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 first elections in which women in Canada were allowed to vote; the first gourmet meal cooked in a CPR rail camp for Cornelius Van Horne; a mine disaster in the Crowsnest Pass, with the subsequent introduction of safety lamps for the miners; and an account of the "Home Children" first sent to Canada during the nineteenth century, supposedly for a better life, but often to work in slave-labour conditions.

Ann is a long time Williams Lake, British Columbia resident who has taught both in elementary schools and at the college level. She is the author of seven novels for young readers, most of them set in Barkerville during the gold rush. Her first book, Your Time, My Time was published twenty-two years ago and has been in print continuously since then. As well, Ann is the author of a book of poetry and the editor of three collections of short stories for young people. She also writes for adult readers, and her work has appeared in magazines and anthologies around the world. In Canada her work has been published in Canadian Living, Arts Forum (Ontario) and elsewhere, as well as being heard on CBC radio. Ann serves on the executive of several professional writers' organizations, both in British Columbia and Canada-wide.

Her books have been nominated for major Canadian book prizes and all of them have been selected as "Our Choice" titles by the Canadian Children's Book Centre. Ann is a popular workshop presenter at conferences for writers (Grades 5 to Adult) and is in demand as a speaker, both in schools and at literary festivals. She loves traveling, and is willing to gear her presentations to the needs and requests of a particular school or classroom. Her sessions are fast paced and entertaining, as well as informative. As one teacher commented after Ann had visited her school "She made history come alive."

More about Ann can be found at the CWILL BC website, http://www.cwill.bc.ca/public/search/member_detail/62.

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