One summer will change everything.For as long as she can remember, Maisie has spent her summers on Kingfisher Island. She and her beloved cousin Una run wild, and Maisie feels the warm embrace of her big, extended family.This summer Maisie needs that escape more than ever. But now everything on Kingfisher has changed: Una has returned from her mainland school a sophisticated young woman too mature for childish games, and even worse, she has an all-consuming...

For five years Gavin and his sister Norah have lived in Canada as "war guests." But now, as 1945 approaches, the war is finally ending, and Gavin and Norah will soon be going back to England.Norah, who's fifteen, is eager to see her parents again, but ten-year-old Gavin barely remembers them. He doesn't want to leave his Canadian family, his two best friends and his dog.Then something happens that forces Gavin to make the most difficult decision of his life.The ...

Theo and her young, irresponsible mother seem trapped in their miserable, poverty-stricken life. Theo dreams of belonging to a “real” family, and her dream seems to come true when she is mysteriously adopted by the large, warm Kaldor family.But as time passes, the magic of Theo’s new life begins to fade, and soon she finds herself back with her mother. Were the Kaldors real or just a dream? And who is the shadowy figure who haunts Theo’s thoughts?

Norah, an English "war guest" living with the wealthy Ogilvie family in Toronto, can hardly wait for August. She'll spend it at the Ogilvie's lavish cottage in Muskoka—a whole month of freedom, swimming, adventures with her "cousins"...But this isn't an ordinary summer. It's 1943, and the war is still going on. Sometimes Norah can't even remember what her parents look like—she hasn't seen them in three years. And she has turned thirteen, which means life seems to be getting more co...

In the summer of 1812, as rumours of a looming war become a reality, Susanna, her mother and sister are surviving as best they can while the men are fighting. As news of various battles reaches them, Susanna becomes even more concerned for the safety and well-being of her beloved brother and father. She is also torn between the loyalties of her best friend and her mother — both Americans living in Upper Canada — and her father's and brother's allegiance to General Brock and the King. But t...

It is the summer of 1940, and all of England fears an invasion by Hitler’s army. Norah lies in bed listening to the anxious voices of her parents downstairs.Then Norah is told that she and her brother, Gavin, are being sent to Canada. The voyage across the ocean is exciting, but at the end of it Norah is miserable. The rich woman who takes them in prefers Gavin to her, the children at school taunt her, and as the news from England becomes worse, she longs for home.As Norah ...

Kit Pearson’s endearing heroine from The Whole Truth, Polly, is now thirteen and following in her sister’s footsteps to a boarding school in Victoria. The adjustment is difficult—all those rules!—and Polly often escapes into her dreams of becoming an artist. At least her family is intact again, and there are no more dark and difficult secrets to be kept hidden . . . that is, until her teenage sister, Maud, makes a dramatic confession. Will Polly be able to keep this new secret? Wi...

When Patricia's mother sends her to her cousins' cottage for the summer, Patricia doesn't want to go. She doesn't know her cousins at all, and she's never been good at camping or canoeing, let alone making new friends.

It is 1932. Polly and her older sister, Maud, travel by trainand boat from Winnipeg to an island between Vancouverand Victoria. Polly will live with their grandmother, the sisters’ new guardian, and attend the small school on the island, while Maud will go to boarding school in Victoria.Their extended family welcomes the girls warmly. New-school jitters give way to new friendships and even a new puppy, and slowly Polly feels that she is becoming part of a larger famil...

Twelve original holiday stories from the top children's writers in the country!What an incredible gift book for Dear Canada fans! The twelve stories in this treasury are set around Christmas time and feature the young girls from a dozen previous Dear Canada books. Readers will be thrilled to reconnect with their favourites and get a glimpse of each character's life a year or so after the events in the actual diary are over. Anyone new to the Dear Canada series will be intr...

In the summer of 1812, as rumours of a looming war become a reality, Susanna, her mother and sister are surviving as best they can while the men are fighting. As news of various battles reaches them, Susanna becomes even more concerned for the safety and well-being of her beloved brother and father. She is also torn between the loyalties of her best friend and her mother — both Americans living in Upper Canada — and her father's and brother's allegiance to General Brock and the Ki...

In these eleven original stories, characters bravely face the challenges of settling into a new life.In this wonderful new short story anthology, eleven of Canada's top children's authors contribute stories of immigration, displacement and change, exploring the frustration and uncertainty those changes can bring. Told in first-person narratives, this collection features a diverse cast of boys and girls, each one living at a different point in Canada's vast...