and unsupportive. How can Naomi overcome all these negatives in her life? Over three harrowing months on the eve of the new millennium, the story emerges of a young woman finding strength and of a broken family mending. The action and circumstances of the book are laid bare in a series of diary entries, not only by Naomi, but also by her boyfriend, her mother, her mothers boyfriend, and Naomi’s employer, giving the reader a much fuller understanding of what brings Naomi and her mother to the brink of despair - and back.

Belle Palmers old high-school boyfriend rents a property on her road. Zoologist Gary Myers is studying the behaviour of elk in the wilderness., but soon he is found drowned. Did he fall and hit his head, or did a more sinister event occur? Meanwhile, someone has broken into his cottage, taking a camera and laptop. A clipping about poisoning on reserves leads Belle to visit the place of his demise. Seconds after she arrives, she is at gunpoint. She must paddle into the bush with no way back. Who has been causing havoc in the wilderness and will stop at nothing to cover their crimes?

Candy, Josie and Buddy are three canine friends whose days are filled with fun and friendship at the local park. But their happy days are threatened when two bullies named Riff and Raff drive them from their park, perhaps for good. When the three timid friends return, unable to keep themselves away from their favourite spot, the bullies are determined to do them serious harm. This book teaches a valuable lesson that every child should learn, that if good friends stand together, bullies soon find out that they’re not as tough as they thought.

Winner of the Canadian Children’s Book Centre Choice: Best Books for Kids & Teens

David Baird, a talented young rock musician, accompanies his estranged father to Wales. Fleeing after a quarrel, David has a bizarre motorcycle accident which hurls him back in time to medieval Prydein. A variation on the Arthurian legend, The Minstrel Boy introduces us to Merlin as a stern music teacher who takes David under his wing and a young King Arthur who becomes his friend. David eventually wins the respect of the town with his strange but beautiful songs, becoming a popular minstrel boy and quickly settling into the rhythm of this ancient society. Amidst a whirlwind of conflict and romance, David discovers a new path for his music, the source of his troubled dreams, and the heart he never knew he had.

It’s Labour Day, Camilla’s favourite weekend of the year. She’s planning to relax and ponder what’s happening in her relationship with policman Sgt. Ray Deveau. She’s emphatically not planning to get involved in anything that means trouble. No wonder the news that an old acquaintance has had an accident comes as a surprise. There must be some mistake. By the time Camilla unearths Laura’s connection to a violent revolutionary group active two decades earlier, she’s had several blows to the head and discovered that people shes been talking to keep ending up dead. Someone will do anything to keep Laura’s connections secret. Getting arrested is the least of Camilla’s problems.

As if it weren’t bad enough being a failed romance writer with no sex life, poor Fiona Silk has to cope with the spectacularly embarrassing demise of her old lover, the poet, Benedict Kelly. It’s exactly the sort of thing people notice in St. Aubaine, Quebec, a picturesque bilingual tourist town of two thousand. Now the police start getting nasty, the media vans stay parked on her lawn and the neighbours’ tongues keep wagging in both official languages. Worse, someone’s bumping off the other suspects. Can Fiona outwit a murderer in the mood for some serious mischief?

How do you turn an upside-down life right-side up? Thirteen-year-old Alex is afraid, afraid of his dad, afraid of kids at school, worried about his sick brother and, most of all, angry at himself for being a wuss. How can he make his life different, become a new person that people like? Im writing because its starting to get to me. Plus I need to tell someone, begins Alex. Through letters to his only friend, Alex breaks his solitude and confronts the truth. As courage and wisdom gradually build, he gains the confidence to confront his own dragons.

Commended for the 2011 Best Books for Kids and Teens

When doing the right thing turns all wrong Sometimes a guy just cant mind his own business, no matter how hard he tries, and sometimes that guy gets mired in predicaments which are not of his making. Thats what happens to Jas, a Grade Seven boy who is putting all his energy into completing the artwork for an adventure comic he hopes will be his ticket into an elite summer art program. But when he meets Wren, an eccentric, crusading classmate, his efforts are derailed. Initially, Jas has no interest in getting involved, but circumstances and Wrens overpowering personality keep drawing him in until there is no going back. Wren is a person of values. She believes that if youre not part of the solution, youre part of the problem. When she sees things that are wrong, she sets out to correct them. Eventually she becomes the target of bullies, then, because of Jass inadvertent interference, the bullies turn their attention to him. They destroy his comic and his chances of getting into art school. What can Jas and Wren do to end the bullies’ reign of terror?

In her second book on life in the Arctic, West Coast author Yvette Edmonds deals with Inuit culture during mid 20th century, at a time when many Inuit were turning from traditional life and adopting modern European ways. Liak is a courageous ten-year-old Inuit girl who talks her grandfather into letting her adopt an orphaned albino seal pup she names Yuit. But the shaman banishes Liak and her pup from the community for offending the Sea Goddess Nuliajuk. Liak’s adventures lead her eventually to the new life she has dreamed about and a chance to attend school.

