WINNER
IF I JUST HAD TWO WINGS by Virginia Frances Schwartz
Stoddart Kids 2001 0-7737-3302-7 RL: 5
Thirteen-year-old Phoebe has always dreamed of leaving her life as a slave behind. One night, Phoebe, Liney and her two small children flee under the cover of darkness. Between the runaways and freedom in Canada lie miles and miles of unfriendly country and dangers too horrible to imagine. Will they make it?
HONOUR BOOKS
OUT OF THE FIRE by Deborah Froese
Sumach Press 2001 1-89454909-0 RL: 7
As she tries to decide who her friends are, 16-year-old Dayle is caught in a terrifying bonfire accident that forces her to examine how real friends should behave. Dayle’s despair and triumph are chronicled as she learns painfully that her own resources go much deeper than appearances.
STONES by William Bell
Doubleday Canada 2001 0-385-65829-X RL: 5
Garnet can’t wait to finish high school and work as a carpenter in his father’s antique shop. One day as he is making a delivery for his father, he stumbles into a snowstorm and finds himself in the middle of a horrifying event from the past. Were those angry men real? What were they shouting? Will he ever get to see his friend, Raphaella again?
NOMINEES
ACROSS THE STEEL RIVER by Ted Stenhouse
Kids Can Press 2001 1-55337-015-5 RL: 5
In 1952, more than a railway separates the small community of Grayson, Alberta from a Blackfoot reservation. When friends Will and Arthur discover a badly beaten Blackfoot man, they refuse to accept the explanation that he was hit by a train. As the boys dig more deeply into what really happened, they uncover racism’s ugly face.
BASKET OF BEETHOVEN by Susan Currie
Fitzhenry & Whiteside 2001 10-55041-666-9 RL: 4
For the music lovers! Eleven-year-old Sam finds melodies and rhythms in everything that happens around him. The first time he accidentally hears Helen playing the piano, he knows that he must learn. Sam and his mom have little money for extras. He is about to give up hope when he learns that Helen is having trouble with the class bully. Perhaps if he can solve Helen’s problem, she will teach him to play the piano.
THE BUCCANEERS by Iain Lawrence
Delacourte Press 2001 0-385-32736-6 RL: 6
“There’s pirates in the West Indies. Cannibals. They’ll cook you alive.” These words will haunt seventeen-year-old John Spencer as he embarks on his first voyage to foreign lands. Brimming with high-seas adventure, this companion to The Wreckers and The Smugglers concludes with a bloodcurdling tale of pirates – and a surprise ending.
DUST by Arthur Slade
HarperCollins 2001 0-00-648593-6 RL: 6
In the depths of the Depression, children start to disappear from Saskatchewan farms. Eleven-year-old Robert clutches the memory of his lost younger brother to his heart as a conman convinces his parents to build a rain machine.
EVERYTHING ON A WAFFLE by Polly Horvath
Groundwood Books 2001 0-88899-442-7 RL: 5
Primrose Squarp simple knows her parents did not perish at sea during a terrible storm, but try convincing the other residents of Coal Harbour on that score. While Uncle Jack reluctantly take Primrose into his care, true sanctuary can always be found at “The Girl on the Red Swing” restaurant, where everything – including lasagna – is served on a waffle, and where the proprietor, Miss Bowzer, offers a willing ear, as well as sage advice.
FLYING GEESE by Barbara Haworth-Attard
Harper-Collins 2001 0-00-648573-1 RL: 6
Twelve-year-old Margaret begins a new school in London, Ontario after the Saskatchewan family farm fails and her older brother enlists to fight in the First World War. Will her father find a job and will Margaret’s overwhelming poverty keep her from ever finding a friend?
HOPE’S WAR by Marsha Forchuk Skrupuch
Dundrun Press 2001 1-895681-19-7 RL: 6
Kat Baliuk is having to deal with her own problems as the “new kid” in an all-arts high school when her beloved grandfather is charged with being a war criminal. Family life is turned upside down as Kat’s grandfather tries to defend himself against the charge of collaborating with the Germans during World War II.
IN SPITE OF KILLER BEES by Julie Johnston
Tundra Books 2001 0-88776-537-8 RL: 6
The Quade sisters, whose mother is gone and whose father is dead, move to a little town to collect their late grandfather’s inheritance. Although the inheritance includes very little money, it does include a dotty aunt who wants nothing to do with the, a big old pile of a house and all kinds of assumptions about the sisters – are they thieves like their father was? – that threaten to tear apart their fragile family.
LIGHT-BEARER’S DAUGHTER by O.R. Melling
Penguin Books 2001 0-14-100459-2 RL: 7
Eleven-year-old Dana finds herself gradually drawn into the magical world of the faeries, compelled by them to take a message to the second in command to the High King in exchange for her heart’s desire.
OF MICE AND NUTCRACKERS by Richard Scrimger
Tundra Books 2001 0-88776-498-3 RL: 5
The grade 6 class is putting on “The Nutcracker” for the holiday pageant and Jane Peeler’s in charge. Things are not going well. The phys.\ed. Teacher won’t let her use the gym to rehearse, the Herald of Candyland can’t get his lines straight, she may be losing her best friend, and she’s worried about home because Dad’s sick and Grandma – irritable, chain-smoking, noncooking Grandma – is taking care of the family.
ON WINGS OF A DRAGON by Cora Taylor
Fitzhenry & Whiteside 2001 1-555041-674-X RL: 6
Kour’el and her dragon companion Api’Naga struggle against the evil Queen Mariah to bring the rightful heir to the throne. Will Maighdlin’s grandfather be able to help her as she is captured and forced to work in the palace?
ORPHAN AT MY DOOR: The Home Child Diary of Victoria Cope
by Jean Little, Scholastic Canada 2001 0-439-98834-9 RL: 5
Victoria records her family’s experiences with a twelve-year-old English girl, Mary Anna Wilson, sent to Canada as a Home Child in the 1920’s. As the girls’ friendship grows so does their determination to first find and then rescue Mary Anna’s brother from an abusive placement.
SCARED TO DEATH by Norah McClintock
Scholastic Canada 2001 0-439-98812-8 RL: 7
A girl at Chloe’s high school has been murdered and Chloe’s police officer stepfather is in charge of the investigation. Tessa is dead and one of Chloe’s friends is under suspicion of murder. Chloe has to find out who might have wanted Tessa out of the way
TIGER IN TROUBLE by Eric Walters
Beach Holme Publishing 2001 0-88878-120-1 RL: 5
Sarah and her brother Nick find themselves face to face with unscrupulous owners of an exotic animal farm who are willing to sell an endangered tiger for body parts. Can they get word to their neighbor who operates a similar farm in time to save the tiger and themselves?
THE WHITE HORSE TALISMAN by Andrea Spalding
Orca Book Publishers 2001 1-55143-222-6 RL: 6
Canadians Adam and his younger sister Chantel visit cousins in England where the forces of evil threaten to overcome the Wise Ones who have hidden one of their magic tools near the Chalk Horse of Uffington.