Craig Kielburger

Kevin Major

Here is the dramatic and moving story of one child's transformation from a normal, middle-class kid from the suburbs to an activist, fighting against child labor on the world stage of international human rights. Making headlines around the globe, Graig Keilburger and his organization, Free the Children, which he founded at the age of twelve, have brought unprecedented attention to the worldwide abuse of children's rights. Free the Childrenis a passionate and astounding story and a moving testament to the power that children and young adults have to change the world, as witnessed through the achievements of one remarkable young man.

A Young Man Fights Against Child Labor and Proves that Children Can Change the World

Free the Children

When Sebastian Synard leads a group of tourists along the cliffs of St. John's harbour, one of them ends up dead. Is there a heartless murderer in Sebastian's tour group? As a local police officer enlists him to help lush out the perpetrator, the mystery deepeds, and Sebastian finds himself on the edge.

One for the Rock

For three centuries after Europeans rediscovered it, Newfoundland was thought of as little more than "a great English Ship moored near the Banks during the Fishing Season."Labrador, dismissed as the "land God gave to Cain,"commanded no more respect. But for the people who made its coastline their home, including the Aboriginal peoples who first settled there 9000 years earlier, Newfoundland and Labrador was of considerably greater significance. In these people lie a fascinating history: Leif Eriksson, James Cook, Black Bart, Benedict Arnold, Brigitte Bardot, Mary Walsh, Joey Smallwood, Amelia Earhart, Shanawdithit, D'Iberville, Audubon and Marconi are but a dozen of the better known. The history of Newfoundland and Labrador is no genteel excursion. Scandal coexisted with extraordinary feats of courage; disaster with daring acts of the imagination. The ritual burial of a Maritime Archaic child several millennia ago, the Viking landings, the exploits of Basque whalers, centuries of military and religious strife, confederation with Canada and the collapse of the fisheries — all are brought to life by Kevin Major in exciting, vivid prose. As Near to Heaven by Sea was nominated for the 2001 Pearson Writers' Trust Non-Fiction Prize.

A History of Newfoundland and Labrador

As Near to Heaven by Sea

David Blackwood

Seventeen-year-old Ann Harvey is one of the great unsung heroes of maritime history. In 1828, off the Newfoundland fishing village of Isle aux Morts, Ann Harvey, her father and younger brother, came upon the wreck of the Despatch, an Irish immigrant ship originally destined for Quebec City. In thick fog and fierce wind it had run aground. Ann's courage and strength at the oars of the rescue boat were largely responsible for saving more than 160 dirt-poor passengers stranded amid the raging storm, left "like seabirds clinging to the rocks." Ann's courageous feat along the isolated south coast of Newfoundland has been all but forgotten. Ann and Seamus brings the remarkable story of Ann Harvey to today's readers. In a poetic and powerful retelling, Kevin Major portrays the shy young woman thrust into extraordinary circumstances. It is the story of dramatic rescue, but it is also the story of dreams and fate, of a hard life and young love. For also at its center is Seamus, a young Irishman who had set sail with hopes of a new life in America. Ann and Seamus is historical fiction that sweeps across ages and nationalities. In rich yet accessible narrative verse, it draws the reader into the drama of sea rescue without losing the tender and impetuous voices of youth at the core of the story.

Ann and Seamus

House of Wooden Santas (Northern Lights Books for Children)

Bruce Roberts

Anna's Great-great Aunt Olga saves old Christmas postcards and shares them with Anna one day, as she teaches her how to write Christmas poems.

Aunt Olga's Christmas Postcards

Faced with instability on many sides, and living in an outport community in Newfoundland, fifteen-year-old Chris gropes for direction in a family broken apart by unemployment. Even his easy-going, humorous attitude fails to steady him as he stumbles through the summer after grade ten. He's failed his year, he can't find a summer job, and he's incredibly bored. So the first thing he heads for is trouble -- trouble that ends in a confrontation with the law. Work as a counselor at a summer camp offers the challenge of a fresh start, but it is here, amid new responsibilities, that he encounters his toughest test as a young man. Winner of the first Canadian Young Adult Book Award and named a Best Book of the Year by School Library Journal, Far from Shore was hailed as a unique and innovative novel when it was first published. As he has done throughout his career, Kevin Major broke new ground by tackling a multinarrative structure in a young adult novel -- an approach much imitated since but never more convincingly.

Far From Shore

This is the story of Diana, in her own words. NottheDiana, but a spirited girl of eleven living in St. John's, Newfoundland. She was born near the time of the famous royal wedding, so her parents named her Diana, and she has been obsessed with royalty ever since. During the summer of 1992 her reading of Andrew Morton's first book about Princess Diana leads our Diana to start her own autobiography. Although she fantasizes about marrying a prince, Diana has to deal with the reality of everyday life. The one bright spot is the boy from England who moves in up the street for the summer. His biggish ears are no deterrent to Diana falling hopelessly in love, with heartbreakingly funny results.

Kevin Major

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