Extreme survival

Escape: A Survivor's Guide
by Margaret Hynes


In the event of an earthquake, tsunami or sandstorm, would you know what to do? This handy survival guide will help you prepare for anything, whether you're lost at sea or caught in a thunderstorm. For a bit of levity, it'll even show you how to escape from prison or fight off zombies.






Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Extreme Junior Edition
by David Borgenicht and Justin Heimberg


This book is filled with all sorts of tips for dealing with extreme situations at sea, on a mountain, in the desert, in the jungle, in the Arctic, and on safari.  Kids will be able to treat a jellyfish sting, escape from a mountain lion, catch fish without a rod, survive falling through the ice, or signal for help. 

Both funny and useful, kids will really enjoy this book!

Identifying trees

First Field Guide: Trees


Produced by the National Audubon Society, this book serves as both study guide and field guide to North American trees. It helps kids distinguish the two classes of tree (needleleaf and broadleaf), explains how forests grow, and shows how to identify certain trees by shape, leaf, fruit, or bark.

The field guide portion provides a wealth of detail about height, leaf and flower arrangement, habitat, and range. Lots of close-up photos showcase the beauty of trees.

A good book to encourage a walk in a park.

Life of a maple tree

A Tree in a Forest
by Jan Thornhill


In 1764, a maple tree starts to grow. Over the next two hundred years, the tree becomes home to birds, raccoons, and squirrels, withstands ice storms and lightning, provides food for porcupine, insects, and mushrooms, and gets tapped for maple syrup. Even at the end of its life, it continues to shelter other animals until a new tree takes root.

Thornhill's words and pictures teem with life, ensuring repeated readings of a wonder-filled book.

Tenacious Jack Pine

Jack Pine
by Christopher Patton
illustrations by Cybèle Young


Come meet Jack Pine. You'll never see,
     with luck, a tree less lovely than -
a tree more bent, more squat, more grim,
    more weird and ugly than - Jack Pine.


In eloquent free verse, Christopher Patton introduces young readers to Jack Pine. He may be small and stunted, living as he does on thin, sandy soil, but he serves an important purpose - to shelter other pines from wind and scorching sun.

Cybèle Young's exquisite illustrations - three-dimensional collages drawn on etched paper - capture fields, wood, and animals in fine detail.

Creative nonfiction at its finest.

Residential school - Lawrence's story

There's a lot of sadness in Lawrence's life, yet there's hope and happiness too. Worth reading.



As Long as the Rivers Flow
by Larry Loyie


In four finely drawn vignettes, Larry Loyie, then called Lawrence, describes his childhood in northern Alberta, when he was ten years old. He cares for a baby owl, practices his hunting and tracking skills, and has a close encounter with a grizzly bear. Most memorably, he listens to the stories of his uncles and aunts and the wisdom of his grandmother. At the end of the summer, a big brown truck takes Lawrence and his brothers and sisters away to residential school.

The idyllic story that Loyie tells, imbued with the love of family and home, is a quiet remembrance of a way of life that no longer exists.

Goodbye Buffalo Bay
by Larry Loyie


In Goodbye Buffalo Bay, Loyie describes his experiences at the St. Bernard Mission residential school. After four years, he has learned not to offend the nuns. Yet despite the punishments and hard labour, he finds time to play with his friends.

At fourteen, Loyie's schooling comes to an end and he returns home. But home no longer feels the same to him. He's angry and unsure of himself. But he can still speak Cree. His father and uncles help him find work in sawmills and lumber camps, and he makes non-Native friends. The physical work and the guidance of his grandparents help him as he reconnects with his roots and makes his own way in the world.

Voices of Indigenous kids

Looks Like Daylight: Voices of Indigenous Kids
by Deborah Ellis


Too often, media focus on the problems that First Nations people face whether it is poverty, alcoholism, family violence, drug abuse, or suicide. The long-term effects of residential schools, foster care, poor nutrition and environmental pollution continue to be felt, with solutions coming at a glacial pace. Deborah Ellis provides a much needed counterbalance in her conversations with Indigenous kids from Canada and the United States. They talk about their daily lives, about their dreams and interests, and how being Native affects their view of the world.

