Browse Books for Kids

In this book, a young orca whale must lead her brother on a tumultuous journey to be reunited with their pod. This gorgeously illustrated animal adventure novel explores family bonds, survival, global warming, and a changing seascape. Includes information about orcas and their habitats.

For Vega and her family, salmon is life. And Vega is learning to be a salmon finder, preparing for the day when she will be her family’s matriarch. But then she and her brother Deneb are separated from their pod when a devastating earthquake and tsunami render the seascape unrecognizable. Vega must use every skill she has to lead her brother back to their family. The young orcas face a shark attack, hunger, the deep ocean, and polluted waters on their journey. Will Vega become the leader she’s destined to be?

A Whale of the Wild weaves a heart-stopping tale of survival with impeccable research on a delicate ecosystem and threats to marine life. New York Times-bestselling author Rosanne Parry’s fluid writing and Lindsay Moore’s stunning artwork bring the Salish Sea and its inhabitants to vivid life.

An excellent read-aloud and read-alone.

Includes black-and-white illustrations throughout, a map, and extensive backmatter about orcas and their habitats.

Reviews
“Parry creates a spellbinding, heart-stopping adventure for middle-grade readers—this time about a pod of orca whales and their plight in today’s Salish Sea. . . . Parry’s thorough research, observation, and creative writing combine to share the marvelous matriarchal familial world of orcas . . . Her descriptive narrative rises in intensity to match each new danger and resolves with a bittersweet yet hopeful finish. . . . Excellent.” — Booklist (starred review)

“After a tsunami devastates their habitat in the Salish Sea, a young orca and her brother embark on a remarkable adventure. . . . Vega and Deneb tell their harrowing story, engaging young readers while educating them about the marine ecosystem. . . . A dramatic, educational, authentic whale of a tale.” — Kirkus Reviews

"Vega is a young orca whale being trained by her mother to one day be the group’s Wayfinder . . . But when she and her young brother are separated from the pod . . . Vega must use her wayfinding skills to reunite them with their elders. . . . Parry weav[es] a great deal of information about orcas and their habits into the narrative.” — School Library Journal

Educator Information
Recommended for ages 8 to 12.

Additional Information
336 pages | 5.50" x 8.25"

Learn about some of the mammals that roamed the Arctic long ago! From seals that walked on land to giant bears, this book features different mammals that once lived in the Arctic.

Educator & Series 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.  It is a Level 13 book in the series. 

Nunavummi Reading Series books have also been officially levelled using the Fountas & Pinnell Text Level Gradient™ Levelling System. This book's F&P Level is O.

Recommended for ages 7 to 9.

Additional Information
36 pages | 9.00" x 7.00" | Paperback

How about a book that makes you barge into your boss's office to read a page of poetry from? That you dream of? That every movie, song, book, moment that follows continues to evoke in some way?

The term "Apple" is a slur in Native communities across the country. It's for someone supposedly "red on the outside, white on the inside."

Eric Gansworth is telling his story in Apple (Skin to the Core). The story of his family, of Onondaga among Tuscaroras, of Native folks everywhere. From the horrible legacy of the government boarding schools, to a boy watching his siblings leave and return and leave again, to a young man fighting to be an artist who balances multiple worlds.

Eric shatters that slur and reclaims it in verse and prose and imagery that truly lives up to the word heartbreaking.

Awards

• American Indian Youth Literature Award Winner

Reviews
"With language rich in metaphor, this is a timely and important work that begs for multiple readings."-Booklist, starred review

Educator Information
Recommended for ages 12 to 18.

Additional Information
352 pages | 6.50" x 9.40"

After a school year of dealing with personal issues, Autumn Dawn is happy that summer is finally here. Autumn plans on visiting her aunt Jessie in Minneapolis before heading back home for the class she needs to attend in order to pass to the next grade.

On the first day of class, Autumn finds herself face-to-face with Sydney, the bully who thinks it is fun to pick on her. What could be worse than that? They are paired together and will be tutoring each other!

Between dealing with Sydney and trying not to notice the new guy in school, who has definitely noticed her, Autumn struggles to accept and embrace the fresh challenges she faces as she learns to believe in herself.

Educator & Series Information
Recommended for ages 12+.

Fry Reading Level: 4 

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.

This book is part of the Autumn Dawn Series, a subseries of the PathFinders series.

Additional Information
120 pages | 4.50" x 7.00" | Paperback

Dans cet album éducatif et charmant, découvrez une délicieuse histoire canadienne de l’auteur membre des Première Nations Dallas Hunt.

