Best Selling Books by Gail Anderson

In an age of slick, computer-generated type and Photoshopped perfection, hand-drawn packing is enjoying a global resurgence. As shorthand for something more authentic, homegrown, handmade, or crafted, hand-drawn packaging is found on everything from supermarket eggs to Chipotle drink cups. In this exhaustive and lavishly illustrated survey, organized by four types—DIY, art, craft, and artisanal—Gail Anderson pulls back the curtain on the working processes and inspirations of forty letterers, illustrators, and designers from all around the world through insightful interviews, process sketches, and her infectious love of the medium.

An essential resource to using contemporary typefaces for effective communication Type is the handwriting of the 21st century, lending its expressive voice to the language of all written communication. Type Speaks is the first book to explore type as a medium that conveys emotions, concepts, and ideas, filled with hundreds of new fonts available through digital foundries. Some exude joy, radiate serenity, or jangle the nerves; some sell or persuade or command or seduce. More than ever before, a great range of type choices, both conventional and unconventional, is available to graphic design professionals and nonprofessionals alike. In this new world, Type Speaks will be an essential reference for anyone crafting messages in words.

Marc est un garçon de la ville qui est allé vivre chez sa grand-mère à la campagne pendant que sa mère est en cure de désintoxication. Pour la première fois de sa vie, il doit voyager en autobus scolaire. Le long trajet dans un véhicule bruyant n’a rien à voir avec les transports en commun de la ville : il y a un genre de code secret pour savoir où on peut s’asseoir, les jeunes crient sans arrêt et quelqu’un essaie même de mettre le feu au siège de Marc. Marc juge rapidement que tous ces jeunes sont fous et qu’il doit tout faire pour les éviter. Toutefois, lorsqu’un accident survient, il apprend qu’il a plus de points en commun avec ces ados de la campagne qu’il ne le croyait. Cet ouvrage en format ePub est entièrement accessible. Également disponible sous le titre The Ride Home en anglais.

Owning a bakery isn''t just about making dough.

"The cure for death by lightning was handwritten in thick, messy blue ink in my mother’s scrapbook, under the recipe for my father’s favourite oatcakes: Dunk the dead by lightning in a cold water bath for two hours and if still dead, add vinegar and soak for an hour more." So begins Gail Anderson-Dargatz’s extraordinary first novel, a seductive and thrilling book that captures the heart and imagination, as filled with the magic and mystery of life as it is with its lurking evils and gut-wrenching hardships. The Cure for Death by Lightning sold more than a staggering 100,000 copies in Canada alone and became a bestseller in Great Britain, later to be published in the United States and Europe. It was nominated for the Giller Prize, the richest fiction prize in Canada, and received a Betty Trask Award in the U.K. The Cure for Death by Lightning takes place in the poor, isolated farming community of Turtle Valley, British Columbia, in the shadow of the Second World War. The fifteenth summer of Beth Weeks’s life is full of strange happenings: a classmate is mauled to death; children go missing on the nearby reserve; an unseen predator pursues Beth. She is surrounded by unusual characters, including Nora, the sensual half-Native girl whose friendship provides refuge; Filthy Billy, the hired hand with Tourette’s Syndrome; and Nora’s mother, who has a man’s voice and an extra little finger. Then there’s the darkness within her own family: her domineering, shell-shocked father has fits of madness, and her mother frequently talks to the dead. Beth, meanwhile, must wrestle with her newfound sexuality in a harsh world where nylons, perfume and affection have no place. Then, in a violent storm, she is struck by lightning in her arm, and nothing is quite the same again. She decides to explore the dangers of the bush. Beth is a strong, honest, and compassionate heroine, bringing hope and joy into an environment that is often cruel. The character of Beth’s haunted mother infuses the book with life by means of her scrapbook of recipes scattered throughout, with luscious descriptions of food, gardening, and remedies, both practical and bizarre. Seen through Beth’s eyes, the West Coast landscape is full of beauty and mysteries, with its forests and rivers, and its rich native culture. The Globe and Mail commented that The Cure for Death by Lightning was "Canadian to the core," with hints of Susannah Moodie and Margaret Atwood and Alice Munro. Anderson-Dargatz’s vision of rural life has drawn comparisons with William Faulkner and John Steinbeck. A magic realism reminiscent of Latin American literature is also present, as flowers rain from the sky, and men turn into animals. Yet the style of The Cure for Death by Lightning, which the Boston Globe called "Pacific Northwest Gothic," is wholly original. Launched in a year with more than the usual number of excellent first novels (1996 was also the year of Fall On Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald and Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels), this book with its assured voice heralds a worthy successor to Margaret Atwood, Carol Shields, Margaret Laurence and Alice Munro.

