In 1915 eleven-year-old Sam and his father arrive in an undeveloped part of western Canada and begin to plan a new farm for the family waiting back in Iowa.
"Years have passed since the Ferriers moved to Curlew and built a homestead in the Alberta prairie. Eleven-year-old Josie is glad when a new girl her age moves to the area - someone to go to school with, explore an abandoned house and dream about the future. A sequel to the award-winning 'Ticket to Curlew'" Cf. Our choice, 1997-1998
Finalist for the IODE Violet Downey Book Award Samira is only nine years old when the Turkish army invades northwestern Persia in 1918, and she and her parents, brother and baby sister are driven from their tiny village. Taking only what they can carry, they flee into the mountains, but the journey is so difficult that only Samira and her older brother, Benyamin, survive. When Samira finally arrives in a refugee camp, it is her friendship with another orphan, Anna, that pulls her out of her sadness. And when the two girls are given a toddler named Elias to care for, they form a new kind of family. Over the years the children are shunted from one refugee camp to another, from Persia to Iraq and back again, and finally end up in an orphanage, where it seems that they will live out their childhood. Then a new orphanage director arrives -- Susan Shedd, a woman whose authority and energy Samira has never seen before. And Samira’s respect turns to amazement when Miss Shedd decides that she will take the three hundred children back to their home villages to make new lives for themselves. It will be a journey of three hundred miles, through the mountains, and it will be made on foot.
Max and Josephine plant one watermelon seed, two pumpkins, three eggplants, four peppers, five tomatoes, six blueberry bushes, seven strawberry plants, eight beans, nine potatoes, and ten corn seeds in their garden.
A new young adult novel from the author of the critically acclaimed Clutch! "Liam Reimold loves soccer, but in this simmering mystery he's also his own kind of wrestler: he struggles to reconcile the past and present, right and wrong, life and death. We're by Liam's side from start to finish as Heather Camlot artfully reveals how a young boy's vulnerability is his strength, and we quietly rejoice when his warring emotions find an enduring peace. Like the memories at the heart of this loving family portrait, Camlot's fine writing lingers." --Emil Sher, screenwriter, playwright, and author of Young Man With Camera Twelve-year-old Liam finds a dead body along the shore of his grandfather's cottage. He can't undo what he's seen and can't focus on anything else. Liam believes there is more to the girl's story than her "accidental death" and decides to investigate. Only when Liam visits his grandfather, living in palliative care, do things begin to change. As they watch Germany's 2014 World Cup soccer games together, his grandfather, a German World War II veteran, reveals stories about his past -- stories a Jewish North American kid doesn't want to hear. Angry and overwhelmed, Liam is swept up in a history that may just help him solve the girl's death -- and make sense of his own world again. This book is at once an exciting murder-mystery and a coming-of-age story of a kid who must come to terms with the stark realities of a family who fought... on the other side.
Students gain insights and knowledge of the immigration experience to the Canadian prairies in the early 1900's with the study of this novel. The harsh life of settlers on the Canadian prairies is realistically depicted in this narrative of a family immigrating to Canada from Iowa in 1915. They struggle with the land, the elements and the loneliness to build a life, establish friendships, and develop a sense of belonging. Included in this novel study package: story background and input suggestions, comprehension and vocabulary activities for each chapter, follow-up activities, internet integration, and answer key.
Winner of the Canadian Library Association Book of the Year Award and the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People It is 1915, and Sam Ferrier and his father arrive by train in Curlew, Alberta, to build a new home for the family. When they finally reach their parcel of land, Sam can see nothing but endless stretches of grassland and blue sky. It is nothing like their old home in Iowa, and he wonders why his restless father ever decided to bring the family to this lonely, barren land. In time, though, the house is built, and the rest of the family joins them. Gradually Sam discovers that there is much more to the flat and featureless prairie than he realized -- gleaming white skulls, torrential thunderstorms and, best of all, a new friend and a brave, resourceful horse named Prince.
When eternal darkness threatens to invade, Shade and Marina must journey to the far southern jungle to save the world in this thrilling sequel to Silverwing. Shade, a young Silverwing bat in search of his father, discovers a mysterious Human building containing a vast forest. Home to thousands of bats, the indoor forest is as warm as a summer night and teeming with insects to eat. And through the glass roof, the bats can finally see the sun, free from the tyranny of the deadly owls. Is this Paradise the fulfillment of Nocturna’s Promise to return the bats to the light of day? Shade and his Brightwing friend Marina aren’t so sure. Shade has seen Humans enter the forest and take away hundreds of sleeping bats for an unknown purpose. And where is Shade's father? It isn’t long before Shade and Marina are swept up on a perilous journey that takes them to the far southern jungle—the homeland of Goth, now king of all the Vampyrum Spectrum: cannibal bats with three-foot wingspans. With the help of an abandoned owl prince and General Cortez’s rat army, Shade must use all his resourcefulness to find his father—and stop Goth from harnessing the dark powers of Cama Zotz to create eternal night. In this continuation of Shade’s saga, Kenneth Oppel recaptures the adventure and poignancy of Silverwing, which Smithsonian magazine called “a tour-de-force fantasy,” and takes it to a new level of excitement.
Reproducible chapter questions, plus comprehension questions, a story summary, author biography, creative and cross curricular activities, complete with answer key.
Poor Jacob Two-Two. Not only must he say everything twice just to be heard over his four brothers and sisters, but he finds himself the prisoner of the dreaded Hooded Fang. What had he done to deserve such a punishment? The worst crime of all – insulting a grown-up! Although he’s small, Jacob is not helpless, especially when The Infamous Two come to his aid.