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Baba had made Lesia a promise: just remember the flower is not always open, but if your effort is true, your rewards will be sweet. Fifteen-year-old Lesia treasures those words as she and her family leave Baba in their Ukrainian hometown and flee to Canada. Dreaming of fields of wheat and wealth and security, Lesia's family look forward to life in Canada free from hunger and poverty and rumours of war. But the 160 acres of uncleared prairie they buy in Manitoba look nothing like the wheat fields of their dreams.

Fifteen-year-old half-Inuit Nick and his white brother, Ryan, meet and share an adventure on the Firth River in far northern Canada, facing white water, wild animals, and fierce weather as Ryan documents the effects of climate change on caribou for National Geographic magazine.

Simon St. Bride has been in Canada fighting the War of 1812--but the war is over now, and Simon is ready to come home. Before he leaves, however, Simon must defend a young woman's honor. What does her past hide?

"In the midst of the Irish famine, Johanna flees one disaster - only to land in another. After a massive potato famine strikes Ireland, thirteen-year-old Johanna Leary flees to Canada with her family. But typhus and other illnesses plague the 'coffin ships,' so named for the staggering number of immigrants who died enroute. One by one Johanna loses the members of her family - first her baby brother on the journey over, then her mother in the Grosse Isle fever sheds where sick passengers are quarantined when they reach the port of Québec, and her father soon after.

Jian Gomeshi uses music as a platform for his memoir about a pivotal year in his life in which he explores young love, heartache, conformity, and how to be cool.

Derek Sanderson, one of the most flamboyant NHL players of his era (that of the Big Bad Bruins) holds nothing back in this memoir about his hockey career, his drug and alcohol abuse, and the tough road back. Sanderson was a legend on and off the ice, famous for womanizing and partying. Once one of the top paid sports figures in the world, his substance abuse problems led him down a dark path where at his lowest point he was penniless and sleeping under bridges. He credits his best friend, Bobby Orr, with saving his life and getting him into AA.

When a bomber is shot down over France during World War II, he is trapped behind enemy lines. His task is to get back to England to fly more missions.

A history of Tim Hortons--from the life of its co-founder, Tim Horton; to the growth of the business under his friend and partner, Ron Joyce; to the company's merger with the American fast-food chain Wendy's and its eventual repatriation to Canada.