Winston Patrick, a successful lawyer but dissatisfied with his career defending the downtrodden of Vancouver’s criminal world, trades in the courtroom for the high school classroom. Soon Winston’s past life meets his present when a student accuses a fellow colleague of a teacher-student love affair. Reluctantly, Winston agrees to provide legal defence, but the case takes an even uglier turn: the student is murdered, making her alleged lover the prime suspect. And this is no ordinary student. With her family connections reaching as high as the Prime Minister’s office, Winston and his friend Detective Andrea Pearson find themselves immersed in a murder investigation that could cause an international incident, if it doesn’t cost Winston his own life first.

Fourteen-year-old Jennifer Bannon cannot face another boring summer in Springhills. She convinces her mother to let her spend July at her grandmother’s cottage in Hawk’s Creek. She does not reveal that her plan is to live with her grandmother forever in order to avoid the problems back home. But Hawk’s Creek holds dark secrets, and Jennifer is soon drawn into the troubled world of Audrey Musquash, a Native girl accused of stealing and being out of control. In this tale of suspense and haunting friendship, Jennifer must face truths that will change her perspective on life forever.

Northern Ontario realtor Belle Palmer is showing the lakefront mansion of a prominent businesswoman when she discovers the lady strangled in her bathtub. Could this third break-and-enter death reveal a serial killer at large in the Nickel Capital? The womans only child, a precocious twelve-year-old, comes to stay with Belles neighbours and wins her heart and theirs. Then after an argument, the boy disappears, riding off into the cold September night on his bicycle. Racing against time as fall temperatures plummet, Belle hooks up with a bumbling PI and joins the search. Belle must flee into the bush, where she has every chance of becoming lost and disoriented, chased by murderers who will stop at nothing to protect a multi-million-dollar criminal empire.

An expert at fierce scowls and unpleasant grimaces, twelve-year-old Kaitlin Anderson presents a tough face to the world, usually hiding her quirky, imaginative nature. Still dealing with the loss of her mother to cancer, Kaitlin is less than kindly disposed to her stepmother Jane and her bratty half-sister, Anna. Meanwhile, Kaitlin has firmly fastened the bulk of her antagonism on her next-door neighbour - the odious boy, Michael, who used to be her best pal. Now, with the help of her friends, she devotes much of her energy to scheming to make him as miserable as possible. But is that what she really wants? Kaitlin’s friends are a mixed bunch. There’s her very favorite buddy in the world, Tracy - who seems to be losing her grip on reality. In contrast, there’s the unflappable Winter, Kaitlin’s prime competitor in all things academic. And don’t forget the class heart-throb Glenn, who has suddenly developed a particular interest in Kaitlin. Does he want to be more than friends? And can she trust him? When her dad finally delivers a letter written by her mom just before her death, Kaitlin has to deal with her own grief and anger. But unexpectedly, she’s able to use that letter and her own experiences to give some help and comfort to someone else who really needs it. And ultimately, she’s forced to make some tough decisions about revenge and forgiveness. In the face of love and loyalty, Kaitlin has to decide what’s most important in life.

Fifteen-year-old Jennifer Bannon agrees to spend her summer as a camp counsellor at White Pine Camp with her best friend Ambie and her younger sister Leslie. But Jennifers summer in the isolated wilderness on Georgian Bay turns into a roller coaster ride of suspense and danger. Not all is as it appears, and Jennifer is quickly entangled in camp mysteries and the deep secrets of girls assigned to her cabin. There are mysterious after-lights-out activities and strange people who catch Jennifers eye, including a particular male counsellor. When Jennifer discovers somebody lurking in the woods past curfew, she knows that her first responsibility is to the girls in her charge, but she is nevertheless determined to find out what lies beneath the surface. What she discovers in the woods leads her to believe that someone is smuggling drugs and using the camp as a cover-up. As the summer heats up, suspense reaches a boiling point, and Jennifer must race to solve the mysteries of White Pine before tragedy rocks the camp.

In the sequel to Down in the Dumps, Polly finds herself touring as set and puppet designer for a small rural theatre company. When the stage manager mysteriously fails to appear for the first rehearsal, Polly has to step in and do the job. The full-time employment is welcome, but the work is hell. Dealing with a cast of viciously feuding actors, a mysterious practical joker whose tricks are decidedly gruesome, and a deepening conviction that the stage manager has been murdered, Polly finds her new job more than a little stressful. Where’s the stage manager’s body? Is somebody really out to get the star of the show? Will the show open with all of the cast still breathing? The local police won’t show an interest, so the intrepid Polly investigates alone, unwittingly carrying out the murderer’s master plan, which almost ends in curtains for everybody.