Oh non! Awâsis perd les délicieuses banniques toutes fraîches de Kôhkum. Ne sachant que faire, elle décide de demander de l’aide à ses amis les animaux. Quelles aventures s’apprête-t-elle à vivre? Cette histoire merveilleuse célèbre le renouveau des dialectes du cri et des méthodes traditionnelles de narration orale autochtone.

Educator Information
Recommended for ages 4 - 8.

This book is available in English: Awâsis and the World-Famous Bannock

Additional Information
24 pages | 8.99" x 9.01"

Kenkéknem (Bear) and Sek̓lép (Coyote) are both busy preparing for the long winter months ahead. Kenkéknem eats berries while Sek̓lép dries salmon and bakes Bannock. They have always done this separately and do not want to share with each other. However, this year Kenkéknem is curious about what Sek̓lép is doing, and he is also very hungry. Kenkéknem curiosity and hunger soon get them both in trouble. This forces them to work and learn together to find out how to solve their problem. In the process, they learn through shared experiences and reflect together. They then discover that they have many new stories to share and new ways to prepare food together.

They gather their relations to share their stories in a wider circle of community in order to share this way of learning through connectedness and relationships.

Bear and Coyote tells the creation story of traditional foods and shows the possibilities that arise when we work together. This book makes for a great bedtime story or read-aloud in the classroom.

The back of the book includes recipes for Bannock (Sp̓ íxle7cw) and Saskatoon Berry Jam (Speqpeq7úw̓l).

Bear and Coyote complements other works by Mike Bowden and Kelsey Jules, including Chief Goose and Porcupine, and includes a familiar character from Four Winds.

Educator & Series Information
Recommended for grades 3 to 7.

This book is part of the Secwépemc Stories series.

This story is a great resource to introduce Indigenous languages to young readers. Secwepemctsín is one of 30 distinct Indigenous languages in British Columbia and is in the process of being revitalized after governments and religions developed policies to eliminate the rich language and culture of Indigenous peoples. The book integrates Secwépemc words into the text and includes a pronunciation guide on every page.

This story connects to the BC First Principles of Learning: learning is holistic, reflexive, experiential, and relational; learning involves the consequences of one’s actions; learning is embedded in story; and learning involves patience and time. Learning from Indigenous stories can be different and personal every time a story is read or told, depending on context. This book provides opportunity for those reading to reflect, explore, connect, and learn on a personal interpretative level.

Curriculum links:

• Social emotional learning: cooperation, working together, reciprocal relationships
• Reading and language skills
• Numeracy: includes recipes and encourages young learners to measure and count ingredients
• Food: gathering, preparing, and cooking traditional foods
• Indigenous knowledge and traditions

Additional Information
24 Pages | Colour illustrations | 22 x 28 cm | ISBN: 9781771745703 | Paperback

Take a dive in the oceans of the world with whales big and small!

In Big Whales, Small World you will meet whales from around the world. This rhyming photographic board book visits the oceans of places like New Zealand, Russia and South America. Writer, filmmaker and orca activist Mark Leiren-Young introduces young readers to blue whales bigger than dinosaurs and tiny vaquitas who swim close to shores.

Educator Information
Board book for ages 0-2.

Young readers learn one interesting fact about each marine mammal in this clever, rhyming board boook.

It is illegal to take underwater pictures of certain endangered whales. All of the photos in this book were sourced and taken legally.

Keywords / Subjects: whales of the world, ocean, environment, sea mammals, orcas, endangered animals, marine life.

Additional Information
24 pages | 7.00" x 7.00" 

Let's flock together to save wild birds.

Wild birds are everywhere, from the dry deserts to the icy poles. We see them soaring overhead, paddling across water, flitting through trees, pecking at the ground or our backyard bird feeders and singing from fence posts. Birds contribute to the health of the planet and provide pleasure for millions of people, but wild birds are in trouble. Today, almost 200 bird species are critically endangered. They are threatened by habitat loss, invasive species, climate change, pesticides, plastics in the environment, human-made structures and other animals. Bird’s Eye View looks at why wild birds are important, why they need help and what young people all over the world are doing and can do to give wild birds a boost.

Educator & Series Information
Recommended for ages 9 to 12.

Key Features:

• Wild birds are in trouble around the world. In this book, kids learn what they are can do, in their own backyards, to help convserve them.
• There is a widespread and thriving birding community of people all over the world who are invested in the future of birds, from scientists, to birders, to backyard enthusiasts and the general public. The book features approximately ten profiles of young birders and what they’re doing, around the world, to protect birds and their habitats.
• The author is a biologist, conservationist and passionate about birds and other wildlife. She’s a director of the Thetis Island Nature Conservancy and the Cowichan Community Land Trust.

