Elsie MacGill achieved many firsts in science and engineering at a time when women were considered to be inferior in the sciences. In 1923, at the age of nineteen, she became the first woman to attend engineering classes at the University of Toronto. She was the first woman in North America to hold a degree in aeronautical engineering and the first …

Severn Suzuki’s speech at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio caught the attention of the world. As the daughter of environmentalist David Suzuki, Severn's concern for the environment was fueled by a trip to the Amazon rainforest at age nine. Back home in Vancouver, she and her friends started ECO, the Environmental Children’s Organization, combining …

Freedom 55? The so-called “Golden Years”? What if you are slowly losing your memories and your motor skills? Or what if you are the devastated witness as your partner struggles with dementia? Lewy Body Disease is a form of dementia second only to Alzheimer’s in numbers, yet many doctors and almost no lay people have ever heard its name. This …

Bernice Archer lives in a low-income downtown neighborhood where she has raised her blind twin daughters, Eva and Ava, in relative isolation. Every night she tells them regurgitated bedtime stories, sometimes magical and often cautionary, about the dangers of the world outside their small apartment. Eva and Ava, now middle-aged, still wait for thei …

In the mid-1800s, southern Alberta was dominated by the tribes of the Blackfoot Confederacy. Snake Woman, from the Blackfoot Blood tribe, was born into a life of respect and cooperation with the rhythm of the natural world, a rhythm that seems to be irreparably disrupted by the advance of European traders and settlers. Eleanor, newly transplanted t …

In 1955, two fifteen-year-olds with immeasurable optimism shared a summer working as waitresses in the small town of Franklin's flourishing Britannia Hotel. Forty years later, Hannah, now a successful teacher with a younger lover, rushes home from Toronto to find her mother in hospital while Colleen, still living in Franklin and married with five c …

Natalie’s passion is dance, and she’s looking forward to a summer of perfecting her technique at dance camp. Plus, she’s just turned fifteen – a momentous age that means she’s now officially a grown-up. But while her mom doesn’t seem to have got the memo, Kevin, her best friend Sasha’s older brother, has. Caught up with the excitement …

It’s the 1960s – the time for equal rights, peace, and love. But for Ellen Manery, it’s the time to work hard and finish high school early. She’d rather be helping out at the university’s medical lab than listening to rock and roll and hanging out with the kids at her high school. Isolated and driven, Ellen feels like she was born an outs …

As students at the University of British Colombia, Syliva and Lydie met a year ago when the younger woman agreed to be Lydie’s tutor. Lydie’s warmth and irrepressible charm have worked their way past all of Sylvia’s boundaries. Struggling with guilt and loss after a terrible event in her childhood, Sylvia finds in Lydie a compassion and joy f …

Laura has just three weeks to go before her Jewish “coming of age” ceremony, called a Bat Mitzvah, when she is assigned a special project. She is to read the diary of Sara Gittler, a young girl her own age who was imprisoned by the Nazis in the Warsaw Ghetto during the Holocaust. Sara never had the chance to celebrate her coming of age, so Laur …

Longtime friends Helen Levine and Oonagh Berry decided they missed the tradition of "real" letters. The obvious solution for them was to initiate a correspondence project. Their goal? To write each other a longhand letter every two weeks for a year, and see what, if anything, they were missing in their usual friendship rituals of lunches, visits an …

Remember when children grew up in well-defined stages? Adults tried to keep whole areas of life hidden from them – death, bad language, and, of course, sex – and allowed them to step out into the adult world in an orderly, gradual fashion, according to a schedule determined by grown-ups. So it’s no surprise many parents and experts believe th …

A coming-of age story about two girls, separated in time by thousands of years, who are forced to leave their homes and make a dangerous journey to an unknown land.

Bobbie Rosenfeld may be Canada’s greatest female athlete of the twentieth century. A Canada's Sports Hall of Famer, Bobbie was born in 1904 in a small Russian town and came to Canada with her immigrant parents when she was less than a month old. Her love for all sports showed itself early. As a young girl she excelled in track and field, ice hock …

The fifty people featured represent a cross-section of the population, ranging from the famous to the physically and intellectually challenged. Included are June Callwood, David Suzuki, Dr. Jean Vanier and Oscar Peterson. Striking black and white photographs accompany the text that demonstrates the possibility of aging wonderfully, with purpose, jo …

Twelve years into her marriage, Darlene realized that she wanted a child. At age forty, things weren't going to be that easy. In this humorous, warm and poignant book, Darlene decides that the most sensible option left to her is adoption. Through narrativ

For children ages 7 to 11, this landmark anthology, written and illustrated by young Deaf people, introduces kids to Deaf characters in a fun way. Within each story are quirky illustrations, how-to handsigns, vital lifestyle information and interesting hi

Poppy is visiting her grandmother. Before going to bed, she sees a picture of someone who looks just like her – Grandma’s sister Daisy, who died when she was the same age as Poppy. Soon, Poppy falls asleep only to be awakened by strange noises. She is led

Ezzie has friends and a loving family who never maker her feel that she is "fat." But sometimes schoolmates tease her. Ezzie's bravery makes others realize she is more than simply "the fat girl." For ages 6-10