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Flying free: Corey's Underground Railroad diary (My America Ser.My America)
By Sharon Dennis Wyeth. 2002
June 1858 to March 1859. Nine-year-old Corey Birdsong and his family, fugitive slaves from Kentucky, settle into their new life…
of freedom in Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada. Corey makes friends, goes to school for the first time, and rescues Mingo--an old friend. For grades 2-4. 2002Is It Just?
By Lori Chambers, Jenny Roth, Minnie Smith. 2011
Minnie Smith's (ca. 1874-1933) feminist domestic novel, Is It Just?, is a harsh critique of the injustices perpetuated by male-dominated…
society and law. Published in 1911, it tells the tragic story of Mary Pierce, who, through the actions of her selfish and lazy husband, loses her land, her social standing, and ultimately her life.In Is It Just?, the conventions of the domestic novel - episodic presentation, stock characters, contrived plots, and romantic conclusions - illustrate the superiority of female values and argue for expanded social, political, and legal rights for women. A critical introduction by Jenny Roth and Lori Chambers frames Smith's specific references to the laws and social geography of British Columbia, situating the novel in relation to its historic and literary importance. This unique work of domestic literature adds to our limited library of Canadian feminist writings of the first wave.The Writing on the Wall
By Hilda Glynn-Ward, Patricia Roy. 1974
With tales of a gruesome murder, a typhoid epidemic, corrupt politicians, and a Japanese invasion, The Writing on the Wall…
was intended to shock its readers when it was published in 1921. Thinly disguised as a novel, it is a propaganda tract exhorting white British Columbians to greater vigilance to prevent greedy politicians from selling out to the Chinese and Japanese. It was also designed to convince eastern Canada of British Columbia's need for protections against an onslaught of the 'yellow peril.'This novel is not exceptional in its extreme racism; it reiterates almost every anti-oriental cliché circulating in British Columbia at the time of its publication. While modern readers will find the story horrifying and unbelievable, it is in fact based on real incidents. Many of the views expressed were only exaggerated versions of ideas held throughout the country about non-Anglo-Saxon immigrants. The Writing on the Wall is a vivid illustration of the fear and prejudice with which immigrants were regarded in the early twentieth century.The Sojourn
By Andrew Krivak. 2011
The Sojourn, winner of the Chautauqua Prize and finalist for the National Book Award, is the story of Jozef Vinich,…
who was uprooted from a 19th-century mining town in Colorado by a family tragedy and returns with his father to an impoverished shepherd's life in rural Austria-Hungary. When World War One comes, Jozef joins his adopted brother as a sharpshooter in the Kaiser's army, surviving a perilous trek across the frozen Italian Alps and capture by a victorious enemy.A stirring tale of brotherhood, coming-of-age, and survival, that was inspired by the author's own family history, this novel evokes a time when Czechs, Slovaks, Austrians, and Germans fought on the same side while divided by language, ethnicity, and social class in the most brutal war to date. It is also a poignant tale of fathers and sons, addressing the great immigration to America and the desire to live the American dream amidst the unfolding tragedy in Europe.The Sojourn is Andrew Krivak's first novel. Krivak is also the author of A Long Retreat: In Search of a Religious Life, a memoir about his eight years in the Jesuit Order, and editor of The Letters of William Carlos Williams to Edgar Irving Williams, 1902-1912, which received the Louis L. Martz Prize. The grandson of Slovak immigrants, Krivak grew up in Pennsylvania, has lived in London, and now lives with his wife and three children in Massachusetts where he teaches in the Honors Program at Boston College.In the Midst of Alarms
By Robert Barr, Douglas Lochhead. 1973
My Lady of the Snows
By Douglas Lochhead, Margaret A. Brown. 1973
This work cannot be fully understood unless the reader is aware of the writer's motives. The book has a twofold…
meaning -- that of a political novel, and that of the portrayal of a great love and a religious drama. As Disraeli in his novels portrayed the political and social conditions of certain eras of his country, in a simple way this work is intended to portray the conditions existing in Canada at an era when the country was in a state of transition, with the idealistic conception of what the government of a country should be, the conception being based upon a knowledge of the inherent principles of Divine Right and upon Plato's Republic of Justice. The scene is laid prior to the last election during Sir John A. Macdonald's administration. There are no great questions at issue, politics are seen in their lowest form; the protective tariff had been adopted, and with the advent of machinery the old order of things was passing away; the new order had not yet brought any great issues before the people, and the election, commonly called the "Old Flag" election, was run merely on a sentiment of loyalty to the motherland. "My Lady of the Snows" is a woman who has been born "great," and one who has based her life on principles rather than the emotions, or Plato's theory that the emotions should remain subservient to the will.Dot It Down
By Douglas Lochhead, Alexander Begg. 1973
The Yellow Briar: A Story of the Irish on the Canadian Countryside
By Michael Gnarowski, Patrick Slater. 2008
