The Codfish Dream
"You'll meet eccentric shore workers, wealthy guests who arrive by yacht and floatplane, as well as essential guides Big Jake, Lucky Petersen, Vop and Wet Lenny. . . . A deadpan narrative keeps the absurdity coming as earnest RCMP, FBI and Fisheries officers encounter the salmon-obsessed denizens of the island resort. This book is a keeper." —Wes …
Miles To Go
Gold Medal Winner, 2019 Moonbeam Children's Book Awards, Pre-Teen Fiction E-Book
Finalist, 2019 Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People
A powerful and poignant story of two young girls' friendship, family, loss, and loyalty, set in 1940s Saskatchewan.
“Beryl Young's novel Miles to Go is sparse, poetic and, at times, perfectly h …
Explore the Rocky Shore with Sam and Crystal
A lavishly illustrated story that teaches children about the marine ecosystems of coastal Pacific rocky shores.
Siblings Crystal and Sam and their Aunt Kate and Uncle Charlie explore the tide pools of Eagle Cove, a sheltered inlet on the Northwest Pacific Coast. The children discover that you don’t have to go far to encounter a great variety of re …
Explore the Wild Coast with Sam and Crystal
A beautifully illustrated story that teaches children about marine biology and the coastal environment of BC and the Pacific Northwest.
Sam and Crystal travel with their Aunt Kate and Uncle Charlie to a remote location on the Northwest Pacific Coast. Along the way, they see white-sided dolphins, killer whales, tufted puffins, bald eagles, harbour se …
A Mill Behind Every Stump
The story of one family's settlement in the Cariboo and the culture of early sawmills that developed around them.
In 1922, the Judson family arrived in the Cariboo by covered wagon. The stories of their life on the remote homestead at Ruth Lake is told through this humorous and heartwarming book by local historian and author Marianne Van Osch, as re …
A Mill Behind Every Stump
The story of one family's settlement in the Cariboo and the culture of early sawmills that developed around them.
In 1922, the Judson family arrived in the Cariboo by covered wagon. The stories of their life on the remote homestead at Ruth Lake is told through this humorous and heartwarming book by local historian and author Marianne Van Osch, as re …
Ghostly Campfire Stories of Western Canada
Hair-raising tales of ghosts, spirits, and unexplained phenomena set across Western Canada.
Praise for Campfire Stories of Western Canada:
“Smith’s spooky tales are perfect for warm summer nights spent around the campfire. Her latest book of ghost stories focuses solely on Western Canada and is a wonderful fit for families looking for fun and spo …
Napi
An enthralling collection of traditional Blackfoot stories revealing the frailty of mankind and the enduring power of narrative.
Napi, the Old Man of the Blackfoot Nation, appears prominently in mythology, sometimes as a quasi-Creator, sometimes a fool, and sometimes a brutal murderer. Although Napi is given credit for creating many of the objects a …
Napi
An enthralling collection of traditional Blackfoot stories revealing the frailty of mankind and the enduring power of narrative.
Napi, the Old Man of the Blackfoot Nation, appears prominently in mythology, sometimes as a quasi-Creator, sometimes a fool, and sometimes a brutal murderer. Although Napi is given credit for creating many of the objects a …
In Too Deep
Three trouble-prone friends become pawns in a criminal cover-up after they discover an old bronze statue in a local pond.
When Cody and Eric are denied permission to pick up golf balls from the ponds at their local golf course, they decide to trespass on the property at night. But they end up finding a lot more than just golf balls in the murky wat …
A Matter of Confidence
Shortlisted, 2019 BC and Yukon Book Prizes Hubert Evans Prize for Non-Fiction
A breathtaking behind-the-scenes look at the dramatic rise and fall of Christy Clark’s BC Liberals, the return to power of the NDP, and what it means for British Columbia’s volatile political climate going forward.
British Columbia’s political arena has always been t …
The Hundred-Year Trek
A vibrant look back through a century of student life, achievement, and activism at UBC.
