Books published by publisher Ronsdale Press

Young Adult Fiction. In OUTLAW IN INDIA, the fifth volume in the best-selling Submarine Outlaw series, Alfred and his crew of Seaweed the seagull and Hollie the dog begin their exploration of India with a piece of bad luck when they surface behind a frigate and bring the wrath of the Indian navy down upon them. After a near fatal encounter off Kochi, Alfred befriends a ten-year-old homeless and illiterate but highly intelligent boy, and is given the chance to explore the changing face of India through the eyes of one of its "untouchables." Discovering India to be an ancient land filled with extremes of beauty, wealth, tradition and danger, Alfred is tricked into making an overland pilgrimage to Varanasi, one of the world's oldest cities. Along the journey he witnesses practices which deny human equality and dignity, but also happy events that celebrate the spirit of new beginnings, as personified in Ganesh, the Hindu god with four arms and the head of an elephant. Alfred cannot help falling in love with India, the most beautiful place he has ever seen. And for the first time, he leaves a part of himself behind.

The fifth volume in the “Forging a Nation” series begins in 1791. The year a new province is created in the country that will one day be called Canada. The year Hope Cobman’s life turns around. At thirteen, she must leave the orphanage where she has lived since her mother’s death one year ago. Alone in the world, she dreams of finding her father and three brothers — all complete strangers to her, for even before her birth the American Revolution had scattered her family. Forced into becoming an indentured servant, she is little more than a slave to a lonely man and his bitter, crippled mother. Finally set free, she sets off on her own. But instead of finding a father and a brother who will take care of her, she learns that it is up to her to help them recover from the wounds of war. Along the way, she discovers her own strength. For Hope, and for all the Loyalists of Upper Canada, a brighter future lies ahead.

In Outlaw in India, the fifth volume in the best-selling Submarine Outlaw series, Alfred and his crew of Seaweed the seagull and Hollie the dog begin their exploration of India with a piece of bad luck when they surface behind a frigate and bring the wrath of the Indian navy down upon them. After a near fatal encounter off Kochi, Alfred befriends a ten-year-old homeless and illiterate but highly intelligent boy, and is given the chance to explore the changing face of India through the eyes of one of its “untouchables.” Discovering India to be an ancient land filled with extremes of beauty, wealth, tradition and danger, Alfred is tricked into making an overland pilgrimage to Varanasi, one of the world’s oldest cities. Along the journey he witnesses practices which deny human equality and dignity, but also happy events that celebrate the spirit of new beginnings, as personified in Ganesh, the Hindu god with four arms and the head of an elephant. Alfred cannot help falling in love with India, the most beautiful place he has ever seen. And for the first time, he leaves a part of himself behind.

In the third volume of the Submarine Outlaw series, Alfred sets off in his submarine up the dark and wilful St. Lawrence River. With Hollie and Seaweed, his dog and seagull crew, Alfred follows the route of Jacques Cartier, nearly five hundred years before them, as they sail down the Strait of Belle Isle into the largest river mouth in the world. But the St. Lawrence is a treacherous river, concealing many dangers beneath its surface, not least of all the cursed and ghostly Empress of Ireland, a sunken ocean-liner that has claimed the lives of over a thousand people and that reaches up to entangle the sub as they pass. Alfred must sail to Montreal to confront the man who abandoned him at birth — his father. Only then will he escape the unfinished business that haunts him. But is the quest worth the danger? And why is Alfred plagued with bad luck? Is someone, or something, trying to turn him back?

Stealth of the Ninja, book eight in the “Submarine Outlaw” series, brings Alfred, our courageous and idealistic protagonist, to a whole new level of experience when he pilots his homemade submarine to Japan. Here he visits a strange old man who lives on an abandoned freighter drifting on the sea. The man — a ninja, in fact — challenges Al to acquire greater physical strength and stealth. But it is also the time of the 2011 tsunami, and the giant wave capsizes and sinks the ship, taking his new teacher with it. Al barely escapes in his sub. Certain that the old man is still alive and trapped inside the sunken ship, Al faces the difficult decision of whether to attempt a most dangerous rescue. Should a seventeen-year-old put his life at great risk to save a one-hundred-year-old man? Or can one sometimes say that the risk is simply too great? Al must decide quickly. Time is running out.

Fiction. Young Adult. STEALTH OF THE NINJA, book eight in the "Submarine Outlaw" series, brings Alfred, our courageous and idealistic protagonist, to a whole new level of experience when he pilots his homemade submarine to Japan. Here he visits a strange old man who lives on an abandoned freighter drifting on the sea. The man — a ninja, in fact — challenges Al to acquire greater physical strength and stealth. But it is also the time of the 2011 tsunami, and the giant wave capsizes and sinks the ship, taking his new teacher with it. Al barely escapes in his sub. Certain that the old man is still alive and trapped inside the sunken ship, Al faces the difficult decision of whether to attempt a most dangerous rescue. Should a seventeen-year-old put his life at great risk to save a one-hundred-year-old man? Or can one sometimes say that the risk is simply too great? Al must decide quickly. Time is running out.