Folktale, memoir, fiction, literary hoax, The Yellow Briar is all of these. Ostensibly the charming remembrance of an Irish orphan…
who escapes the Great Famine of 1840s Ireland and comes to the New World to seek a fresh start on the streets of Toronto and in the pioneer hinterland of Canada West (Ontario), the book was actually a fictional humbug perpetrated by John Mitchell, a Toronto lawyer, who first published the tale in 1933. Patrick Slater, the protagonist of the "memoir," is said to have died in 1924 but not before setting his saga down on paper. And what an account it is! The Globe and Mail felt that the book "gives a picture of Ontario to be found in no other work of fiction we know and has won for itself a permanent place in Canadian literature." If nothing else, Slater/Mitchell captures perfectly the lilt of the Irish and the wry wisdom of an old soul to paint an affecting portrait of trials and tribulations in a long-ago time.Invaders from the North: How Canada Conquered the Comic Book Universe
By John Bell. 2006
Short-listed for the 2007 CBA Libris Awards for Book Design of the Year What do Superman, Prince Valiant, Cerebus the…
Aardvark, and Spawn have in common? Their creators Joe Shuster, Harold Foster, Dave Sim, and Todd McFarlane are Canadians. And while many of the cutting-edge talents of contemporary comix and graphic novels are also from Canada artists such as Chester Brown, Seth, Dave Cooper, and Julie Doucet far too few Canadians realize their country had a remarkable involvement with the "funnies" long before. Invaders from the North profiles past and present comic geniuses, sheds light on unjustly neglected chapters in Canadas pop history, and demonstrates how this nation has vaulted to the forefront of international comic art, successfully challenging the long-established boundaries between high and low culture. Generously illustrated with black-and-white and colour comic covers and panels, Invaders from the North serves up a cheeky, brash cavalcade of flamboyant and outrageous personalities and characters that graphically attest to Canadas verve and invention in the world of visual storytelling.Flying Free: Corey's Underground Railroad Diary, Book 2 (My America)
By Sharon Dennis Wyeth. 2002
Corey and his family have escaped from slavery and the South and are now living in Canada. They own their…
own land, have made new friends, and Corey gets to go to school. But danger still remains across the river in Ohio, where slave-catchers lurk, waiting to capture escaped slaves to bring them back to their former masters.Is It Just?
By Lori Chambers, Jenny Roth, Minnie Smith. 2011
Minnie Smith's (ca. 1874-1933) feminist domestic novel, Is It Just?, is a harsh critique of the injustices perpetuated by male-dominated…
society and law. Published in 1911, it tells the tragic story of Mary Pierce, who, through the actions of her selfish and lazy husband, loses her land, her social standing, and ultimately her life.In Is It Just?, the conventions of the domestic novel - episodic presentation, stock characters, contrived plots, and romantic conclusions - illustrate the superiority of female values and argue for expanded social, political, and legal rights for women. A critical introduction by Jenny Roth and Lori Chambers frames Smith's specific references to the laws and social geography of British Columbia, situating the novel in relation to its historic and literary importance. This unique work of domestic literature adds to our limited library of Canadian feminist writings of the first wave.Captain Lucy In The Home Sector (The World At War)
By Aline Havard. 2019
Excerpt: "If the young people who read this last story of Lucy Gordon’s army life are disappointed that the end…
of the war does not bring her home to America they cannot possibly be as disappointed as she herself. She hoped that the war had really finished with the armistice but, like lots of us, she found that there was a great deal left to do that she had not counted upon. Peace was slow in coming, and the American army overseas had its hands as full trying to hasten it as all America on this side had, and still has, in trying to get back to peace-time ways. The tangle of affairs in war-swept Europe is more than Lucy can understand, though she sees a little of that great unrest, and catches a glimpse of its hidden dangers, even in the Home Sector. She does what she can to help, generously, and, though peace is not come and America is still distant, she and Bob and all the Gordon family find happiness together, and look forward with brave confidence to the glorious future of the dear country to which they will before long be homeward bound."Captain Lucy and Lieutenant Bob (The World At War)
By Aline Havard. 2019
Excerpt from Captain Lucy and Lieutenant Bob: The war is as yet only beginning for Lucy Gor don, and the…
old, pleasant times are just ending, but, like every other girl in America, she is trying hard to find the courage and cheerfulness which have never yet been wanting in our Service and which are going to help America to win.The Magpie: A Novel of Post-War Disillusionment 1923
By Douglas Durkin, Peter Rider. 1974
One of the most complex experiences for Canadians was World War 1 and its attendant social upheavals. Because of the…
