Canadian Books

A day in the life of one of Canada’s most iconic animals, from nationally celebrated and bestselling creator Paul Covello 

 I am a beaver, and I do what beavers do.

Come along and spend the day with an adorable beaver kit! Can you chomp through a tree, swim in a stream and help your family build a lodge? You could, if you were a beaver!

This bright and joyful board book is perfect for young animal lovers and book lovers alike.

Ruby is curious about her world and has big ideas about how it works. A delightful picture book celebration of science and creativity, and a welcome companion to Sara O'Leary's beloved This Is Sadie.

Ruby is a little girl with a sense of curiosity and enthusiasm that's too big to contain! Ruby is always busy -- she loves to make things, watch things grow and figure out how things work, with her dog Teddy by her side. And Ruby has lots of ideas about what she wants to be: maybe an animal conservationist? Or an archaeologist? She's great at excavating (i.e. digging holes). Or maybe an inventor? She's already invented a book with smells instead of words (so dogs can read it) and a time machine (the dinosaurs did have feathers after all, and the future is looking wild). This is Ruby, and this is her world.

Esther the fairy is back, to investigate the water cycle! From the award-winning author of The Most Magnificent Thing, for fans of Ada Twist, Scientist and Hidden Figures.

Esther the fairy doesn't believe in magic. But fairies are all about magic, despite Esther's best efforts to reveal the science of their world. This time around, though, she's got her fairy pals Clover and Fig, along with trusty sidekick Albert the bird, to help create a more science-oriented entry for their school's "Magic Fair" -- Pixieville's magical answer to a science fair, which has never gone well for Esther before. When the local pond disappears, Esther realizes this might be the perfect opportunity for a real experiment! It's up to Esther and her fairymates to ask questions, make hypotheses, do research and show their conclusions -- this time, all about the water cycle. But when everyone Esther knows believes that Jack Frost is responsible for ice and that moon sneezes cause evaporation, she'll have to learn that sometimes discovery is its own reward.

Solid, Liquid, Gassy (A Fairy Science Story) is the second book in Ashley Spires' hilarious picture book series about a charming, determined heroine who celebrates the joys of curiosity and wonder.

The unbelievable true story of Canada’s first known spree killer, told by a veteran of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

In June 1966, Matthew Charles Lamb took his uncle’s shotgun and wandered down Ford Blvd in Windsor, Ontario. At the end of the bloody night, two teenagers lay dead, with multiple others injured after an unprovoked shooting spree. In his investigation into Lamb’s story, Will Toffan pieces together the troubled childhood and history of violence that culminated in the young man’s dubious distinction as Canada’s first known spree killer—at which point the story becomes, the author writes “too strange for fiction.” Travelling from the border city streets, to the courtroom, to the Oak Ridge rehabilitation centre, and finally Rhodesia, Watching the Devil Dance is both a thrilling narrative about a shocking true crime and its bizarre aftermath and an insightful analysis of the 1960s criminal justice system.

Team Canada is facing the United States in a must-win game at the Vancouver Olympics. The score is 2-1 for Canada, and then disaster strikes—with only 24 seconds left in the game, the US scores. The game is tied and goes into overtime. The team that scores the next goal will win the Olympic gold medal. Seven minutes into overtime, Sidney Crosby gets the puck and shoots . . .

Ideal for young hockey fans and future stars, this level-2 I Can Read book is perfect for children learning to sound out words and sentences.

A radically different approach to social and environmental justice work for fans of adrienne maree brown and Bessel van der Kolk

Instead of thinking about social justice as a process that starts with changing people's minds, Embodied Activism understands our bodies--how we feel in them and relate to others through them--as the sites of transformation

How do ordinary people with busy lives leverage our actions in support of liberation, justice, and authentic connection? How can activists and social change-makers avoid burning out? How does the body factor into what our social movements miss? 

Drawing on the somatic arts, trauma-informed psychology, and anti-oppressive movements, Embodied Activism helps us explore and transform the political realities of our everyday lives in a new way: by harnessing the felt experience of our bodies as the sites of our activism.