In The Golden Grasshopper, ten-year-old Lisa’s and her cousin Paul’s lives were changed forever when they met Gagar, from the planet Ylepithon. In Galena’s Gift, Gagar returns with his precocious young daughter, asking Lisa, now a twelve-year-old grade sixer, to babysit her and teach her about life on Earth. How will Lisa and Paul accomplish this without arousing the suspicion of their fellow earthlings? Using her remarkable abilities, Galena is able to save a young alpaca close to Lisa’s heart from a serious medical emergency. In return, Lisa unwittingly teaches Galena not only about life on earth, but about the most precious human emotion of all - love.

Life at home isn’t easy for sixteen-year-old Corey. When he sees an ad for a retreat called Camp Liberty, he can’t wait to get away. But Corey has no idea of what he’s in for, as he and his fellow campers are brainwashed into joining a racist Aryan cult. In the end, he not only hurts his family and friends but is also forced to confront some uncomfortable truths about himself. And there’s another price to be paid; the Liberty Circle knows he’s betrayed them, and they’re coming after him…

Lisa is a spunky, mischievous ten-year-old, living on a farm in British Columbia’s beautiful Okanagan Valley. In preparation for the school’s Science Fair, Lisa convinces her classmate and cousin, Paul, that they should camp out on the front lawn one night to take pictures of UFOs. Paul is skeptical - likely just another one of Lisa’s hairbrained ideas! But the pair get a whole lot more than they bargained for when a real, live alien appears on their front lawn. Suddenly, Lisa has radically new ideas about what she and Paul will do for the Science Fair!

In a new town, in a new school, fourteen-year-old Terra is experiencing many of the trials and tribulations that face her peers. She isn’t finding it easy to make new friends, nor leave behind her old ones. And while some of the new Inglewood girls seem kind of exciting, is that the crowd she really wants to hang out with? And what about that cute guy Glenn from the new school? Could he possibly want to be friends with Terra - or more? Terra has many, ultimately crucial, choices to make. All of these are normal stresses for a teenaged girl. But on top of all of these, Terra, who has always known she was adopted, is panicked at the thought of meeting her birthmother for the first time. Why didn’t this woman want to keep her baby fourteen years ago, and why has she decided she wants to meet Terra now? This is the follow-up to A Hole in the Hedge, which was shortlisted for the Canadian Library Association Children’s Book of the Year and brings to the page another moving story about the angst of being a teen.

There was something floating in the water ahead of the canoe. It looks dead, whatever it is, someone said. Thats where the mystery begins, and eleven-year-old Alan and his friends are determined to solve it on their own, without adult interference. They have all the tools they needZiggys canoe, Jose’s ability to impress parents, and Alans detective instinct. Mix in a gang of bullies on jet-skis, an eccentric hermit, and the theft of a priceless violin, and the stage is set for a fast-action summer adventure in cottage country. This is a new series for younger readers by Mel Malton, author of the Polly Deacon mysteries for adults under the name H. Mel Malton.

It’s not easy having your own father for a teacher, but that’s only one of twelve-year-old Nikki’s problems. Her beloved dog has died, leaving a gaping hole in her life, which is thrown into further turmoil by the arrival of her long-lost eccentric grandmother from Australia. Life is pretty tense around Nikki’s house, but Nikki relaxes by taking long rides on her horse and visiting a nearby secluded pond inhabited by a rare species of turtle. Things do begin to get brighter when she receives an unwanted, runt puppy as a birthday present. She names the ugly little Border Collie Lucky and he flourishes under her care. As she and her grandmother begin working together, first of all at preparing a garden and then at training Lucky for the local agility trials, they eventually become friends and the grandmother begins telling Nikki about her crusades for the environment in Australia. When Nikki finds out that developers are planning to fill in her special pond to build a housing estate, wiping out the turtles’ habitat, she decides to take a dangerous stand on the animals’ behalf. But can she really take on a big developer and win? Hubcaps and Puppies is not only a story about a girl, her dog and her horse, but also about the protection of the environment and the lessons that the older generation may have to teach the younger if they are willing to listen. Nelson writes in a fast-moving and energetic style, but her characters and situations are always realistic and believable.

Fifteen-year-old Zoe is many things, but confident is not one of them. Perhaps that’s why she prefers the company of animals. A self-professed advocate for their rights, Zoe is not above taking matters into her own hands. But the stakes are raised when she finds herself at the centre of a dangerous conspiracy involving the disappearance of animals from a shelter. She turns to street-savvy Alex Fisher, her troubled Social Studies partner, to help unravel the mystery. Zoe soon learns that nothing is as it appears, as she is confronted by angry parents, a dangerous sociopath, and an ill-advised romance.

