The Gargoyle at the Gates

Christopher has a problem. He has just moved to Toronto. He has a new school and no friends. But even worse, the park next door is creepy: voices whisper in the bushes, and “something” throws apples at his window and howls at the moon. But what? Gargoyles! Their names are Gargoth and Ambergine, and they need help.

The Grave Robber’s Apprentice

Hans doesn’t know who he is or where he came from. When he was a baby, he washed ashore in a wooden box and was adopted by the conniving grave robber Knobbe the Bent. Now fate has thrown him together with Angela von Schwanenberg, a young countess fleeing for her life from the evil Archduke Arnulf and his dreaded necromancer. Together, these friends are on a daring quest to discover Hans’ true identity and to save Angela’s parents from the archduke. In this world, anything is possible with luck and imagination – even for a grave robber’s apprentice.

Terrier

In the Tortall’s capital city of Corus, the Lord Provost and his guards – known as Dogs – keep peace and order. Beka Cooper is a trainee guard (a Puppy) and this book follows her first three months on the streets through the medium of her journal. Beka and her senior Dogs use their training and her special brand of magic in order to seek a child-stealer and murderer that has been masquerading for the last three years in a child’s nightmare fable. Pierce’s genre of choice is fantasy, but this book also owes a lot to the police procedural. Despite the length, it is a quick and engaging read, and anyone looking for a strong and capable heroine need look no further.

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Silverwing

In Silverwing, Kenneth Oppel has created a quasi-fantasy world about bats, which sounds crazy, but it absolutely works. It tells the story of Shade, a young and runty Silverwing bat, who gets blown out to sea on his first winter migration south. Suddenly without any of his colony and only a song-map to guide him, Shade acquires a new friend and more than a few enemies as he tries to follow his mother’s directions and rejoin his family before winter overtakes him.

This is a great book by a Canadian author that you will devour!  It’s got everything: animal story?  Check!  The little-character-that-could? Absolutely! Adventure? Yes, please! Your book also comes with: world-building, mythology, spunky side-kicks, and evil villains.

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Sleeping Beauty: the One Who Took a Really Long Nap

Wendy Mass tells charming stories, so it seems natural that she would do a reinterpretation of Sleeping Beauty and her Prince Charming. This time around, however, the poor prince lacks a name! His mother’s ogre blood prevents her from loving beauty, and it seemed best to avoid giving him one — you know, just in case he got eaten. These things happen. However, Prince managed to live to become a young adult, and he suddenly realises that his strange life in the palace is actually stranger than it seems. You see, there seems to be an exact replica of his castle just down the way, completely covered in vines and forest brush.

100 years earlier, Princess Rose attempts to live her life despite her fairy curse of death at the prick of a spindle. Her parents have her followed constantly by ladies in waiting, and have to send out to the next kingdom over for clothing, as all sewing implements were forbidden. Besides being cursed, she also has fairy gifts, but these don’t make her happy as she’s not sure who the real Rose is without the beautiful singing, perfect dancing, grace, intelligence, and poise. She begins a mission to find something she can do well on her own, when her curse catches up to her.

Told from both Prince and Rose’s point of view, you get a compact little story about self-discovery and love of all kinds.

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Willie O’Ree

This story of the first black hockey player in the National Hockey League includes information about black history in Canada and some history about the hockey leagues of black communities. Willie O’ Ree‘s grandparents came to Canada by the underground railroad, to flee slavery. His family was one of two black families in Fredricton NB and the book tells the story of Willie’s journey from childhood to the NHL. The book is small in size and a quick read which includes several pictures. This book is nominated for a Red Cedar Award. I would highly recommend this book to hockey fans and those interested in the history of human rights.