Novel and Text Sets in the CurrLab

25 copies. Graphic Novel) Explore the past 150 years through the eyes of Indigenous creators in this groundbreaking graphic novel anthology. Beautifully illustrated, these stories are an emotional and enlightening journey through Indigenous wonder works, psychic battles, and time travel. See how Indigenous peoples have survived a post-apocalyptic world since Contact. (287 pages)

(2 sets of 15 copies of Graphic novel, 1 teacher's guide) Echo Desjardins is adjusting to her new home, finding friends, and learning about Métis history. She just can't stop slipping back and forth in time. One ordinary afternoon in class, Echo finds herself transported to the banks of the Red River in the summer of 1869. All is not well in the territory as Canadian surveyors have arrived to change the face of territory, and Métis families, who have lived there for generations, are losing access to their land. As the Resistance takes hold, Echo fears for her friends and the future of her people in the Red River Valley. (47 pages)

(2 sets of15 copies of Novel) Morgan and Eli, two Indigenous children forced away from their families and communities, are brought together in a foster home in Winnipeg, Manitoba. They each feel disconnected, from their culture and each other, and struggle to fit in at school and at their new home - until they find a secret place, walled off in an unfinished attic bedroom. A portal opens to another reality, Ask­, bringing them onto frozen, barren grounds, where they meet Ochek (Fisher). The only hunter supporting his starving community, Misewa, Ochek welcomes the human children, teaching them traditional ways to survive. (247 pages)

(2 sets of 14 copies of Novel) "Get ready--a little ink blot is about to become your new best friend The Rylance family is stuck. Dad's got writer's block. Ethan promised to illustrate a group project at school--even though he can't draw. Sarah's still pining for a puppy. And they all miss Mom so much more than they can say. Enter Inkling. Inkling begins life in Mr. Rylance's sketchbook. Then one night the ink of his drawings runs together--and leaps off the page! This small burst of creativity is about to change everything. Ethan finds him first. Inkling has absorbed a couple of chapters of his math book--not good--and the story he's supposed to be illustrating for school--also not good. But Inkling's also started drawing the pictures to go with Ethan's story, which is amazing! It's just the help Ethan was looking for! Inkling helps the rest of the family too. For Sarah he's a puppy. And for Dad he's a spark of ideas for a new graphic novel. It's exactly what they all wanted. It's not until Inkling goes missing that this family is forced to face the larger questions of what they--and Inkling--truly need. With this book, Kenneth Oppel has given us a small masterpiece of middle-grade fiction. Inkling is funny and fizzy and exciting, and it brims with the kind of interesting ideas and dilemmas that kids will love to wrestle with. And Sydney Smith has created wonderfully inky illustrations to bring the story to vivid life."-- "Meet Ethan's new best friend. He's a gorilla. He's a mutant alien superhero He's a puppy. He's whatever he wants to be, because he's made entirely of ink. From the moment Inkling drags himself free from the pages of a sketchbook, he is on a mission: to teach Ethan how to draw, to help Ethan's artist dad get working again -- and to try to fix something inside Ethan's house and heart." (256 pages)

(5 copies Novel) "When twelve-year-old William Alton and his father sail from England for new opportunities on the Empress of Ireland, they leave behind the graves of his mother and baby sister. Will only hopes they will leave death and disease behind them, too. But a shipmate's baby falls ill and is forced into quarantine on Grosse Ile, and when they finally arrive in Hamilton - their new home - they discover that Will's Uncle Charlie is in the hospital. Why must everyone around him get sick and die? A competition at Will's new school offers an answer...and a challenge. In 1912, cities around the world declare war on the fly, blaming it for the spread of the diseases - summer complaint, typhus, consumption and typhoid - that are wiping out families. To avenge his mother and his sister, Will throws himself into the local fly-killing contest. Along the way, he makes enemies and friends: Fred Aitken, the wealthy classmate who hates losing; Fred's admirer, Ginny Malone, who often must skip school to look after sick siblings; and Rebecca, a doctor's daughter who hates poor sportsmanship worse than poverty and disease." (223 pages)

(5 copies Novel) With their father gone to America to make money for his family, Libertad, his little brother Julio and their mother scrape a living out of a dump in Guatemala City. Although it is too late for him, Libertad is determined that his little brother should go to school. Taught to play the marimba by his father, Libertad uses his talent as a street musician to raise enough money for his brother's school supplies. But his dreams for their future are destroyed when their mother is killed in a freak accident. Libertad must face the inevitable truth; they cannot survive on the streets of Guatemala City alone. There is only one thing to do. They must set out on the long and lonely journey to the Rio Grande River, where they plan to cross the water and enter the United States to find their father. A moving story about determination and hope, Libertad is a stunning free verse novel by the author of In the Garage and Walking on Glass.(215 pages)