lack of a clear description of the emotional forces of the period, historians have tended to concentrate on the political manifestations of agrarian and working class unrest. There are no well-known sources for social commentary, a lack that makes this novel important as an historical document. Originally published in 1923, The Magpie is an articulate and perceptive work which provides an accurate description of the disillusionment that developed after the war when it became apparent that many of the government's promises of social reform were not going to be fulfilled. Craig Forrester – nicknamed 'The Magpie' because of his terseness in conducting business on the Winnipeg Grain Exchange – is appalled by the greed, hypocrisy, and intolerance of the 'decent' classes and opts for persona morality and social justice. Rejecting urban life, he returns to the farm of his childhood, symbol of the traditional values of honesty and simplicity. By having his hero make this choice, Durkin adopts one of the greatest themes of Canadian literature and intellectual thought – the agrarian myth. A secondary theme, of particular interest today, is the role of women in post-war society and the evolution of moral codes. The three women in 'The Magpie's' life achieve surprising degrees of personal autonomy.Captain Lucy in France (The World At War)
By Aline Havard. 2019
Excerpt: "To those who made friends with Lucy Gordon on Governor’s Island it will seem a great change to find…
her, in this second story, so far away from home. She is only one of thousands, though, to whom a few months of the great war brought more changes than they ever thought could be crowded into a lifetime. Lucy can look back over less than a year to her old life at the army post in New York Harbor before the Colonel was ordered overseas. To that brief summer time when the Gordon family was united during her brother Bob’s West Point graduation leave, and to the dark days of the winter of 1917 when Bob was in a German prison. Even then Lucy never lost hope, and her brave confidence was gloriously rewarded with Bob’s freedom. But in those dreadful weeks of waiting she outgrew her childhood, as though even in that pleasant home on Governor’s Island she knew that peace and content could never come back to her and to those she loved until America had fired her final shot at Germany’s crumbling lines. She could not guess what lay before her,—what old friends she was to meet again in strange new places. Yet she had resolved, even before she had any hope of crossing to the other side, that, come what might, she would serve in her own way as steadfastly as her father served, as valiantly as Bob."When I Come Home Again: A beautiful and heartbreaking WWI novel, based on true events
By Caroline Scott. 2020
**From the highly acclaimed author of The Photographer of the Lost, a BBC Radio 2 Book Club Pick** &‘A superb…
and quietly devastating novel about grief, hope and the horrific aftershocks of war&’ The Times, Book of the MonthThey need him to remember. He wants to forget. 1918. In the last week of the First World War, a uniformed soldier is arrested in Durham Cathedral. When questioned, it becomes clear he has no memory of who he is or how he came to be there. The soldier is given the name Adam and transferred to a rehabilitation home. His doctor James is determined to recover who this man once was. But Adam doesn&’t want to remember. Unwilling to relive the trauma of war, Adam has locked his memory away, seemingly for good. When a newspaper publishes a feature about Adam, three women come forward, each claiming that he is someone she lost in the war. But does he believe any of these women? Or is there another family out there waiting for him to come home?Based on true events, When I Come Home Again is a deeply moving and powerful story of a nation&’s outpouring of grief, and the search for hope in the aftermath of war. Praise for When I Come Home Again: &‘A heartbreaking read which reveals the far-reaching tragedies of war… I highly recommend it&’ Anita Frank &‘Caroline Scott&’s quietly devastating second novel insightfully explores the impact of the Great War on returning soldiers and their families' S Magazine &‘A powerful story that&’s achingly moving and most beautifully written. Readers of Maggie O&’Farrell and Helen Dunmore are likely to enjoy&’ Rachel Hore &‘Powerful… A carefully, nuanced, complex story&’ Woman & Home 'Page turning, mysterious, engrossing and compelling' Lorna Cook 'A compulsive, heart-wrenching read' Liz Trenow &‘Caroline Scott evokes the damage and desolation of the Great War with aching authenticity' Iona Grey 'This beautiful and moving book drew me in from the first line and held me enthralled until the very end' Fiona Falpy 'Wonderful and evocative' Suzanne Goldring &‘A beautifully written novel – immersive, poignant, intricately woven&’ Judith Kinghorn &‘Scott litters her tale with clues and red herrings in the best mystery-writer way so we are kept guessing as to where the truth really lies&’ The BookBagThe Harlem Hellfighters
By Max Brooks. 2014
From bestselling author Max Brooks, the riveting story of the highly decorated, barrier-breaking, historic black regiment—the Harlem HellfightersIn 1919, the…
369th infantry regiment marched home triumphantly from World War I. They had spent more time in combat than any other American unit, never losing a foot of ground to the enemy, or a man to capture, and winning countless decorations. Though they returned as heroes, this African American unit faced tremendous discrimination, even from their own government. The Harlem Hellfighters, as the Germans called them, fought courageously on—and off—the battlefield to make Europe, and America, safe for democracy. In THE HARLEM HELLFIGHTERS, bestselling author Max Brooks and acclaimed illustrator Caanan White bring this history to life. From the enlistment lines in Harlem to the training camp at Spartanburg, South Carolina, to the trenches in France, they tell the heroic story of the 369th in an action-packed and powerful tale of honor and heart.