New Release Books by Julie Lawson

The first appearance in print of a series of brand new paintings by Alison Watt Revisits and explores the work of popular 18th-century artist, Allan Ramsay A fascinating melding of 18th- and 21st-century Scottish art A beautiful book which, in its design, reflects the delicacy of Allan Ramsay's work Published to accompany an exhibition at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery from June to October, 2020 In a series of brand new paintings, renowned artist, Alison Watt, responds to the paintings and drawings of 18th-century Scottish artist Allan Ramsay. The new works are particularly inspired by Ramsay's wonderful and much-loved painting of his wife, but also consider some seldom seen drawings from Ramsay's 1755-57 sketchbook. Watt's response is made through a series of interpretations in her own style, while developing a great appreciation of the remarkable delicacy in Ramsay's work. The new paintings and historical portraits and drawings are accompanied by a statement from the artist and commentaries on the works featured in the book. While offering a fresh and modern perspective on the historical works of one of Scotland's outstanding portraitists, this book also reveals insight into how one of today's leading artists looks at and is inspired by the art of the past.

On a trip to Chinatown in Victoria, British Columbia, thirteen-year-old Jasmine falls through a doorway back to the 1880s, and finds herself in caught up in a scramble for a lost amulet — and a race against time. Will she ever make it back home?

When Char Hawthorn's husband dies unexpectedly, she is left questioning everything she once knew to be true: from the cozy small town life they built together to her relationship with her stepdaughter, who is suddenly not bound to Char in any real way. Untethered explores what bonds truly form a family and how, sometimes, love knows no bounds. Char Hawthorn, college professor, wife and stepmother to a spirited fifteen-year-old daughter, loves her family and the joyful rhythms of work and parenting. But when her husband dies in a car accident, the “step” in Char’s title suddenly matters a great deal. In the eyes of the law, all rights to daughter Allie belong to Lindy, Allie’s self-absorbed biological mother, who wants to girl to move to her home in California. While Allie begins to struggle in school and tensions mount between her and Char, Allie’s connection to young Morgan, a ten-year-old-girl she tutors, seems to keep her grounded. But then Morgan, who was adopted out of foster care, suddenly disappears, and Char is left to wonder about a possible future without Allie and what to do about Morgan, a child caught up in a terrible crack in the system.

Kate's father is a builder for the Canadian Pacific Railway as it snakes across the mountains and through the Fraser Canyon. Everyone is excited about the "Iron Horse", but building the railroad is a treacherous undertaking. Kate is always thinking about her father's safety, and the Accident Hospital next door is a constant reminder of the hazards the railroad brings. Despite the danger, there is tremendous excitement surrounding the creation of the transcontinental railroad as Kate, her town, and all of Canada eagerly await its completion. Vetted by historical experts, each book in this series contains maps, numerous period illustrations, and an extensive historical note.

“A beautifully drawn study of what is at risk when you lose control of your own life. Unique, gripping, and viscerally moving—this impressive debut novel heralds the arrival of an extremely talented writer.” —Jodi Picoult, New York Times–bestselling author of Leaving Time Destined to be a book club favorite, a heart-wrenching debut about two people who must decide how much they’re willing to sacrifice for love. Mara Nichols is a successful lawyer, devoted wife, and adoptive mother who has received a life-shattering diagnosis. Scott Coffman, a middle school teacher, has been fostering an eight-year-old boy while the boy’s mother serves a jail sentence. Scott and Mara both have five days left until they must say good-bye to the ones they love the most. Through their stories, Julie Lawson Timmer explores the individual limits of human endurance and the power of relationships, and shows that sometimes loving someone means holding on, and sometimes it means letting go.

A real fish tale! When "the big one" gets away, Amy figures the day is ruined. Or is it? Set on Canada's west coast, A Morning to Polish and Keep is a story of adventure, family interaction and the lasting comfort of memory. Recommended reading ages: 4-10

Since the nineteenth century various housing solutions have evolved, such as sprawling Australian home ownership and compact Dutch social rental housing. This phenomenon cannot be adequately explained with simple descriptions of key events, politics and housing outcomes. Critical Realism and Housing Studies pushes debate forward, arguing that a new ontological perspective is required to address fundamental issues in housing and comparative research. This book is clearly organized into three parts which: evaluate ontological and methodological alternatives for comparative housing research provide two historical case studies inspired by critical realist ontology compare the causal tendencies that explain diverging housing pathways in Australia and the Netherlands. Lawson proposes that we turn to critical realism for the solution. From this perspective the causal tendencies of complex, open and structured housing phenomena are highlighted. With this insight we are able to extract the key social arrangements which promote different housing solutions from the historical case studies. Social arrangements which are found to influence alternative pathways in housing history concern the property rights, circuit of savings and investment, as well as labour and welfare relations. As they develop differently over time and space they affect where, when and how housing solutions develop.

