
Little Wolf
A young Indigenous girl moves to the big city and learns to find connections to her culture and the land wherever she goes, despite encountering bullies and feelings of isolation along the way.
When Little Wolf moves to the big city with her mom and sister, she has difficulty adjusting to their new life. She misses living close to nature and seeing …

Green Glass Ghosts
From writer and musician Rae Spoon: a rollicking yet introspective young adult adventure about screwing up, finding yourself, and forging a new life on your own.
At age nineteen in the year 2000, the queer narrator of Green Glass Ghosts steps off a bus on Granville Street in downtown Vancouver, a city where the faceless condo towers of the wealthy l …

The Street Belongs to Us
A sweet middle-grade chapter book about two best friends who transform their torn-up street into a world where imaginations can run wild.
In 1984 Los Angeles, Alex is a tomboy who would rather wear her hair short and her older brother's hand-me-downs, and Wolf is a troubled kid who's been wearing the same soldier's uniform ever since his mom died. T …

Nye, Sand and Stones
Somewhere off the coast and around the corner there are two islands. One island is made mostly of stones and the other mainly of sand, and that’s where the problem began.
Young Nye doesn’t understand why the people on her Island of Sand work so hard to build beautiful sandcastles every day if they are destined to be ruined by the stones catapult …

Nye de l’île de Sable
Quelque part au large, mais pas trop loin, se trouvent deux îles. Une est en grande partie faite de pierres tandis que l’autre est couverte de sable. C’est là que les problèmes commencent.
La petite Nye ne comprend pas pourquoi les habitants de son île de Sable s’acharnent à construire jour après jour de beaux châteaux de sable qui sont …

Float Like a Butterfly, Drink Mint Tea
A wildly disarming memoir by comedian Alex Wood on how he overcame his multiple addictions.
As an alcoholic, drug-addicted comedian with tendencies to over-indulge and under-achieve since he was a teenager, Alex Wood was on track for to achieve his greatest goals: to die young and drunk. At the age of twenty-eight, feeling desperate in the face of a …

Riley Can't Stop Crying
★ “Insightfully emotional…A poignant, purposeful depiction of a family learning to recognize, confront, and heal internal struggles with self-love and self-worth. Children in need of encouragement will find comforting revelations about the value of individuality.”—School Library Journal, starred review
Riley is inconsolable. He can’t …

Outside
Emotional and uplifting, Outside is the story of a teacher's escape to Japan from classroom, country, and self in the wake of a small-town Ontario tragedy.
David Woods, a first-year teacher, shares his grade-4 students' passion for nature and their reluctance to be hemmed in by classroom walls. He pushes the boundaries of risk and the constraints of …

How to Fail as a Popstar
The first play by multi-media artist Vivek Shraya, about fame and personal transformation.
Described as "cultural rocket fuel" by Vanity Fair, Vivek Shraya is a multi-media artist whose art, music, novels, and poetry and children's books explore the beauty and the power of personal and cultural transformation. How to Fail as a Popstar is Vivek's deb …

Iron Goddess of Mercy
Iron Goddess of Mercy by Lambda Literary Award winner Larissa Lai (for the novel The Tiger Flu) is a long poem that captures the vengeful yet hopeful movement of the Furies mid-whirl and dance with them through the horror of the long now. Inspired by the tumultuous history of Hong Kong, from the Japanese and British occupations to the ongoing pro-d …

Tolstoy's Words To Live By
Here is Leo Tolstoy's first book of "Daily Thoughts," never before translated into English, compiled by Tolstoy in 1906 to share inspiring quotes from more than forty philosophers for each day of the year. Aphorisms and ideas collected by Tolstoy in his other volumes have affected the lives of millions. Among those who were profoundly influenced by …

Out of the Dark
A collection of poetry by a survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto. This collection offers a cycle of poems about the poet who, as a child survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto, has had to live with the memories of the Holocaust all her life. The first section describes the evils of suffering and prejudice, of war and destruction, and the loss of loved ones, even t …

