Books published by publisher Second ACT Press

In the sixth and final book in the highly imaginative The Secret Zoo series, the Shadowist has taken control of the Secret Zoo and only Noah and his friends, both human and animal, can stop him. The action spills out onto Noah's street, and even into his own home! Lingering questions are finally answered. Who really is Mr. Darby? Will Noah join the Descenders? What will happen to the Secret Zoo?The Final Fight is the book that fans of The Secret Zoo have been waiting for!

Krista and Jason have been best friends since preschool. It never mattered that he was a boy with reddish brown hair and she was "the Korean girl" at school. Now in fifth grade, everyone in their class is preparing their Heritage Month projects. Jason has always loved Krista's Korean family, and particularly her mom's cooking, but Krista is conflicted about being her school's "Korean Ambassador." She's also worried about asking her intimidating grandma to teach the class how to cook their traditional kim-bap. Combine that with her new friends pulling her away from Jason, and Krista has a lot to deal with this year!

In Meena's house, there are books everywhere. There are books in dressers and drawers and desks, in closets and cupboards and chests. There are books on the sofa, and even books on the stairs. The problem is, Meena hates all of them, as does her cat Max, who has to climb over them. One day, Meena tries to rescue Max and the books come crashing down, freeing a wonderland of characters and animals who take Meena on a fanciful and funny romp through the magic of reading. To her parents' delight, Meena finally sees what an amazing thing a book can be.

Dual-language edition in Nishnaabemwin (Ojibwe) Nbisiing dialect and English. When eight-year-old Irene is removed from her First Nations family to live in a residential school, she is confused, frightened and terribly homesick. She tries to remember who she is and where she came from, despite the efforts of the nuns in charge at the school, who tell her that she is not to use her own name but instead use the number they have assigned to her. When she goes home for summer holidays, Irene's parents decide never to send her and her brothers away again. But where will they hide? And what will happen when her parents disobey the law? Based on the life of co-author Jenny Kay Dupuis's grandmother, I Am Not a Number is a hugely necessary book that brings a terrible part of Canada's history to light in a way that children can learn from and relate to.

Once there was a renowned magician called Nivelli, who performed before packed audiences in the grandest theaters of Berlin. Night after night, his fans applauded and called out for more astonishing feats of magic. “Bravo!” they would shout, as Nivelli bowed low with a great flourish. But that was in a different, happier time, before the Jews of Europe were rounded up and sent to concentration camps. This is the true story of a young boy on the inside of Auschwitz, whose life is changed by the actions of a prisoner who performs magic for the guards and who the boy later learns was the famous Nivelli.

When Irene is removed from her First Nations family to live in a residential school, she is confused, frightened and terribly homesick. She tries to remember who she is and where she came from despite being told to do otherwise. When she goes home for summer holidays, her parents decide never to send her away again, but where will she hide and what will happen when her parents disobey the law?

Nina can't convince her lolo to take her fishing on the old banca boat with him. Lolo's reply is the same as always: "A boat is no place for a girl." When Nina promises to bait her own hook and remove her own catch, her grandfather finally relents, "just for today." Much to the amusement of the other fishermen in their Filipino village, Lolo shows Nina how to jig the lines, set the hook and pull in a fish hand over hand. But no one is laughing when Nina brings in the biggest fish of the day!

Gita's family has only recently emigrated from India. Although she misses her relatives and friends, she has already made some friends in her new home. Today, she is looking forward to her favorite holiday: Divali, a festival of lights with fireworks, laughter and exchanges of sweets. But Gita's plans soon fall apart and she becomes homesick and sad.

The Mighty Muskrats are off to the city to have fun at the Exhibition Fair. But when Chickadee asks Grandpa what he would like them to bring back from the city, she learns about Grandpa’s missing little sister. She was, they learn, scooped years ago―like many Indigenous children, the government had arranged for her adoption by strangers without her parents’ permission. Now the Mighty Muskrats have a new case to solve: uncovering the whereabouts of Grandpa’s long-lost sister. Once in the bright lights of the big city, the cousins get distracted, face off with bullies, meet some heroes and unlikely teachers, and experience many of the difficulties Indigenous kids often face in the city. Their search for their missing auntie takes them all the way to the government and reveals hard truths about their country’s treatment of Indigenous kids and families.

Not one word about that night and what had been done to her had ever passed Maddy Malone’s lips. She’d been frantic to tell at first. But then had come the shame, and the intimidation from the boys who raped her. Now it’s a new school year, and Maddy hopes she can continue to hide, keeping the memories at bay through self-inflicted small cuts and cigarette burns. But when her English class is given the assignment of writing a collaborative novel about a fifteen-year-old girl, The Pain Eater, fact and fiction begin to meet up. One of the boys who attacked her is in her class, and he tries to shape the story to his own ends. Maddy comes to realize that, with support, this could be the means by which she takes back control of her life.

Seventeen-year-old Maddie has always felt a hole in her life, but she has finally found a way to fill it with her quest to mold her body into her ideal, thinnest shape. When she comes across the world of “thinspiration” websites, where young people encourage each other in their mission to lose weight, she quickly becomes addicted. Finally, she has found a place where she is understood and where she can belong. Maddie becomes a part of a group of friends who call themselves the GWS, “Girls Without Shadows”, on the pro-anorexia website thinandbeautiful.com. Here she finds the respect and support she feels she doesn’t get from her family and friends in the so-called real world. Now in a rehab facility where they are trying to fix a problem she doesn’t think she has, Maddie is forced to keep a diary tracing how she arrived at this point. Angry that she is barred from accessing her online friends, Maddie refuses to believe she needs help. Will a tragedy change her mind?