“Sheldon Goldfarb’s skillful and lively storytelling makes this a valuable contribution to social history and a memoir to be enjoyed by all who lived it.”—from the foreword by Kim Campbell
From Pierre Berton to Kim Campbell, Debbie Brill, and Justin Trude …
Lace Up
A charmingly illustrated history of the humble skate and its place in Canadian cultural identity.
Throughout our 150-year history, and even longer, people have braved the treacherous Canadian winters and taken to the ice for the purposes of transportation, competition, exercise, and just plain fun. Canadian culture has developed around ice and the r …
The Spitfire Luck of Skeets Ogilvie
A young Canadian spitfire pilot finds adventure, love, and a remarkable dose of luck on the frontlines of the Second World War.
Rejected by the Royal Canadian Air Force in the summer of 1939, Keith “Skeets” Ogilvie joined the British Royal Air Force instead. A week later he was on a boat to England and a future he could not have imagined.
As a S …
The Mighty Hughes
An in-depth look at the life and career of retired judge and conflict-of-interest commissioner Ted Hughes, whose unflinching integrity earned him the reputation as Canada’s moral compass.
Throughout his sixty-year career, Ted Hughes has been a model of ethical conduct in the Canadian judicial system. The son of immigrant homesteaders who grew up i …
Opportunity Knox
Longlisted, 20188 Leacock Medal for Humour
A hilarious collection of Jack Knox's best-loved humour columns.
In this side-splitting follow-up to the bestseller Hard Knox: Musings from the Edge of Canada, Jack Knox presents his best writing, marking his twenty-year anniversary as a humour columnist at the Victoria Times Colonist, the newspaper that mad …
Whale Child
New in paperback—A lost young girl finds her way home when her spirit unites with that of a newborn grey whale.
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 alon …
Out of Concealment
A stunning collection of powerful and whimsical photo collages celebrating supernatural female beings rooted in Haida culture.
Out of Concealment presents the oral narratives of the Haida Nation through the vibrant depiction of its female supernatural beings. Passed on from generation to generation through oral tradition, these stories are importan …
All the World's a Stage
A celebration of the twenty-eight-year history of Western Canada’s most illustrious Shakespeare festival.
Over the summer of 1990, six thousand Vancouverites flocked into a rented tent at Vanier Park to watch A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It was the inaugural production of what would become one of the city’s most popular and enduring yearly cult …
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 …
Remembered in Bronze and Stone
Remembered in Broze and Stone evokes the years immediately following the First World War, when grief was still freshly felt in communities from one end of Canada to the other. This book tells the story of the nation’s war memorials—particularly bronze or stone sculptures depicting Canadian soldiers—through the artists who conceived them, the …
Remembered in Bronze and Stone
Remembered in Bronze and Stone evokes the years immediately following the First World War, when grief was still freshly felt in communities from one end of Canada to the other. This book tells the story of the nation’s war memorials—particularly bronze or stone sculptures depicting Canadian soldiers—through the artists who conceived them, the …
Remembered in Bronze and Stone
Remembered in Broze and Stone evokes the years immediately following the First World War, when grief was still freshly felt in communities from one end of Canada to the other. This book tells the story of the nation’s war memorials—particularly bronze or stone sculptures depicting Canadian soldiers—through the artists who conceived them, the …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
The Luck of the Karluk
When the members of Canada’s First Arctic Expedition set out from Victoria aboard HMCS Karluk in the summer of 1913, it was a moment of great optimism. The three-year mission would chart unexplored landmasses of the Western Arctic and secure Canada’s place in the international geographic community. Little did the team of distinguished scholars …
The Law and the Lawless
At the end of the nineteenth century, Canada’s prairies were still sparsely populated. Crimes such as horse theft, random murders, and prison escapes were the order of the day, and the North West Mounted Police continued to rely on their horses, their contacts, and their wits to apprehend the culprits. By the mid-1930s, a sea change in technology …