Canada Books

I, The Spy is the kind of book I wished I would have had as a kid. It's smart, it doesn't talk down to kids, it takes for granted that they'll "get it". It's loaded with tech and cool gear and resourceful, intrepid teens. The parents and other adults aren't the typical cardboard characters. It had action, suspense, brain teasers, and yes, you learn stuff as well. And on top of all that, Ms. Maher makes it fun.
What more can you ask?

Fifteen-year-old Andrew lives in rural Nova Scotia and has grown up keeping a secret about his parents' government work when he meets Brian, a new kid at school, who has an even bigger secret and, it turns out, a dangerous one, and when some seriously bad people kidnap Brian and his family Andrew realises that he has only hours to find and rescue his friend.
Working with his parents, who trust his instincts but never forget that he is still only fifteen, Andrew uses his mother's high-tech gear, but mostly relies on the sort of observation of clews and close reasoning that Sherlock Holmes would have used as the family speeds over back roads and across mountains in an elaborate game to trap a bunch of very competent and well-equipped bad guys.
The story engages you immediately. The incident that ignites the adventure comes early and the pace never lets up. The bad guys don't make any stupid mistakes and luck never makes anything easier. The electronic gear is no more than a minor help as Andrew has to rely on his own instincts and intelligence, and what he has learned from his parents.
Andrew has the kind of intelligent, supportive and cool (in the good sense) parents that every kid wishes they had, and Andrew is the kind of sensible, resourceful kid that every parent hopes they will have.
I hope he will have some more adventures.

moving, poetic story which helped me better understand my own mother's story. 2 stories in one - life of an estonian family dealing with the war and it's aftereffects...AND family dynamics down through the generations, showing how life creates understanding through experience...

moving, poetic story which helped me better understand my own mother's story. 2 stories in one - life of an estonian family dealing with the war and it's aftereffects...AND family dynamics down through the generations, showing how life creates understanding through experience...

I saw this play performed in San Antonio several years ago and I've been longing for a copy of my own. The dialogue is absolutely hilarious, though the play deals with a girl who's being led astray by her boyfriend, and the concern of her single mother and her two grandmothers. A scene involving a crossword puzzle becomes a critique of each woman's lifestyle. These women have very different personalities and must overcome the communication barriers they've created for themselves before they can work out their problems. An excellent, moving, and very funny play.

I picked up this book by chance at a theatre bookstore in Toronto. On reading in for the first time, I was mostly amused at the wit of it and the honesty with which the women expose their deepest fears. On re-reading it, I was touched by the degree to which a very real sense of failure in one of the characters appears perfetly riduculous to the others. In showing this with wit and warmth, McClelland Glass tackles one of the most important and most misunderstand issues in communications between people: not everyone places the same weight on the same things, and one would be well served by remembering that. I eventually decided that I wanted to see the play performed and so am directing it for Tokyo International Players. Having "lived" with it for the last three months, it is still fresh and very good fun.

Every spring in the late 1700's canoes would leave from Quebec and head for upper Lake Superior. At the same time trappers from deep in the central and Rocky Mountain regions of Canada would head for the same location with the fruits of their trapping labors over the winter. They would meet for a couple of weeks of trading and partying. Then they would laboriously paddle back to where they had come from.

Howard Silvertson captures this time with short clear descriptions and beautiful watercolors that really make the history come alive. It is a part of history that is often forgotten. It's fascinating to imagine what it was like to live in those times. This book captures the feeling. This book should be in every school library.

This book should be in all school libraries. The excellent illustrations bring the accurate text to life in a compelling way. I give 2-3 hr presentations in French or English as a voyageur. This book certainly covers more than I can in such a way. I would recommend it whole-heartedly as background for anyone interested in the period and the characters.

If you read only one "South Seas" book from the 1920s back, this should be the one. This Penguin issue corrects a number of inaccuracies from previous editions, including Stevenson's own error in their departure date (!) It is the classic travel and observation book of the Pacific. The early descriptions of the Marquesas are unmatched, as are the accounts of the several islands they visited in Kiribati (Gilbert Islands). The account of Tem Binoka will give you a real eye opening into an absolute ruler and his ways in the late 19th century. Reading this could start a life long interest in Pacific literature.

