Books published by publisher Rock's Mills Press

"I am a flat chested teenybopper and nobody likes me. At least not today. Maybe if I’m lucky someone will like me tomorrow." That’s how I started my project on family and community that Mrs. McKinney gave us for our first grade eight assignment. Pathetic, eh? It’s not really true, I guess. Just feels like it most days.…And so begins Jenny Grant’s account of the trials and tribulations of her final year of elementary school. Along the way Jenny finds her world rocked by a family crisis, breaks the leg of one of the most popular girls in school, and discovers (can it be?) true love. By turns hilarious and heartwrenching, When Am I Supposed to Sleep? is guaranteed to prevent readers from getting to sleep themselves as they wait to find out how Jenny's grade 8 year will turn out.

Anne of Green Gables has remained a bestseller since its first publication over a century ago. The novel depicts eleven-year-old Anne Shirley’s unexpected arrival at Green Gables. The arrival of a girl, instead of a boy, is not the only surprise to be faced by Anne’s new guardians, Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert. Marilla is faced with the daunting task of “bringing up” Anne—an unpredictable, romance-loving waif—into a respectable, reliable, member of Avonlea, PEI. Anne loves beauty and stories, while Marilla hopes that life can continue within the safe confines of hard work and propriety. Over the course of the novel, both Anne and Marilla learn to accept the “bend in the road”—the story that does not unfold as we had hoped or expected.This Rock's Mills Press edition is based on the first edition of the novel, published in 1908, and incorporates Montgomer's own corrections for the second printing, as well as period photographs and a new preface by Jen Rubio.

Anne of Green Gables, newly married to doctor Gilbert Blythe, settles in the village by the sea of Glen St Mary, Prince Edward Island, where she befriends the enigmatic and unforgettably beautiful Leslie Moore. Glen St Mary is a fascinating community with eccentric, unpredictable characters, from the sharp-tongued Cornelia Bryant to the great humanist and storyteller, Captain Jim Boyd. Montgomery's depiction of life in this village includes haunting descriptions of the land and seascape, in which a series of human tragedies and comedies unfold. Anne's House of Dreams is perhaps the most personal of Montgomery's novels, reflecting events and experiences she recorded in her private journals. This Rock's Mills Press edition includes the following features:--Introduction by Jen Rubio exploring the novel in the context of the newly published edition of L.M. Montgomery's Complete Journals: The Ontario Years, 1911-1917--New notes, unique to this edition, explaining such terms as "the shadow of Venus," "old Scratch," and Abegweit, as well as historical references such as the failed Bank of Prince Edward Island and the Wartime Elections Act--Reproductions of original photographs that scholars believe are some of the locations featured in the novel.

"In publishing Frederick Philip Grove's The Adventure of Leonard Broadus, Rock's Mills Press has brought to light a boys' adventure novel that some will regard as a Canadian classic. Recommended." -- Ruth Latta, CM Magazine."This novel is a fast-paced action adventure in which a thirteen-year-old boy, Leonard Broadus, works with the police to detect and capture a gang of thieves who are operating near the Lake Erie shoreline of Ontario in the 1930s. Leonard uses the skills of a farmboy in attempting to avoid capture by an unknown enemy and the intuition of a detective to solve what appears to be a mystery without an answer. The author, Frederick Phillip Grove, tells a tale which features the towns and topography of the area just north of the Lake Erie shoreline and the ambiance of the Depression of the 1930s and connects young Leonard Broadus with the visit, and the persons, of the King and Queen in their visit to Toronto and Niagara Falls in 1939." --John Passfield, author of Pinafore ParkFrederick Philip Grove (1871–1948) wrote a single children’s novel in his lifetime, a gripping tale of survival, resourcefulness, and intrigue set in Depression-era Ontario. The novel was first published in 1939 as installments in a church magazine, heavily redacted and poorly publicized. The Adventure of Leonard Broadus is now available here, in Grove’s original composition.The coming-of-age story begins with a robbery and a runaway raft adventure. In the style of classic children’s literature like Swallows and Amazons and Huckleberry Finn, the danger that follows soon begins to feel very real. The fast-moving and very readable narrative depicts Leonard’s resourcefulness and endurance, qualities that enable him to survive some alarming circumstances.Grove was a first-rate writer and story-teller, with keen abilities as a realist. He was also a man of many sides who had emigrated to Canada from a dark past in Europe. Ontario in the late 1930s is depicted as a very different society than today, with impoverished “hobos” travelling the countryside. Leonard’s adventure may well recall some of Grove’s own early travels in the new world.

New notes explain the historical context behind this collection of highly readable stories about Quebec during the years following 1763, when Britain took possession of French Canada after defeating France in the Seven Years War … An introduction and notes by Jen Rubio provide key historical context to this collection of short stories exploring Quebec’s political, military, and social past, as well as its troubled relationship with English-speaking Canada (then Upper Canada) in the years following the British defeat of France in 1763. While Parker’s depiction of French-Canadian social mores is exaggerated and sometimes less than historically accurate—the stories were published originally in mass circulation magazines in the United States and Britain—the stories are well-written and show a little-known side of Canadian literary history. Parker’s work is very much in the fin-de-siècle Gothic tradition, in the genre of Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897) and Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw (1898). Indeed, the stories are at times downright weird, with dark intrigue, degenerate hearts, tortured souls, and desperate violence. Modern critics have wrestled with them, attempted to dismiss them, but they still remain a curious, haunting moment in Canada’s literary canon.

Human identities unravel under the light of the Midsummer moon . . . Shakespeare's popular comedy probes both the light and the dark side of desire, as unseen beings manipulate individual perceptions in the forest beyond the civilized world. Andrew Bretz's thought-provoking introduction to the play reminds us of the early modern concept of fairies: far from the ethereal creatures of the Victorian imagination, we see them here as amoral, energetic, and dangerous. While fairies may have come and gone in the course of 150 years of Canadian productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream, this edition highlights how performances in Canada and elsewhere in the world have embraced the multitude of possibilities inherent within this uncanny "shaping fantasy." ... includes concise “Character Synopses”, boldfacing the names of all characters so that relationships between and amongst them are clear, and equally helpful is the “Plot Synopsis” which follows the “Character Synopses”, summarizing the scene-by-scene action in each act.... Preceding the actual text of [the] play, there is “A Note on the Text”, providing information about the quarto and folio publications ... and explaining the challenges faced by editors of any new editions of Shakespearean text.... Clearly-referenced footnotes clarify unfamiliar words, expressions, and provide explanatory material. The notes are comprehensive, referring to both print and electronic resources which were consulted.... Rather unusual, I thought, was the section entitled “Ten Tips for Reading Shakespeare”, which offered insights into a diverse range of subjects, including concepts of social status, how words might have been pronounced in Shakespeare’s time, and Shakespeare’s rich use of Classical and Biblical references. --Joanne Peters, CM Magazine, January 2017