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Middle Grade
A selection of middle grade fiction titles featured on ALU’s Kids’ Litspace.
All Books in this Collection
Showing 1–16 of 67 results
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A Bend in the Breeze
When eleven-year-old Pascale Chardon finds herself on a lifeboat drifting toward an uncharted island with no memory of how she got there, all she wants is to get back to her family. The islanders, however, have a different objective.For many decades, the islanders have been anticipating the arrival of someone foretold only as the Long Awaited. The Long Awaited is said to have knowledge of the island’s future and will tell the islanders of their fate seventeen days after their arrival.At first Pascale is sure she’s not the Long Awaited, but when strange things begin to happen, she finds it impossible to be certain of anything. Could she be the Long Awaited after all? A Bend in the Breeze, award-winning author Valerie Sherrard’s 30th novel, is a delightful tale about the importance of love and compassion.
When Pascale Chardon finds herself on a lifeboat drifting toward an uncharted island with no memory of how she got there, all she wants is to get back to her family. The islanders, however, have a different objective.
For many decades, the islanders have waited for someone foretold only as the Long Awaited. The Long Awaited is said to have knowledge of the islanders? fate. At first Pascale is sure she?s not the Long Awaited, but when strange happenings occur, she finds it impossible to be certain of anything. Could she be the Long Awaited after all?
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Arrow through the Axes
$11.95Arrow through the Axes concludes the “Odyssey of a Slave” trilogy that began with the Red Maple-nominated Torn from Troy, retelling Homer’s Odyssey. The slave Alexi, now free of his Greek captors, infiltrates the Greek strongholds of the Bronze Age in search of his sister. In so doing he participates in the stories of Orestes, son of Agamemnon, as he seeks revenge for his father’s murder, and of Telemachus, son of Odysseus, who lands on Ithaca, the home island of Odysseus, just in time to witness the arrival of a mysterious stranger. As Alexi comes to understand the damage that the Trojan War has visited upon its victors, both he and the reader are forced to confront an unpleasant truth, while Alexi must decide where his allegiance really lies. Re-casting the Odyssey as a YA adventure, this trilogy brings ancient mythology to life in a way that traditional retellings cannot. We see what life would have been like for Bronze-Age warriors as Bowman interweaves adventure, ritual and historical detail into a realistic and compelling narrative. Readers who have experienced pop mythology, and now want to dive deeper, will find Arrow through the Axes especially satisfying, but all readers will enjoy this powerful excursion into the classic mythology that shaped western culture.
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Awesome Wildlife Defenders
$15.95Awesome Wildlife Defenders, a junior novel, is the story of eleven-year-old Rebecca, who tries to cope with her panic attacks. Life becomes complicated when she is teamed up with Weird Cedar, on her endangered species project. Her friendship with Frieda is tested when Frieda has to work with Bossy Brianna, the class bully. When Brianna calls Rebecca and Cedar lovebirds, Rebecca is devastated. And, Rebecca and her mom are told their little rental home is being sold. While working on the project of the endangered northern spotted owl, Rebecca discovers that Cedar is kind and a talented artist who carries an enormous burden. When Cedar’s father is released from jail, Rebecca wonders what’s worse, a father who is in jail or not knowing who and where her father is? Cedar’s grandfather takes them to the Raptors to watch a flying demonstration. Rebecca feels the magic when the great horned owl lands on her arm. Is it possible that this unforgettable moment will help her cope with future panic attacks? While staying with his father, Cedar disappears. Rebecca is determined to find him. The endangered species project brings all students together when they sew and sell felt owlets. Will her class raise enough money to adopt twelve endangered species? Will Rebecca and Mom find a place to live or will she be forced to change schools and lose Frieda and her other friends forever?
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Beginnings: Stories Of Canada’s Past
$12.95Ann Walsh has selected fourteen captivating stories written by accomplished authors from across Canada for this historical anthology. Each of the stories focuses on a “first-time” historical experience, such as the meeting between natives and Europeans at Fort St. James; the ship carrying filles du roi as brides for the settlers of New France; the first elections in which women in Canada were allowed to vote; the first gourmet meal cooked in a CPR rail camp for Cornelius Van Horne; a mine disaster in the Crowsnest Pass, with the subsequent introduction of safety lamps for the miners; and an account of the “Home Children” first sent to Canada during the nineteenth century, supposedly for a better life, but often to work in slave-labour conditions.