This book is part of the Orca Wild series that examines the intricacies of animals, ecosystems, humans and our relationships to each other.

Keywords / Topics: bird conservation, ornithology, endangered species, habitat loss, young birders

Additional Information
144 pages | 7.50" x 9.00"

From award-winning and bestselling author, Jewell Parker Rhodes comes a powerful coming-of-age story about two brothers, one who presents as white, the other as black, and the complex ways in which they are forced to navigate the world, all while training for a fencing competition.

Framed. Bullied. Disliked. But I know I can still be the best.

Sometimes, 12-year-old Donte wishes he were invisible. As one of the few black boys at Middlefield Prep, most of the students don't look like him. They don't like him either. Dubbing him "Black Brother," Donte's teachers and classmates make it clear they wish he were more like his lighter-skinned brother, Trey.

When he's bullied and framed by the captain of the fencing team, "King" Alan, he's suspended from school and arrested for something he didn't do.

Terrified, searching for a place where he belongs, Donte joins a local youth center and meets former Olympic fencer Arden Jones. With Arden's help, he begins training as a competitive fencer, setting his sights on taking down the fencing team captain, no matter what.

As Donte hones his fencing skills and grows closer to achieving his goal, he learns the fight for justice is far from over. Now Donte must confront his bullies, racism, and the corrupt systems of power that led to his arrest.

Powerful and emotionally gripping, Black Brother, Black Brother is a careful examination of the school-to-prison pipeline and follows one boy's fight against racism and his empowering path to finding his voice.

Reviews
"Placing biracial boyhood and the struggles of colorism at its center, the novel challenges readers to pursue their own self-definition."—Kirkus

"An excellent selection for both elementary and middle library collections, this is a title that celebrates finding one's place in the world."—School Library Connection

Educator Information
Recommended for ages 8 to 12.

This story explores important and timely topics like race, colorism, class, and institutionalized prejudice, within the context of a commercial and accessible underdog sports story.

Additional Information
240 pages | 5.50" x 7.87"

Some of the most vibrant colors and patterns in the Animal Kingdom are found among butterflies. Gawdy swallowtails, exquisite gossamer-wings, and a multitude of eye-catching brushfoots are particular standouts, though plenty of whites, sulphurs, metalmarks, and skippers are also adorned with splendid markings. Flowering plants across North America attract some 700 butterfly species as well as thousands of moths, bees, wasps, flies, and beetles, not to mention some hummingbirds and bats. This portable reference is a handy tool for those wishing to deepen their understanding of butterflies and other colorful pollinators. It features beautiful illustrations of 70 familiar butterflies and moths as well as some especially common larvae and pupae. Also included are notes on life cycles and other common pollinators. Laminated for durability, this lightweight, 12-panel folding pocket guide is a terrific resource for educators, learners, naturalists, and gardeners. 

Additional Information
12 pages | 4.10" x 8.35"

It matters! Looking for solutions in our chemical world.

Chemical World: Science in Our Daily Lives explores some of the materials—all of which are made of basic chemical elements—that humans use or come into contact with in their day-to-day lives. Some of these chemicals are naturally occurring—clay, mercury, lead. Others have been synthesized by chemists during the past 150 years and used in a bewildering array of products ranging from roof shingles to toothpaste. Many chemical inventions, as well as naturally produced chemicals, have had profound effects on food supply, developing medicines and creating hosts of useful items for modern life.

Despite people using both natural and synthetic chemicals with (mainly) good intentions, some chemicals have had unintended negative consequences. Chemical residues have contaminated ecosystems the world over and are compromising the health of many ecosystems, animals and humans. The goal of Chemical World: Science in our Daily Lives is to introduce readers to basic chemistry and chemical history, and to show how chemicals are used for particular reasons but sometimes turn out to be harmful to environmental and human health. It invites readers to take a look at the world around them and ask questions about what’s in their environment and how the things they use and eat every day can affect their own health and the planet’s health.

Educator & Series Information 
Teaches kids about the good and the bad of the chemical world around them and what people are doing to get rid of chemicals that are harmful to people and the planet.

Includes examples of youth around the world doing positive things for the environment.

Introduces several basic concepts in biology and chemistry and illustrates them with real-world examples.

This book is part of the Orca Footprint series. Kids today inhabit a world full of complex—and often mystifying—environmental issues. Orca Footprints aim to help kids answer their questions about the state of the natural world with well-researched, simply-expressed information and powerful images. With topics such as food production, water, cycling and sustainable energy, these books will inspire kids to take action.

