Browse Books for Kids

Dragonfly Kites is the third book in Tomson Highway's magical Songs of the North Wind trilogy. Like Fox on the Ice and Caribou Song, it has a bilingual text, written in English and Cree. And once again Tomson Highway brilliantly evokes the very essence of childhood as he weaves a deceptively simple story about the power of the imagination.

Joe and Cody, two young Cree brothers, along with their parents and their little dog Ootsie, are spending the summer by one of the hundreds of lakes in northern Manitoba. Summer means a chance to explore the world and make friends with an array of creatures, But what Joe and Cody like doing best of all is flying dragonfly kites. They catch dragonflies and gently tie a length of thread around the middle of each dragonfly before letting it go. Off soar the dragonflies into the summer sky and off race the brothers and Ootsie too, chasing after their dragonfly kites through trees and meadows and down to the beach before watching them disappear into the night sky. But in their dreams, Joe and Cody soar through the skies with their kites until it's time to wake up.

Reviews
"Unlike most fiction, Dragonfly Kites does not follow a standard plot line. Like the dragonfly kites that the boys follow, the plot simply glides along until the boys wake up from their dream. This is appropriate due to the significance the illustrations play in this picture book, as well as the age of the intended audience. Readers are not overwhelmed by the storyline and are free to appreciate the accompanying illustrations. The illustrations in Dragonfly Kites act as an extension of the story. The pictures in the book are colourful, beautiful, and have an austere, stark quality. This is consistent with other works produced by award-winning illustrator Julie Flett. This style suits the story as, aside from the nature that surrounds around them, Joe and Cody are depicted as being by themselves. While they live with the parents, their adventures occur when their parents are fishing without them. The full-page illustrations demonstrate the vast space that surrounds the boys." — CM Magazine

"At once a celebration of heritage, the wilderness, and imagination, this book is a breath of fresh northern air." — Kirkus Reviews

Educator & Series Information
This is the third book in the Songs of the North Wind series, a dual-language (English and Cree) series about two young Cree boys.

This book is available in French/Cree: Les libellules cerfs-volant/Pimithaagansa 

Additional Information
32 pages | 9.26" x 10.70"

"Life sometimes is hard. There are challenges. There are difficulties. There is pain. As a younger man I sought to avoid them and only ever caused myself more of the same. These days I choose to face life head on--and I have become a comet. I arc across the sky of my life and the harder times are the friction that lets the worn and tired bits drop away. It's a good way to travel; eventually, I will wear away all resistance until all there is left of me is light. I can live towards that end." - Richard Wagamese, Embers

In this carefully curated selection of everyday reflections, Richard Wagamese finds lessons in both the mundane and sublime as he muses on the universe, drawing inspiration from working in the bush--sawing and cutting and stacking wood for winter as well as the smudge ceremony to bring him closer to the Creator. Embers is perhaps Richard Wagamese's most personal volume to date. Honest, evocative and articulate, he explores the various manifestations of grief, joy, recovery, beauty, gratitude, physicality and spirituality--concepts many find hard to express. But for Wagamese, spirituality is multifaceted. Within these pages, readers will find hard-won and concrete wisdom on how to feel the joy in the everyday things. Wagamese does not seek to be a teacher or guru, but these observations made along his own journey to become, as he says, "a spiritual bad-ass," make inspiring reading.

Additional Information
140 pages | 6.00" x 8.00"

Children are aware that they should not waste water -- "turn off the tap when you brush your teeth", "take a quick shower". But do they understand why? And that they could do more?

In Enough Water? children will discover the reasons that water warrants concern. In simple text, the book explains the actual "cost" of the water that sustains their lifestyle. This "water footprint" is the amount of freshwater used to produce the goods and services they consume, including manufacturing, growing, harvesting, packaging, and shipping to market where they buy it. The human water footprint contributes to an irreversible loss of Earth's finite water supply.

