Having developed an impressive reputation for his many novels and non-fiction works, Richard Wagamese now presents a collection of stunning poems ranging over a broad landscape. He begins with an immersion in the unforgettable world where “the ancient ones stand at your shoulder . . . making you a circle / containing everything.” These are Medi …

Jack Hodgins' first book, published originally in 1976, is once again in print - in a new edition. Winner of the Eaton's Book Prize and nominated for the Governor General's Award, Spit Delaney's Island, a collection of short stories, put Vancouver Island on the map as a Canadian literary locale and set Hodgins off on his literary career.

Often compa …

Broken Trail is the story a thirteen-year-old white boy, the son of United Empire Loyalists, who has been captured and adopted by the Oneida people. Striving to find his vision oki that will guide him in his quest to become a warrior, Broken Trail disavows his white heritage - he considers himself Oneida. But everything changes when Broken Trail, a …

Two-and-a half millennia after it was created, Homer's Odyssey remains one of humanity's most memorable adventure stories. In this re-creation of Homer's classic as a young adult novel, we see the aftermath of the Trojan War through the eyes of Alexi, a fifteen-year-old Trojan boy. Orphaned by the war and enslaved by Odysseus himself, Alexi has a v …

This lively biography of Bishop Edward Cridge and his wife Mary paints a vivid picture of early Victoria as it developed from an isolated Hudson's Bay Company post into the bustling capital of British Columbia. Recruited from England by Governor James Douglas in 1854 to be the Church of England chaplain of Fort Victoria, Edward Cridge became an imp …

In the third volume of the Submarine Outlaw series, Alfred sets off in his submarine up the dark and wilful St. Lawrence River. With Hollie and Seaweed, his dog and seagull crew, Alfred follows the route of Jacques Cartier, nearly five hundred years before them, as they sail down the Strait of Belle Isle into the largest river mouth in the world. B …

When twelve-year-old Hannah uncovers an ancient Salish spindle whorl hidden in a cave near her home in Cowichan Bay, she is transported back to a village called Tl'ulpalus, in a time before Europeans had settled in the area. Through the agency of a trickster raven, Hannah befriends Yisella, a young Salish girl, and is welcomed into village life. He …

This collection of poems takes us on a journey — a very personal journey of Pamela Porter's own — to Africa and South America, those corners of the world the news reports never seem to cover: to Angola's thirty-year-long civil war, a landscape overrun with poverty, AIDS, and infant mortality; and to the struggles of ordinary people still haunte …

When twelve-year-old Hannah uncovers an ancient Salish spindle whorl hidden in a cave near her home in Cowichan Bay, she is transported back to a village called Tl'ulpalus, in a time before Europeans had settled in the area. Through the agency of a trickster raven, Hannah befriends Yisella, a young Salish girl, and is welcomed into village life. He …

In Skin Like Mine Garry Gottfriedson offers a suite of poems on what it feels like to be inside the skin of many contemporary native individuals. He pulls no punches as he reflects on the challenges facing native people today. He speaks of minds full of anticipation yet with tongues pointing arrowheads. He tells of how so many native young people a …

This is the first book to be published on the rich and diverse history of Hollyburn, the forested, mountainous area above West Vancouver. Numerous photographs, most of which are published here for the first time, provide a visual appeal which evokes the spirit of earlier times. The history takes us from the First Nations people who used Hollyburn's …

This collection explores the unique spirituality and culture of Cascadia, which includes British Columbia, Washington and Oregon. Envied around the world, Cascadia is famous for its mountains, evergreens, and livable cities. Less well known is that Cascadia is home to the least institutionally religious people on the continent. Despite this, Cascad …

This book will appeal to anyone who wants to understand the unique culture and spirituality of the fast-growing Pacific Northwest, which includes British Columbia, Washington and Oregon. Envied by people around the world, Cascadia, as it is known, is remarkable for its famed mountains, evergreens, eagles, beaches and livable cities. Most people, ho …

In this fast-paced, on-the-road young adult novel, Norma Charles once again manages to include provocative social issues in an adventure story that will appeal to children from age twelve and up. Charles takes on the issue of young girls being forced to marry older men in polygamist religious communities. She also explores the issues surrounding mi …