Rae Johnson teaches us to listen to our body language--and to question body image norms. They show us how to reconnect to our sensual capacities, which we can lose sight of in a non-stop, nervous-system-hijacking world. They give us tools and exercises to nourish ourselves and protect our bodies, minds, and spirits from the toll that activism can take. And they teach us about nonverbal communication styles and how to connect with each other in joyful, authentic community.

Embodied Activism is written for embodiment professionals, community organizers, and all readers looking for new tools and perspectives for changing the world, one body at a time.

Joel and Dana’s journey into preserving began with an innocent lesson in making jam. Almost a decade later, WellPreserved.ca is an extraordinary resource for both beginners and experts alike. Their much-anticipated first cookbook showcases seven different preserving techniques—waterbath canning, pressure canning, dehydrating, fermenting, cellaring, salting & smoking, and infusing—and takes readers on a trip to the market in twenty-five ingredients. Within each ingredient chapter, you’ll find multiple preserving recipes using the different methods. From apples, pears, peaches and rhubarb, to asparagus, peppers, mushrooms, and tomatoes, and covering a variety of meat and fish,  Batch teaches you everything you need to know to get the most out of your kitchen.

With their signature approachable and fun style, Joel and Dana showcase techniques for a variety of skill levels, explain how to batch your recipes to make two preserves at once, give you multiple options for preserving in ten minutes or less, and serve up mouthwatering center-of-the-plate meals that take your preserves from the pantry to the table. With personal anecdotes, creative and incredible recipes, and beautiful photography and illustrations, Batch will show you how to incorporate preserving into your life and your community.

Alma's beautiful, hairy world is turned upside down by the arrival of a stranger. From the utterly original imagination of the author-illustrator of Ooko comes a story about celebrating differences and making new friends. For fans of Where the Wild Things Are and Wild.

Alma lives happily in her hairy world, where she can braid the trees, comb the grass, pet the roof and feed her plumpooshkie butterfly. Until one day . . . a hairless, button-nosed beast appears in the garden! At first Alma is scared but when she realizes the beast is lost and misses her hairless home, Alma offers to help her find her way back. As the two take a fantastical journey through the red-headed woods and the bearded mushroom glen to the beast's bald abode, they discover that they are much more alike than different.

This quirky and charming story about friendship, empathy and perspective invites readers into a surreal, fantastical world that evokes Alice in Wonderland, Where the Wild Things Are and The Lorax.

Chock-full of peculiar puzzles, mind-bending mythbusters, and quirky questions, the fifth pop science book in the bestselling Science of Why series is perfect for anyone curious about the weird and wondrous world we live in.

Have you ever wondered if octopuses are from outer space? What Mexican jumping beans are? Or if banana peels are really slippery?

If questions like these are keeping you up at night, you can rest easy. Bestselling author Jay Ingram is here to answer all the whimsical and whacky wonderings that have baffled people since the dawn of time. From our bodies to our pets (and other beasts) to the natural world around us, Jay tackles science topics big and small, such as:

Did dinosaurs sit on their eggs?
What is our funny bone?
Is there a specific muscle that makes dogs cute?

Because who hasn’t pondered whether plants have feelings? Or if Robin Hood was a real person? Or what humans will look like in the future?

Teeming with amusing answers to bemusing questions—and handy and hilarious illustrations—this latest volume separates fact from fiction, lesson from legend, and myth from marvel. Endlessly illuminating and entertaining, The Science of Why, Volume 5 is five times the fun for new and old readers of the series.

About the Author:

Jay Ingram was the host of Discovery Channel Canada’s Daily Planet for sixteen years, and before that hosted CBC Radio’s national science show Quirks & Quarks. He has written eighteen books, including the five volumes in the mega-bestselling Science of Why series. His dog, Robbie, is very cute and sometimes annoying. Visit Jay at JayIngram.ca. Follow him on Twitter @JayIngram.