Journal of a Travelling Girl
FINALIST FOR TWO 2021 CANADIAN CHILDREN'S BOOK AWARDS
This fictional coming-of-age story traces a young girl’s reluctant journey by canoe through the ancestral lands of the Tłı̨chǫ People, as she gradually comes to understand and appreciate their culture and the significance of their fight for self-government.
"Journal of a Travelling Girl dese …

The Name I Call Myself
A sweet and moving picture book depicting Ari's gender journey from childhood to adolescence in order to discover who they really are.
Meet Ari, a young person who doesn't like to be called by their birth name Edward: "When I think of the name Edward, I imagine old kings who snore a lot." Throughout this beautiful and engaging picture book, we watch …

The Girl Who Was Convinced Beyond All Reason That She Could Fly
A visionary young-adult illustrated novel about Eggs, a homeless girl who knows how to fly.
In a rusted unnamed city full of five-dollar hotels and flea markets, a young homeless girl named Eggs is trying to make her way in the world. She's shy and bold at the same time, and wary of strangers, but she is convinced beyond all reason that she can fly. …

All That Glitters
World-renowned ice climber Margo Talbot shares her compelling story of healing and self-discovery amid the frozen landscapes of the planet.
Born and raised in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Margo Talbot grew up with a distant mother who “ruled the household with her eyes”; a father who opted to spend much of his time away from home; and four siblin …

Out Here
Carolyn Highland’s outdoor writing will drive readers and outdoor enthusiasts to “get outside” and experience all that the natural world has to offer.
Out Here is a collection of essays that explores what the wilderness has to teach us about the human experience, using outdoor endeavours as extended metaphors for greater truths. Each carefully …

Always Brave, Sometimes Kind
Winner of the 2021 Alberta Literary Awards’ George Bugnet Award for Fiction
Winner of the 2021 Indie Author Project Award for Alberta
Shortlisted for the 2021 ReLit Award for Fiction
A Casual Optimist Book Cover of Note
An exciting debut novel told in connected short stories that captures the diverse and complicated networks of people who stretch …

Buried
An unparalleled memoir that grapples with the complex relationships that exist within the mountaineering community and how personal choices can have deep and tragic consequences.
On January 20, 2003, at 10:45 a.m., a massive avalanche released from Tumbledown Mountain in the Selkirk Range of British Columbia. Tonnes of snow carried 13 members of two …

Snitch
Josh had been living in a group home after being ratted out by Scott, his one-time best friend.
Now Josh has moved in with his brother and overbearing sister-in-law and has been sent to a class designed to teach him to deal with his anger. When an old enemy continues to push his buttons and Scott appears to be up to his old tricks, Josh struggles to …

Pia's Plans
Ever since her parents got divorced, Pia has worked hard to make sure everything in her life is Perfect, with a capital P. But everything keeps going wrong. She and her sister get into a fight. Pia falls down the stairs and hurts her ankle. She spills chocolate milk all over her lucky outfit. She accidentally studied for the wrong test. And her bes …

Mirror Image
Sable wears only black and has always felt that doom is near. Lacey wears pink and seeks beauty everywhere.
A sadistic art teacher pairs Sable and Lacey together for their final project. The girls have to get to know one another and select a suitable poem for the back of each other's decorative mirror. Sable is less than thrilled at having to spend …

Jelly Roll
When Jenny and Austin end up at a March Break leadership camp together, Jenny thinks her week will be miserable.
At school, Jenny Royce is bullied by Grade A Jerk Austin Parks. And now, not only is her tormentor spending March Break at the same retreat, she and Austin are grouped together for the camp’s main assignment! They have to run a stall at …

Don't Stand So Close to Me
Thirteen-year-old Quinn and her friends can't believe their luck when spring break is extended an extra two weeks—even if it's because of some virus.
But when the impact of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic becomes apparent, everyone, not just the students, has to learn to adjust to their new reality. Quinn’s father is an ER doctor and has to self …

