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Showing 1 - 12 of 12 items
The great fire
By Jim Murphy. 1995
An account of the conflagration that levelled much of Chicago in 1871. Chronicles events from the fire's outbreak and rapid…
spread to its extinguishment by rain, as reported by survivors and in documents of the period. Examines the origins, circumstances, and official failures that contributed to the disaster. Grades 5-8. A 1996 Newbery Honor Book. c1995.The collected works of Billy the Kid (Vintage International)
By Michael Ondaatje. 2009
William Bonney, a.k.a. "Billy the Kid," killed his first man when he was twelve, and by the time he was…
twenty-one he had slain nineteen more. Drawing on contemporary accounts, period photographs, dime novels and his own imagination, Ondaatje imagines Billy's passage across the blasted landscape of 1880s New Mexico and the collective unconscious of his country. A synthesis of storytelling, history, and myth. Winner of the 1970 Governor General's Award for Poetry. 2009.Survivors!: true death-defying escapes
By Larry Verstraete. 2003
Think about your worst fears - being attacked by a wild animal, swept away by a killer storm, trapped in…
a wrecked car or a burning building. Here are 29 stories of real people who survived life-threatening situations. Each section includes Survival Tips that give readers essential information about what to do in dangerous circumstances. Some descriptions of violence. Winner of the 2004 Silver Birch Award. Grades 4-7. Bestseller 2005. 2003.Interweaves an account of the 1857 sinking of the SS Central America that carried a cargo of gold bullion and…
minted coins with the story of the shipwreck's discovery in 1988 by Tommy Thompson. Describes Thompson's feat of developing technology to locate and retrieve artifacts from a wooden-hulled ship in eight thousand feet of water. Winner of the 2000 CNIB Talking Book of the Year Award. 1998.Royal murder: the deadly intrigue of ten sovereigns
By Elizabeth MacLeod, Barbara Pulling, Heather Sangster. 2008
What would you do for absolute power? Step into the world of palatial intrigue, where holding the throne means evading…
death... or causing it. While Cleopatra of Egypt once rolled herself into a rug and was carried out past her enemies' noses, other royals were brutal when dealing with foes. Read the stories of ten sovereigns, including Vlad the Impaler, "Bloody Mary", and The Romanovs of Russia. Descriptions of violence. Grades 4-7. Winner of the 2009 Red Maple Non-fiction Award. 2008.Saboteurs: Wiebo Ludwig's war against big oil
By Andrew Nikiforuk. 2002
Dutch-born Wiebo Ludwig, former leader of a Christian Reformed Church in Goderich, Ontario, and his entourage, which consisted of his…
ever-growing family and a few sympathizers, decamped for Alberta in 1985 and bought a place called Trickle Creek - in oil country. What ensued was a long, nasty, and often violent conflict between Ludwig and the oil and gas industry over its legal right to drill on private land, regardless of landowners' concerns over the contamination of air and water by the pollutants that spew out of the wells. Some strong language and descriptions of violence. Winner of the 2002 Governor General's Award for Non-fiction. 2002.On board the Titanic: what it was like when the great liner sank (I was there book)
By Shelley Tanaka, Ken Marschall. 1996
The story of the Titanic, once the world's largest ocean liner, as told through the experiences of two of its…
survivors. Detailed explanations about the ship, passengers, and crew are interwoven with an account of its tragic sinking in 1912. Grades 4-7. Winner of the 1997 Silver Birch Award. c1996.At the edge: daring acts in desperate times
By Larry Verstraete. 2009
A young man in Nunavut fights off a polar bear to save his friend, a Canadian peacekeeper in the Congo…
risks his own life to save those of stranded tourists, and ordinary people show extraordinary character during the Halifax Explosion, the Holocaust, Hurricane Katrina, the Tiananmen Square protests, and September 11, 2001. Over twenty true-life stories about life-threatening situations and the wrenching choices made by the people facing them. Winner of the 2010 Silver Birch Award for Non-fiction. Grades 5-8. Some descriptions of violence. 2009.Ten well-planned major robberies reveal the ingenuity of the criminal mind, from Dan Cooper, who parachuted from a Boeing 727…
with $200,000, to the small band of Italians who stole the world-famous Mona Lisa. There are seven extra stories in the opening chapter, including that of the Parisian actor and civil servant who destroyed the files against his friends during the French Revolution - by eating them! Grades 5-8. Winner of the 2007 Red Maple Award. 2005.The shining mountain: two men on Changabang's west wall
By Peter Boardman, Joe Tasker. 1984
Recounts the endurance and determination of two British mountain climbers in making a forty-day ascent up the treacherous west wall…
of Changabang Mountain in the Indian Himalayas. Winner of the John Llewelyn Rhys Memorial Prize. 1984.The boat who wouldn't float
By Farley Mowat. 1969
Ten true tales of outrageous trickery. Includes how a group of Germans perpetrated one of the biggest, most sophisticated banknote…
counterfeiting schemes ever seen; how the world was fooled for nearly a decade when a "lost tribe" was discovered in the Philippines; and how Donald Crowhurst almost won the first round-the-world yacht race without ever leaving the Atlantic Ocean. Some descriptions of violence. For junior and senior high school readers. Winner of the 2005 Red Maple Award. 2004.