It's 1917 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The First World War is raging, and despite its distance from the conflict, the Halifax Harbour is bustling with activity. Anti-German prejudice is rampant, and though 12-year-old Livy Schroeder and her 15-year-old brother Will are still mourning the loss of their father, who died in a mysterious boating accident just six months before, his German heritage doesn't merit them much sympathy. The rumours he'd been a German spy are only flamed by his disappearance. On the morning of December 6, while Livy is in Richmond begging forgiveness from the Schroeders' former housekeeper, Will is atop Citadel Hill reporting for the school paper, when he sees two ships collide. A flash of light, then thunder from underground: the Halifax Explosion hits. Instantly, the city is unrecognizable. Lost and separated in the dark, destroyed city, will the siblings find each other again? Where is their mother? And who is to blame for the catastrophe? In A Blinding Light, award-winning author Julie Lawson (No Safe Harbour) tells a riveting story of the Halifax Explosion and its aftermath, exploring the concepts of guilt, blame, and taking ownership, the divide between the rich and poor, locals and immigrants, as well as the human bonds that arise in times of tragedy. Young readers will be spellbound, and teachers and librarians will find plenty of topics for discussion in the book's historical and cultural lessons.

Critically acclaimed author Julie Lawson Timmer returns with a tale of how community can heal the brokenness in all of us. Markie, a fortysomething divorc�e who has suffered a humiliating and very public fall from marital, financial, and professional grace, moves, along with her teenage son, Jesse, to a new town, hoping to lick her wounds in private. But Markie and Jesse are unable to escape the attention of their new neighbor Mrs. Saint, an irascible, elderly New European woman who takes it upon herself, along with her ragtag group of “defectives,” to identify and fix the flaws in those around her, whether they want her to or not. What Markie doesn’t realize is that Mrs. Saint has big plans for the divorc�e’s broken spirit. Soon, the quirky yet endearing woman recruits Markie to join her eccentric community, a world where both hidden truths and hope unite them. But when Mrs. Saint’s own secrets threaten to unravel their fragile web of healing, it’s up to Markie to mend these wounds and usher in a new era for the “defectives”—one full of second chances and happiness.

A holiday treat for fans of the Dear Canada series, and all lovers of historical fiction! Rekindling a treasured friendship helps a young girl understand the meaning of Christmas. Charlotte and her brother Luke, a soldier serving overseas during World War I, frequently exchange letters. Charlotte fears for his safety, for the worst she can imagine is that Luke will not come home from the war. She's still a year away from knowing how her own life will be changed when a munitions ship in Halifax Harbour catches fire, causing the largest man-made explosion in history and flattening the city of Halifax. This short story was originally published in Dear Canada: A Christmas to Remember, a collection featuring many of Canada's top writers for children, including Jean Little, Sarah Ellis, Maxine Trottier, Carol Matas, and more. New readers will adore this stand-alone holiday tale, while fans of the series will recognize the voice of Charlotte, whom they first met in the award-winning Dear Canada book No Safe Harbour. Collect all 12 Dear Canada Christmas stories this season and enjoy a very happy holiday!

Twelve original holiday stories from the top children's writers in the country! What an incredible gift book for Dear Canada fans! The twelve stories in this treasury are set around Christmas time and feature the young girls from a dozen previous Dear Canada books. Readers will be thrilled to reconnect with their favourites and get a glimpse of each character's life a year or so after the events in the actual diary are over. Anyone new to the Dear Canada series will be introduced to characters so compelling, they'll want to read more.

A holiday treat for fans of the Dear Canada series, and all lovers of historical fiction! Celebrate the holidays with someone new. After growing up at bustling Fort Edmonton on the Prairies, Jenna found it hard to follow the stricter rules at the more "civilized" Fort Victoria. Even with new friends and different family ties, she still treasures her exciting make-believe world of Villains and Heroes. Adventure is never far from Jenna's mind . . . and sometimes it erupts right into her life. This short story was originally published in Dear Canada: A Christmas to Remember, a collection featuring many of Canada's top writers for children, including Jean Little, Sarah Ellis, Carol Matas, and more. New readers will adore this stand-alone holiday tale, while fans of the series will recognize the voice of Jenna, whom they first met in the award-winning Dear Canada book Where the River Takes Me. Collect all 12 Dear Canada Christmas stories this season and enjoy a very happy holiday!