The Kingdom of No Worries is the story of three young friends who create their own kingdom on a piece of land that emerges in the middle of the river that runs through their city. Inspired by their actions to create a democracy that is a model of social tolerance and global thinking, the surrounding community turns out in the thousands to participate in what becomes a radical cultural hub of the city. Over the course of one hot summer the boys grapple to learn what a democracy is and to oversee its demands. Alas, their nascent sovereignty is challenged first by a civic order of eviction, then by valid First Nations land claims, and ultimately by nature itself. Can the utopian dream be saved? The Kingdom of No Worries is an empowering tale that speaks to the archetypal dream that all children have to create their own world.

Ghosts of the Pacific, the fourth volume in the best-selling Submarine Outlaw series, begins with Alfred and his crew of Seaweed the seagull and Hollie the dog undertaking a harrowing journey through the icy gauntlet of the Northwest Passage on the way to the South Pacific. Alfred wants to see those dark places of the earth where horrendous events have taken place. He sets his sights on exotic Micronesia — a beautiful place, but home to the nuclear testing of Bikini Lagoon; the Suicide Cliffs of Saipan; the airfields of Tinian, where the Enola Gay lifted off with the atomic bomb; and the Marshall Islands, which may conceal secrets to the mystery of Amelia Earhart's final days. Yet even with these past tragedies in mind, Alfred discovers that the world is facing an even greater threat today. As they sail into the hot, hazy world of the Pacific, they encounter the ruthless killing practices of shrimp trawlers and an island of plastic the size of Texas. Along the way, Alfred, Hollie and Seaweed befriend the crew of an environmental protection ship, who help to inspire him to take on a new goal: to protect the oceans of the world.

It’s spring break, and 14-year-old Hannah Anderson is spending it with the “Coast-Is-Clear” program, a group committed to cleaning Pacific Rim National Park Reserve’s beaches of debris that has drifted across the Pacific from the tragic Japanese tsunami of 2011. Soon after Hannah arrives, Jack, her raven sidekick, discovers something washed up in the surf: a luminous glass ball marked with a strange Japanese character. Immediately, unusual things start to happen, beginning with the arrival of “Kimiko,” a Japanese girl with a secret past. Kimiko, it turns out, is part spirit fox (kitsune) and is here to reclaim the source of her power — the glass star ball she lost in the tsunami. Even with her star ball, however, Kimiko’s magic is dangerous and unpredictable, and hiding her true identity proves a challenge. But Hannah knows the truth, and with the help of Jack and a mysterious wolf waiting in the forest’s shadows, she is determined to help Kimiko find her place in the world.

Young Adult Fiction. In SEAS OF SOUTH AFRICA, the sixth volume in the best-selling Submarine Outlaw series, it has been over two years since the young explorer first set sail in his own submarine, with his dog and seagull crew. Now, almost seventeen, Alfred is on the cusp of switching from exploring the world to playing an active environmentalist role in protecting the sea that he loves so dearly. Brought into conflict with the pirate scourge that plagues Africa's eastern shores, Alfred takes action against them, only to bring them into tireless pursuit of him. Escaping overland to Johannesburg, with a reckless young inventor from Soweto, Alfred discovers that the violence which taints the shores of the continent is deeply embedded in the life of South African society, so recently freed from apartheid. Despairing at the cruelty inflicted upon his friend, Alfred learns that the antidote to violence is not more violence, but the strength of one's heart and an indomitable determination to improve the world, as exemplified in the life of Nelson Mandela. Armed with new inspiration, Alfred is ready to become the eco-warrior he was destined to be.

This young adult historical novel focuses on Charlotte and her family, Loyalists who are forced to flee their home in the Mohawk Valley as a result of the violence of the “Sons of Liberty” during the American Revolution. At the beginning, fifteen-year-old Charlotte Hooper is separated from her sweetheart, Nick, who sympathizes with the Revolutionaries. The war has already taken the lives of her three brothers, and it is with a sense of desperation that Charlotte and her parents begin the long trek north to the safety of Fort Haldimand (near present-day Kingston). The novel portrays Charlotte’s struggle on the difficult journey north, and the even more difficult task of making a new home in British Canada. In her relationship with Nick, the novel explores how the ideals of the American Revolution were undermined by a revolutionary ethos of violence. In the flight north, the Mohawk nation plays an important role, and Charlotte learns much about their customs and way of life, to the point where she is renamed “Woman of Two Worlds.” Later in the novel she is able to repay her Native friends when she plays an important part in helping the Oneidas to become once again members of the Iroquois confederacy under British protection. The story of Charlotte’s journey north is a tale of paradise lost and a new world gained. Strong and capable, Charlotte breaks the stereotype of the eighteenth-century woman, while revealing the positive relationship between the Loyalists and the Native peoples.