Novels

Playing ball is what keeps Podium Sports Academy's basketball captain going when things get rough. When there's trouble back home, Allie turns to basketball. Ditto when her relationship is in trouble or when she's at odds with her friends. But then tragedy strikes when an old knee injury resurfaces and Allie is told she might not be able to play again. With her hope of a future as an elite basketball player gone, Allie is overwhelmed with dark thoughts and feels she has nothing left to live for. That is, until unexpected support comes from two unlikely sources: her folks back home and her friends at Podium, her home away from home.

Reviews
"I'm really impressed with the writing and character development. Dialogue is realistic, and the pacing is exciting. Will be recommending more from the Podium series." — Jaime Tong, Educator at Vancouver School Board

"Allie leads a cast of well-drawn, multicultural characters, some of whom have starred in other Podium books, giving a cohesive feel to this fictional high school. The action flows naturally, alternating between scenes of intense basketball action, solitary angst, and hanging with friends. Readers will identify with Allie’s struggles and second-guess her choices, making this a valuable and worthwhile read for all teens -- elite athletes or not. Gripping, relatable and fast-paced, these books will appeal to a wide-ranging audience, particularly to teens reading below age level."— Penny Draper, National Reading Campaign

"Hoop Dreams is the perfect book for my students who need a short novel to get them engaged in reading again."— Melissa S., Educator, NetGalley Reviewer

Educator & Series Information
The Podium Sports Academy series follows the lives of super-jocks at an elite high school as they train for a future in pro sports.

Interest age: From 13 To 18
Fry Reading Level [grade]: 2.9
Lexile Reading Level: HL550L

Additional Information
136 pages | 5.50" x 8.50"

Lightfinder is a Young Adult fantasy novel about Aisling, a young Cree woman who sets out into the wilderness with her Kokum (grandmother), Aunty and two young men she barely knows.

They have to find and rescue her runaway younger brother, Eric. Along the way she learns that the legends of her people might be real and that she has a growing power of her own. The story follows the paths of Aisling and Eric, siblings unwittingly thrust into a millennia-old struggle for the future of life on earth. It deals with growing up, love and loss, and the choices life puts in our path. Love and confusion are in store, as are loss and pain. Things are not always what they seem and danger surrounds them at every turn. Will Raven's mysterious purposes prevail? With darkness closing in how will they find the light to guide them? Will Aisling find Eric in time?

Set in the Alberta landscape with references to real-world challenges faced by youth today, Lightfinder has proven to be a hit with young adults and adults alike. Lightfinder spent over 60 days in Amazon's Top 100 Sci-Fi and Fantasy novels in 2014.

Awards

• Winner of the 2015 Burt Award for First Nations, Métis and Inuit Literature!

Reviews
"With an artist's eye and a storyteller's soaring imagination, Aaron Paquette has written a page-turner. I found myself rooting hard for Aisling, Eric and their beloved Kokum. This book is a hugely engaging cautionary tale: the stakes are high if we keep giving in to our appetites. But there is great light in Lightfinder. Congratulations, Aaron, on this strong debut." - Shelagh Rogers 

Educator Information
Recommended Ages: 11-18

Additional Information
240 pages | 6.00" x 9.00"

Inspired by the traditional Choctaw story "No Name," this modern adaptation features a present-day Choctaw teenager surviving tough family times--his mother splits, leaving him with a mean-spirited, abusive father. The one place the teen can find peace is on the neighborhood basketball court. But after a violent confrontation with his father, the teen runs away, only to return home to find an unexpected hiding spot in his own backyard. His hiding spot becomes his home for weeks, until the help and encouragement of a basketball coach, a Cherokee buddy, and a quiet next-door girlfriend help him to face his father.

Educator & Series Information
Reading Level: 4.0

This is the first book in the No Name series, which is part of the PathFinders series. The PathFinders series of Hi-Lo (high interest, low readability) novels offers the following features: 

• Indigenous teen protagonists
• Age appropriate plots
• 2.5 – 4.5 Reading Level
• Contemporary and historical fiction
• Indigenous authors

The PathFinders series is from an American publisher. Therefore, Indigenous terminology in the PathFinders books is not the same as Canadian Indigenous terminology. This prompts a useful teaching moment for educators in discussing appropriate terminology use in Canada.  The recommended ages for books in the PathFinders series are 12-16.

Additional Information
168 pages | 4.50" x 7.00"

Fifteen-year-old Mark Centeno is of Chumash, Crow, Mexican, and Filipino ancestry - he calls himself "four kinds of brown." When Mark goes to live with his Chumash grandmother on the reservation in central California, he discovers a rich world of family history and culture that he knows very little about. He also finds a pathway to better understanding a part of his own identity: the world of powwow dancing. Riveted by the traditional dancers and feeling the magnetic pull of the drums, Mark begins the training and other preparations necessary for him to compete as a dancer in one of America's largest powwows. Like all of our PathFinders novels for reluctant teen readers, this contemporary story is by a Native American author, features a linear plot, and is written at a 4.0 to 4.5 reading level.