Aimed at children, the clear info-graphics show how much water is used to make everyday things -- what they wear, what they eat, and so on. The examples will shock: 240 gallons of water (visually comparable to 240 ice cream containers!) to make a smartphone; 92.5 gallons to make a T-shirt and 2,100 for jeans; and 634 gallons to make a cheeseburger (no toppings). The water footprint of just one bottle of cola is equivalent to 350 bottles of water which if stacked on top of each other would reach the roof of a 25-story building.

Enough Water? introduces a cross-section of water issues, including personal and industrial consumption, pollution, irrigation, Earth's limited freshwater supply, and drought which affects all continents. The clever, easily understood info-graphics raise awareness of how our all-consuming lifestyle is literally made of water.

For home, school and the library, Enough Water? is essential for this generation of inquisitive children facing an uncertain future.

Educator Information
Recommended Ages: 9-12.

Introduction from Steve Conrad, the Associate Director of the Pacific Water Research Centre at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. He is a content expert on assisting organizations, municipalities, and regional governments reach sustainability goals in energy, water demand and supply, greenhouse gas management, and operational efficiency. 

Additional Information 
72 pages | 9.00" x 9.00" | color infographics and photographs throughout, bibliography, glossary, index | Corporate Author: Editors at Firefly Books

"My sister and I were excited for a visit with our favourite elder, and we were hoping to convince her to take us out for an adventure!"

Adventure begins when Grandma takes her two grandchildren out for a trip to the lake. After showing the kids how to prepare for a fishing trip, Grandma and the kids enjoy a day of jigging in the ice for fish. Grandma shows them every step they need to know to complete a successful fishing trip, from what clothes to wear, to how to drill and clear holes in the ice, to how to make a traditional Inuit jigging rod. By the end of the day, the kids have a yummy meal of Arctic char, and they have also learned everything they need to know to go out on the lake on their own.

Reviews
“Fishing with Grandma, which offers an engaging tale of two grandchildren and their grandma on an Arctic adventure, is ideal for primary grades.”  — CM Magazine

“Readers learn about the traditional tools of the trade through prose peppered with Inuktitut and also take away a sweet message of caring for our elders, as the youngsters share their yummy Arctic char with those who can no longer jig for themselves.” — Hakai Magazine

Educator Information
Find the French translation of this book here: À la peche avec grand-maman

Additional Information
32 pages | 8.00" x 9.00"

Dual language edition of powerful children's book about residential school experience reflects Indigenous language revitalization.

The dual language edition, in Nishnaabemwin (Ojibwe) Nbisiing dialect and English, of the award-winning I Am Not a Number. When eight-year-old Irene is removed from her First Nations family to live in a residential school she is confused, frightened, and terribly homesick. She tries to remember who she is and where she came from, despite the efforts of the nuns who are in charge at the school and who tell her that she is not to use her own name but instead use the number they have assigned to her. When she goes home for summer holidays, Irene's parents decide never to send her and her brothers away again. But where will they hide? And what will happen when her parents disobey the law? Based on the life of co-author Jenny Kay Dupuis’ grandmother, I Am Not a Number is a hugely necessary book that brings a terrible part of Canada’s history to light in a way that children can learn from and relate to.

Reviews
"Residential and boarding school stories are hard to read, but they're vitally important... books like I Am Not a Number should be taught in schools in Canada, and the U.S., too."— Debbie Reese, American Indians in Children's Literature

"It’s important to teach children about true Canadian history, but it’s not easy to talk about it in a way that children will understand. I Am Not a Number is perfect to get the conversation about residential schools started with your children. It opens the door for them to ask questions about the subject and the story is relatable in a way they can follow."— Residential School Magazine

Educator Information
Recommended Ages: 7-11
Guided Reading: V

Dual-language: Nishnaabemwin (Ojibwe) Nbisiing dialect and English.

Subjects: Character Education (Empathy, Prejudice & Tolerance); History & Social Studies (Canadian History, First Nations & Indigenous Peoples); Government & Citizenship; Reflecting Diversity

This resource is also available in English: I Am Not a Number.

