- post-confederation (1867-) (89)
- western provinces (51)
- history (34)
- historical (31)
- social history (26)
- pre-confederation (to 1867) (25)
- canada (24)
- regional (23)
- native american (22)
- personal memoirs (22)
- women (20)
- canadian (17)
- hockey (17)
- adolescence (16)
- friendship (16)
- native canadian (16)
- adventurers & explorers (15)
- fishing (15)
- world war i (13)
- paranormal (12)
Hard Knox
2017 long-list finalist, Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour Writing
In Hard Knox, seasoned columnist and consummate everyman Jack Knox offers up his uniquely hilarious views on Canadian life as seen from the western fringes of the country—in particular from the “Island of Misfit Toys” as he aptly calls his Vancouver Island home. This treasure tr …
John McCrae
Shortlisted, 2018 Forest of Reading Golden Oak Award
Most Canadians are familiar with John McCrae through his iconic poem “In Flanders Fields,” which was penned on the battlefields of the First World War and remains a symbol of remembrance to this day. Although he will always be remembered as a war poet, the Guelph, Ontario, native was a physici …
Forest of Secrets
When Cat and her friends are taken hostage and find themselves stranded in Headless Valley, it's clear they will need a miracle to get back home. Although they find an abandoned cabin for shelter, their supply of food and water is running out fast, their kidnappers are not on their heels, and a sinister threat lurks in the loft of the cabin. Cat ha …
The Silver Lining
The year is 1938—two years since Sophie, Molly, Mark, Harriet, Leticia, and Posy made international headlines when they uncover the buried treasure of the notorious Brother XII. Since then, life has been decidedly un-exciting for the adventure-loving crew, who feel more at home on the rolling deck of a sailboat than in their stuffy boarding schoo …
More Baby Wild Animals
This follow-up to Baby Wild Animals features colourful photography and simple captions designed to instil an early interest in wildlife. More Baby Wild Animals features over species of mamals, birds, and marine life in their natural environments and captures them at the early stages of life as they learn to walk, run, swim, and fly. From baby otter …
Baby Barnyard Animals
Baby Barnyard Animals is a child's first introduction to some of the cutest animals that live on farms. Featuring charming photography and simple captions, this book includes pictures of baby horses, cows, sheep, goats, pigs, llamas, and more! Baby Barnyard Animals is the perfect companion to the Baby Wild Animals and Baby Birds in the Wild series, …
Whale Child
Whale Child tells the story of a little girl who is separated from her family and her village after a great earthquake. Escaping the shoreline in a canoe, she is swept far out to sea. Though lost and afraid, she realizes she is not alone. A grey whale is quietly guiding her to an unknown place—a secluded bay where the whale and many of her kind h …
The Family Secret
“This is an essential purchase for school libraries…Rated E for Excellent.”—Resource Links
In the fourth installment of the Grim Hill series, Cat, Clive, Jasper, and the rest of the crew are back, and everyone is buzzing about Darkmont High’s student exchange to Sweden. For Cat, it means hanging out with her friends in a foreign country, …
The Forgotten Secret
“The Grim Hill series gets another satisfying go-round with this fantasy/mystery romp…Another appealing mix of realism, whimsy, and legend.”—Booklist
The third installment of the Grim Hill series unfolds during the season of romance, when an easterly fairy wind blows through town. For months, Cat Peters has been wishing to live the normal l …
Panama Pursuit
“Oertel knows how to develop a scene for maximum humorous or scary effect.”—Kirkus Reviews
When their friend is accused of stealing ancient artifacts, Cody, Eric, and Rachel spring into action. And this time, that action takes them far away from their sleepy town of Sultana and deep into the jungles of Panama! Can these smart thirteen-year-ol …
The Secret Deepens
Shortlisted for Ontario Silver Birch Award 2010
Selected, Canadian Children's Book Centre's "Best Books for Kids & Teens" (Starred selection, 2009)
Since Halloween, things are getting back to normal for Cat Peters. Now the big drama in her life isn’t a battle against diabolical fairies, but a battle of the sexes on the soccer field. Meanwhile, ev …
Battle Scars
“A satisfying read.”—Kirkus Reviews
Cousins Walt and Nate McGregor, and Sunday, the former slave on Nate’s father’s plantation, have survived the carnage of the Battle of Shiloh. But the American Civil War rages on, and the three young men find themselves reunited at the notorious Libby prison in Virginia. Within its walls, Nate is a guar …
Birds of British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest
A full-colour, all-in-one regional field guide to every bird species found in BC and the Pacific Northwest, featuring 900 photographs.