(5 copies. Novel) "A person doesn't have to do anything important to get recognition anymore; it's enough to know someone who does. Parasitic fame. Casey was more than just a dependable camp counselor dedicated to her little buddies in Cabin Three. She was a brilliant student looking forward to a scholarship and a future career in entomology. Casey wasn't the kind of girl who would be stuck in a town like Galloway the rest of her life. She was really going places. And nobody knew this better than Jess, Casey's best friend. So how could a girl like Casey be arrested for the murder of a young camper under her care... Jess believes her friend is innocent and that the real killer will be caught; but in the meantime, she finds herself the reluctant center of attention. After all, she was also a counselor in Cabin Three. Jess must know something...right? Readers will readily sympathize with Jess, whose life begins to spin out of control." (229 pages)

(28 copies- Graphic Novel) In Kansas in the year 1937, eleven-year-old Jack Clark faces his share of ordinary challenges: local bullies, his father's failed expectations, a little sister with an eye for trouble. But he also has to deal with the effects of the Dust Bowl, including rising tensions in his small town and the spread of a shadowy illness. Certainly a case of "dust dementia" would explain who (or what) Jack has glimpsed in the Talbot's abandoned barn -- a sinister figure with a face like rain. In a land where it never rains, it's hard to trust what you see with your own eyes -- and harder still to take heart and be a hero when the time comes. With phenomenal pacing, sensitivity, and a sure command of suspense, Matt Phelan ushers us into a world where desperation is transformed by unexpected courage.(201

(5 copies. Novel) "Take a dash of colorful characters, a pinch of danger, and generous scoops of adventure and you have a terrific culinary mystery for young readers. Five cousins are looking forward to their annual vacation at their grandmother’s cottage. None of them knows that this may be their last such summer. A mining company has set its sights on the land and is determined to seize it. Grandma must produce the deed to prove that the property is really hers, but her memory is not what it used to be, and she can’t find it. The children suspect there may be clues to the deed’s whereabouts somewhere in the family’s cherished trove of recipes. But can they solve the mystery in time? Adult mystery buffs have had many culinary mysteries to choose from. Ellen Schwartz introduces her young readers to a delicious genre. She even provides easy-to-follow and yummy to eat recipes." (189 pages)

(5 copies Novel) It is 1965, and 12-year-old Emaline, living on a wheat farm, must deal with a family that is falling apart. When her dog, Prince, chases a hare into the path of the tractor, she chases after him, and her father accidentally runs over her leg with the machine, leaving her with a long convalescence and a permanent disability. Even worse, from Emaline’s point of view, is that in his grief and guilt, her father shoots Prince and leaves Emaline and her mother on their own. Despite the neighbors’ disapproval, Emaline’s mother hires Angus, a patient from the local mental hospital, to work their fields. Angus is a red-haired giant whom the local children tease and call "the gorilla." Though the small town’s prejudice creates a cloud of suspicion around Angus that nearly results in tragedy, he just may hold the key to Emaline's coming to grips with her injury and the loss of her father. (214 pages)

(5 copies- Novel) "There's not much that upsets young Valli. Even though her days are spent picking coal and fighting with her cousins, life in the coal town of Jharia, India, is the only life she knows. The only sight that fills her with terror are the monsters who live on the other side of the train tracks -- the lepers. Valli and the other children throw stones at them. No matter how hard her life is, she tells herself, at least she will never be one of them. Then she discovers that she is not living with family after all, that her "aunt" was a stranger who was paid money to take Valli off her own family's hands. She decides to leave Jharia and so begins a series of adventures that takes her to Kolkata, the city of the gods. It's not so bad. Valli finds that she really doesn't need much to live. She can "borrow" the things she needs and then pass them on to people who need them more than she does. It helps that though her bare feet become raw wounds as she makes her way around the city, she somehow feels no pain. But when she happens to meet a doctor on the ghats by the river, Valli learns that she has leprosy. Despite being given a chance to receive medical care, she cannot bear the thought that she is one of those monsters she has always feared, and she flees, to an uncertain life on the street." (159 pages)

(6 copies. Novel) "Submarine Outlaw takes young adult readers on a unique journey when Alfred, a young boy who wants to be an explorer - not a fisherman, as his family demands - teams up with a junkyard genius to build a submarine that he sails around the Maritimes. The book takes the reader through the hands-on process of submarine construction into the world of real ocean navigation, replete with a high-seas chase, daring rescue and treasure hunting. Children will identify with Alfred's desire for an adventurous life and the sense of empowerment that comes with building his own submarine and operating it independently. They will also love the unusual crew - a rescued dog and a quirky seagull. The First Prize Winner of the Atlantic Writers Competition, Submarine Outlaw shows how any great goal in life takes a good deal of patience, determination and hard work. But also how hard work on one's dream becomes an act of joy." (251 pages)