It’s an exciting time for seventeen-year-old Libby, as she announces to her aunt that she plans to leave Toronto in the 1950s to spend the summer living alone in the empty family home in Pinkney Corners. Libby is determined to make it on her own and to spend some time honing her skills as a writer so that she can become a novelist and journalist like her deceased mother. But living alone can be a challenge. Libby makes a little money working at the five and dime, but the local paper can’t afford to hire. And then there’s the strange men that she sees on the property, and the uncomfortable attentions of the store’s assistant manager. But there are some bright spots in the summer - new friendships and the possibility of romance with handsome Michael, her best friend’s brother. Libby is put to the test when she stands up against sexual harassment from her boss and writes an article on it for the paper, running the risk of losing her job and the respect of the community.

Twelve-year-old Moon lives with her father after her mother disappears, leaving her with nothing but a beautiful ring, which also mysteriously vanishes. After her mother’s departure, her father has become unusually depressed and moody. Moon, however, firmly believes that she will see her mother again and develops a strong interest in magic as a way to find her. Her breakthrough comes when she finds a strange key in the office of Ms. Tanglemoth, the intimidating school librarian. When Moon holds the key, she is transported back in time as an invisible observer to the middle ages, where young Nora, who bears a strong resemblance to Moon’s mother, is oppressed both by her father and his enemies. Moon gradually realizes that she and the key are the means to giving Nora’s murdered ghost peace and to restoring her own mother to her. But how exactly is this to be accomplished?

The Lawrence family (three children, one dog, one cat and two parents) has a crisis on its hands - too much laundry and no place to put it. Are the thirteen baskets they buy in the mysterious shop in the market the end of their problems? Or is it just the beginning of a grand and maybe dangerous adventure for Abigail, Jacob and Ernest? When the baskets become the gateway to another time, the children encounter mysteries which they must solve…before their parents disappear altogether.

Rather than face the consequences of his attempted shoplifting, twelve-year-old Joel Osler leaves his mothers home in Toronto to go live with his dad and stepmother in Turtle Narrows. He hopes to make a fresh start in the little lakeside town. On the way, he meets a man who shows him the map with its three clues. Joel finds an unlikely ally in the fiercely independent Paige Duggan, a Grade Seven classmate at the school he now attends. Paige lives with her guardian and a growing number of rescued animals in a tiny cottage they call the Mousehole. In an effort to avoid his stepmother and hoping for a dog-walking job like Paiges, Joel volunteers to work at the local animal shelter. Joels past mistakes come back to haunt him when a silver compass disappears from the teachers desk. Is he destined to be the number one suspect every time something goes missing? Joel shows Paige the drawings he remembers from the map, and the two team up to match wits against the man, hoping to discover the meaning of the three clues before he does.

Being promotions director of a large shopping mall isn’t the most stress-free job on the planet, but Jenny Turnbull enjoys it and is darn good at it. But her job becomes quite a bit more gruesomely stressful when an unseen gunman goes on a spree in a bloody food court massacre during her special Hallowe’en promotion. And the situation gets totally out of hand when it turns out that the surviving victim, whose life is hanging by a thread in hospital, is the deadbeat son of a powerful, vindictive and grudge-carrying local city councillor. Dark secrets hidden in the mall’s back corridors come to light, rumours of drugs, child prostitution and infidelity, some involving the victims. Or was the murderer simply a crazed customer like the one that threatened Jenny on the very day of the murders? As Christmas nears, the mall Santa quits suddenly and the pressure is on for Jenny – protect the mall’s reputation as a safe place to shop, find a new Santa two weeks before the big mall parade and help solve the mystery of the murder. The inner workings of a large urban mall make fascinating reading but don’t detract from the central questions. How will Jenny find the time and resources to unravel the tightly wound skein of this mystery?

There is a killer at work in the sleepy village of Cedar Falls. The peaceful order of puppet-maker Polly Deacon’s back-to-nature rural life is violently interrupted when she finds her best friend Francy’s abusive husband lying dead in the dump with a hole in his chest. What’s worse, Francy can’t remember what happened the night of the murder. The cops soon get involved…and in more ways than one, as Polly finds herself falling for hunky officer Mark Becker. Afraid that the police will arrest Francy for the murder and exasperated with their ineptitude, Polly decides that only she can get to the bottom of the mysterious murder. The situation comes to a head as the outspoken and resourceful Polly begins receiving threats to her life. As she searches for answers, Polly discovers that the puzzle often points inward and she is forced to question her values and her friendships. But where there is death, there is also grief and passion, and passion in Cedar Falls is never simple, and sometimes, as Polly discovers, it can also be deadly.

Sport, fitness, games and murder are the main themes of this collection of wicked and witty crime fiction and poetry by the Ladies’ Killing Circle, who brought you Menopause is Murder and Cottage Country Killers. From the gym to the golf course to the supposedly peaceful practice of tai chi, murder, rage and revenge refuse to respect the human quest for immortality through fitness and can victimize the most tanned and toned bodies as easily as those of couch potatoes and gourmands. Excessive good health can lead to an early demise in this energetic new anthology. You’ll watch your back in the hot tub after reading this book…

Finally, the Canadian story of Thanksgiving, celebrating our past and educating our children about Canadian history and traditions. Presented in storybook form with 35 colourful illustrations, this Canada 125 Project also contains the words and music to a lively, original Thanksgiving song.