This young adult historical novel focuses on Charlotte and her family, Loyalists who are forced to flee their home in the Mohawk Valley as a result of the violence of the "Sons of Liberty" during the American Revolution. At the beginning, fifteen-year-old Charlotte Hooper is separated from her sweetheart, Nick, who sympathizes with the Revolutionar …

When sixteen-year-old Sarah from Toronto learns that she is to spend the summer with her grandparents in Nova Scotia, she is convinced that it will be the most tedious summer ever. She gets off to a rough start when she meets Luke, the nephew of her grandmother's friend, and one unfortunate event leads to another. Just when she thinks her summer ca …

This home-grown history of a Vancouver neighbourhood speaks to the need people still have, in a time of infinite possibilities, to connect deeply with the place they call home. The Story of Dunbar is a celebration of community roots and a sense of place. The documentation of Dunbar's history, complete with archival photos from private collections, …

In this new collection of stories, F.B. André explores what it means to "belong." Frequently his stories portray individuals involved in mixed relationships, of different cultures and races or backgrounds - of people struggling to feel at home with themselves and their situations. André depicts characters newly arrived in Canada as well as those …

The Story of Dunbar: Voices of a Vancouver Neighbourhood draws on interviews with more than 350 local residents, including recent arrivals, descendants of pioneer settlers and the aboriginal inhabitants. Their personal accounts are woven together with information from diaries, records in the City of Vancouver Archives and carefully chosen published …

When sixteen-year-old Sarah from Toronto learns that she is to spend the summer with her grandparents in Nova Scotia, she is convinced that it will be the most tedious summer ever. She gets off to a rough start when she meets Luke, the nephew of her grandmother’s friend, and one unfortunate event leads to another. Just when she thinks her summer …

In recent years Mennonites have become one of the most visible ethnic literary communities in Canada. With the publication of Half in the Sun, BC writers of Mennonite heritage claim their place in this community. The authors represented in Half in the Sun are West Coast writers who share a history rooted in a dark region littered with stories of re …

In this highly personal essay, Ted Chamberlin asks some old, old questions such as "why do we need stories and songs?" Turning frequently to First Nations people, he looks at their culture and asks what it means to listen. In response, he notes that we take great pleasure in the comforts of narration, of finding our way within a story, a kind of "d …

This warm-hearted memoir tells the story of the dream of many North Americans: to throw up a dull job and journey into the wilderness to live off the land. Sunny Wright does exactly that when she decides at age twenty-eight to quit working at a "man-sized job for a female wage" in a Vancouver sawmill. With her young daughter Lisa and friend Betty, …

Speaking of Kevin Roberts, the Australian writer Nigel Krauth says, "Roberts takes the common man's point of view and proves that humanity is still connected to the great turning of the universe." Certainly this "New and Selected" provides ample evidence of Roberts' sense of connectedness, as he selects the best from his previous eleven books of po …

The result of a cross-Canada contest for the best short stories about young people's experience of loss and grief, Dark Times is a superb anthology about a topic that often remains hidden but is crucial in the development of a child's sense of identity.

Twelve-year-old Jolene is determined to find independence from her brother, Michael, during a family trip to research the Halifax explosion of 1917 for her father's Museum of Disasters. When her grandfather finds a time crease into the past, Jolene discovers a new friend and the importance of family and loyalty in a world torn apart by World War I. …

This unprecedented volume about British Columbia's earliest authors and first explorers (prior to 1800) provides a fascinating range of characters, events and intrigues. The names Cook and Quadra ring a bell for most of us, as do Bering and Vancouver, but what about the first year-round European resident of B.C., the Irish drunkard John Mackay? He …

Michael Smith burst into public view in 1993 as the co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery of site-directed mutagenesis, the process by which genes can be changed under laboratory conditions for medical and research purposes. Smith became a local hero not only because of the honour and prestige represented by the award but a …

Drawing on his experience as a two-term MP and former Parliamentary Secretary, Ted McWhinney addresses the need for modernization to meet the radically new demands of the plural, multicultural Canada of the 21st century and offers new ways out of our present constitutional straight-jacket. Among the key contemporary topics discussed are the atrophy …

Set in the present day, John Wilson's young adult novel Adrift in Time explores the tensions in family life between parents and children. It also demonstrates how the new generation's knowledge of the family's past can ease those tensions.