The King of Jam Sandwiches
★ “Tug at the heartstrings and tickle the funny bone…This warm tale is definitely one for the keeper shelves. Highly recommended.”—School Library Journal, starred review
Thirteen-year-old Robbie leads a double life. It's just Robbie and his dad, but no one knows that his dad isn't like most parents. Sometimes he wakes Robbie up in the midd …

Pigboy
Dan is not sure he'll survive the boring field trip to a remote heritage farm.
How could a place with no running water, telephone or electricity be anything but dull? The farmer knows nothing about farming and seems angry about having to conduct the tour. And what's with his tattoo? The teacher requests a private word with the farmer and then myster …

It’s All Good (Unless It’s Not)
Going to university or college is supposed to be “the best time of your life” … but what if it’s not? Research reveals that mental health issues are on the rise among undergrads, but many are not accessing help. If this is relatable, this book is for you. It addresses common sources of distress – including academic, social, parental, and …

Refugee Law after 9/11
Common wisdom suggests that 9/11 changed everything about refugee law in the United States and Canada. But did it? Refugee Law after 9/11 systematically examines the evidence to reveal that refugee rights were already so whittled down in both countries before 9/11 that there was relatively little room for negative change after the attacks. It also …

Challenge the Strong Wind
In 1975, Indonesian forces overran East Timor, which had just declared independence from Portugal. The occupation lasted twenty-four years. Challenge the Strong Wind recounts the evolution of Canadian government policy toward East Timor during that period. Canada initially followed key allies in endorsing Indonesian rule, but Canadian civil society …

Nested Federalism and Inuit Governance in the Canadian Arctic
The Canadian federal system was never designed to recognize Indigenous governance, and it has resisted change. But Indigenous communities have successfully negotiated the creation of self-governing regions. Most of these are situated within existing units of the Canadian federation, creating forms of nested federalism. This governance model is tran …

God Loves Hair: Tenth Anniversary Edition
A tenth-anniversary edition of Vivek Shraya's first book: a YA story collection that celebrates racial, gender, and religious diversity.
In 2010, Vivek Shraya self-published God Loves Hair, her first book; since then, Vivek has published six more titles, including a novel, poetry collection, graphic novel, and children's picture book, while also wor …

Under Our Clothes
This illustrated nonfiction picture book by child psychologist Dr. Jillian Roberts introduces children to the topics of bodies, body safety and body image through a conversation-based story that begins with an observation at the community pool.
Modesty, privacy and boundaries are discussed, along with how self-image is formed and how some people are …

Simon Steps Into the Ring
Simon tries to be kind. But sometimes he loses his temper and acts without thinking, which almost always gets him into trouble.
As Simon begins to understand his outbursts, he imagines himself in a boxing ring with his emotions. Can he come out on top and learn how to acknowledge his feelings?

Free to a Good Home
The German word zugunruhe translates as the “stirring before moving.” It’s used to describe birds and herds of animals, like wildebeests, before the great migration. Though Jules Torti is neither German nor a wildebeest, she understands this marrow-deep anxiousness all too well; she is just someone looking for a home.
Free to a Good Home is ev …

Wild Fierce Life
Wild Fierce Life is a heart-stopping collection of true stories from the Pacific Coast that build a vivid portrait of life on the continental edge and one woman’s evolving place within it.
Author Joanna Streetly arrived on the west coast of Vancouver Island when she was nineteen, and soon adapted to the challenges of working on boats of all sorts, …

Umingmak
Until 1967, the Northwest Territories was governed from Ottawa by appointees who rarely visited the land or peoples they controlled. As part of his drive to integrate and modernize the country, Canadian Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson ordered Stuart Hodgson, a feisty British Columbia labour leader and founding member of the NDP, to move a fledglin …