Books with author Karen Bao

The Fourth Down needs a drummer, and Sidney's easily the best in the school. But the all-male band has conditions for her to be allowed in—such as dressing like a girl. Accustomed to invisibility, Sid soon discovers the consequences to her makeover. It's not only that playing kit in a skirt is impractical. But as someone once taunted about her sexuality for being a drum-playing girl who likes shop class, now Sid is forced to deal with guys who think her new look makes her fair game. Sidney begins to realize the price of compromising who you really are.

A troubled Alberta teen spending a summer in Germany discovers the story of a teen with real problems -- pregnant and alone in the maelstrom of When Canadian teen Delora James finds herself banished to Germany for the summer, reading the professor's old journals seems like a good time- waster. Once Del begins to read the translated diary of Garda - a teenager in World War II, pregnant and desperate - she is engaged by Garda's compelling story. Through a series of rebellions, she begins to draw similarities between her own world and Garda's, and is able to see past her own hostility. Sixteen-year-old Delora has been shipped off to Hamburg, Germany to live with her controlling sister. Her 'behaviour' at home has caused considerable concern so she is under house arrest till she proves she can behave otherwise. Through her sister, she meets an English professor who asks her advice on a book she is working on. Del then encounters 16-year-old Garda, whose journals make up the professor's story. Del is transported back to Nazi Germany in the Fall of 1942, is riveted by Garda's story and draws parallels not only between the places they reside but in the oppression they both feel. Garda's rape by a member of the Hilter youth, the subsquent pregancy and enstrangement from her family resonate with the reader and with Del. We are presented with the horrors of the Nazi regime through the eyes of an innocent girl. It is a strong dose of life for Del and mirrors so many of her conflicts. As Garda breaks free of her oppression, Del finds strength and acceptance of her world and those who love her.

A fast-paced middle-grade offering from internationally acclaimed author Karen Bass Reluctantly touring Halifax with his family, twelve-year-old Laz Berenger accidentally stumbles through a time tunnel to a 1745 war zone. Caught by English sailors from the American colonies, his only hope for freedom is to spy for them in the French fortification at Louisbourg. But he finds himself torn in three directions when the commander at Louisbourg becomes closer to him than his own father. Angry over his family’s recent move and current enforced holiday in Halifax, twelve-year-old Laz Berenger rebels against a guided tour of the Citadel and sets out to explore on his own. In one dark tunnel, his St. Christopher medal burns suddenly hot. There’s a strange smell, and Laz blacks out. When he wakes up, everything happens at once. A sword is put to his throat. Men who look like extras from Pirates of the Caribbean hand him over to a ship’s captain who strips him and takes his medal. He is declared a French spy. Laz realizes, to his horror, that it is 1745 and he is trapped in time. These English colonists, still loyal to King George, are at war with the French. To earn his freedom, Laz must promise to spy on the French at the fortification of Louisbourg. But once in Louisbourg, Laz earns a job as runner to the kind Commander Morpain and learns to love both the man and the town. How will Laz find a way to betray the inhabitants of Louisbourg? How else can he hope to earn back his St. Christopher medal, which is surely his key to returning to his own time? The award-winning author of The Hill and Graffiti Knight has written an enthralling, swash-buckling time-slip adventure for middle-grade readers centered on a fascinating period in North American history.

It's WWII. Erich, a young German prisoner of war who dislikes Nazism, and Max, the twelve-year-old son of German immigrants, become friends when Erich is sent to work at a Canadian logging camp near Max’s town. But with a saboteur haunting the logging camp and anti-German feeling running high in town, their friendship puts them both in danger. Seventeen-year-old Erich is a prisoner of war working at a northern Alberta logging camp. Twelve-year-old Max goes to school―reluctantly―in the nearby town. The two would be unlikely friends, except that neither has anyone else to turn to. At the height of World War II, nobody wants to befriend a German. It doesn’t matter that Erich was forced into the military by his father, or that Max was proudly born in Canada. They are both easy targets for the locals’ grief and anger against the Nazis. The other prisoners are no more welcoming, distrustful of Erich’s perfect English and his dislike for Nazism. Still, when a series of accidents shake the logging camp, they pressure Erich to question the Canadians and find the saboteur―even if his questions get him into trouble. Caught between angry prisoners and suspicious captors, Erich is afraid to take any action at all. It is only when Max’s schoolyard tormentors cross a dangerous line that Erich realizes that his real loyalties lie not with a regime or a country, but with his friend.

