Carol Matas

Isobel thinks that she and her family will find their fortune in Canada. But Isobel's mother dies before they even cross the ocean, and other misfortunes follow their every step. Isobel's family and the other Selkirk Settlers are caught in the fur-trading rivalry between the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company and cannot even start to build when they do reach their destination. The harsh climate, and escalating threats against the settlers, make it impossible to start a new life. Only through perserverance and help from the local Cree band are Isobel and her family finally able to put down roots in the Red River Valley. Vetted by historical experts, each book in this series contains maps, numerous period illustrations, and an extensive historical note.

The Red River Diary of Isobel Scott

Footsteps in the Snow

Daniel, whose family suffers as the Nazis rise to power in Germany, describes his imprisonment in a concentration camp and his eventual liberation.

Daniel's Story

Perry Nodelman

Follows the adventures of two royal teenaagers who possess extraordinary mental powers.

Of Two Minds

This dramatic story tells of 11-year-old Devorah's efforts to help her cousin and pen pal Sarah emigrate from Paris before the Nazis deport the Jews to internment camps. Devorah learns that 5,000 Jewish children in France have visas to leave the country, but the Canadian government will not let them in, leading Devorah to desperately lobby the government to change its policies. Turned Away illustrates the restrictions on the life of Jews in Paris via letters from Sarah who is living in German-occupied France. It also reveals Canada's dismal record on Jewish immigration during World War II and depicts the impact of the war in Canada. In Winnipeg, one intriguing response to the war was "If Day," when local people posed as Nazis and staged a mock invasion to illustrate what it would be like if the city was occupied. Also included are fascinating period documents and photographs, many from the Holocaust Memorial Museum. The historical consultants for Turned Away were Dr. Irving Abella, co-author of the ground-breaking book None is Too Many, and Terry Copp, author of the remarkable book No Price Too High.

The World War II Diary of Devorah Bernstein

Turned Away

A young Jewish girl recounts her experiences during a horrifying time in recent history. As Rose begins her diary, she is in her third home since coming to Winnipeg. Traumatized by her experiences in the Holocaust, she struggles to connect with others, and above all, to trust again. When her new guardian, Saul, tries to get Rose to deal with what happened to her during the war, she begins writing in her diary about how she survived the murder of the Jews in Poland by going into hiding. Memories of herself and her mother being taken in by those willing to risk sheltering Jews, moving from place to place, being constantly on the run to escape capture, begin to flood her diary pages. Recalling those harrowing days, includingwhen they stumbled on a resistance cell deep in the forest and lived underground in filthy conditions, begins to take its toll on Rose. As she delves deeper into her past, she is haunted by the most terrifying memory of all. Will she find the courage to bear witness to her mother's ultimate sacrifice?

The Holocaust Diary of Rose Rabinowitz

Pieces of the Past

After being released from Buchenwald at the end of World War II, fifteen-year-old Ruth risks her life to lead a group of children across Europe to Palestine.

After the War

A Novel of the Civil War

The War Within

"The only child of wealthy parents, Miranda discovers that she has a deadly disease and that her parents have cloned her to create 'spare parts.' Gripping science fiction by the acclaimed author" Cf. Our choice, 1999-2000.

Cloning Miranda

Trouble comes to the kingdom of Gepeth in the form of a flying giant, the appearance of forbidden snow, a tornado, and the loss of Princess Lenora's extraordinary mental powers.

More Minds

Rebecca learned at a young age how important it is to be liked, when her family left Russia to settle in Hirsch, Saskatchewan, a mostly Jewish community. But Rebecca's close-knit extended family returns from her triumph on-stage at an amateur night to find their home in flames. With everything they own destroyed, the family is devastated and penniless. They move to Winnipeg, where Rebecca's father struggles to find work, and where all the family members try to adjust to life in a big city. Rebecca is sent to live with a non-Jewish family until her parents get settled. There, she learns the true meaning of bravery, loyalty, and friendship. As she struggles to re-unite her family, Rebecca bridges the distance between the old world and the new, between her family's traditional immigrant values and the opportunities of the modern world.

