The Governor General's Children's Text Winners

Young Galahad lives in the South American jungle, where he plays with snakes and crocodiles. His parents are adventurers and Nobel Prize-winning authors. But when they fail to return from an expedition in their hot-air balloon Galahad must leave the jungle to live with his grandfather in a North American slum. In this alien and fascinating world he encounters both evil and magic. Join Galahad and the other main characters - his street-musician grandfather; blind and wheelchair-bound Wheels; Slim, who owns a tattoo parlour - as they confront the power-hungry exterminator, Creetch, who has invented a spray that makes people disappear. Boo the city's mayor, who would rather juggle on television than face the threat of Creetch. Cheer for the unlikely army of cockroaches, flies and pigeons who fight for our hero in his darkest hour. "In this warm and graceful story, the author achieves an artful blend of the mythological and the earthly." From the citation for the Governor General's Literary Awards (Canada)

In this interpretation of the Arthurian legend, fifteen-year-old Morgan Lefevre is mistaken for one of her ancestors while visiting England, summoned to the alien world of Nwm, and caught between the opposing cruelties of the two Magics.

Hockey is the only game worth playing in the rough-and-tumble prairie town of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. When sixteen-year-old A.J. Brandiosa makes the Triple A team of his dreams, he can hardly believe that his life is finally coming together. And then it falls apart. A.J. makes an unexpected discovery about his best friend and teammate, Tulsa Brown, and he can't keep his rage and fear from spilling onto the ice. An aggressive defenseman is becoming a violent one... An explosive novel by award-winning author Diana Wieler that looks honestly at teenage sexuality and the world of amateur hockey.

Teenage Cass feels an inescapable psychic link with his incredibly old landlord Mr. Magus, whose secret experiments in the garage reflect his preoccupation with finding the wholeness of life.

Thirteen-year-old Polly's rebellion against her unmarried, fiercely independendent mother comes to a head when they must find a new apartment.

In 1946 twelve-year-old Keely is devastated when her older brother Patrick is paralyzed by polio, and she starts a campaign to reawaken his waning interest in life.

A collection of nine stories by the popular Canadian author, including "The Night of the Pomegranate," "Save the Moon for Kerdy Dickus," and "The Hope Bakery."

Fifteen-year-old Sara Moone, abandonded at birth and shunted from one foster home to another, finds that she cannot remain aloof from her latest family.

Fleeing from his brutal father, fourteen-year-old Burl arrives at the remote cabin of an eccentric genius who in just one day changes the young man's life forever.

This enhanced e-book, in celebration of Groundwood's 35th anniversary, includes a read-aloud feature of the story narrated by Molly Johnson. Winner of the Governor General's Award, the Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator's Award, the Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver Award and the Ruth Schwartz Award This powerful, unforgettable and multi-award-winning tale is based on the lives of the Chinese who settled on the west coast of North America in the early 1900s. Left behind in China by her father, who has gone to North America to find work, Choon-yi has made her living by selling her paintings in the market. When her father writes one day and asks her to join him, she joyously sets off, only to discover that he has been killed. Choon-yi sees the railway and the giant train engines that her father died for, and she is filled with an urge to paint them. But her work disappoints her until a ghostly presence beckons her to board the train where she meets the ghosts of the men who died building the railway. She is able to give them peace by returning their bones to China where they were born.

While living a miserable, poverty-stricken life with her young, irresponsible mother, nine-year-old Theo dreams of belonging to a real family but finds a shadowy figure haunting her thoughts.

From one of Canada's best loved children's writers comes the enthralling tale of a brave young girl caught up in the American Revolutionary War. It is 1777 and Phoebe Olcott is thrown headlong into the horrors of war when her beloved cousin Gideon is hanged for being a British spy. When she finds a message left by Gideon containing the names of Loyalist families to be protected by the King's army, Phoebe knows she must deliver the message to the general at Fort Ticonderoga. She sets out into the wilderness and soon meets up with Jem, a young Loyalist travelling to the safety of British Canada. As they travel across the country facing rebel guns, wild animals and worse, Phoebe and Jem discover they have a growing attraction for each other. But her own mission cannot be ignored and Phoebe once again finds herself alone, freezing and near death before she is reunited with Jem on the shores of Lake Ontario.