Martha has to make a flower delivery to a supposedly haunted house. But who ordered the flowers? Is someone fixing up the house? Or was it truly a ghost Martha saw in the spooky darkness? Whoever or whatever it was, Martha knows she has to follow and protect Helen who has gone to investigate. The question is: who will protect Martha?Fun word activities in the paperback include a word scramble and ghostly riddle. Also includes spooky stickers!

What is Martha’s favorite food?Anything on your plate!One of the best things about being able to talk is telling jokes. Depending on the joke, anyway! This joke book, created with the early reader in mind, is packed with pet-themed humor, from knock-knock jokes to wordplay and riddles. Kids will love sharing the jokes with their family and friends, whether their audience groans or giggles.For more Martha antics, visit www.marthathetalkingdog.com.

Martha the talking dog loves rolling in garbage. Martha's family loves Martha, but they DO NOT like how she smells! Finally, Dad puts his foot down: Until Martha takes a bath, she is not allowed in the house. When will their showdown over the freedom to stink end? As soon as possible, if Helen's plan to help Dad and Martha make amends works!This level 1 Green Light Reader incorporates rebus images into a simple text for the earliest reader. With its gross-out humor and full-color illustrations, this reader based on PBS's popular TV showMartha Speaks is ideal for reluctant and beginning readers. Includes a rebus matching activity!

Kurt's opa--or grandfather--has never been willing to talk about his time as a German soldier and Kurt has a deep feeling of anxiety about what he might have done during the war. He thinks of films he's seen, like Schindler's List, and hopes his grandfather couldn't have been involved in atrocities. Spending a year in Germany seems like a good chance to find out more, or at least to improve his German. One day he visits the graveyard in the town he's living in (just outside Berlin) and an old man speaks to him, calling him by his grandfather's name, which was also Kurt Schreiber. In time Kurt gets to know this man, who is the only one who can tell him all about his grandfather's time in the war--because he was there. Kurt learns about his grandfather's childhood in the Hitler Youth and his time in the German army on the Eastern Front. Herr Brandt doesn't try to minimize the horror of those times or to absolve himself of responsibility as a soldier, but through his story, Kurt comes to understand how as children and later as young men the two were drawn into participation in a war based on lies. This wonderfully written and carefully researched novel tells a story that illuminates history and fills in the texture and complexity that lie behind the bare facts.

When Canadian teen Delora James finds herself banished to Germany for the summer, reading the professor's old journals seems like a good time-waster. Once Del begins to read the translated diary of Garda―a teenager in World War II, pregnant and desperate―she is engaged by Garda's compelling story. Through a series of rebellions, she begins to draw similarities between her own world and Garda's, and is able to see past her own hostility. Sixteen-year-old Delora has been shipped off to Hamburg, Germany to live with her controlling sister. Her 'behaviour' at home has caused considerable concern so she is under house arrest till she proves she can behave otherwise. Through her sister, she meets an English professor who asks her advice on a book she is working on. Del then encounters 16-year-old Garda, whose journals make up the professor's story. Del is transported back to Nazi Germany in the Fall of 1942, is riveted by Garda's story and draws parallels not only between the places they reside in but in the oppression they both feel. Garda's rape by a member of the Hilter youth, the subsquent pregancy and enstrangement from her family resonate with the reader and with Del. We are presented with the horrors of the Nazi regime through the eyes of an innocent girl. It is a strong dose of life for Del and mirrors so many of her conflicts. As Garda breaks free of her oppression, Del finds strength and acceptance of her world and those who love her. Karen Bass has been interested in World War II since childhood. She began writing shortly after she was hired to manage a local library, and her stories and articles have been published in local newspapers, magazine and anthologies, and nationally in Writers Circle Nine and the Canadian Writer's Journal. Her first novel, Run Like Jäger has received numerous accolades.