Books published by publisher Fitzhenry and Whiteside

This heart-warming Ukrainian folktale, set during the Great Famine of the 1930s, tells of a young girl's attempts to save her village from starvation. When soldiers take the village's wheat, Marusia hides just enough to survive. She and her father share with the other villagers over the winter, then plant the few remaining grains in the spring. A gigantic stalk of magical wheat grows attracting the attention of an equally large and magical stork. The stork flies with Marusia on a magical journey to the prairies, where farmers give Marusia enough wheat for her village. Word of the magical journey reaches a greedy officer, who tricks the stork into retracing the magical journey. But the officer does not understand the meaning of "enough" and his greed leads to his doom. Back in the village, Marusia and her father know they must devise a clever plan to protect their wheat from other greedy soldiers . . . and perhaps from the dictator himself!

Silver Birch Express shortlist 2007 Canadian Children's Book Centre Our Choice, 2007 Canadian Library Association Book of the Year for Children shortlist, 2007 Golden Oak nominee, 2008 Embark on this gripping adventure! Aram is like all the boys exiled in Greece. He has survived the Armenian genocide in Turkey and now lives in an orphanage. He can never return home. One day Aram learns that he will be one of fifty boys who will start a new life in a country called Canada. What does he know of this distant land? There is snow, lots to eat, and no war. But most important of all, Aram has heard that the trees are covered in gold. All he will have to do is pluck the gold off the branches and he will have enough money to bring his grandmother out to join him. But first he must get there. Aram is about to embark on a long adventure. Will he find a land of endless riches, or a place he can finally call home? A great adventure story for boys Illustrations are historically accurate Third title in the New Beginnings series (see below)

On a ferry plying the waters off the coast of Japan, the bully Noguchi is terrorizing his fellow passengers. When he drops his pipe into the sea, his mood becomes even fiercer. The passengers, afraid for their lives, turn to an elderly samurai, Michihara, to intervene and save them from Noguchi's wrath. Using the best weapon of all, his wits, Michihara is able to defeat the young warrior and teach him the true meaning of being a samurai. For centuries, stories like Noguchi the Samurai have helped students of Karate to understand that ancient and dignified martial art. This retelling will appeal to anyone who is interested in Karate or has ever had to ward off a bully.

Summer North Coming is a lyrical, full color picture poetry book which celebrates the magic of Summer and Winter in Canada's North with a young family spending time together walking in the woods, swimming in the river and all the wonderful things that the natural world can offer. fragrant muskeg rose, tickle my nose sun climb, warm shine summer north coming tired forest sleeping, cheeks bright stinging sun hide; moon rise winter north coming

The Best Gifts is the story of Sara and the important moments in her life. It starts with her birth and concludes when she welcomes her own baby. On each occasion, friends and family bring gifts to celebrate. In the end, though, the most cherished gifts are the ones that cannot be purchased. The first cherished gift Sara receives is her mother's milk and the story comes full circle when she gives that same gift to her own baby. Originally published in 1998, The Best Gifts has been fully revised, with all-new illustrations and updated breastfeeding resource information.

2013 Information Book Award nominee One day on a walk with his dad Charlie sees some boys and girls on the rooftop of the school saying goodbye as they release butterflies up into the sky. Charlie is amazed by all the butterflies flying around and wishes he could do something like that too. And when Charlie starts school next year he becomes a "butterfly scientist" as well and helps his teacher and classmates care for some teeny tiny caterpillars as they grow into butterflies and are released by Charlie and his class. Bye Bye Butterflies!

When children are caught in civil wars, when earthquakes destroy homes and villages, when AIDS and other diseases shatter families and communities - the volunteers of Doctors Without Borders are there. Their mission is simple - to bring life-saving care to the world's neediest people and to speak out when the rights of the people in their care are abused or violated. Médecins Sans Frontières, known in English as Doctors Without Borders and by its volunteers as MSF, is the world's largest independent medical humanitarian relief organization. Every year, more than 3,000 MSF volunteers and 12,000 local men and women bring medical aid to people in more than 70 countries. In Healing Our World, David Morley presents his own story and the stories of other MSFers who have volunteered in some of the most dangerous and forgotten corners of the world - the Congo, El Salvador, Chechnya, Bangladesh, Mozambique, Afghanistan, southern Africa. These are stories about healing and helping people, about making the world a better place - stories filled with sorrow and hope, anger and idealism, determination and passion. Healing Our World includes information about MSF's history, how it selects its volunteers and decides where to send them. Includes photographs from the field.