They speak frankly about broken families, racism, and brushes with the law, but also about dancing at powwows, competing at sports, seeking Native sanctuaries, and learning to be leaders. They have a better understanding of history than many people and have a firm understanding of the work they have to do. They are positive, optimistic, and hopeful about the future.

Enlightening and provocative, this is an important book. Highly recommended.

Residential school - Margaret's story

Sorrowful, yet uplifting, Margaret's story is one every Canadian should read.



Fatty Legs: A True Story
by Christy Jordan-Fenton & Margaret Pokiak-Fenton

Eight-year-old Olemaun longs to attend the outsiders' school so she can learn to read. Her father and sister, who know what the school is really like, try to dissuade her, but she insists. At the school, Olemaun's braids are cut off, her clothes taken away, and her name changed to Margaret. Then she's put to work cleaning floors and emptying waste buckets. But Margaret has a strong will, and finds a way to protest the cruel treatment. 

A Stranger At Home: A True Story
by Christy Jordan-Fenton & Margaret Pokiak-Fenton

After two years of school, Margaret eagerly waits to be reunited with her family. But she is unprepared for the pain to come. Her mother doesn't recognize her, repeatedly saying "Not my girl."  Not only is Margaret skinnier, taller, and has short hair, she can't speak her language and can't eat the food. Even her kamik (boots) give her blisters because she's now used to canvas runners. Teased by the other children and shunned by the adults, Margaret finds that she has more in common with the lone black man in the community. They're both strangers at home. 

Fortunately, Margaret's father, who had also been to residential school, helps her to regain the language and the customs. So it was difficult for him to ask her to return to the school with her sisters. He recognized that the world was changing, and they needed to learn or be left behind. Margaret knows that she can protect her sisters and help them retain the wisdom of their people.


Margaret's story is now accessible to younger readers with these picture book versions:

When I Was Eight

Not My Girl

The end of overeating

Hijacked: How Your Brain Is Fooled by Food
by David A. Kessler, MD


Sugar, fat, and salt. These are the ingredients that activate the brain's reward center. It makes you want to eat more. Food companies know this well. That's why they load up processed foods with lots of sugar, fat, and salt. Then they add chemical flavors to make foods hard to resist. It's not just food companies either. Restaurants turn food into entertainment, with supersized portions and fun-centered advertising. When food is fun, you don't realize how much you are eating. No wonder obesity is such a problem. 

Help is at hand with David Kessler's book. He explains what overeating is (when you feel you have to eat, even if you're not hungry), how the food industry targets you (with sugar, fat, and salt), and how you can stop overeating. The key, he says, is to retrain your brain to form new eating habits. And you can do it without dieting if you keep in mind how a food makes you feel after eating it.

Kessler knows that it won't be easy. It takes a lot of practice to break habits and retrain a brain. So he keeps his food rules simple. Combined with your own rules and a lot of persistence, overeating can be conquered.

A fast, easy read for teens and adults.

Lunch made interesting

The World in Your Lunch Box: The Wacky History and Weird Science of Everyday Foods
by Claire Eamer
art by Sa Boothroyd


Kids who complain about boring lunches need to take a look at this book. It'll entertain them with jokes, puns, and fun food facts about the popular foods they eat. Each chapter covers a different lunch menu, offering up amusing food history and scientific trivia for every ingredient. Kids will find out how burping yeast cells make bread slices fluffy, why watermelon is so juicy, what hot dogs are made from, and when mayonnaise was invented. They'll also learn the origins of foods like tomatoes, macaroni, pepper, and mustard.

The book's witty, light tone, vibrant page layouts, and quirky illustrations are very attractive, making for a very appetizing read.

Cooking made simple

Starting from Scratch: What You Should Know about Food and Cooking
by Sarah Elton


Food journalist Elton demystifies cooking in this informative, accessible book. She begins with taste and flavor before moving on to food - where it comes from and how different cuisines develop. She then explains the science of cooking and how temperature, salt, water, fat, and acids affect the taste, texture, and color of food. She ends with chapters on recipes, kitchen prep and cooking. 

With a few basic recipes for pasta sauce, lentil soup, granola, and oatmeal cookies, plus three different ways to cook carrots, Starting from Scratch is a great book that makes cooking simple and fun and inspires hungry kids (and adults!) to experiment in the kitchen.