This resource is also available in French: Je ne suis pas un numero.

Additional Information
44 pages | 8.50" x 11.00" | Translated by Muriel Sawyer and Geraldine McLeod with contributions by Tory Fisher

After budget cuts force the Southside Saints football team to disband, Jamal and his friends have to settle for playing pickup on the hardscrabble field behind their high school. Then the president of a sporting-goods company offers to donate $20,000 worth of equipment to the team. There's only one catch: he wants to be the coach. Thrilled to have a real team together, the players turn a blind eye to Coach Fort's racism, bullying and discrimination. Until he takes it too far. Now it’s up to Jamal and his teammates to take back their team and show what they’re made of.

Educator & Series Information
This book is part of the Orca Sports series. Orca Sports stories engage middle-schoolers and teens with fast-paced plots and easy-to-read language. Topics include a variety of team and individual sports. Reading levels from grade 2.0 to 4.5; Interest level ages 10+.

Additional Information
176 pages | 4.25" x 7.00"

Teachers! This book is like a whole unit on migration wrapped in a winning combination of easy verse, factual language, and beautiful illustrations.

For animals, migration is a powerful compulsion to travel, sometimes over long distances, often skipping many meals. Sometimes, as in the case of the monarch butterfly, a round-trip takes several generations. Why do they do it? How do they succeed? The ten featured species offer a broad representation of migration: loggerhead turtles, monarch butterflies, manatees, ruby-throated hummingbirds, Pacific salmon, Canada geese, California gray whales, caribou, Arctic tern, and emperor penguin.

The book is loaded with additional tips for teachers. Once again Marianne Berkes combines her teaching, writing, and theatrical skills to combine entertainment with education--creative non-fiction at its best.

Reviews
"Teachers especially will welcome this poetic look at animal migration patterns. Ten critters, ranging from Canada geese to caribou and loggerhead turtles, celebrate their “going home” with a rhyme, a small paragraph of information, and a colorful, realistic illustration spreading across facing pages. A large map helps readers follow migratory patterns, and a closing section contains a look at the “mystery” of migration, further data on the creatures in focus, and a handy-dandy passel of suggestions, such as to “Write Your Own Story” about an animal not included in this book.... [T]he book is a pleasant way to tie creative writing and natural history in a simple package." — School Library Journal

"A winning combination of verse, factual language, and beautiful illustrations that describe the mysterious migration patterns of animals from loggerhead turtles to monarch butterflies to ruby-throated hummingbird to caribou. Resources at the end of the book include websites to learn more about the featured animals, and several lesson and activity ideas for educators." — ForeWord Reviews – Teresa Scollon

Educator Information
A poetic, yet factual, book on animal migration patterns that includes a map of migration routes, detailed information on each species mentioned, teaching tips, activities, and a list of books and websites for further study.

Recommended Ages: 4-10

Additional Information
32 pages | 10.50" x 9.00"

Lots of fun things happen when you spend the night at Grandma's house!

This illustrated book introduces readers to simple action verbs.

Educator Information
This book is part of the Nunavummi Reading Series, a Nunavut-developed series that supports literacy learning while teaching readers about the people, traditions, and environment of the Canadian Arctic. Going to Grandma's is a Level 4 book in the series.

Nunavummi Reading Series books have also been officially levelled using the Fountas & Pinnell Text Level Gradient™ Levelling System. Going to Grandma's has an F&P Level of A.

Recommended for ages 3-5.

Additional Information
12 pages | 8.00" x 6.00"

Join us on a mid August day, on the wild and rocky shores of the Pacific Northwest Coast. From the orca to the tiniest barnacle, enjoy a colourful glimpse into the lives of the many creatures that live in, and around, Hideaway Cove.

Brenda Boreham and Laura Timmermans share with us, through words and illustrations, the many interconnections within a healthy marine eco-system.