Due to more mature content, this book is recommended for children 14 and up. The Kobzars were the blind minstrels of Ukraine, who memorized the epic poems and stories of 100 generations. Traveling around the country, they stopped in towns and villages along the way, where they told their tales and were welcomed by all. During the early years of Stalin's regime in the USSR, the Kobzars wove their traditional stories with contemporary warnings of soviet repression, famine, and terror. When Stalin heard of it, he called the first conference of Kobzars in Ukraine. Hundreds congregated. Then Stalin had them murdered. As the storytellers of Ukraine died, so too did their stories. Kobzar's Children is an anthology of short historical fiction, memoirs, and poems written about the Ukrainian immigrant experience. The stories span a century of history from 1905 to 2004; and they contain the voices of people who lived through internment as "enemy aliens," homesteading, famine, displacement, concentration camps, and this new century's Orange Revolution. More than a collection, it is a social document that revives memories once deliberately forgotten. - Century of untold stories - Touches on all major points of Ukrainian history - Supported by the Shevchenko Foundation The collection contains historical fiction, memoirs and poems covering 100 years of Ukrainian history, written by Ukrainian-Canadian writers from Quebec, Ontario and Western Canada. The contributors are all part of a circle of writers that Skrypuch met or mentored through an internet-based writers' group that she set up. The group's members, both established authors and novices, read and critiqued each others' works. All royalties from the sale of this book will be donated to the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association.

When an accident leaves her orphaned, Lizzie's life in the bustling city of London is over forever. And nothing she has ever experienced could prepare the young English girl for her new home a whole continent away on a dusty prairie farm. Although her aunt, uncle and cousins try to be kind, Lizzie can't help but resent her new place as an unimportant member of a family struggling to make do. No one has any time to make a fuss over her. And even though Lizzie is obviously unsuited to manual labor, she is still expected to do chores on the farm. Bitter and despondent, Lizzie knows that she will never - ever - fit in. But one day a dust storm blows up unexpectedly. Alone in the house, Lizzie knows her aunt is out there, somewhere in the storm. Despite her own overwhelming fear, she knows what she must do. Set on the prairies during the Great Depression, Lizzie's Storm will enthrall any young reader ready for chapter books. A 2005-2006 Chocolate Lily Nominee

A new edition to the popular Do You Know series! Everything you want to know about tigers accompanied by humorous illustrations by Sampar. Do you know? Just like every person's fingerprints are unique, so are the stripes on every tiger's head. In India, the number of tigers has dropped by half in the past 5 years. There are only approximately 1,000 left today. That's an average of one tiger death per day.

Imagine escaping from the terrors of plantation slavery, only to live for years in a swamp full of biting insects and deadly snakes. Picture yourself making a dangerous journey to freedom, guided by nothing but courage and the North Star. Think of beginning a new life in a new country, only to fall prey to bounty hunters. The stories of the people who made up the Underground Railroad, that amazing network of quiet farm houses, peaceful country lanes, and busy city streets that reached from the slave-owning areas of the southern United States to the free states of the north and on to Canada, are among the most moving in our history. Meet some of the men and women who planned daring and ingenious ways to escape slavery, such as the resourceful Henry "Box" Brown, who mailed himself to Philadelphia_s Anti-Slavery Society in a box, and the strong-willed Harriet Tubman, who fled with nothing more than a scrap of bread and the clothes on her back, and then returned to the south year after year to help others find their way to freedom. North Star to Freedom draws on the stories of the Underground Railroad_s courageous "passengers," whose extraordinary spirit broke their own chains, and the brave "conductors," who risked their lives to help others simply because they believed that every person had the right to live free. More than just a book about the worst injustices of slavery, North Star to Freedom is ultimately about resourcefulness, compassion, and hope. Period posters, photographs, and paintings help to make North Star to Freedom a living history for readers of all ages.