Hit the Ground Running

In Hit the Ground Running, the latest YA novel from Alberta author Alison Hughes, protagonist Dee is told by her aunt that “every family needs an anchor.” At 16, Dee doesn’t expect to be that ... Read More »

July 4, 2017 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction

The Sea Was in Their Blood: The Disappearance of the Miss Ally’s Five-Man Crew

By Quentin Casey

On February 17, 2013, five men set out from Woods Harbour, Nova Scotia, aboard a 12-metre fishing boat called the Miss Ally. Despite a non-functional spotlight and warnings that a massive winter storm was approaching, ... Read More »

July 4, 2017 | Filed under: History, Memoir & Biography

★ The Heavy Bear

By Tim Bowling

“I was as sane as any man in the twenty-first century can expect to be,” says the protagonist of The Heavy Bear, “dragging the bloodied pelt of the twentieth century behind him.” Prolific poet Tim ... Read More »

June 22, 2017 | Filed under: Fiction: Novels

Biometrics: Your Body and the Science of Security

By Ian Turner (ill.); Maria Birmingham

Biometrics: Your Body and the Science of Security offers a fun, futuristic look into the fascinating world of recognition technology. Maria Birmingham, author of A Beginner’s Guide to Immortality: From Alchemy to Avatars and longstanding ... Read More »

June 22, 2017 | Filed under: Children and YA Non-fiction

Saints and Misfits

By S.K. Ali

In Saints and Misfits, the first YA novel from Simon & Schuster’s new Muslim-focused Salaam Reads imprint, Toronto author S.K. Ali delivers a contemporary coming-of-age story about a 15-year-old Arab-Indian-American girl named Janna Yusuf. Janna ... Read More »

June 22, 2017 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction

★ My Wounded Island

By Jacques Pasquet; Marion Arbona (ill.); Sophie B. Watson (trans.)

Imarvaluk lives on Sarichef, a tiny island off the west coast of Alaska. She fears for her home, as a terrible sea creature is slowly eating away at the island. She has nightmares in which ... Read More »

June 22, 2017 | Filed under: Picture Books

★ The Ghost Orchard: The Hidden History of the Apple in North America

By Helen Humphreys

Clad in wool and plaid, pumpkin spice latte in hand, we might find our yearly autumnal excursion to the apple orchard not quite the same after reading Helen Humphreys’s latest book, a fascinating glimpse into ... Read More »

June 22, 2017 | Filed under: Food & Drink, History

Arrival: The Story of CanLit

By Nick Mount

The vicissitudes of time and gentrification notwithstanding, it can be difficult to comprehend Toronto through its writers. The bust of poet Gwendolyn MacEwen, who dropped out of school in 1959 at age 18 to teach ... Read More »

June 22, 2017 | Filed under: Art, Music & Pop Culture, History

Heartwood Hotel: The Greatest Gift

By Kallie George; Stephanie Graegin (ill.)

If there’s one thing Vancouver author Kallie George knows, it’s how to craft a tale full of whimsy. Her Magical Animal Adoption Agency series for beginning readers is full of the kind of subtle quirkiness ... Read More »

June 21, 2017 | Filed under: Children and YA Fiction