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Winner of the 2002 Anna Pidruchney Award For New Writers On a visit to Ukraine to retrieve a family heirloom secretly buried by his grandfather during the Second World War, Yaroslaw, a Ukrainian-Canadian university student, stumbles into a world full of spies and secret organizations, peril and political intrigue. His discovery of the hidden cache yields clues to the location of a fabled lost treasure-the greatest in all Europe.

In 1874, after their father is wounded by hard men who have stolen a number of mares and Smokey, a prized stallion, sixteen-year-old Rob McCann and his adopted Native brother, Luke, ride frantically to Fort Ellice, Manitoba, in the vain expectation that the horse rustlers have stopped there. Learning that a new force called the North-West Mounted Police has come west, the brothers continue south to locate them and ask for help. The NWMP commander, Colonel George French, desperately attempts to have the boys escorted home.

Commended for the 2011 Best Books for Kids and Teens Robin Starveling, aka Noah Vaile, is scooped off the streets of seventeenth-century Bristol, England, and dragged onboard a ship bound for Virginia by the murderous William Thatcher, who needs a servant with no past and no future to aid him in a nefarious plot to steal gold. Starveling fits the bill perfectly since he lives nowhere and has no parents. Aboard the ship, Starveling makes friends with a young cabin boy, Peter Fence.

After the conclusion of The Silver Anklet, Taras triumphant return to Morni is short-lived. Taras deceased former stepmother, Kali, seeks revenge through her daughter, Layla. And so begins a series of carefully orchestrated events to cast suspicion on Tara: a dead dog in the village temple, contaminated well water, and whispers that Tara is still possessed. Layla fuels the villagers blind superstitions and fears. Soon all of Morni is against Tara, even her own family. Death seems to be the only way to stop her evil stepsister. Tara turns to Lord Yama and his deadly conch for help.

What if the only way to get rid of your worst enemy was to sacrifice your brother?When hyenas snatch Taras brother, Suraj, and two other children from the local fair in Morni, Tara and her newfound companions decide to rescue them on their own. Tara soon discovers that Zarku, her nemesis with the third eye, is back and intent on revenge.A deadly game of hide and seek ensues, and Tara and her companions must work together to survive. But it is soon clear that Zarku is only after Tara; the others are dispensable.Should Tara risk the lives of her friends?

2011 Red Maple Award — Shortlisted Fourteen-year-old Sam McLean is less than thrilled with the prospect of moving to a collection of old mansions on the northern fringe of a small town called Ringwood. A nobody at his old school, Sam is desperate to be accepted by the cool kids and latches on to Cody Barns, aka Maniac. Cody’s claim to fame is performing wild stunts — the crazier the better — and posting them on his blog.

Meet Little Jane Silver, the twelve year-old granddaughter of notorious Treasure Island pirate Long John Silver. Growing up on the Pieces of Eight, the pirate ship of her parents, Captains Bonnie Mary Bright and Long John Silver II, Little Jane is increasingly frustrated with being thrust below decks whenever any real pirating action takes place. Desperate to be taken seriously as a member of the crew, Little Jane vows to become a real pirate, but every attempt she makes to prove herself onboard seems to backfire.

How can an enterprising newspaper reporter sell his Babji dolls when there’s a beheaded street youth, a Rave Messiah battling a berserk “God Squad,” and a conniving new editor to deal with? Especially when he’s suffering all the symptoms of dengue fever? Hakeem Jinnah is back and as politically incorrect as ever. The chain-smoking, headline-chasing hypochondriac is in a race to find a killer and help save his buddy Sergeant Graham’s career. But a bevy of She Demons bedevil him at each turn. Soon Jinnah is entangled in a cultic web that threatens his friends, his family, and his life.

Visiting Elizabeth follows a friendship that begins and ends with a needle. Elizabeth teaches Ariane to speak her mind. So when Elizabeth is struck and killed by a car, Ariane vows to speak for two. Soon, a hybrid language rolls off her tongue. Elizabeths English and Arianes native French are woven so fine they can no longer be separated. Just like the clothes Ariane alters and sews by hand, changing form and function, she discovers irresistible connections between her two languages and cultures, charging them with new energy and rhythms.

2009 Word Guild Award — Winner, Young Adult Fiction In the aftermath of the 1838 rebellion in Lower Canada, Sophie Mallory’s father is wrongfully convicted of treason and sentenced to life imprisonment in Australia. But there is no question about what Sophie should do: with her guardian, Lady Theodosia Thornleigh, and Luc Moriset, she sets sail for Sydney. She finds Australia an outside-down country. The water goes down the drain the opposite way, half the population are (or have been) convicts. In one notorious incident, her father, Benjamin, and the Canadian convicts arrest police.