Educator & Series Information
Reading Level: 4.0

This book is part of the PathFinders series. The PathFinders series of Hi-Lo (high interest, low readability) novels offers the following features:

• Indigenous teen protagonists
• Age appropriate plots
• 2.5 – 4.5 Reading Level
• Contemporary and historical fiction
• Indigenous authors

The PathFinders series is from an American publisher. Therefore, Indigenous terminology in the PathFinders books is not the same as Canadian Indigenous terminology. This prompts a useful teaching moment for educators in discussing appropriate terminology use in Canada.

Recommended ages: 12-16

Additional Information

This teacher’s guide is designed to help classroom teachers use the graphic novel series, Tales From Big Spirit, by David A. Robertson. The guide provides detailed lessons that meet a wide range of language arts and social studies goals, integrate Indigenous perspectives, and make curricular content more accessible to diverse learners. It is organized into three sections.

The first section includes:

• general instructional ideas for deepening readers’ comprehension of text.
• a framework to further develop students’ thinking about history.
• information about aspects of graphic novels and how to use them in the classroom.

The second section includes:

• specific instructional ideas and suggestions.
• an overview.
• detailed teaching and learning sequences (before-, during-, and after-reading format).

The appendix includes:

• strategies and reproducible classroom materials that support and stimulate student learning.
• historical images that may be reproduced.

Additional Information
74 pages | 8.50" x 11.00"

This is Thomas King’s first literary novel in fifteen years and follows on the success of the award-winning and bestselling The Inconvenient Indian and his beloved Green Grass, Running Water and Truth and Bright Water, both of which continue to be taught in Canadian schools and universities. Green Grass, Running Water is widely considered a contemporary Canadian classic.

In The Back of the Turtle, Gabriel returns to Smoke River, the reserve where his mother grew up and to which she returned with Gabriel’s sister. The reserve is deserted after an environmental disaster killed the population, including Gabriel’s family and the local wildlife. Gabriel, a brilliant scientist working for Domidion, created GreenSweep and indirectly led to the crisis. Now he has come to see the damage and to kill himself in the sea. But as he prepares to let the water take him, he sees a young girl in the waves. Plunging in, he saves her and soon is saving others. Who are these people with their long black hair and almond eyes who have fallen from the sky?

Filled with brilliant characters, trademark wit, wordplay and a thorough knowledge of native myth and storytelling, this novel is a masterpiece by one of our most important writers.

Reviews
“Gracefully written, this is a fable-like morality tale. With King’s trademark flashes of humour, irony and deadpan delivery, The Back of the Turtle is populated with wounded characters who are trying to heal in the wake of an environmental disaster.” — Toronto Star

“King’s writing is sharp, the characters are well-drawn, and his topic is suitably grave.” — National Post

"King deftly juxtaposes the varieties of Canadian experience, contrasting the shining city with diminishing coastal town, the lives of the uber-wealthy with those of aboriginal Canadians, whose lives seem to count for very little when there is a profit to be made. King uses his trademark blending of traditional aboriginal beliefs and stories with the Western literary canon to create a haunting narrative of life, death and the destruction of nature. Allusions abound, incorporated into the story with King's often absurdist wit, walking a fine line between humor and heartbreak. The result is both an intimate story of grief in the face of loved ones lost and a searing criticism of current apathy toward looming environmental disasters." - Publisher's Weekly

Educator Information
Grades 11-12 English First Peoples resource for the unit "You Want Me to Write a What?" - The Literary Essay.

Additional Information
528 pages | 5.31" x 8.00"

When a mishap delays Jessie at the end of a school day, she takes a shortcut home. But the shortcut turns into an adventure, as Jessie is transported through time and space, to early 19th-century Newfoundland. There she meets Shawnadithit who, as the last surviving member of the Beothuk, has witnessed the end of a once-great people.

Educator & Series Information
Tales from Big Spirit is a unique graphic novel series that delves into the stories of great Indigenous heroes from Canadian history—some already well known and others who deserve to be. Designed to correspond to grades 4–6 social studies curriculums across Canada, these full colour graphic novels could be used in literature circles, novel studies, and book clubs to facilitate discussion of social studies topics. These books will help students make historical connections while promoting important literacy skills.

Grades 4-6

A Teacher's Guide is also available for the Tales from the Big Spirit Series: Tales from the Big Spirit Series Teacher's Guide 

The teacher's guide is designed to help classroom teachers use the graphic novel series, Tales From Big Spirit, by David Alexander Robertson. The guide provides detailed lessons that meet a wide range of language arts and social studies goals, integrate Indigenous perspectives, and make curricular content more accessible to diverse learners.