In his book, In the South Seas, Stevenson gives an accurate and in depth look into the people and culture of the islands of the South Pacific. The book describes Stevenson's two year journey from the Marqueses Islands, to Tahiti, then Honolulu ,and finally Somoa. Stevenson uses the great adventures he experienced and his masterfully writing skills to paint a breath taking view of the islands and thier many beauties.

The English language has great diversity, perhaps nowhere as strong and colourful as across the spread of North America, the largest geographic landmass of English-speaking predominance in the world. Like any living language, the 'standard' is not always the one used in everyday speech and communication. The written language itself has differing standards, all at variance in one form or another from the spoken word. Because of this, much of the language gets lost over time. One of the things that makes novelists like Mark Twain memorable is that they captured elements of the informal language, the spoken language, in their text pages - something fairly rarely done, but something that can resonate with the readers.

Jeffrey Kacirk states in his introduction that it is this lost and vanishing element of the language that he concentrates upon for this book - not a surprise, really, given that the title of another of his books is 'Forgotten English'. Part of Kacirk's interest came from his upbringing, in which he lived in several different regions of the country, each geographically and linguistically distinct. Kacirk's introduction traces the development of the language in certain ways, including the fact that what are often considered 'Americanisms' often originated in the British Isles, falling out of use there but thriving in North America. With the advent of modern media (talking motion pictures, radio and television), the re-introduction of American speech patterns as both commonplace and acceptable has occurred, with occasional bumps.

The phrases Kacirk has accumulated here include pieces that contain the flavour of life in North America. 'Often containing an abundance of metaphor, simile, and common sense, these distillations of practical experience are easily bandied about by those whose education has not displaced their native intelligence.' These have a tendency to be blended over time into the mainstream, if they survive at all, particularly in an ever more homogeneous media environment. However, language as a living entity continues to grow in wild patches here and there, and Kacirk's collection helps to show some of the more interesting patches in the garden of the English language.

Kacirk's book rambles through the gambit of American English without focusing on any one region or period. This ensures a varied taste of unique, strange and sometimes very familiar words and expressions. I personally enjoyed discovering terms I've heard my parents use, like "pickaninny," "coffin tacks" or "pig in clover." In this way Kacirik reminds us we're all part of a tradition that includes the unlikely: "flippercanorious" (fine); the sensible: "shouting bee" (religious emotion); and the oddly appropriate: "naked possessor" (squatter). Each word is sourced and Informal English includes an extensive bibliography. A good introduction and the "expert" and usually very funny opinions preceding each entry (I always suspected that the English considered America the "Dark Continent of the World of Words.") give Kacirk's work context. Informative and always entertaining, I highly recommend Informal English.

I picked up this book out of curiousity and found it nearly impossible to put down. Written in a simple, unpretenious style that truly does give one the feel of someone relating old memories without unecessary embellishment it nevertheless conveys an extraordinary few years in the life of an incredible yet very human woman.

This book is just the best. It is gripping and has so much adventure packed into it, it is unbelievable that it is a true story. Helen Moszkiewiez is truly an admireable person. highly recommended

This book was sooooooooooooooooo hearwarming! it was wonderful! it was great at showing how all animals can be a "mans best friend".

-Kaylee Martin

This book is difficult to put down once started. The author has brilliantly captured the unique bond that we share with our companion animals. All of the inspiring and true stories in this book have the potential to either reduce you to happy tears or bring a smile of understanding to your face. A wonderful book that is simply just not long enough.

The book was delivered to me complete and in the condition that it was sold to me in. I would recommend and use this seller for future transactions.

It was in excellent condition when I received the item; it was exactly what I asked for and it was shipped in a very timely manner! Thanks!

This is a great book as it captures what life was like in the early 1980's in Canada's north. I happened to meet this very intersting lady when she spent a few days in Holman NWT in 1980, and have been able to get a copy of the book recently from Amazon.

I know a lot of the people in the book because of my time spent living in the north, and also traveling in the north.

It's worth getting!

This is a beautiful book filled with scores of stunning black and white photographs chronicaling Ulli Steltzer's travels through the Canadian Arctic. The photographs capture the everyday lives of the Inuit, showing us how past and present are at work in their lives, how these people who just decades before had lived in varying degrees of independence from "modern civilization" are struggling to adapt while retaining a sense of their traditions. While to book consists largely of photographs, included are numerous first-person statements (not exclusively by Inuit) discussing the losses, triumphs and struggles that the Inuit have endured.