The starter’s gun explodes, and Hollis Grant excitedly begins her very first marathon race, only to stumble almost immediately over a body lying in the road, the body of the Reverend Paul Robertson, her soon-to-be ex-husband. When the crush of runners passes and the medics arrive, it becomes clear that the Reverend has not collapsed from the rigours of the race, but has been brutally stabbed. Although Hollis has emotionally distanced herself from her husband some time ago, her challenge now - before the police make her, as the estranged wife, the prime suspect - is to find out who, among his many detractors, would hate the Reverend enough to stick a knife in his back. Could it be a parishioner at his church who dislikes his activist stance towards gay marriage? Could it be one troubled soul among the many who have sought his psychological counselling and then found themselves laid bare in the Reverend’s latest book? Or could it be the angry husband of one of the church ladies whom the charming Reverend has bedded? As Hollis and Detective Rhona Simpson probe the secretive life of Paul Robertson, they discover multiple motives for hatred and murder. As the murderer comes after Hollis herself, the solution to his murder takes on the urgency of life and death.

Winner of the 2004 ForeWord Book of the Year Award

Toronto in 1856 is industrializing with little time for scruple or sentiment. When Reform politician William Sheridan dies suddenly and his daughter Theresa vanishes, only one man persists in asking questions. A former suitor of Theresa’s, bank cashier Isaac Harris has never managed to forget her, despite her marriage to another man. Thrust into the role of amateur detective, he must now struggle with the demands of his job and the shortcomings of the fledgling city police. He also faces the hostility of Theresa’s powerful husband, a steamboat and railway magnate. Harris’s search takes a grisly turn when, in a valley outside of town, he finds human remains decked in traces of Theresa’s finery. If she is dead, who is responsible? And who cares to find out, apart from the man who wooed her too timidly and now would do anything to make up for it? Death in the Age of Steam whirls the reader through a richly realized Victorian landscape, from Niagara Falls to Montreal and north as far as the shores of Lake Superior. It’s a world at once near and exotic, a world of noise and smoke and churning pistons, but a world still very familiar to denizens of the 21st century.

Music may soothe the savage breast, but in this fifth collection of witty and wicked crime fiction from the Ladies’ Killing Circle, music provides the background for tales of murder and mayhem. Eighteen stories by Canadian women crime writers along with poems from Joy Hewitt Mann take their inspiration from titles as varied as the upbeat "Wake Up Little Suzie" through the romantic "Summertime" and musicals such as "There’s No Business Like Show Business". It’s a collection you won’t want to put down until you’ve read every one and hummed all the tunes. You’ll never listen to your favourite songs again without wondering what nefarious deeds they may have inspired.

Two wrongs may not make a right, but what about three? JP Rodriguez’s debut novel is an examination of what it means to live a modern life and the price of inaction in a world where chances at redemption and happiness are all too few. Watched over by the majestic mountains of the Canadian west, the narrator came early to understand that every action creates a reaction, and what goes up comes downusually hard. So he’s spent his life in an emotional straitjacket, living comfortably on the surface of things. Only once has he ever come close to betraying his philosophy, but he came to his senses before it was too late and left her. At least thats what he thinks until the morning he wakens to a violent and inexplicable nausea. Haunted by the love he threw away and his former lover’s mysterious murder, he leaves his job and sets off in search of direction. On an epic journey over land and sea, through past and present, his heart and mind struggle to find common ground. Mile by mile, he develops the justification for an act of deliberate violence and maybe his own redemption.

The Okanagan summer stretches out in front of twelve-year-old Nikki like a sparkling rainbow, with lots of time to spend at the beach and with her horse, Ginger. When her cousin Trevor arrives in his wheelchair, spoiling all her plans, they take an instant dislike to one another. But a vision in the clouds will change both her and Trevor’s feelings about a lot of things and, in fact, will help make a dream come true as Trevor competes in the B.C. Games for the Physically Disabled.

When Emily Stowe was born in Ontario in 1831, every girl’s life followed a set pattern. Regardless of her personality, intelligence, capabilities or creativity, her future was limited to housework and childcare. Emily Stowe was determined to change that pattern. Sydell Waxman, a writer, researcher and lecturer on women of the 1800s, tells of the events in the life of the young Emily Stowe which caused her to become, not only the first woman school principal and the first woman to practise medicine in Canada, but a pioneer in the fight for women’s rights. With the help of original sketches and archival material, Changing the Pattern also creates a vivid picture of Canada in the late 1800s as it follows Emily’s crusade to create new patterns for girls’ lives.