Reviews
"Hideaway Cove is a must-have when teaching a seashore ecosystem unit. This book provides opportunities for students to share their connections with the seashore while they learn more about the interactions within the marine ecosystem.” – Cindy Haack, Canadian Teacher Magazine 

“Hideaway Cove is a delightful, information-packed picture book that takes children through a day in the life of a west coast cove. Here, humans are noticeably absent, and the diverse plants and animals tell a wonderful tale. Brenda Boreham’s text is lyrical and rich in detail.” – Sheryl McFarlane, Hakai Magazine 

Educator & Series Information

Search for a crab that travels from page to page in this story! 

Additional Information
32 Pages | ISBN" 9781771741347 | Hardcover

Join us on a mid August day, on the wild and rocky shores of the Pacific Northwest Coast. From the orca to the tiniest barnacle, enjoy a colourful glimpse into the lives of the many creatures that live in, and around, Hideaway Cove.

Brenda Boreham and Laura Timmermans share with us, through words and illustrations, the many interconnections within a healthy marine eco-system.

Reviews
"Hideaway Cove is a must-have when teaching a seashore ecosystem unit. This book provides opportunities for students to share their connections with the seashore while they learn more about the interactions within the marine ecosystem.” – Cindy Haack, Canadian Teacher Magazine 

“Hideaway Cove is a delightful, information-packed picture book that takes children through a day in the life of a west coast cove. Here, humans are noticeably absent, and the diverse plants and animals tell a wonderful tale. Brenda Boreham’s text is lyrical and rich in detail.” – Sheryl McFarlane, Hakai Magazine 

Educator & Series Information
Each book in the By Day and By Night Nature Series focuses on a scene typical of a distinct west coast habitat, showing how living and non-living things are connected in a healthy ecosystem. As readers, we observe animals going about their daily activities: caring for their young, searching for food, and responding to the changes in light, temperature, and weather conditions throughout the day or night. The last four pages of each book provide facts about the highlighted animals and plants as well as features that are unique to their habitats. The final page suggests ways that young readers and their families can be respectful as they visit wilderness areas.

Search for a crab that travels from page to page in this story! 

Additional Information
32 Pages | ISBN: 9781771741330 | Paperback

This is the first book in the Stories of Our People series.

Educator & Series Information
Stories of Our People/Lii zistwayr di la naasyoon di Michif Series is a departure from other books about Aboriginal or traditional stories. It includes five stories. As readers go through the series, they will notice that the narrative and artwork gets progressively darker. The series starts with trickster stories, then moves to a Whiitigo and Paakuk story, then jumps to a story about selling one’s soul and personal redemption, and finally to a Roogaroo story.

This project came to life from the stories of our Elders, and as such, original transcripts of the stories, prose renditions by Janice DePeel, and biographies of the storytellers and project team are available on the Virtual Museum of Métis History and Culture: www.metismuseum.ca/browse/index.php?id=13100

Based on stories by Norman Fleury, Gilbert Pelletier, Jeanne Pelletier, Joe Welsh, and Norma Welsh.

Stories of Our People/Lii zistwayr di la naasyoon di Michif Series:
Book 1: How Michif was Lost
Book 2: Chi-Jean and the Red Willows
Book 3: Whistle for Protection
Book 4: Sins of the Righteous
Book 5: Attack of the Roogaroos!

When eight-year-old Irene is removed from her First Nations family to live in a residential school she is confused, frightened, and terribly homesick. She tries to remember who she is and where she came from, despite the efforts of the nuns who are in charge at the school and who tell her that she is not to use her own name but instead use the number they have assigned to her. When she goes home for summer holidays, Irene's parents decide never to send her and her brothers away again. But where will they hide? And what will happen when her parents disobey the law? Based on the life of co-author Jenny Kay Dupuis’ grandmother, I Am Not a Number is a hugely necessary book that brings a terrible part of Canada’s history to light in a way that children can learn from and relate to.

