Dear Canada: Prisoners in the Promised Land

Dear Canada: Prisoners in the Promised Land
Author: Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
Publisher: Scholastic Canada
Total Pages: 211
Release: 2012-09-01
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1443124044

The heart-wrenching story of one girl's experience at a Ukrainian internment camp in Quebec during World War I Anya's family emigrates from the Ukraine hoping for a fresh start and a new life in Canada. Soon after they cram into a tiny apartment in Montreal, WWI is declared. Because their district was annexed by Austria — now at war with the Commonwealth — many Ukrainians in Canada are declared "enemy aliens" and sent to internment camps. Anya and her family are shipped off to the Spirit Lake Camp, in the remote wilderness of Quebec. Though conditions are brutal, at least Anya is at a camp that houses entire families together, and even in this barbed-wire world, she is able to make new friends and bring some happiness to the people around her. Author Marsha Skrypuch, whose own grandfather was interned during WWI at a camp in Alberta, travelled to Spirit Lake during her research for the book. "When we got to the cemetery, I was overwhelmed with emotion. Imagine seeing a series of crosses, all grown over with brush and abandoned, and knowing that the real person you based a character on had a little sister buried there? That real little girl was Mary Manko. She was only six years old when she and her family were taken from their Montreal home and sent to Spirit Lake Internment Camp. Her two-year-old sister Carolka died at the camp. Mary Manko is in her nineties now and is the last known survivor of the Ukrainian internment operations." explains Skrypuch.

Prisoners in the Promised Land

Prisoners in the Promised Land
Author: Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
Publisher: Scholastic Canada
Total Pages: 243
Release: 2007
Genre: Canadiens d'origine ukrainienne / Évacuation et relogement, 1914-1920 / Romans, nouvelles, etc. pour la jeunesse
ISBN: 9780439956925

The heart-wrenching story of one girl's experience at a Ukrainian internment camp in Quebec during World War I Anya's family emigrates from the Ukraine hoping for a fresh start and a new life in Canada. Soon after they cram into a tiny apartment in Montreal, WWI is declared. Because their district was annexed by Austria -- now at war with the Commonwealth -- many Ukrainians in Canada are declared "enemy aliens" and sent to internment camps. Anya and her family are shipped off to the Spirit Lake Camp, in the remote wilderness of Quebec. Though conditions are brutal, at least Anya is at a camp that houses entire families together, and even in this barbed-wire world, she is able to make new friends and bring some happiness to the people around her. Author Marsha Skrypuch, whose own grandfather was interned during WWI at a camp in Alberta, travelled to Spirit Lake during her research for the book. "When we got to the cemetery, I was overwhelmed with emotion. Imagine seeing a series of crosses, all grown over with brush and abandoned, and knowing that the real person you based a character on had a little sister buried there? That real little girl was Mary Manko. She was only six years old when she and her family were taken from their Montreal home and sent to Spirit Lake Internment Camp. Her two-year-old sister Carolka died at the camp. Mary Manko is in her nineties now and is the last known survivor of the Ukrainian internment operations." explains Skrypuch.

A Trail of Broken Dreams

A Trail of Broken Dreams
Author: Barbara Haworth-Attard
Publisher: Markham, Ont. : Scholastic Canada
Total Pages: 168
Release: 2004
Genre: Cariboo (B.C. : Regional district)
ISBN: 9780439974059

Still reeling from the death of her mother, Harriet sets out on a dangerous journey -- disguised as a boy, since no "petticoats" are allowed on the trip -- determined to find her missing father in the gold fields of British Columbia's Cariboo. The journey itself is incredibly difficult, and Harriet still has to find her father before the winter snows close down the entire Williams Creek area. Will she be able to find him, or will her journey be for nothing?

Dear Canada: A Season for Miracles

Dear Canada: A Season for Miracles
Author: Gillian Chan
Publisher: Scholastic Canada
Total Pages: 202
Release: 2012-09-01
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1443119962

Twelve original holiday stories from the top children's writers in the country! What an incredible gift book for Dear Canada fans! The twelve stories in this treasury are set around Christmas time and feature the young girls from a dozen previous Dear Canada books. Readers will be thrilled to reconnect with their favourites and get a glimpse of each character's life a year or so after the events in the actual diary are over. Anyone new to the Dear Canada series will be introduced to characters so compelling, they'll want to read more.

Making Bombs for Hitler

Making Bombs for Hitler
Author: Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Total Pages: 215
Release: 2017-02-28
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 0545931924

For readers who were enthralled by Alan Gratz's PRISONER B-3087 comes a gripping novel about a lesser-known part of WWII. Lida thought she was safe. Her neighbors wearing the yellow star were all taken away, but Lida is not Jewish. She will be fine, won't she?But she cannot escape the horrors of World War II.Lida's parents are ripped away from her and she is separated from her beloved sister, Larissa. The Nazis take Lida to a brutal work camp, where she and other Ukrainian children are forced into backbreaking labor. Starving and terrified, Lida bonds with her fellow prisoners, but none of them know if they'll live to see tomorrow.When Lida and her friends are assigned to make bombs for the German army, Lida cannot stand the thought of helping the enemy. Then she has an idea. What if she sabotaged the bombs... and the Nazis? Can she do so without getting caught?And if she's freed, will she ever find her sister again?This pulse-pounding novel of survival, courage, and hope shows us a lesser-known piece of history -- and is sure to keep readers captivated until the last page.