The fate of the known world is settled on the shores of Canada In Christopher Dinsdale’s third historical adventure for young readers, Connor MacDonald and his mother have encountered Henry Sinclair, Norwegian prince and Earl of Orkney, who rescues them from highwaymen. Prince Henry is an adventurer who has sailed to the farthest reaches of the known world. On a dark Egyptian beach, he was given a treasure so precious that kings would sacrifice everything in order to acquire it. But unlike the warmongering monarchs of Europe, Prince Henry intends it to become an everlasting beacon of peace and devises a plan so bold that only the exiled Order of the Knights Templar could even dare conceive of it. Events soon lead Connor, now a squire, his friend Angus and Prince Henry to the shores of Vinland and to Oak Island. The fate of the Templar Knights rests in the hands of two Scottish teenagers and their Mikmaq friend, Na’gu’set, as they desperately try to identify the dark forces that threaten not only to destroy them but the entire Templar Order.

The third Polly Deacon novel finds our heroine in the unlikely (and uncomfortable) job of designing a mascot (Kountry Kow) for a new mega-grocery store, despite vitriolic opposition by local merchants, including her aunt. This is nasty enough, but when allegations of municipal corruption arise concerning the sale of the property on which the store will stand, Polly’s sleuthing instincts take over, to the usual chagrin of her sometimes boyfriend, surly Detective Mark Becker. But the scene starts to get really ugly when people start dying - not exactly the family environment that the developers desire!

Vikkan Lantry, a pianist with more talent than ambition, is content with his job at an upscale cocktail lounge until a request from reclusive soprano, Ulrike Vogel, draws him grudgingly back into the world of classical music. Ulrike’s mysterious past, and her friendship with elderly Viennese piano teacher, Dieter Mann, usher Vikkan into an intrigue that begins in the nineteenth century with an unknown song cycle composed by Robert Schumann, and ends in the present-day with a grisly double murder. As Vikkan probes the layers of deceit obscuring a killer’s identity, The Schumann Proof reveals itself to be a study in ambition gone awry. The theme is hardly new, but The Schumann Proof gives it a fresh slant, examining not only the devastating results of too much seeking after personal glory, but the painful consequences of too little.

Angry at missing a week of summer video game entertainment, Jesse, a twelve-year-old boy of European/Native American descent, grudgingly follows through with his deceased father’s request that he join his Uncle Matthew and cousin Jason at Six Islands, on Georgian Bay, for a special camping trip. Uncle Matthew explains that Jesse’s father wanted Jason’s vision quest to be his introduction to their native culture. During their first night around the camp-fire, it is Jesse who has a vision, and the adventure begins. Not only is he swept back in time four hundred years, but he is transformed into a majestic, white-tailed deer. He must now survive the expert hunting skills of his ancestors while somehow rescuing his people before they are destroyed by warfare.

When Emily Stowe was born in Ontario in 1831, every girl’s life followed a set pattern. Regardless of her personality, intelligence, capabilities or creativity, her future was limited to housework and childcare. Emily Stowe was determined to change that pattern. Sydell Waxman, a writer, researcher and lecturer on women of the 1800s, tells of the events in the life of the young Emily Stowe which caused her to become, not only the first woman school principal and the first woman to practise medicine in Canada, but a pioneer in the fight for women’s rights. With the help of original sketches and archival material, Changing the Pattern also creates a vivid picture of Canada in the late 1800s as it follows Emily’s crusade to create new patterns for girls’ lives.

Remembrance Day is a proud day for Camilla MacPhee’s good friend, Mrs. Violet Parnell, one of five thousand Canadian women to go overseas during World War II. But the next day she has vanished. Camilla, with only a few letters and documents to guide her, follows her friend to Tuscany, chasing though historic towns, across high promontories and along steep mountain roads. Vanishing old partisans and Allied aircraft crash sites keep Camilla hopping as she tries to find Mrs. P. before someone with a deadly serious reason to keep the past hidden finds her first. The fifth Camilla MacPhee takes the irascible Ottawa lawyer’s adventures to an exotic new locale, with the usual murderous results.

In the third Belle Palmer mystery, Belle takes her friend and employee on a snowshoe trek. Miriam MacDonald brings her spoiled mini-poodle, a gift from investment broker boyfriend, who promises huge returns on her life savings. Later that week, Miriam discovers Elphinstone bludgeoned to death in his condo. Although Miriam’s fingerprints alone are found on the Inuit sculpture murder weapon, the collapse of Elphinstone’s empire has ruined hundreds of people and made him many dangerous enemies. Miriam is eventually charged with second-degree murder and then, as Belle struggles to pull the pieces of a very complicated puzzle together, Miriam rushes off to North Bay to be with her ailing daughter, and Belle inherits the obnoxious poodle.. Meanwhile, a stalker now has Belle watching her back in the Northern Ontario bush she calls home. Will she find the killer before a bullet finds her?