This book serves as an introduction to the key elements of good design. Broken into sections covering the fundamental elements of design, key works by acclaimed designers serve to illustrate technical points and encourage readers to try out new ideas. Themes covered include narrative, colour, illusion, ornament, simplicity, and wit and humour. The result is an instantly accessible and easy to understand guide to graphic design using professional techniques.

My memories are so like that hat full of butterflies, some already deteriorating the moment they are collected, some breathed back to life now and again, for a brief moment, by the scent on a passing wind–the smell of an orange, perhaps, or a whiff of brown-sugar fudge–before drifting away, just out of my reach. How much of myself flits away with each of these tattered memories? How much of myself have I already lost? (Turtle Valley, p. 289) It is the end of a long, dry summer in Turtle Valley, British Columbia, and when a raging forest fire threatens to destroy Kat’s childhood home, she returns with her son and estranged husband to help her elderly parents prepare for evacuation. Haunted by memories of the relationship she had with a man she loved and left fifteen years before, Kat discovers a ghostly link between her mother’s tragic past and her own quest to find a love that has the power to fulfill and sustain her. Sure to be remembered as one of her most satisfying novels, Turtle Valley is a page-turner filled with the lush descriptions, emotional truths and dark poetry that have made Gail Anderson-Dargatz an international literary sensation.

Sadie works as a framer, building houses. Sadie lost her own home in a recent divorce and now lives with her two daughters in a rented bungalow. When her landlady says she needs to move out, Sadie finds there''s a housing crisis in her community. She can''t find a place to live and is forced to move her family into a travel trailer at a local campsite. When her ex-husband finds out, he insists that the girls come live with him in another city. Desperate to keep her daughters with her in their home community, Sadie is forced to rethink her dream of living in a full-sized house. In the short term, she moves her girls into a co-worker''s apartment. Then, with the help of her friends and daughters, she builds a tiny house. In the process she finds living with less has its rewards and that living in a small space brings her family closer together. This short novel is a high-interest, low-reading level book for older teen readers and adults who are building reading skills, want a quick read or say they don’t like to read! The epub edition of this title is fully accessible.

International Bestseller Shortlisted for the 1998 Giller Prize A Globe and Mail Notable Book of 1998 Over 40,000 copies sold in hardcover In A Recipe for Bees, Gail Anderson-Dargatz gives readers a remarkable woman to stand beside Hagar Shipley and Daisy Goodwin — but Augusta Olsen also has attitude, a wicked funny bone, and the dubious gift of second sight. At home in Courtenay, B.C., Augusta anxiously awaits news of her dearly loved son-in-law Gabe, who is undergoing brain surgery miles away in Victoria. Her best friend Rose is waiting for Augusta to call as soon as she hears. Through Rose, we begin to learn the story of Augusta''s sometimes harsh, sometimes magical life: the startling vision of her mother''s early death; the loneliness of her marriage to Karl and her battle with Karl''s detestable father, Olaf. We are told of her gentle, platonic affair with a church minister, of her not-so-platonic affair with a man from the town, and the birth of her only child. We also learn of the special affinity between Rose and Augusta, who share the delights and exasperations of old age. Just as The Cure for Death by Lightning offers recipes and remedies, A Recipe for Bees is saturated with bee lore, and is full of rich domestic detail, wondrous imagery culled from rural kitchens and gardens, shining insights into ageing, family and friendship. And at its heart, is the life, death and resurrection of an extraordinary marriage

Key Selling Points This book examines bullying in middle school and how everyone has a story to tell. The entire story takes place during one bus ride home from school. Gail Anderson-Dargatz has written many hi-lo or literacy learner novels for both YA and adults working to strengthen their literacy skills. The author confessed that she was the “weird” one on the bus when she was a kid. Now her own kids take a long bus ride home too. The Ride Home was shortlisted for the Sheila A. Egoff Children''s Literature Prize and the Chocolate Lily Award. Enhanced features (dyslexia-friendly font, cream paper, larger trim size) to increase reading accessibility for dyslexic and other striving readers.

Mission Matters sheds a fresh light on how to envision relevant and impactful museums. Anderson takes the understanding of mission relevance to a new level. The premise of the book reflects external contemporary realities and the need for museums to better position themselves as leaders and change agents in the greater landscape and diversity of people.. Anderson illustrates her points with numerous examples from the US and around the world. Features include essays by David Fleming from the UK who tackles the importance of mission and social issues, and Charmaine Jefferson who frames the complexities of cultural competence in the 21st century. Twenty museum leaders each share their institution’s story of transformative change informed by reframing their mission. Anderson’s methodology for the book, the Mission Alignment Framework, helps reference the thinking about missions and the subsequent changes within museums as they redirect their work. Eighty US and international mission statements reveal the range of museums disciplines and demographics from urban and rural , and styles of mission all illustrating relevance to their unique settings, institutional capacity, resources, and purpose. Complementing these examples are guidelines about how to rethink mission, a questioning strategy based on the Mission Alignment Framework, and, a range of useful tools from museums and leading thinkers in the field. Mission Matters is useful to a wide range of readers and users from trustees to directors to staff from a wide range of museums regardless of size and stage of development and maturity. The book is an easily accessible reference for strategic planning, conversations about relevance and missions, and museums considering the reinvention of their museum for greater impact.