Winner of the 1999 Governor General's Literary Award for Children's Literature - Text

"This wonderful book is a carefully composed collection of moments during one of those days when parents experience exasperation. Rachna Gilmore, a talented author,magically captures a child's overbrimming love of life and irrepressible spirit of mischief and rebellion. This is not abook with a message; rather, it is a sweet story told in exquisite fashion. A Screaming Kind of Day is an engaging, "singing in the rain" book which children will love to read."
— Jury Statement, 1999 Governor General's Literary Awards, Children's Literature Text.

"Robert's brother vanishes and he has to find him. This award-winning book offers a new sophistication to young adult fiction, and a terrifying take on the psychology of fear" Cf. Our choice, 2003.

A confused seventeen-year-old girl, a single mother and her young son, two elderly women, and a sad and lonely man, with their own individual tragedies to bear, come together in a small Manitoba town and find a way to a better future.

"As grade nine graduation approaches, Travis's proudest achievement -- a puppet production of A Midsummer Night's Dream -- is overshadowed by the threat of an angry, and dangerous, classmate."--Cover.

Sailing toward dawn, and I was perched atop the crow's nest, being the ship's eyes. We were two nights out of Sydney, and there'd been no weather to speak of so far. I was keeping watch on a dark stack of nimbus clouds off to the northwest, but we were leaving it far behind, and it looked to be smooth going all the way back to Lionsgate City. Like riding a cloud. . . .Matt Cruse is a cabin boy on the Aurora, a huge airship that sails hundreds of feet above the ocean, ferrying wealthy passengers from city to city. It is the life Matt's always wanted; convinced he's lighter than air, he imagines himself as buoyant as the hydrium gas that powers his ship. One night he meets a dying balloonist who speaks of beautiful creatures drifting through the skies. It is only after Matt meets the balloonist's granddaughter that he realizes that the man's ravings may, in fact, have been true, and that the creatures are completely real and utterly mysterious.In a swashbuckling adventure reminiscent of Jules Verne and Robert Louis Stevenson, Kenneth Oppel, author of the best-selling Silverwing trilogy, creates an imagined world in which the air is populated by transcontinental voyagers, pirates, and beings never before dreamed of by the humans who sail the skies.

Twelve-year-old Emaline Bitterman loves her home on the prairies. She loves helping her father in the fields and her dog, Prince. But farming in southern Saskatchewan in the mid 1960s is not easy. And then one day Emaline tries to stop Prince from chasing a hare into the path of the tractor her father is driving, and her leg is caught in the discer, leaving her with a permanent disability. In his grief and guilt her father shoots Prince and then leaves Emaline and her distraught mother on their own.

Nova Scotia, 1952. Not exactly the place you’d expect to run into pirates. But an old mariner, his boat driven ashore in a gale, brings with him enough stories about buccaneers and their lore to make it seem that he must have had firsthand experience of the pirate life. But how is that possible? Captain Charles Johnson’s uncanny knowledge of seamanship’s dark side fuels the imagination of the young boy he befriends, setting the boy on his own journey of mysterious adventure.

Ben thinks he will always be stuck at Cook's Landing, barely making ends meet like his uncle. But when he meets a wealthy widow from New York City, he sees himself there too. When she hires him to play his violin, he realizes his gift could unokc the possibilities of the world. Then, during a stormy night on Lake Muskoka, everything changes.

The Byrne family is strong, but are being tested everyday as life becomes more and more desperate in 19th century rural Ireland, forcing the family to leave their homeland.

Teen violence, bullying and the burning quest to fit in are presented in the poems of four unforgettable high school students: Natalie, Kyle, Tricia, Miguel. Their stories unfold in this explosive new book told in free verse. A story of teen angst like no other, it is based on fictional characters but is rooted in the realities of the teen experience.

When Natalie moves to a new high school she befriends three unwitting victims into her spider-web of manipulations, lies and deceit. Through the poetry and assignments of an English class we glimpse the world of the four teens. Natalie, whose alcoholic parents, years of neglect and ultimate rape by her father's friend has shaped her into a cruel and manipulative teen; Tricia, dealing with her blended family, is drawn into Natalies' forbidden world of partying and rebellion; Kyle, a would-be musician is in love with Tricia and Miguel who lusts for Natalie while hiding the secrets of his family.

The story weaves us through their poetry, their lives and culminates at a party where the four lives fishtail out of control. English class will never be the same.

Traces human civilization from early bands of hunter-gatherers to the multicultural world cities of the present, covering the development of agriculture, empires, law, and the major religions, the rise of Europe, colonies, and industrialization.

When thirteen-year-old Henry and his family move to the city to leave behind a secret tragedy, Henry finds a journal is his best friend.