This resource is also available in French: D'hier à aujourd'hui, L’héritage de Nancy April : Shawnadithit

Additional Information
30 pages | 6.50" x 10.00"

This haunting, emotionally resonant story delivers us into the world of Alice, a single mother raising her three young daughters on the rez where she grew up. Alice has never had an easy life, but has managed to get by with the support of her best friend, Gideon, and her family. When an unthinkable loss occurs, Alice is forced onto a different path, one that will challenge her belief in herself and the world she thought she knew. The Evolution of Alice is the kaleidoscopic story of one woman’s place within the web of community. Peopled with unforgettable characters and told from multiple points of view, this is a novel where spirits are alive, forgiveness is possible, and love is the only thing that matters.

Reviews
"So many Manitobans have, like a character in an early chapter, only sped by reserves on the highway. Inviting us into a rich community of characters, which stretches deeper than the headlines most of us associate with reserve life, Robertson is doing a service to everyone who calls Manitoba home. And crafting an engaging story of one family’s recovery from loss — at a time when indigenous peoples are increasingly flexing political, economic and cultural muscle in this country — is a gift for everyone hoping for a better future for our divided country…" - Matthew TenBruggencate, CTV Winnipeg

"Pulsing at the heart of this novel are the warmly rendered inflections of storytelling voices like Gideon’s, at once reflective, vivid, and vernacular. And at the novel’s core, the broken but ultimately healing rhythms of Alice’s 'evolution' – her cycles of loving and suffering, of her family’s living, dying, and ultimately hoping to live anew — bring contemporary experience on the reservation and in the big city achingly, joyfully, and always pungently alive." - Neil Besner, Professor of English, Provost and Vice-President, Academic, The University of Winnipeg

Educator Information
Grades 10-12 English First Peoples.

This 2nd edition has been reissued with a new story by David A. Robertson and foreword by Shelagh Rogers.

Additional Information
216 pages | 5.50" x 8.50" | 2nd Edition

When Richard’s class from Big Spirit School takes a canoe trip, he and his classmates chance upon an elderly woman. She tells them the story of her grandfather, John Ramsay, of the Sandy Bar community on Lake Winnipeg. Ramsay’s land was taken by the government and given to the new settlers from Iceland who arrived there in 1875. Yet many owed their survival to Ramsay, who helped them through freezing winters, hunger, and a devastating smallpox epidemic.

Educator & Series Information
The Land of Os is one book in the Tales From Big Spirit series. Tales from Big Spirit is a unique graphic novel series that delves into the stories of great Indigenous heroes from Canadian history—some already well known and others who deserve to be. Designed to correspond to grades 4–6 social studies curriculums across Canada, these full colour graphic novels could be used in literature circles, novel studies, and book clubs to facilitate discussion of social studies topics. These books will help students make historical connections while promoting important literacy skills.

A Teacher's Guide is also available for the Tales from the Big Spirit Series: Tales from the Big Spirit Series Teacher's Guide. The teacher's guide is designed to help classroom teachers use the graphic novel series, Tales From Big Spirit, by David Alexander Robertson. The guide provides detailed lessons that meet a wide range of language arts and social studies goals, integrate Indigenous perspectives, and make curricular content more accessible to diverse learners.

This resources is also available in French: D'hier à aujourd'hui, Le protecteur d’Ós : John Ramsay

Additional Information
30 pages | 6.50" x 10.00"

When Cole's teacher catches him drawing rather than listening in class, he gives Cole a special assignment: an oral presentation on an important Aboriginal figure. Cole will do almost anything to avoid speaking in public -- even feigning illness. But when he hear the story of the remarkable woman known as Thanadelthur -- peacemaker between the Cree and the Dene and interpreter for the governor of Fort York -- he is so inspired by her bravery, he overcomes his own fears.

Educator & Series Information
Tales from Big Spirit is a unique graphic novel series that delves into the stories of great Indigenous heroes from Canadian history—some already well known and others who deserve to be. Designed to correspond to grades 4–6 social studies curriculums across Canada, these full colour graphic novels could be used in literature circles, novel studies, and book clubs to facilitate discussion of social studies topics. These books will help students make historical connections while promoting important literacy skills.

Grades 4-6

Tales from the Big Spirit Series Teacher's Guide - Tales from the Big Spirit Series Teacher's Guide 

The teacher's guide is designed to help classroom teacher's use the graphic novel series, Tales From Big Spirit, by David Alexander Robertson. The guide provides detailed lessons that meet a wide range of language arts and social studies goals, integrate Indigenous perspectives, and make curricular content more accessible to diverse learners.