Yousuf Karsh emigrated to North America from Turkey in the 1920s, eventually settling in Ottawa. An early interest in photography inspired him to open his own studio. As he became known for the quality of his work, Karsh’s close proximity to powerful leaders in Ottawa led to commissions of portraits of politicians. He became known as the worlds’ finest portrait photographer for his gift of drawing out and capturing a subject’s character in a photograph. Over a seventy plus year career, Karsh photographed many famous musicians, artists, actors, captains of industry and politlcians. He was also a humanitarian who worked with sick children. This is the first children’s biography of the man who immortalized the makers of history.

A dramatic turn of events unites twelve-year-old Billy Gavin and seventeen-year-old John "Bearman" Redell, two boys from seemingly different backgrounds who discover that they in fact have a great deal in common - they are both runaways. Together, alone against nature in the rugged Alberta wilderness, they begin to deal with the demons of their pasts. When the news of a downed plane and a missing rodeo cowboy in the woods and mountains nearby reaches them, Bearman, an expert tracker who knows the woods like the back of his hand, becomes obsessed with the thought of finding the lost man. The boys find themselves faced with the greatest challenge of their lives. Do they have the courage to find the missing man? More importantly, will this adventure give them the self-confidence they need both to outrun the past and to embrace the future?

After more than thirty years as the muckraking publisher of the Coast Chronicle on the B.C. shoreline, Albert Sloan made plenty of enemies. But when his body is found hanging in an apple grove off Settlers Road, the Mounties waste no time ruling his death a suicide. At the urging of Sloans widow, reporter Pat Ross is drawn into an investigation of Sloans last days. As the truth emerges, and even after a second high-profile death-by-apparent-suicide occurs, Pat is left to wonder: Had Albert Sloan stumbled onto the story of a lifetime, or was he simply a vindictive, defeated politician whose sordid past and giant ego finally caught up with him?

Take one of the crowning musical geniuses of mid-nineteenth century Europe; surround him with enemies, some of whom are fiercely jealous of his talent, others in love with his beautiful wife (a musical genius in her own right); add several scoundrels including a seller of stolen jewels and a kleptomaniac music critic who ends up murdered under highly mysterious circumstancesand there you have the world of Robert and Clara Schumann in the Germany of the 1850s, as told by the narrator, Dsseldorfs top detective, Inspector Hermann Preiss. A delightful historical mystery with a light touch, the reader is lead into the world of mid-nineteenth century music, where classical composers were stars and their egos were just as monstrous as the rock stars of today. Enter Brahms as the latest rising star in the firmament, and the world of Robert and Clara Schumann is rocked to its core. A mysterious off-key A on the Schumanns piano leads to one of the more interesting cases that Inspector Preiss has ever tackled. But are all mysteries meant to be solved? Inspector Preiss has the final answer.

In the sequel to The Great Laundry Adventure, the three Lawrence children, Abigail, Jacob and Ernest (from oldest to youngest) are again embarked on a mysterious adventure, but this time, the adventure is initiated, it appears, by a small blue stone buddha which Ernest has discovered in a mysterious shop. The little buddha has a way of showing Ernest the unhappiness of others, and his brother and sister have expressly forbidden him to bring the buddha along on their summer holiday. With their parents, they arrive by motorboat on the wonderfully primitive island where they always spend their holidays, ready for a carefree summer. At first they are delighted to rediscover their favorite haunts and activities, but soon five-year-old Ernest is oppressed by a sense of foreboding. He is afraid to tell Abigail and Jacob that he has brought the buddha to the island, but they soon discover its presence and take measures to try to prevent the buddhas powerful and unhappy messages from spoiling their holiday. Then the children discover a battered replica of the tourist boat, the Segwun, which has plied these shores for decades, and which then leads them to a small mist shrouded island, called Serene Island. They also discover a mysterious cave with ancient drawings and a tunnel through which pours the sound of sobbing. They follow the tunnel and it leads them back to the same small island. This time they find someone who is indeed unhappy and needs their help. And so their adventure with Charlotte, a young girl from another time, begins. A junior novel with a classic feel, illustrated with black and white illustrations, which will delight children eight and up. Rutledge has mined the mysterious elements of an untamed island to produce a story which is both whimsical and enchanting.

Lucky Strike is a light-hearted laugh-out-loud mystery with a cast of characters who epitomize life Down East. Eric Spratt, a conservative accountant from Toronto, is forced to flee to the remote Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia and there, become Charles Trenchant, reclusive writer. He knows that anonymity and discretion are the only weapons he has to protect himself from the retribution of the Mafia dons whom he helped to send to jail. Surely, fifty years of a quiet, unassuming existence would prepare him for the life that he must now lead. However, the steamroller hospitality of the rambunctious locals overwhelms any hope that Charles has to keep his profile lower than low. Within days he is embroiled in their nefarious doings and wild antics. The resident rector, Father Donald Peasgood, and his redoubtable sister drag a reluctant Charles into the fold, while his disreputable next-door neighbor involves him in a scheme to burn down the house for the insurance money. Despite his best intentions to remain aloof, Charles lurches from crisis to crisis as this rollicking tale hurtles like a runaway train to its inevitable disastrous climax. When one very unpleasant lady ends up dead, and Charles is the prime suspect, it looks like the only way he can save himself is to flee the humble sanctuary and the open-hearted people he has come to love on the Eastern Shore. Lucky Strike is as full of fun as a Cape Breton kitchen party and as refreshing as a dip in the Atlantic Ocean.