Discover more than four hundred bird species in Birds of British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest—the quintessential guide for serious birders or those who are ready to take their bird-watching to the next level. …
Britannia's Navy on the West Coast of North America, 1812-1914
The influence of the Royal Navy on the development of British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest was both effective and extensive. Yet all too frequently, its impact has been ignored by historians, who instead focus on the influence of explorers, fur traders, settlers, and railway builders. In this thoroughly revised and expanded edition of his cla …
Christy Clark
A political insider offers a revealing perspective and examines the public and private life of BC’s controversial premier.
In the blood-sport arena of provincial politics, BC’s enigmatic premier, Christy Clark, has defied the pundits to win both party leadership and an upset election victory against all odds. Made deputy premier in 2001 shortly …
Haida Gwaii
“Perhaps the definitive guidebook to Haida Gwaii.”—Globe and Mail
Haida Gwaii, ancestral home of the Haida Nation, was once as inaccessible and mysterious as it was beautiful. The tight cluster of islands off British Columbia’s northwest coast remained virtually untouchable for millennia, allowing its people to develop a distinct and except …
Lost Nuke
“A story seemingly drawn out of a Hollywood action script…Gripping stuff.”—Canada’s History
Just before midnight on February 13, 1950, three engines of a US Air Force B-36 intercontinental bomber caught fire over Canada’s northwest coast. The crew jumped, and the plane ditched somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. Almost four years later, the …
Come 'n' Get It
A wholesome and hearty collection of authentic recipes and local history from ranch country.
Come ‘n’ Get It is an authentic collection of down-home recipes and early Western Canadian ranch lore. Featuring material and recipes gathered from letters, history books, family cookbooks, and interviews with ranching families, this book represents a cr …
Spirit of the Wild
A one-of-a kind colouring book for animal lovers, featuring original artwork and poetry.
Spirit of the Wild combines the creative possibilities and therapeutic benefits of today’s most intricate colouring books, but is unique in its inclusion of original poetry to complement the images. Featuring twenty-five of the most iconic birds and mammals o …
Portraits of British Columbia
A visitor's guide to British Columbia's most picturesque natural and cultural highlights.
British Columbia, Canada’s third-largest province, is a land of immense geographic beauty and diversity. From its vast regions of coastal and interior wilderness to its rustic heritage towns and vibrant multicultural cities, the province offers unparalleled …
Portraits of Vancouver Island
A colourful visitor's guide to Vancouver Island
Home to Canada’s most balmy climate and a popular destination for over 230 cruise ships per year, Vancouver Island offers a unique and fascinating West Coast landscape with much to see and experience. From the massive old-growth forests of Cathedral Grove and the Carmanah Valley to the annual migrat …
Blisters & Bliss
“No fuddy-duddies, authors Foster and Aitken provide solid information to hiking the West Coast Trail. Spiced with humorous anecdotes that only years of trail slogging could produce. The illustrations by Nelson Dewey are a delight.”—Backpacker Magazine
The bestselling Blisters and Bliss has been the trekker’s guide to the West Coast Trail s …
More Baby Birds in the Wild
A colourful photographic introduction to baby birds in their natural habitat, designed for young children.
This delightful follow-up to Baby Birds in the Wild features vivid bird photography and simple text. More Baby Birds in the Wild is designed to introduce very young children to the enchanting world of newborn nestlings and their rarely seen fe …
Campfire Stories of Western Canada
A fun-for-all-ages collection of over thirty spooky stories in settings across Western Canada.