A wonderful seasonal anthology for Dear Canada readers, both old and new! A real treat for fans of this series, and all lovers of historical fiction! Eleven stories that each revisit a favourite character from books in the Dear Canada series are included in this special collection. These are completely original tales that stand alone as heartwarming Christmas stories, but also serve as a lovely "next chapter" to their original books. Each story is written by one of Canada's top award-winning writers for children, including Jean Little, Sarah Ellis, Maxine Trottier, Carol Matas and more. This collection is a lovely companion to A Season of Miracles, and will be treasured year after year at holiday time!

A young girl living at three Hudson's Bay Company posts yearns for more adventure and freedom than the rules of mid-1800s HBC society allow. Motherless for years, and now orphaned when a hunting accident takes her father's life, Jenna Sinclair is in the care of her prim Aunt Grace, who always finds fault with Jenna's high spirits and tendency to break rules. Jenna finds kindred spirits in her Grandmother, one of the Home Guard Cree who lives near Fort Edmonton, and with her friend Suzanne. But even then, Jenna is still eager to have more freedom, and daydreams of finding Adventure with a capital A. Opportunity knocks after Jenna moves southwest with her newly-married aunt to Fort Colvile, and begs her aunt to let her attend a ""real"" school at Fort Victoria on Vancouver's Island. With a small brigade, she begins a sometimes harrowing journey down rivers and over mountains to her new life. But the teachers at the new school are even more strict than her aunt, and she can't find a friend as likeable as Suzanne. Ever restless, Jenna wants the kind of excitement worthy of being included in a Novel. By sneaking outside the fort walls, spying on the Company officers, even visiting the forbidden Songhees village, she sometimes finds more than she bargained for. As Jenna faithfully records her observations of the world around her — bringing the reader ""inside the walls"" of three very different HBC posts — she makes surprising discoveries about herself, and about Heroes, Villains and the places where Adventure can truly be found."

Charlotte struggles to find her twin brother after the rest of her family is killed in the tragic Halifax explosion. No Safe Harbour is set in the months before and after the December 6, 1917 Halifax explosion, which was the largest man-made blast in history until the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The explosion levelled most of the city and sent shards of glass and burning debris flying for miles. It left thousands dead, blinded or homeless. Suddenly orphaned, Charlotte turns to her diary to help her cope with the events that killed her entire family — leaving her older brother, still fighting in the trenches of WWI, as her only surviving relative. This is an affecting story of loss and recovery, powerfully told by award-winning author Julie Lawson.

A teenage boy finds himself caught up in a century-old mystery -- aboard the Titanic! Kevin and his family are enroute to Halifax to check out a house they have mysteriously inherited from a man named Angus Seaton -- mysterious because none of them have any clue who he was or why they would be named in his will. While at the house, Kevin does his own investigating and discovers some old artifacts hidden behind a wall, including enigmatic photographs dating back to 1911, which show a young woman and her baby. This puzzling discovery leads to troubling dreams for Kevin -- haunting dreams and a voice that plagues him, a voice he cannot escape. Someone -- somehwere -- needs his help. One night he tries to answer the call, and finds himself in another reality, another time, in a flooded corridor... ... aboard the ship Titanic. In this ghostly new mystery by award--winning writer Julie Lawson, the terror, anxiety and reality of the sinking of the Titanic comes to life, as a teenage boy tries to right the wrongs of the past... and put some troubled souls to rest.

Even though his father said that he was not allowed to take his cat with them on their move to the Klondike where they were moving to search for gold, Noah couldn't leave his beloved Shadow behind and so, when Pa discovers her, Shadow soon demonstrates a hidden talent that shocks both of them. Reprint.

During a visit to Vancouver Island to spend the summer with her relatives, eleven-year-old Samantha, trying to get away from her teasing cousins, spends most of her time watching a cougar and her two cubs in the wilderness.

Published to accompany the exhibition of the same name held at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, 14th June-19th October, 2014.

In a tumble-down house carved out of the dunes lives an old man with second sight. He is the sifter of sands, the man who separates the sparkling mica, black lava, golden-reds, and misty grays. And as he sifts he mesmerizes Jessica and Andrew with his tales of the trickster-creator Raven and how a lonely young man lived to be 300 years old.

Scottish Masters is a series of booklets on Scottish artists from the 17th century to the present day. Each volume contains an illustrated essay on the artist and his time.

The year is 1896 and Emily pines for a bicycle, the latest craze. On the other side of Victoria's James Bay Bridge is Chinatown and thousands of Chinese immigrants who are looking for a better life in Canada.

After Aunt Jo hands down to Ashley the beautiful goldstone necklace that has been in the family for nearly a century, Ashley is then haunted by the ghost of Jonathan, who longs to repossess the magical pendant.

After his father dies, sixteen-year-old Ned Turner voyages to the Klondike in search of gold with which to pay his family's debts and is later followed by his sister, who fears that he is dead.