In the sequel to Northern Winters Are Murder, it’s now high summer in Northern Ontario, where everyone is bear bait, even the bears. Gunshots chase Belle Palmer from her quiet forest paths. Then, on her remote lakeside road, the savage and unexplainable murder of an elderly neighbour puts her on guard against two-footed killers. Does the answer lie in the woods? In the alleys of the Nickel Capital? Or in the black rock moonscape of an ecological disaster area Belle’s investigations gradually uncover the sordid details of a sexual abuse scandal in a residential school years before that has left scars on its victim that can never heal. The horrifying truth and its deadly fallout may destroy many more lives before this tragedy reaches its last act.

In the second Camilla MacPhee mystery, it’s now forty below in Canada’s capital, but victims’ advocate Camilla is feeling the heat. When a savage serial batterer goes on the rampage looking for revenge against his former girlfriend, the terrified woman turns to Camilla and Justice for Victims for help. But a sudden change of fortune causes her client to really feel the chill. Camilla wades into the investigation, now one of murder, and gets a frosty reception from the police. Soon everyone connected with the case is either cooling their heels behind bars or trying to avoid cold storage in the morgue. Camilla’s really skating on thin ice looking for this killer - literally.

Inside Music Books is pleased to introduce the Fan Lowdown series by music journalist Karen Bliss. These books offer the fan an enhanced experience. Bliss solicits stories from fans via the artist’s message board and mailing list: concert or road trip stories; meeting the artist; making cookies for the band; a song they fell in love to; a lyric that helped get them through a tough time. Bliss has interviewed the band members, sharing her most interesting submissions and getting the bands thoughts and their own memories. The result is a unique look at the artists career, remembered from both sides of the stage. Scattered throughout are photos, ticket stubs, set lists, posters, backstage passes and other mementos that add a sense of time and place. Hedleys eponymous debut album went platinum in Canada, received five Juno nominations and the Much Music Video Award for Best Pop Video for Gunnin. Their sophomore album, Famous Last Words, was released in 2007, and the band toured the U.S. and Canada, headlining as well as supporting Bon Jovi, Nickelback, Simple Plan and Three Days Grace.

The sequel to Tree Fever is a story of redemption and the power of belief. Tree Fever, Hood-Caddy’s first novel, introduced strong, spiritual heroine Jessie Dearborn, who struggled to save an old growth stand from a ruthless developer in her small Muskoka town and found her life’s meaning in the process. Flying Lessons once again finds Jessie and her small group of friends fighting those who would despoil the beauty of nature, this time the builders of a resort which will destroy the ecosystem of the lake on which she lives. Jesse must wage an exhausting uphill battle against the callousness of those who would exploit the natural world for their own gain. At the same time, Jessie finds herself unexpectedly saddled with a friend’s home-based bird sanctuary, where she cares for an injured baby loon who inspires her with its will to live. But Flying Lessons is really the story of two different women as Alex, a hard-driven investment lawyer from the city, faces her own mortality and seeks a healing sanctuary at Jessie’s home, where she learns to listen to her inner self again. This is another uplifting tale of personal growth and idealism by a writer with a compassionate, distinctive vision of the world.

Willa has never known her father. In fact, her mother has refused to tell the eight-year-old anything at all about him. Willa dreams about what he might look like and who he might be. She often asks herself why her hair, which is "afro-crinkly", and her skin, which is dark, are so different from her mother’s brown hair and pale skin. A substitute teacher’s request that the class draw pictures of their dads for a Father’s Day card launches Willa on an odyssey to discover the truth. Her head filled with fantasies of kings and princesses, Willa gathers the clues and, with the help of her good friend Marina, begins the alternately amusing and touching search for her father.

Twelve-year-old Martin Jessup, teller of tall tales and other untruths, cannot understand his sister’s objections to the family’s move from Winnipeg to small-town Ontario. With Dad in the military, moving is a fact of life. Settling into his new home, Martin is intrigued by a deserted house across the street and by an unfriendly neighbour, who seems to be waiting for something to happen. Martin and new friends Granger and Holly form a club that meets in the deep end of an empty swimming pool. The friends tell Martin that the deserted house is all that remains of the Govier estate and about an unsolved mystery — the disappearance years ago of Victor Govier. One night, Martin sees a light in the deserted house and the adventures of the Deep End Gang begin. This gentle small-town mystery will appeal to admirers of Peggy Dymond Leavey’s Silver Birch Award-nominated Sky Lake Summer.