When friends and family gather around a campfire, good times and scary stories are sure to follow. In Campfire Stories of Western Canada, Barbara Smith, the author of twenty books of true ghost stories from across Canada, presents a creepy collection of t …
Daggers Unsheathed
Daggers Unsheathed: The Political Assassination of Glen Clark is the story of the Glen Clark era in British Columbia politics. From the 1995 announcement of his NDP leadership aspirations to the day in 2002 when he was acquitted of criminal charges in a BC court, Glen Clark was the dominant personality in West Coast politics. Clark's style and poli …
Whistle Posts West
Everybody has a train story. Whether it comes from a distant relative who worked on the railways or from a family train trip that formed a lasting impression of the Canadian landscape, trains inspire a sense of wonder and nostalgia. They are embedded in the history of Canada as a whole and western Canada in particular, and for generations they were …
The Secret of Grim Hill
The new kid at Darkmont High, Cat Peters is already desperate to get out. So when she hears that Grimoire, the private school nearby, is offering scholarships to the winners of a Halloween soccer match, Cat jumps at the chance to apply, despite her sister Sookie’s warnings that there’s something creepy about the old school on the hill. Sookie …
Brother XII’s Treasure
The year is 1936, and seven children (aged eight to sixteen) are sprung from their boarding schools in England to the coast of British Columbia to embark on a summer sailing adventure like no other. On the way, they discover the true story of Brother XII, a shadowy figure recently disappeared from his island compound, who is rumoured to have buried …
Trouble at Impact Lake
In the thrilling third instalment in the popular Shenanigans series, Cody, Eric, and Rachel are back in the present after their time-travelling adventure and ready to return to their boring lives in the sleepy town of Sultana, Manitoba. But no sooner have they settled into their old routine than they run into a suspicious pair of divers who claim t …
Emily Carr
This is the story of a rebellious girl from British Columbia who travelled the world in pursuit of her calling only to find her true inspiration in the Canadian landscape she’d left behind. Both a prolific painter and an accomplished writer, Carr was more comfortable in the raw wilderness than in the tea rooms of London, and more at home with her …
The Flags of War
Nate and Walt MacGregor are cousins who have never met, living on opposite sides of a deeply divided continent. Nate, the privileged son of a plantation owner in the American South, and Walt, an abolitionist son of a pioneer farmer in Canada West, are both profoundly affected by the story of a runaway slave named Sunday. While Nate prepares to figh …
The Great Blackfoot Treaties
“A must-read for historians and their students.”—Annette Bruised Head, Kainai High School Principal, Blood Tribe
The expansive ancestral territory of the Blackfoot Nation ranged from the North Saskatchewan River in Alberta to the Missouri River in Montana and from the Rocky Mountains east to the Cypress Hills. This buffalo-rich land sustained …
The Great Blackfoot Treaties
The expansive ancestral territory of the Blackfoot Nation ranged from the North Saskatchewan River in Alberta to the Missouri River in Montana and from the Rocky Mountains east to the Cypress Hills. This buffalo-rich land sustained the Blackfoot for generations until the arrival of whiskey traders, unscrupulous wolfers, smallpox epidemics, and the …
Baby Wild Animals
Do you want to know what an elk calf looks like? Or a mountain goat kid? How about playful bear cubs romping in the grass? This sweet and colourful picture book introduces children to over thirty species of young animals in the wild. It is an ideal guide for teaching kids about North American wildlife.
Baby Birds in the Wild
This delightful book, with its vivid photos and simple text, will introduce young children to the enchanting world of newly born birds and the anxious dotings and feeding techniques of their moms and dads. Highlighting over forty bird species, this collection invites birdwatchers everywhere to get kids started early in enjoying North America’s mo …
Brother XII's Treasure
Shortlisted for the 2016-17 Chocolate Lily Book Award
“An absorbing, fast-paced book full of interesting characters, unexpected events, and a sense of . . . compelling quest and exploration.” —CM Magazine
The year is 1936, and seven children (aged eight to sixteen) are sprung from their respective boarding schools in England to the coast of B …
British Columbia and Yukon Gold Hunters
Although the 1848 discovery of gold in California was the first bonanza to trigger an invasion of migrants to North America’s Pacific Coast, it was relatively short-lived. Soon, grander findings farther north led to an even greater influx of gold hunters. In 1851, a twenty-seven-ounce gold nugget was found on Haida Gwaii, ushering in fifty years …