Digital download or access to books, magazines and newspapers remain available. However, due to an Ontario government directive closing non-essential businesses, the production and delivery of DAISY CDs and physical braille is suspended.
Showing 1 - 20 of 257 items
The summer is off to a lousy start when Levi's bike is stolen from outside the corner store. But when… his best friend Riley's locked bike is stolen the very next day, the boys are determined to get both bikes back. Upon discovering there have been a string of bike thefts in the area, the friends hatch several plans to find the culprit. There are so many potential suspects - Steve Morrow and his gang, the tattooed guy who sits at the bus stop, the owners of the secondhand bike store. There's also Emily Grimshaw, Levi's childhood nemesis, who keeps popping up and showing a peculiar interest in the thefts. Does she really want to help or is she involved somehow? Grades 2-4. 2013.
Christopher has a problem. He has just moved to Toronto; he’s now in a new school and has no friends.… But even worse, the park next door is creepy: voices whisper in the bushes, and something throws apples at his window and howls at the moon. But what? Gargoyles! Grades 3-6. 2012.
It's the start of winter, and Patrick is beginning to feel crowded out of his own family. His father's friend,… Linda, and her seven-year-old daughter, Claire, are coming for dinner again. By the time spring arrives, not only is Patrick's father planning to marry Linda, but she and Claire will be coming to live with them at the summer's end. That just won’t do. So Patrick comes up with a big idea. He'll build a tree house where he can stretch out his arms and breathe. Grades 3-6. 2013.
Five-year-old Beatrix looks on in horror as a soldier forces her mother off the tram. It is 1942 in Amsterdam,… and everyone knows what happens to Jews who are taken away by the Nazis. The soldier turns his attention to Beatrix, when suddenly, the ticket-taker, Lars Gorter, blurts out that she is his niece. With his brother Hans, the tram conductor, they manage to rescue the child from the same fate as her mother. The two elderly brothers realize that they are now in charge of the little girl. They are at a loss -- after all, neither one has ever married, let alone has children. They know that harbouring a Jew could cost them their lives, but in desperation, they turn to a neighbour, Mrs. Vos, for help. Grades 3-6. Winner of the 2015-16 Hackmatack Award for fiction. Winner of the 2016 Silver Birch Express Award. 2014.
When Carolina Giddle moves into the Blatchford Arms, no one knows what to make of her sequin-sprinkled sneakers and her… trinket-crusted car. But the parents are happy there’s a new babysitter around, and Carolina seems to have an uncanny ability to calm the most rambunctious child with her ghostly stories. Armed with unusual snacks (bone-shaped peppermints, Rumpelstiltskin sandwiches) and candles to set the mood, she entertains the children with good old-fashioned storytelling and, at the end, a great Halloween party. It turns out that Carolina has a timeworn connection to the Blatchford Arms, and to the ghost who still haunts the building - especially its old-fashioned elevator. Grades 3-6. 2014.
Jared’s plane has crashed in the Alberta wilderness, and Kyle is first on the scene. When Jared insists on hiking… up the highest hill in search of cell phone reception, Kyle hesitates; his Cree grandmother has always forbidden him to go near it. There’s no stopping Jared, though, so Kyle reluctantly follows. After a night spent on the hilltop - with no cell service - the teens discover something odd: the plane has disappeared. Nothing in the forest surrounding them seems right. In fact, things seem very wrong. And worst of all, something - a creature that should only exist in legend - is hunting them. For senior high readers. 2016.
Sigrid Sugden is a Shrike, a member of one of the toughest group of girls in school. They are experts… at blackmail, extortion and bullying their terrorized classmates. But one day, the Shrikes go too far. Sigrid realizes that their favourite victim, Prinny Murphy, is in real danger. She makes a decision that will save Prinny from danger, but will turn the Shrikes anger and bullying against their former friend who betrayed them to the authorities. For junior high and older readers. Sequel to “The present tense of Prinny Murphy”. 2013.
What if your best friend was a naughty 400-year-old gargoyle, and what if he just happened to be in terrible… danger? Katherine Newberry is friends with a gargoyle named Gargoth of Tallus who lives in her backyard. Gargoth has lost the only creature on the planet who can help him, Ambergine, his greatest friend. What Katherine and Gargoth don't know is that Ambergine is searching for Gargoth too - but so is his greatest enemy. Sequel to "The Gargoyle in My Yard". Grades 5-8. 2010.
Twelve-year-old Will Poppy has always been fascinated by writing, but when his mother dies and he has to live with… his crabby aunt, he finds himself unable to write a word. When he is sent a mysterious package that includes an old picture of his grandparents and a piece of cloth with the words "The Griffin of Darkwood" on it, his aunt takes him to a run-down castle with servants who are up to no good. Now Will must find his way in this new world, and discover the magic all over again. Grades 3-6. 2016.