Rebecca

SWORN ENEMIES (Laurel-Leaf Books)

When German soldiers arrive in Zloczow during World War II, a young Jewish girl must decide whether or not to conceal her identity and work for a Nazi in Germany in order to survive.

In My Enemy's House

Sarah Ellis

Jean Little

Barbara Haworth-Attard

Karleen Bradford

Norah McClintock

Ruby Slipperjack

Janet McNaughton

Susan M. Aihoshi

Featuring stories from nine outstanding Canadian authors, this anthology is the perfect Christmas gift for Dear Canada readers, both old and new! A Time for Giving includes ten tales of Christmas, following the most recent Dear Canada diarists "the Christmas after" their diary ends. Johanna Leary is reunited with her brother after they were separated at Grosse-Île; Mary Kobayashi spends a second Christmas at a Japanese internment camp; Rose Rabinowitz finds some surprising challenges in her new country, and many more! A Special Gift is a story from Ojibwe writer Ruby Slipperjack to preview her upcoming Dear Canada (coming in Fall 2016!), set the winter before the diarist is sent to Residential School. Contributors include Jean Little (Exiles from the War and All Fall Down), Barbara Haworth- Attard (To Stand on My Own), Sarah Ellis (That Fatal Night), Susan Aihoshi (Torn Apart), Norah McClintock (A Sea of Sorrows), Karleen Bradford (A Country of Our Own), Janet McNaughton (Flame and Ashes), Carol Matas (Pieces of the Past), and Ruby Slipperjack.

Dear Canada: A Time for Giving: Ten Tales of Christmas

Anna, a teenaged German refugee, relates how she and other Jewish children were cared for by the citizens of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, France, during the German occupation.

Greater Than Angels

Out Of Their Minds

Of Two Minds (Point Fantasy)

A young Jewish boy recalls life in Hitler's Germany. Although Daniel is a fictitious character, his story was inspired by the real experiences of many of the more than one million children who died in the Holocaust.

A young WWII gunner from the Prairies sees the horrors of war firsthand when he is captured by the Gestapo. Eighteen-year-old Sam Frederiksen has come a long way from the Prairies. Trained to be a gunner in a Lancaster bomber during WWII, he is shot down over France. Battered and bruised, he does survive, and joins forces with the French Resistance... only to be betrayed by one of its members. He and other flyers from various Allied countries are rounded up by the Gestapo and held in Fresnes prison just outside of Paris. Treated as spies, rather than POWs, these men are beaten, some tortured - then sent to Buchenwald Concentration Camp in eastern Germany. It is here, in these wretched conditions, that Sam witnesses the darkest side of humanity - gas chambers, torture and starvation. Yet it is also here that he comes to understand the true resilience and unfathomable courage of the victims. Author Carol Matas has won numerous awards for her previous novels about the Holocaust. Behind Enemy Lines is partially based on a true incident from WWII, in which 168 Allied airmen were captured and sent to Buchenwald. Twenty-six of these men were Canadian.

World War II

Behind Enemy Lines

I survived. Protected by the Nazis that killed my family. Could I ever forgive myself? Award-winning novelist Carol Matas brings readers into the heart of Nazi Germany with the harrowing story of Marisa, a Polish Jew whose blond hair and blue eyes make it easy for her to pass as a Christian. With the Nazis ready to herd the remaining Jews of her town into a ghetto, and with her family either scattered or dead, Marisa takes the papers of a Polish girl and goes to Germany in a desperate attempt to survive as a Polish worker. Marisa finds work as a servant for the Reymanns, a German family that treats her with respect. But she must never forget that Herr Reymann is a high-ranking Nazi. Marisa is hiding in plain sight in her enemy's house. This unflinching account of Marisa's dilemma as a Jew living a lie in order to survive will give readers a new perspective on the nature of good and evil, even as it touches their hearts.

Carol Matas

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