The Peacemaker is available in French: L’ambassadrice de la paix : Thanadelthur

Additional Information
30 pages | 6.50" x 10.00"

Although Kathy loves poetry, she is far too shy to recite it in front of her class. But the story of Pauline Johnson, renowned as the "Mohawk Princess," inspires Kathy to overcome her stage fright. Pauline, from the Grand River Reserve in Ontario, crisscrossed the country, reciting her poems to far-flung communities, making her among the most beloved literary figure of the Edwardian era.

Educator & Series Information
Tales from Big Spirit is a unique graphic novel series that delves into the stories of great Indigenous heroes from Canadian history—some already well known and others who deserve to be. Designed to correspond to grades 4–6 social studies curriculums across Canada, these full colour graphic novels could be used in literature circles, novel studies, and book clubs to facilitate discussion of social studies topics. These books will help students make historical connections while promoting important literacy skills.

Grades 4-6

Tales from the Big Spirit Series Teacher's Guide -  Tales from the Big Spirit Series Teacher's Guide 

The teacher's guide is designed to help classroom teacher's use the graphic novel series, Tales From Big Spirit, by David Alexander Robertson. The guide provides detailed lessons that meet a wide range of language arts and social studies goals, integrate Indigenous perspectives, and make curricular content more accessible to diverse learners.

The Poet: Pauline Johnson is available in French: La poète : Pauline Johnson

Additional Information
30 pages | 6.50" x 10.00"

For Tyrese, history class is the lowest point of his school day. That is, until his friend Levi reveals a secret – a secret that brings history alive, in the form of one Gabriel Dumont. Through Dumont, a great Métis leader of the Northwest Resistance, the boys experience a bison hunt, a skirmish with the Blackfoot, and an encounter with the great Louis Riel, and, ultimately, a great battle of the Northwest Resistance at Batoche, Saskatchewan.

Educator & Series Information
The Rebel is one book in the Tales from Big Spirit series. Tales from Big Spirit is a unique graphic novel series that delves into the stories of great Indigenous heroes from Canadian history—some already well known and others who deserve to be. Designed to correspond to grades 4–6 social studies curriculums across Canada, these full colour graphic novels could be used in literature circles, novel studies, and book clubs to facilitate discussion of social studies topics. These books will help students make historical connections while promoting important literacy skills.

Grade: for grades 4–6

A Teacher's Guide is also available for the Tales from the Big Spirit Series: Tales from the Big Spirit Series Teacher's Guide. The teacher's guide is designed to help classroom teachers use the graphic novel series, Tales From Big Spirit, by David Alexander Robertson. The guide provides detailed lessons that meet a wide range of language arts and social studies goals, integrate Indigenous perspectives, and make curricular content more accessible to diverse learners.

This resources is also available in French: D'hier à aujourd'hui, Le rebelle : Gabriel Dumont

Additional Information
30 pages | 6.50" x 10.00"

A search down a wooded path for a well-hit baseball turns into an encounter between Pamela and a veteran soldier standing in front of a monument. The statue commemorates the heroism of Sgt. Tommy Prince, the most decorated Aboriginal soldier in Canada. Pamela is curious, and the veteran is happy to regale her with the story of the expert marksman and tracker, renowned for his daring and bravery in World War II and the Korean War.

Educator & Series Information
Tales from Big Spirit is a unique graphic novel series that delves into the stories of great Indigenous heroes from Canadian history—some already well known and others who deserve to be. Designed to correspond to grades 4–6 social studies curriculums across Canada, these full colour graphic novels could be used in literature circles, novel studies, and book clubs to facilitate discussion of social studies topics. These books will help students make historical connections while promoting important literacy skills.

Tales from the Big Spirit Series Teacher's Guide -  Tales from the Big Spirit Series Teacher's Guide. 

The teacher's guide is designed to help classroom teacher's use the graphic novel series, Tales From Big Spirit, by David Alexander Robertson. The guide provides detailed lessons that meet a wide range of language arts and social studies goals, integrate Indigenous perspectives, and make curricular content more accessible to diverse learners.

The Scout: Tommy Prince is available in French: L’éclaireur : Tommy Prince

Additional Information
30 pages | 6.50" x 10.00"

The name Weenipeeg (or Winnipeg) is known to mean dirty water. But how did it get that name? Weepipeeg, a story carried on by Elder Bill Ballantyne, is a children’s book that recounts the gripping true events that led to Winnipeg receiving its name. A journey story at its heart, this beautifully illustrated book will have you on the edge of your seat, while it shares important traditional knowledge.

This moving tale of self-discovery takes place during the Oka uprising in the summer of 1990. Adopted as an infant, Carrie has always felt somehow out of place. Recurring dreams haunt her, warning her that someone close to her is in danger...

When she discovers that her birth family is Mohawk living in Quebec, she makes the long journey and finally achieves the sense of home and belonging that had always eluded her.

Educator Information
Recommended ages: 12 - 15. 

Additional Information
110 pages | 5.50" x 8.25" | Paperback