JR the terrier and his embassy friends Robert, Pie, and Beatrix are on their way to Prague! Having solved the… mystery of the missing dogs in Moscow, JR is ready for a vacation with his human, George, and George’s Russian girlfriend, Nadya. And where better to distract themselves than in Prague, taking in the sights and meeting Nadya’s brother, a circus performer. But something is amiss at the circus - the animals are unhappy. The boxing kangaroo doesn’t want to box, the dancing chimpanzee doesn’t want to dance. Not only that, but a fancy new circus is coming to town, threatening to put everyone out of a job. It’s up to JR and the embassy dogs to save the show, with the help of some unlikely accomplices. Grades 3-6. Sequel to "The metro dogs of Moscow". 2013.
On his fifth birthday, Thomas’s mother left, and he hasn’t seen her since. The last thing he remembers is her… making a delicious dish of poutine for his birthday, into which she stuck five green candles for him to blow out. On the day of this twelfth birthday, Thomas comes up with the idea of setting a Guinness world record for the biggest poutine in the world. Maybe then, his mother will come back and his emotionally distant father will pay attention to him. As he puts together all the pieces of his “Phenomenal Poutine Project,” Thomas not only learns why his mother disappeared, but he also comes to realize that Elie, the one person whose help he rejected, turns out to be his most devoted friend. Grades 5-8. Winner of the 2017 Silver Birch Express Award. 2016. Uniform title: La plus grosse poutine du monde.
Miss Petitfour enjoys having adventures that are just the right size - fitting into a single, magical day. She is… an expert at baking and eating fancy iced cakes, and her favourite mode of travel is "par avion." On windy days, she takes her sixteen cats out for an airing. With the aid of her favorite tea party tablecloth as a makeshift balloon, Miss Petitfour and her charges fly over her village, having many little adventures along the way. Grades 2-4. 2015.
Anne and her best friends Penelope and Hiro are tasked with an unwanted quest that could start a war between… the Hierarchy and the dragon clan, and so to avoid disaster and save the world, the three friends must face dragon trials, defeat robots, and circumvent bureaucracy. Sequel to "The adventurer's guide to successful escapes". Grades 5-8. 2017.
Lewis Dearborn is a lonely, anxious, "terminally shy" boy of eleven when his great-grandfather passes away and leaves Lewis's family… with his decaying seaside mansion. Lewis is initially delighted with his new bedroom, a secluded tower in a remote part of the house. Then he discovers that it's already occupied -- by the ghosts of seven dead pirates. Worse, the ghosts expect him to help them re-take their ship, now restored and on display in a local museum, so they can make their way to Libertalia, a legendary pirate utopia. The only problem is that this motley crew hasn't left the house in almost two hundred years and is terrified of going outside. Grades 4-7. 2015.
After being hit by lightning, twelve-year-old Lilah, who has a crush on classmate Andrew Finkel, discovers that she can communicate… with dead people, including her grandmother who wants Lilah to find a new wife for Lilah's divorced father. Grades 5-8. 2012.
When her dreams of being a ninja are ended after an arranged marriage, Chiyome must wait until the opportunity arises… for her to create her own network of women spies in sixteenth-century Japan. Grades 5-8. 2017.
A young girl and her family are forced to flee their village to escape the civil war that has engulfed… Syria, and make their way toward freedom in Europe. Grades K-3 and older readers. 2016.
Eighth-grader Micah is psyched to have made the BC junior goalball team -- even though he gets the news while… dealing with a flare-up of his degenerative eye condition. What he's not happy about is his parents' decision to get him a guide dog, and the possibility of losing his independence. When Liam, a new, first-rate player, joins the goalball team, Micah's frustration with his vision spills onto the court. He is rude to Liam and starts a fight with another teammate, Sebastian, after practice. It's only with the help of Cam, his Orientation and Mobility Specialist, that Micah starts to get a handle on his aggression and trust people enough to communicate how he feels. But with the team's big junior tournament quickly approaching, Micah has to reconcile his differences with Liam and Sebastian so as to become a real team player and help his team win the championship. Grades 5-8. 2015.
A lockdown catches five grade 12 students by surprise and throws them together in the only nearby unlocked room: the… boys' washroom. There's Alice: an introverted writer, trapped in the role of big sister to her older autistic brother, Noah; Isabelle: the popular, high-achieving, student council president, whose greatest performance is her everyday life; Hogan: an ex-football player with a troubled past and a hopeless future; Xander: that socially awkward guy hiding behind the camera, whose candid pictures of school life, especially those of Isabelle, have brought him more trouble than answers. When Isabelle gets a text that says NOT A DRILL!! Shooter in the school!, suddenly, the bathroom doesn't seem so safe anymore. Especially when they learn that one of them knows more about the shooter than they realized. For junior and senior high readers. Winner of the 2017 Red Maple Fiction Award, the 2018 Manitoba Young Readers Choice Award and the 2017 John Spray Mystery Award. 2016.
Follows a young boy who is reluctantly sent to spend the summer in a remote part of Nova Scotia. As… the summer wears on, the hero forges solid friendships with other kids in the small fishing community and is changed forever by the experience. Grades 5-8. 2016.