Books published by publisher Ronsdale Press

When Sophie LaGrange hears that her idol, Olympic gold medal winner Barbara Ann Scott, is coming to town to star in the Hollywood Ice Review in the fall of 1951, she can’t wait to meet the famous figure skater. But Sophie’s mother says they can’t afford the tickets for the show, so Sophie plots to meet Barbara Ann some other way, including asking her older brother Joseph to take her to his hockey practice on the back of his new motorcycle on the chance that she’ll see Barbara Ann practising. As Sophie tries to figure out a plan to see Barbara Ann, she also worries about running into an infamous motorcycle gang, the Satan’s Rebels. Sophie is horrified when she learns that the Satan’s Rebels are trying to convince Joseph to join them. Will Sophie get to see her idol? And how can she prevent her brother from joining such a dangerous gang?

Young Adult Fiction. This young adult novel features two Canadian sailors whose ship is torpedoed at sea during WWII and whose shore leave takes them to a run-down manor house in Cornwall. Their stay turns out to be more exciting than the boys could have imagined, as they soon discover that sinister forces have an interest in what lies hidden below the house: the Nazis have hatched an unprecedented scheme involving biological warfare, and it seems the caves are the perfect place from which to set the destruction in motion.

This modern fantasy novel set in London tells the story of Elizabeth, a twelve-year-old Canadian girl who feels homesick and lonely after her mother’s death when her father moves them to London. Soon, however, she meets an assortment of unusual characters and a strange adventure unfolds. Evil forces appear in the shape of the Hunter whom Elizabeth must face as she battles to keep alive the trees on whose survival hang the lives of many people, including Elizabeth’s young friend Thomas. Readers walk the wire between the real and the unreal, carefully lured into the story by Brenna’s engrossing depiction of the everyday and of the fantastic.

Molly Brown’s mum is a clown, but Molly longs desperately for normalcy, including ordinary dinners and regular hours, and most of all, her vanished father. Molly’s frenetic search for him draws her Chinese-Canadian friend Trouper into an adventure that leaves readers laughing over the duo’s escapades, appalled at the risks desperate children undertake, and moved by the love that ultimately binds friends and family together.

In this YA novel, Margaret Thompson offers a powerfully moving and historically accurate account of life in Fort St. James, in northern British Columbia, in the 1820s through the eyes of Peter, a young boy who is orphaned at the Fort. 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.

The 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. Charlie is a compelling account of a poor English boy who works his way out of poverty to eventually become a high-ranking member of the RCMP. Charlie's story, like many others, is an inspiring part of our Canadian heritage, and will fascinate adults as well as children.