The novel opens with Ian, a teenager, finding that he no longer enjoys spending his summer holidays at the fami …

In this fascinating historical novel, twelve-year-old Jolene travels back in time to the year 1903 and finds herself in the coal mining town of Frank on the eve of Canada's deadliest rockslide. Disguised as a boy, Jolene must face the wrath of an impatient teacher, challenge her ability as a gymnast, and disentangle herself from an embarrassing lov …

In this historical novel, Susan Dobbie takes us inside the world of Kimo Kanui, a young Kanaka man who leaves his native Hawaii in the early nineteenth century at a time when thousands of his people were leaving to find work abroad. Dobbie portrays Kimo signing on with the Hudson's Bay Company and being sent as a labourer to Fort Langley on the ban …

These memoirs offer a compelling account of life in early British Columbia from the 1860s to the first decade of the 20th century. The wife of Judge Eli Harrison, one of the province's foremost lawyers and judges, Mrs. Harrison gives intimate glimpses into daily life in Victoria, Nanaimo and New Westminster, and her visits as a young woman to Granv …

The Tenth Pupil, for readers eight to fourteen, is set in a small logging camp on Vancouver Island in 1934. Eleven-year-old Trudy Paige enjoys her life in Mellor's Camp. She has a loving family, a shaggy dog, friends, a swimming hole, a fishing stream, books to read, wild animals to lend a touch of danger, and a friend in Vancouver to visit. She es …

Ann Walsh has selected fourteen captivating stories written by accomplished authors from across Canada for this historical anthology. Each of the stories focuses on a "first-time" historical experience, such as the meeting between natives and Europeans at Fort St. James; the ship carrying filles du roi as brides for the settlers of New France; the …

Connie Fife is one of Canada's warrior poets. Poems for a New World, her third book of poems, refuses to take prisoners. She writes of Oka and Gustafson Lake, of the police shooting of a Native mother and child, as well as the NATO genocide in Yugoslavia. Reflecting on her own life, she carves out a space for new forms of loving that will act as a …

Connie Fife is one of Canada’s warrior poets. Poems for a New World, her third book of poems, refuses to take prisoners. She writes of Oka and Gustafson Lake, of the police shooting of a Native mother and child, as well as the NATO genocide in Yugoslavia. Reflecting on her own life, she carves out a space for new forms of loving that will act as …

This young adult historical novel, set in the early seventeenth century, tells the story of Madeleine Hebert and her brother Philippe who travel to New France to join their father after their mother dies in France. On arriving in Quebec city, they learn that their father, with the Regiment de Carignan, is at Michilimackinac, and possibly ill.

When P …

This hard-hitting novel explores the gritty underbelly of contemporary urban life revealing the shocking chasm between demonized media images and the everyday life of the uneducated poor. At the centre is thirty-seven-year-old Maggie MacKinnan, a star reporter at the Montreal Tribune who is wrenched from her life of respectability when she meets Ni …

Margaret Thompson offers a powerfully moving and historically accurate account of life in Fort St. James, in northern British Columbia, in the 1820s. Through the character of Peter, a young boy who is orphaned at the Fort, Thompson presents a vivid picture of the difficult life for both the fur traders and the Natives in what was then called the "S …

As an innovative chronicler of the "little people" of Quebec, Michel Tremblay has no peer. Yet few Anglophone readers realize that Tremblay began as a writer of works of fantasy. Now, however, Michael Bullock, who won the Canada Council translation award for his translation of Tremblay's first collection of stories - Contes pour buveurs attardés ( …

In this lavishly produced volume, Joseph Plaskett has created a prose "life in art" as colourful and vital as his finest paintings. He begins with his early life in New Westminster, BC, at a time when there were no private galleries.

Lawren Harris and Jock Macdonald were among his early mentors, and they helped him to win the first Emily Carr schola …

Lynne Fairbridge's Tangled in Time presents a captivating story of a young girl's travel in time back to the harsh life of the Depression years. The novel opens in Edmonton with Janna's world being turned upside down when her mother tells her that she plans to remarry. Withdrawing from her family and feeling as though her father's memory has been b …

This modern fantasy novel set in London - for children ages 8 to 12 - tells the story of Elizabeth, a twelve-year-old Canadian girl who feels homesick and lonely after her mother's death when her father moves them to London. Soon, however, she meets an assortment of unusual characters and a strange adventure unfolds. Among her new friends is Maud, …