Books published by publisher Coteau Books

Now a formidable Sorceress, Eliza Tok at sixteen is a world away from the unknowing child she once was. But unlike the previous Shang Sorceresses, Eliza will always act out of love, for those she loves, above all else. Above even the greater good of the worlds Tian Di and Tian Xia? The Mancers, and her enemy the Xia Sorceress, think so. And Eliza, when she unhesitatingly uses her tremendous abilities to save her best friend Charlie from a terrible attack, is inclined to agree.As Eliza, Charlie, Nell, and the ever-loyal Mancer teacher Foss embark on a quest to protect Charlie’s life from an unrelenting enemy, Eliza is brought to the very edge of what she can withstand, both as a Sorceress and as a human girl. Forced to trust her enemies, to face up to devastating truths, and to gather the greatest and most Ancient power her world has ever known, she must confront and question her most profoundly held beliefs. Is Eliza powerful enough to shape her destiny, or will she let it shape her?

It’s 1842. 14-year-old Jennie Lawrence has been found guilty of stealing, and finds herself aboard one of the few women-only convict ships destined for Australia.Jennie had been desperate – and, as she gets to know the other women on the convict ship – she realizes she’s not the only one. Many of the women she gets to know were trying to survive, and feed themselves and their families, before they were caught and sentenced to Australia.It’s clear from the moment the ship sets sail that the conditions aboard are abhorrent – women are sea sick and ill from the lack of good food and water, they are beaten if they disobey orders, and sleep brings no reprieve – as bed bugs, rats, and other parasites attack them in the night.The only way for the women to survive the boat ride is if they band together. And so, with the help of her new “family” - Sarah, Bridget, and Alice - and other convicts, Jennie battles the jailers, the ship, and the sea. But will it be enough to set them free?

Will Poppy has always been fascinated with writing - he thinks there’s something almost... magical about it. But when his mother passes away, Will finds himself stuck living with his awful aunt, unable to write a single word (despite the fact that two Muses will not leave him alone), and handed a mysterious package which includes an old picture of his grandparents and a piece of cloth with the words "The Griffin of Darkwood" on it.When his aunt decides to move both of them to a small village, Will is excited for a new adventure, and in a castle no less! But after a rude welcome to the town that includes stories about a curse, and an introduction to the servants of the castle who evidently mean to cause him harm, Will’s sense of dread about the whole village rises.What is the curse the villagers all claim has been on the castle for hundreds of years, and what does it have to do with the disappearance of a young girl forty years ago? More importantly, what’s The Griffin of Darkwood, and what does it have to do with Will and his family?

Hong Mei and her single mother have had to move from town to town in modern China – as soon as townsfolk get suspicious that her mother’s magical healing powers are, in fact, truly magical, they move on, usually in the middle of the night. But Hong Mei has started getting emails from someone named Madam Ching, who claims to have information on her long-missing father.Ryan and Alex are Chinese-Canadian brothers who have lived with their aunt and uncle since their parents died in a mysterious fire. They are just going to visit relatives in Hong Kong as far as they know, just as the New Year’s celebrations begin for the Chinese Year of the Golden Dragon.What they are about to discover, as they magically connect with Hong Mei, is that there is a link between the fire that killed their parents and Madam Ching, between the ancient jade pendants they all wear and the Chinese myth of the Black Dragon. And why all these strange things start happening on the eve of the Year of the Golden Dragon.East and West, ancient and modern, the mystical and practical, all collide as the trio races against time from Hong Kong to Beijing and finally to the famous Imperial tomb of Xian, where they meet their fate and discover what they are truly made of.

A new life in Canada! What could be better? Plenty of land to farm and even gold to be found in the hills! Well…except Katherine’s parents aren’t farmers. Having spent everything on sailing from England to Canada and setting up their homestead, they’re struggling to make ends meet. In fact, Katherine’s going to have to sell her horse because the cost of keeping her is just too high. And as for Emma, the promise of gold is nothing but bad luck. Her father left her and her mother back in England while he joined the gold rush. Now her beloved mam has died and Emma’s been forced to travel to Canada all alone on a brideship, after a dad she can’t forgive. Even worse, he thinks he’s got just the solution to cheer her up. He buys her a horse to ride! Katherine can hardly bear to give up her beloved Nugget to a girl who’s clearly ungrateful for her good fortune and has no desire to learn to ride. Emma, ashamed of her disability that means she can’t ride sidesaddle, is desperate to avoid taking riding lessons from a stuck-up girl who obviously just wants her horse back. Emma and Katherine are thrown together more and more as each girl’s home situation becomes more desperate. Can Nugget help them to solve their problems for good? Set against the majestic landscape of 1860s BC, this is a story of ingenuity, courage, friendship – and the love of a horse.

Jack Waters sees his small prairie town turned upside down in World War II when an air base to train English flyers is set up nearby. It’s 1943, no one knows who will win the war, and Canadians are taking a major role in the fighting. This includes training British Royal Air Force pilots in many centres across Canada. Even though Jack can’t enlist, he secretly learns how to fly. Good thing, because when a friend’s plane comes down on the prairie, Jack has no choice but to make his first solo flight – to try and save a life.Flight of the Tiger Moth is the thrilling story of one boy’s journey to become a man and find his path in the world. It also gives young readers a glimpse of life during World War II.