Charlotte is going to prove her grandma is right—the lake monster is real! When Charlotte gets a drone for her fourteenth birthday, she’s determined to get footage of Dottie, the elusive lake monster of Dorothy Lake. Her grandma, who has dedicated her life to searching for the monster, is the joke of the town. But when Charlotte manages to capture a video of the monster and posts it online, she’s the sudden target of a media storm. Now everyone is making fun of her too. Worse, droves of monster hunters arrive in her town, crowding the lake. When their boat propellers threaten to hurt Dottie, Charlotte is faced with a difficult choice. This short novel is a high-interest, low-reading level book for middle-grade readers who are building reading skills, want a quick read or say they don’t like to read! The epub edition of this title is fully accessible.

Gail Anderson-Dargatz, the acclaimed and bestselling author of The Cure for Death by Lightning and A Recipe for Bees, brings readers once again into the heart of rural Canada with A Rhinestone Button. As funny as it is tender, it is a novel full of true-to-life characters, natural wonder, and sweet surprises. Despite growing up in the small farming town of Godsfinger, Alberta, Job Sunstrum was always a bit of an outsider. A thin young man with blond, curly hair, he loved baking and cooking, and certainly did not fit in with the rough-and-tumble farm boys around town. Even when Job takes over the farm after his father’s death and his brother’s departure to train as a pastor, his community remains his animals, and perhaps the church women with whom he shares his baking on Sundays. Lonely beyond belief, overwhelmed by religious guilt, and taut with fear at the thought of what life might have in store for him, Job can only turn to God and hope that someday, things will turn around. Only his synesthesia — his ability to see sounds as colours, and feel vibrations as solid forms — provides him with passing moments of solace, but it also reaffirms for him that he experiences the world in a way the other people of Godsfinger could not possibly understand. Then one year, Job’s “tightly coiled” life begins to fall apart, and even the small sureties that got him through the days are torn away from him. The colours even disappear from sounds. Faced with change on every level and not knowing how to live outside the world he was brought up in, Job allows himself to be caught up in the Pentecostal drive of a preacher named Jack Divine, in hopes that clinging to his beliefs, proving his faith, and doing what others expect of him will make everything all right. But when his new-found religious fervour only accelerates his despair and his world continues to crumble, Job is surprised to find that true faith can be found in earthly experiences, and come from the most unlikely of sources. That a world without the familiar colours and shapes of sound is not half-heard, as he feared, but freed to break out in song. Like Anderson-Dargatz’s previous novels, A Rhinestone Button is a loving and magical portrait of small-town life that makes us question what we believe is real, and true.

Seventeen-year-old Jen is shocked to discover that the dad she grew up with is not her biological father. Jen loves to sing. But the rest of her family can’t carry a tune. When a stranger named Mike gives her roses at her concert and reveals that he is her birth father, Jen''s world flips upside down. Mike is a musician, just like Jen, and now she understands why she looks nothing like Steve, the only dad she’s ever known. When Steve learns the truth Jen''s mom has been hiding all these years, he moves out, and Jen can''t help but feel responsible. Worse, she doesn’t know who she is anymore. It feels like her whole life has been a lie. Is Steve still her dad? What about Mike? When it feels like her family is falling apart, Jen doesn''t know where she belongs. The epub edition of this title is fully accessible.

Fourteen-year-old Iggy comes from a famous family. Well, sort of. His dad directs a cheesy sci-fi Web series, his mom writes for it, and his sister has a successful YouTube channel. Iggy doesn’t have the acting bug, so he feels like an outsider. Wanting to prove himself, Iggy starts his own podcast about what interests him: insects. But it’s not until Iggy embarrasses his famous sister on air that his podcast really takes off. He’s thrilled with his own success, until she fires back. Now it’s all-out war. Iggy’s World is an exploration of the age-old problem artists face: when we find inspiration from our real lives, what will our friends and family think? And, of course, just how much of our private lives do we really want to reveal online? This short novel is a high-interest, low-reading level book for middle-grade readers who are building reading skills, want a quick read or say they don’t like to read!

Small-town journalist Claire Abbott seeks an arsonist starting fires in this work of crime fiction.

Small-town journalist Claire Abbott investigates a bomb threat in the local high school in this work of crime fiction.

In this work of crime fiction, Claire Abbott, a small-town reporter, uses her sixth sense to find a missing girl.