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Broken Trail
$11.95Broken Trail is the story a thirteen-year-old white boy, the son of United Empire Loyalists, who has been captured and adopted by the Oneida people. Striving to find his vision oki that will guide him in his quest to become a warrior, Broken Trail disavows his white heritage – he considers himself Oneida. But everything changes when Broken Trail, alone in the woods on his vision quest, is mistakenly shot by a redcoat soldier.
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Chaos in Halifax
$15.95“I wish I wasn’t a twin.” Twelve-year-old Jolene is determined to find independence from her brother, Michael, during a family trip to research the Halifax explosion of 1917 for her father’s Museum of Disasters. When her grandfather finds a time crease into the past, Jolene discovers a new friend and the importance of family and loyalty in a world torn apart by World War I. When Michael joins them, however, the past suddenly becomes much more complicated.
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Charlie
$12.95The story of the 100,000 British children who came to Canada as child immigrants between 1870 and 1938 is not well known. Yet the descendants of these “Home Children” number over four million people in Canada today. The author is one of them. Charlie was her father.
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Claws of the Panda
$24.95Claws of the Panda tells the story of Canada’s failure to construct a workable policy towards the People’s Republic of China. In particular the book tells of Ottawa’s failure to recognize and confront the efforts by the Chinese Communist Party to infiltrate and influence Canadian politics, academia, and media, and to exert control over Canadians of Chinese heritage. Claws of the Panda gives a detailed description of the CCP’s campaign to embed agents of influence in Canadian business, politics, media and academia. The party’s aims are to be able to turn Canadian public policy to China’s advantage, to acquire useful technology and intellectual property, to influence Canada’s international diplomacy, and, most important, to be able to monitor and intimidate Chinese Canadians and others it considers dissidents. The book traces the evolution of the Canada-China relationship over nearly 150 years. It shows how Canadian leaders have constantly misjudged the reality and potential of the relationship while the CCP and its agents have benefited from Canadian naivete.
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Cursed by the Sea God
$11.95The second volume in the trilogy that revisions Homer’s Odyssey is once again told from the viewpoint of Alexi, the young Trojan boy. Captured by Odysseus after the fall of Troy, Alexi is forced to accompany the Greeks on their sea journey home to Ithaca. Cursed by the Sea God contains many of the iconic adventures of the homeward journey, including the encounter with the keeper of the winds, the descent into Hades, the fateful visit to the cannibal Laestrygonians, the encounters with Circe the sorceress, the songs of the Sirens, and the deadly passage between the monster Scylla and the whirlpool Charybdis. Having earned his master’s respect in saving him from the Sirens, Alexi loses it all though mischance, and his own circumstances take a turn for the worse as he is given away to the most brutal soldier on the ship. It takes all of Alexi’s skill and determination just to stay alive.
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Dear Black Girls
$17.95Dear Black girls all around the world, this one is for you — for us.
Dear Black Girls is a letter to all Black girls. Every single day poet and educator Shanice Nicole is reminded of how special Black girls are and of how lucky she is to be one. Illustrations by Kezna Dalz support the book’s message that no two Black girls are the same but they are all special–that to be a Black girl is a true gift. In this celebratory poem, Kezna and Shanice remind young readers that despite differences, they all deserve to be loved just the way they are.
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Dial M for Morna
$11.95The anticipated second volume in Munday’s Silver Birch-nominated seriesOctober Schwartz and her five deadest friends are back. The holiday season has descended upon the town of Sticksville like an eggnog rainstorm, but October has no time for candy canes or mistletoe. She’s busy dealing with an oddly pleasant new history teacher, her living friends’ new roles as high-school radio DJs, and two (!) new mysteries that need solving before the new year. October and her ghost friends are hot on the trail of the person (or persons) responsible for Morna MacIsaac’s death in 1914 — or as hot as one can be on a 100-year-old trail — when October’s friend Yumi finds herself the target of anti-Asian harassment at school. Solving two mysteries at once won’t be easy, but our intrepid heroine in black eyeliner loves a challenge. Follow October, Cyril, Tabetha, Morna, Kirby, and Derek as they sleuth their way through a blizzard of suffragettes, iceskating disasters, mystical telephones, and boats named Titanic, all set against a backdrop of yuletide pandemonium.