Murphy wants to grow up fast and be a fisherman. It's what men do in his small Newfoundland community. Then one cold day in 1929, a tsunami strikes the Burin Peninsula, destroying most of the out port and killing many people. Suddenly the twelve-year-old is doing a man' work, saving lives and caring for the people he loves.His dad died the day Murphy was born. Since no out port family can survive without a man to fish, his mom had to find a job in St. John' and Murphy stayed behind to be raised by his uncle and aunt. But Murphy has a grand plan. Soon he'll become a fisherman, build a house and bring his mom home to live with him.Then a day and night of terror begins with a small earthquake. An old-timer says there'll be a tidal wave coming, but people don't believe it. Murphy goes outside later to check and hears an odd sucking noise. All the water is gone from the harbour! It shoots back in a sixty-foot wave that fills the harbour and claws its way up the hill. He has only moments to save his aunt and cousins from the roaring water.

Dorothy’s father has always dreamed of having his own farm. So, with the help of Dorothy, her family, and a community that comes together despite their different backgrounds, the Boltons set out with their wagons, horses, dogs, and belongings, to create a life for themselves on the vast prairie landscape. After travelling thousands of miles, Dorothy and her familyhave arrived in Canada, and are adjusting to their new lives on the prairies. Things are different than they were in England – even the small things like food and water have to be worked for – but Dorothy is excited for the adventure they’ve started. However, the Barr Colonists who arrived with Dorothy and her family are getting restless. Lack of food and other resources have caused many families to fall ill and go hungry, and the prairie and its weather are unforgiving. Fire and floods consume homes and supplies, and many promises made to the Colonists before leaving England have proven false. Will this colony of settlers have what it takes to put down lasting roots in this strange new world?

Canadian exchange student Kurt Schreiber spends a year in Germany, learning more than he bargained for about his grandfather's life in Hitler's army. Kurt’s opa – grandfather – has never been willing to talk about his time as a German soldier, so Kurt has some deep concerns about what he might have done during the war. He's seen the movies, like Schindler’s List, and he hopes and prays his grandfather couldn’t have been involved in atrocities. Spending a year in Germany to do language training 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 staying in, just outside Berlin. An old man speaks to him, calling him by his grandfather’s name, which was also Kurt Schreiber. It is Herr Brandt, the elder Schreiber's life-long friend. Kurt gets to know this man – 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.

Millie's life as she knows it comes to a screeching halt, however, when her parents decide to separate. Her mother gets a new boyfriend, and her father moves into a new place - an apartment - with a big sign on the door that says NO DOGS ALLOWED. As she struggles to get her parents back together - not just for her sake, but for the sake of her future dog as well - Millie is elated when her father moves back in a short while later. She can't understand why her parents aren't happy at the reconciliation until she learns the truth: her father has moved back in because he has been diagnosed with cancer. Told through the diary entries of Millie, Stay is a moving portrait of a family in a time of crisis, whose pain is filtered through the thoughts and actions of an eleven-year-old girl, capturing the essence of what it means to grow up, confront your fears, support your family, and share in the wild optimism that only youth can harbour. Never one to shy away from tough issues, and constantly experimenting with form, acclaimed Saskatchewan poet Katherine Lawrence shifts successfully and beautifully into juvenile fiction with this moving story-in-verse.

At 4:00 a.m., April 29, 1903, Nathalie lies awake in the booming coal town of Frank, at the base of Turtle Mountain, listening for the whistle of a train - the Spokane Flyer, bringing her American cousin Helena for a visit.Instead, Nathalie hears rocks tumbling down the mountain onto the town and the railway track. She and her mother are safe, but what about others? As she helps search for survivors, desperate questions fill her mind. How many have died? Will the men inside the mine be safe? Will the train be stopped in time?That morning, the northeast face of Turtle Mountain dropped one hundred million tons of limestone on the town. Seventy-six people died, but twenty-three were rescued from under the rocks, seventeen escaped from the mine, and the Flyer was stopped in time.This is a beautifully written novel, with engaging characters and authentic historical detail. It's a story of discovery, as Nathalie - Nattie to her friends - finds her own strengths and skills and the courage to use them.

How can the remains of long-dead dinosaurs help save a modern family farm?For Daniel, things can't get a lot worse. First of all, he's an amateur palaeontologist but his dad's always on his case about it. They live on a busy farm, and Daniel's interest in dinosaurs is getting in the way of his chores. Second, while visiting his secret hideout, he has a run-in with Pederson, a secretive and unpleasant neighbour, that leaves him shaken and scared. And, above all, the family's in grave danger of losing the farm - a farm that's been theirs for generations.Then, Daniel discovers several artifacts that lead him to suspect something hugely important is waiting to be discovered. This is so big it could change the way people look at dinosaurs. And, it could make the land so valuable that his family wouldn't have to move to the city.Proving it is going to be the trick. There's not a lot of time; the bank's tired of waiting. As Daniel tries to map out a plan of action, he finds himself drawn to the gruff Pederson. Just what is he doing on that piece of land of his? Why does he seem so mean? Is he the key that can help Daniel save the day?Award-winning author Judith Silverthorne has written an engaging and informative novel sure to appeal to anyone with an interest in dinosaurs. With equal elements of humour, suspense and popular science. Dinosaur Hideout is a truly charming read.