Awards

• 2018 Red Cedar Award for Information Book Winner
• 2018 Hackmatack Award Winner

Reviews
"Residential and boarding school stories are hard to read, but they're vitally important... books like I Am Not a Number should be taught in schools in Canada, and the U.S., too."— Debbie Reese, American Indians in Children's Literature

"It’s important to teach children about true Canadian history, but it’s not easy to talk about it in a way that children will understand. I Am Not a Number is perfect to get the conversation about residential schools started with your children. It opens the door for them to ask questions about the subject and the story is relatable in a way they can follow."— Residential School Magazine

"[A] powerful teaching tool that brings a terrible part of Canada’s history to light in a way that children can learn from and relate to. It is written in simple language and told in a way that will stimulate conversations about residential schools and the traumatic effects they have had on generations of First Nation families and communities. ... beautifully illustrated by Gillian Newland. She captures the somber mood of the school, the anguish of the children, the severity of the nuns and the desperation of the family. Students can easily empathize with Irene and her brothers as well as their parents as they try to imagine how they would feel or act in a similar situation." — Alberta Native News, December 2016

"Endless cross-curricular connections can be made using this story. But the most powerful aspect of this book is that it will open a dialogue, one that Justice Murray Sinclair spoke of as head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, a dialogue that needs to take place for reconciliation to happen." — ETFO Voice

Educator Information
Recommended Ages: 7-11
Guided Reading: V

This resource is also available in a dual-language format (English and Nishnaabemwin (Ojibwe) Nbisiing dialect): Gaawin Gindaaswin Ndaawsii / I Am Not A Number.

This resource is also available in French: Je ne suis pas un numero

Additional Information
32 pages | 8.50" x 11.00"

A boy patiently listens to his mother's reasons for not making bannock-all the result of a beaver's need to make a dam.

Includes a bannock recipe!

Reviews
"I Can't Have Bannock But the Beaver Has a Dam is written in prose. It begins with a little boy asking his mother if he can have some bannock. She says no and tells him why. As for all little boys, mother's answer only offers material for another question. So the book's story is built on this question-answer exchange between the two. Each time the mother answers, she gives all of the information in the previous answer plus a new piece of information, so we see the picture expanding for the boy. The book would be a good teaching tool for the elementary teacher, especially for those in native and northern communities where bannock and power failures are a part of everyday life. It is recommended for all elementary school libraries." - Sharon A. McLennan McCue, CM Magazine

Educator Information
Recommended Grades: K-3

Additional Information
32 pages | 9.00" x 11.00" | New Edition

I Know I Am Precious and Sacred follows a conversation between a child and loving grandfather as they talk about what the words “precious” and “sacred” mean. These culturally integral concepts are explained in simple, practical terms, so that Little Ones may recognize how they affect relationships in families and communities. Readers and listeners are invited to explore how these ancestral teachings impact their families and communities.

I Know I Am Precious And Sacred is a soft-cover children’s book, geared towards readers and listeners ages 5 to 10 years old, but holds out important truths for their adults as well.

Educator & Series Information
This is the second book in the Precious and Sacred series.

Reading level: K-3.

Additional Information
32 pages | 8.00" x 8.00"

Authenticity Note: This book has received an Authentic Text label because it was written by Debora Abood with the support and participation of Elders from the Victoria Native Friendship Centre.

These twenty-five rhyming poems invite children to believe in themselves, learn from mistakes, cooperate, share, help others, solve problems, be kind, tell the truth, make positive choices, and more. The short poems are quick to read, easy to learn, and fun to recite—making them perfect for teaching social skills to young children. Children can memorize their favorite poems, talk about them, act them out, and get ideas for creating their own. Accompanying photographs show children from diverse backgrounds in realistic settings, and back matter provides adults with ideas for thought-provoking discussion, activities, and learning. This charming update to a popular volume of poetry for children is a book that adults and children will love sharing again and again.

Educator Information
Reading Level: Grade 2
Interest Level: Ages 4–8
Guided Reading Level: L

Additional Information
64 pages | 8.23" x 7.83"