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Emma’s Gift
$16.00Emma wants to participate in her community’s annual ‘King’s Day’ celebration that is held every year on January 6th. She loves to see the gifts that are given and hear the stories people tell when they visit. Her mother, however, feels that Emma is too young. When Emma’s grandmother hurts herself, Emma reluctantly agrees to help. In helping her grandmother prepare and serve her King’s Day meal, Emma discovers the meaning behind this special day. ‘King’s Day’ is about celebrating Christ’s birth and the Three Wise Kings who visited the baby Jesus bearing gifts on this holy day. Emma learns that ‘King’s Day’ is not only about exchanging gifts, it’s also about helping family and friends by giving one’s time. Beautifully illustrated by Jay Odjick.
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Eyewitness
$11.95Margaret Thompson offers a powerfully moving and historically accurate account of life in Fort St. James, in northern British Columbia, in the 1820s. Through the character of Peter, a young boy who is orphaned at the Fort, Thompson presents a vivid picture of the difficult life for both the fur traders and the Natives in what was then called the “Siberia” of the fur trade. Lonely and unsure of himself, Peter finds himself an eyewitness to a murder which threatens to destroy the good relations between the Company and the Carrier people. Through his friendship with the nephew of Chief Kwah of the Carrier, Peter comes to understand and sympathize with the Carrier culture, learning much about tolerance, compromise and acceptance, but also about the difficulties that divided loyalties can bring. Thompson also offers an innovative view of the role of women in the fur trade, painting a fascinating picture of the young James Douglas and his wife Amelia in the confrontation with Chief Kwah.
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Fantastic Frights
$25.00Evil dust bunnies, botanical horrors, werewolf landlords, and more! We’ve gathered all of our most thrilling tales together in this terrible tome of terrors, known only as… FANTASTIC FRIGHTS. Drawing inspiration from shows like, Tales from the Crypt and Freaky Stories, Fantastic Frights is a dreadfully delightful return to the pulp horror anthologies of the past, featuring stories from over 20 creators that are sure to entertain both new readers and seasoned horror veterans alike!
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Follow the Elephant
$12.95What thirteen-year-old boy wants to travel on a hopeless quest to India with his grandmother? Not Ben Leeson, whose anger about his father’s recent death has led him to escape into the isolated world of computer games. India is the last place Ben ever thought of visiting and his grandmother is the last person he’d ever dreamed of travelling with, but the ticket is already bought and Ben finds himself in India on a search for Gran’s long lost pen pal, Shanti. In the midst of insufferable heat, strange food and the constant haggling of street beggars, Ben and Gran meet magicians and snake charmers and see bodies burning on funeral pyres. As they search for clues across the huge continent, Ben finds himself strangely compelled to follow the magnificent elephants and the elephant boy-god Ganesh. The challenges of the journey teach Ben that real life can be more exciting than any computer game and that by accepting the dark mysteries of India, he can come to terms with his father’s death. This adventure quest for children ten and up takes its place among the many captivating adult books about India, and is an invaluable resource for school curriculum studies on world religions.
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Freedom Bound
$11.95In this third volume of the “Forging a Nation” series, eighteen-year-old Charlotte sails from Canada to Charleston in the beleaguered Thirteen Colonies to join her new husband Nick. During these final months of the American Revolution, she must muster all her wit and courage when she has to rescue Nick from being tortured as a spy in an alligator-infested South Carolina swamp. She must also find ways to bring freedom to a pair of teenage runaway slaves she has befriended. Freedom Bound delivers a frank and realistic picture of the slave system and a powerful account of what was at stake for both white and black Loyalists as they prepared to find a new home in the country that was soon to be Canada. Like The Way Lies North and Broken Trail, the two novels that preceded it, Freedom Bound contains a wealth of carefully researched historical details of one of the least known chapters of our history.