Norman Bethune
"Within hours of his arrival, Norman was taken to meet Chairman Mao Zedong. The smiling man grabbed Norman's hands in welcome....The two men talked for hours." This book will be especially fascinating for all readers interested in: history or biography. One of the world's top surgeons, an advocate of democratic medical services, and an internationa …
The Mastersinger from Minsk
2013 Bony Blithe Award — Shortlisted
Many people may dislike him, but who wrote the anonymous note declaring that the night of the premiere will be Wagner’s day of reckoning?
It is late March 1868. In Munich, composer Richard Wagner is completing his new opera Die Meistersinger von Nuremberg. It has been a difficult few years for him, and much d …
Hold the Oxo!
Short-listed for the 2014 Forest of Reading - White Pine Award for Non-Fiction
Canada was young during the First World War, and with as many as 20,000 underage soldiers leaving their homes to join the war effort, the country’s army was, too. Jim, at 17, was one of them, and he penned countless letters home. But these weren’t the writings of a …
Bride of New France
Laure Beausejour grew up in a dormitory in Paris surrounded by prostitutes, the insane, and other forgotten women. With her friend Madeleine, she dreams of using her needlework skills to become a seamstress and one day marry a nobleman. But in 1669, Laure and Madeleine are sent across the Atlantic to New France as filles du roi. The girls know litt …
The King's Man
Twelve-year-old Amunhotep III has ascended the throne to become pharaoh of Egypt, the richest empire on earth. The boy’s mother is regent, and she has brought to court the renowned seer, Huy, son of a humble farmer, to act as scribe and counsel to her royal son. It’s a position of power and responsibility, one that is fraught with intrigue and …
Reluctant Pioneer
Thomas Osborne delivers a gripping account of 1870s Ontario pioneer life.
The view 16-year-old Thomas Osborne first had of Muskoka was at night, trudging alone with his even younger brother along unmarked primitive roads to find their luckless father who, in 1875, had decided to make a new start for his beleaguered family on some "free land" in th …