Brothers Far from Home

Brothers Far from Home
Author: Jean Little
Publisher: Markham, Ont. : Scholastic Canada
Total Pages: 235
Release: 2003
Genre: Canada
ISBN: 9780439969000

With more than 200,000 books in print, Dear Canada has fast become the historical fiction series for young girls. It has been two long years since Eliza's beloved older brother, Hugo, went away to war. Caught up in his enthusiasm, she couldn't understand her parent's less-than enthusiastic reaction. Now that her other brother Jack has also enlisted, she yearns for the safe return of both brothers. If only she had a friend that she could talk to about her feelings....

Dear Canada Christmas Story No. 2: An Unexpected Visitor

Dear Canada Christmas Story No. 2: An Unexpected Visitor
Author: Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
Publisher: Scholastic Canada
Total Pages: 24
Release: 2012-12-01
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1443124184

A holiday treat for fans of the Dear Canada series, and all lovers of historical fiction! Friendship and forgiveness are at the heart of this Christmas story. Anya's family was forced to spend part of World War I at Spirit Lake Internment Camp. They were regarded not only as foreigners but as "enemy aliens" who needed to be kept apart for Canada's security. Poverty still dogs them, even though Anya's factory job helps out. Yet this Christmas promises to be happier than last year in the isolated internment camp . . . if old resentments can be laid to rest. This short story was originally published in Dear Canada: A Christmas to Remember, a collection featuring many of Canada's top writers for children, including Jean Little, Sarah Ellis, Maxine Trottier, Carol Matas, and more. New readers will adore this stand-alone holiday tale, while fans of the series will recognize the voice of Anya, whom they first met in the award-winning Dear Canada book Prisoners in the Promised Land. Collect all 12 Dear Canada Christmas stories this season and enjoy a very happy holiday!

Dear Canada: To Stand on My Own

Dear Canada: To Stand on My Own
Author: Barbara Haworth-Attard
Publisher: Scholastic Canada
Total Pages: 148
Release: 2015-12-01
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 1443128155

The dark threat of polio becomes a reality for a young Prairie girl. In the summer of 1937, life on the Prairies is not easy. The Great Depression has brought great hardship, and young Noreen's family must scrimp to make ends meet. In a horrible twist of fate, Noreen, like hundreds of other young Canadians, contracts polio and is placed in an isolation ward, unable to move her legs. After a few weeks she gains partial recovery, but her family makes the painful decision to send her to a hospital far away for further treatment. To Stand On My Own is Noreen's diary account of her journey through recovery: her treatment; life in the ward; the other patients, some of them far worse off than her; adjustment to life in a wheelchair and on crutches; and ultimately, the emotional and physical hurdles she must face when she returns home. In this moving addition to the Dear Canada series, award-winning author Barbara Haworth-Attard recreates a desolate time in Canadian history, and one girl's brave fight against a deadly disease.

A Rebel's Daughter

A Rebel's Daughter
Author: Janet Lunn
Publisher:
Total Pages: 201
Release: 2006
Genre: Canada
ISBN: 9780439969673

After Arabella's father is jailed for his part in the short-lived 1837 Upper Canada Rebellion in Toronto, her mother just cannot cope. The family is ostracized, they lose their home and they have no income -- yet Arabella's mother still doesn't take action. So it is up to twelve-year-old Arabella to find new lodgings and to get employment so they have money to live on. And as if that weren't enough to worry about, her older brother Charlie has vanished. Readers will cheer for the heroine in this "riches to rags" story as Arabella struggles to keep her family afloat while awaiting her father's release from prison. A Rebel's Daughter includes an Historical Note giving readers the cultural context of the Upper Canada Rebellion, a map showing 1837 Toronto, as well as fascinating documents and photographs from this pivotal time period.

An Ocean Apart

An Ocean Apart
Author: Gillian Chan
Publisher: Markham, Ont. : Scholastic Canada
Total Pages: 217
Release: 2004
Genre: Canada Emigration and immigration Government policy History 20th century Juvenile fiction
ISBN: 9780779113538

With over 400,000 books already in print, the Dear Canada series has fast become the book series for children. Each fictional diary invites readers into the world of a girl living through a particular period in Canada's past. Gillian Chan's latest addition illustrates the effect the Chinese Head Tax has on one young girl and her family. Mei-ling and her father are struggling to pay the head tax that will allow her mother and brother, who are still living in China, to come to Canada. They must have that money before the impending Exclusion Act bars any more Chinese from immigrating. What will happen if they can't come up with enough in time to reunite their family?