(28 copies- Graphic novel) In this wordless graphic novel, a man leaves his homeland and sets off for a new country, where he must build a new life for himself and his family. (128 pages)

(6 copies. Novel) "Sometimes even shamans get cranky. That was baby Wolverine’s misfortune—to be cursed by an out-of-sorts shaman frustrated by his own baby daughter’s incessant crying. Not only has shaman Paaliaq forbidden the future marriage of Wolverine to Breath, Paaliaq’s beautiful but teary baby girl, he has cursed Wolverine, banishing him when he becomes a young man. And even when a contrite Paaliaq later revokes the curse, the shaman’s even crankier magic animal will not. Now Wolverine finds himself stranded on a barren island, locked in a life-or-death struggle to return to his home, his family and a very special young girl. Michael Kusugak, consummate storyteller and bestselling author, conjures up an Inuit tale of adventure, perseverance and first-time love shot through with humanity and humour. This is a story perfect for its pre-teen and ’tween audience, where even the strong and the mighty have bad days, the bully gets his due and a dream can come true." (157 pages)

(7 copies) "SET IN AN IMAGINARY PAST where giant airships rule the skies, Airborn is the story of Matt Cruse, the 15-year-old cabin boy of the 900-foot luxury airship Aurora. Hundreds of feet over the Pacificus Ocean, Matt fearlessly performs a dramatic rescue to save an old man from his crippled hot-air balloon. Before he dies, the stranger tells Matt about the fantastic, impossible creatures he has seen flying through the clouds. Matt dismisses the story as the ravings of a dying man, but when a beautiful, bold girl arrives on the Aurora a year later, determined to prove the story true, Matt finds himself caught up in her quest. But can he and Kate solve the mystery before pirates, shipwreck and frightening predators end their voyage forever? (321 pages)

(5 copies Novel) "Sometimes it's good to take a risk." Twelve-year-old Jolene knows that her grandfather's words are true, but she's not a risk-taker like her twin brother. Frustrated, Jolene convinces herself that it would be easier to take risks if she were a boy. Her grandfather disagrees, but then her father thinks her grandfather might be as crazy as his old stories. For her part, Jolene thinks her father, who's trying to preserve history in a Museum of Disasters, is the crazy one.Jolene learns the truth when they take a trip to the Crowsnest Pass to research the Frank Slide, and she discovers that her grandfather has found a way to step back into time. In 1903, disguised as a boy, Jolene must face the wrath of an impatient teacher, challenge her ability as a gymnast, and disentangle herself from an embarrassing love triangle. She must also face the fact that the generous people of the town of Frank are living in the path of disaster and she cannot save them.She can, however, save herself and her grandfather and does so in a desperate race against time. But the lessons of the past are not lost in the present. Jolene discovers a way to revitalize her father's museum by preserving the story in history, and she prepares herself to take a few risks herself - as a girl. An historical novel for readers age nine and up, Shadows of Disaster brings to life Canada's deadliest rockslide through a portrait of a young girl learning to be her own self. (191 pages)

(5 copies. Novel) "Burl Crow hasn't had many breaks in his young life. His father is a manipulative lout with a dangerous temper; his mother, worn down by years of abuse, now resorts to her little helpers to get her through the days. Then he meets Nathaniel Orlando Gow, the Maestro, and in just one day, this eccentric genius changes Burl's life forever." (223 pages)

(6 copies. Novel) Tree-ear, a thirteen-year-old orphan in medieval Korea, lives under a bridge in a potters' village, and longs to learn how to throw the delicate celadon ceramics himself. (152 pages)

(5 books) A Newbery Honor Book, a Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Honor Book, an ALA Notable Book, and winner of the Mr. Christie's Book Award and Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Award Eleven-year-old Primrose is having a difficult time. Her parents have been lost at sea, but she knows -- somewhere, deep inside herself -- that they are still alive. While she waits for them to return, she must move in with her Uncle Jack. He's not exactly the most friendly guy, so Primrose finds comfort at the local restaurant called The Girl on the Red Swing. The owner, Kate, serves everything on a waffle, even fish and pasta. But despite her quirkiness, she becomes a wonderful friend to Primrose, teaching her how to cook, listening to her problems and giving her sage advice. Through a mixture of eccentric humor and probing philosophy, Polly Horvath makes Primrose's search for peace and understanding a most memorable one. Recipes included! (179 pages)