Recommended for ages 9-12.

Keywords: history of chemistry, science, pollution, environmental health, contamination, chemistry, nature

Additional Information
48 pages | 8.00" x 9.50"

Kúkwpi7 K̓wsucw (Chief Goose) is the leader of the k̓wsucw (geese). As a leader, he relies on doing things the way his people have always done and does not want to change anything. But his people are not prepared for the long winter and Kúkwpi7 K̓wsucw realizes it is time for him to be a true leader. Following ancient protocols, he first consults the great spirit for guidance and wisdom. Then he begins the journey to lead his people in search for a better place to live during the long winter season. Through trial and error, he learns that listening to others and allowing his people to help him lead is the path to the well-being of the k̓wsucw.

Chief Goose tells the story of why geese fly south for the winter and is the perfect bedtime story or read-aloud for classrooms.

This book complements other works by Mike Bowden and Kelsey Jules, including Four Winds, Porcupine, and Bear and Coyote.

Educator Information
Recommended for grades 3 to 7.

This book is part of the Secwépemc Stories series.

This story is a great resource to introduce Indigenous languages to young readers. Secwepemctsín is one of 30 distinct Indigenous languages in British Columbia and is in the process of being revitalized after governments and religions developed policies to eliminate the rich language and culture of Indigenous peoples. The book integrates Secwépemc words into the text and includes a pronunciation guide on every page.

This story connects to the BC First Peoples’ Principles of Learning: learning is holistic, reflexive, experiential, and relational; learning involves the consequences of one’s actions; learning is embedded in story; and learning involves patience and time. Learning from Indigenous stories can be different and personal every time a story is read or told, depending on context. This book provides an opportunity for those reading to reflect, explore, connect, and learn on a personal interpretative level.

Curriculum links:

• Social emotional learning: leadership, listening, social awareness, learning from mistakes and trying again
• Reading and language skills
• Indigenous knowledge and traditions

Additional Information 
24 Pages | Colour illustrations | 22 x 28 cm | ISBN: 9781771745697 | Paperback 

Ciel is excited to start high school. A gender non-conforming trans kid, Ciel has a YouTube channel and dreams of getting a better camera to really make their mark. Ciel can always rely on their best friend, Stephie, a trans girl who also happens to be a huge nerd. But their friendship begins to feel distant when Stephie makes it clear she wants the fact that she’s trans to be less visible now that they’re in high school. While navigating this new dynamic with Stephie, Ciel is also trying to make a long-distance relationship work with their boyfriend Eiríkur, who just moved back to Iceland. Add to the mix a cute swim star named Liam, and Ciel’s life is becoming more complicated by the minute!

Reviews
"This charming novel depicts a realistic slice of life as a nonbinary teen." — Kirkus Reviews, June 2020

Educator & Series Information
Recommended for ages 9 to 12.

This is book 1 in the Ciel series.

Additional Information
192 pages | 5.25" x 7.50" | Paperback

Manny and his friends Olivia and Mei blow bubbles in this playful introduction to geometry. Manny's wand is a circle. Olivia's wand is a square. Mei's wand is a heart. What shape will their bubbles be? (Surprise! They're all spheres.)

Educator & Series Information
Recommended for toddlers and young learners. 

The Storytelling Math series celebrates children using math in their daily adventures as they play, build, and discover the world around them. Joyful stories and hands-on activities make it easy for kids and their grown-ups to explore everyday math together. Developed in collaboration with math experts at STEM education nonprofit TERC, under a grant from the Heising-Simons Foundation.

Additional Information
16 pages | 6.00" x 6.06" | Board Book

Cet ensemble pour la lecture guidée comprend six copies de chaque livre de la collection des Lecteurs forts - ensembles A et B (480 livres au total). Les lecteurs forts sont recommandés pour les enfants de 4 ans à 8 ans et sont nivelés de 1 à 20. 

Les Lecteurs forts font partie d'une collection de lecture nivelée intégré avec des liens vers la science, la numératie, la responsabilité sociale, les arts de langage, et les enseignements de la langue orale. Les livres comprennent des stratégies de lecture et soit des illustrations de l'artiste Tsimshian Bill Helin, soit des photos. La collection entière est interconnectée et suit les valeurs culturelles de Grenouille, Ours, Aigle, et Corbeau. 

Educator Information / Information pour éducateurs
Cette ressource est aussi disponible en anglais ICI.

Additional Information / Information additionnelle
ISBN: 9781771746762