Where the River Takes Me: The Hudson's Bay Company Diary of Jenna Sinclair


Julie Lawson - 2008
    She finds a kindred spirit in her Grandmother, one of the Home Guard Cree who lives near Fort Edmonton and with her friend Suzanne, but soon she moves south to Fort Colvile. She begs her aunt to let her attend a “real” school at Fort Victoria on Vancouver’s Island. With a small brigade, she beings a sometimes harrowing journey down rivers and over mountains to her new life. But even there, Jenna is restless. She sneaks outside the fort walls, spying on the Company officers, even visiting the forbidden Songhees village . . . sometimes finding more than she bargained for.

Banished from Our Home: The Acadian Diary of Angélique Richard


Sharon Stewart - 2004
    Will she ever see her home again?

Winter of Peril: The Newfoundland Diary of Sophie Loveridge


Jan Andrews - 2005
    After their long voyage, they arrive to a “new world" indeed. Will they be able to survive the winter in this harsh country?

The Death of My Country: The Plains of Abraham Diary of Geneviève Aubuchon


Maxine Trottier - 2005
    Geneviève Aubuchon is born into an Abenaki tribe but is orphaned when another tribe destroys her village. She and her brother are taken to a convent in Québec.While Geneviève gradually adapts to her new life with the sisters, her older brother runs away to rejoin the Abenaki. Geneviève fears for his life when he joins the First Nations allies who are helping defend Québec against the British siege of the city and the attack on the Plains of Abraham. Author Maxine Trottier frequently participates in historical re-enactments. Her hobby has provided her with an opportunity to research and experience this key time in Canada's history.

Days of Toil and Tears: The Child Labour Diary of Flora Rutherford


Sarah Ellis - 2008
    She writes about her feelings in her diary, addressing her father and mother who died when she was five. Then her uncle loses several fingers at the weaving machine leaving him unable to work, and money is very tight. Can Flora help her aunt and uncle survive?

Brothers Far from Home: The World War I Diary of Eliza Bates


Jean Little - 2003
    Caught up in his enthusiasm, she couldn't understand her parents' less-than-enthusiastic reaction. Now that her other brother, Jack, has also enlisted, she yearns for the safe return of both brothers. If only she had a friend that she could talk to about her feelings. . .

A Country of Our Own: The Confederation Diary of Rosie Dunn


Karleen Bradford - 2013
    The year before Confederation. And the year Rosie's life turns upside-down.She has just gone into service with Mr. Bradley, a civil servant working in Quebec City, the bustling capital of the Province of Canada. When the capital is moved to the rough sawmill town of Ottawa, the Bradleys have to move there too. Rosie will desperately miss her own parents and siblings, and wonders if she will ever have a place in her own family again.Karleen Bradford draws on her own experience as the wife of a diplomat in Ottawa and embassies around the world to craft this authentic portrait of a young girl displaced in the whirlwind of government.

Not a Nickel to Spare: The Great Depression Diary of Sally Cohen


Perry Nodelman - 2007
    And her cousin Benny is always getting into scrapes Sally has to try to get him out of. Sally must find the strength and learn to cope with the world around her.

Footsteps in the Snow: The Red River Diary of Isobel Scott


Carol Matas - 2002
    But Isobel's mother dies before they even cross the ocean, and other misfortunes seem to follow their every step. Isobel's family and the other Selkirk Settlers find themselves caught in the fur-trading rivalry between the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company. They cannot even start to build once they finally reach their destination. The harsh climate and escalating threats against the settlers make it impossible to start a new life. Only through perseverance and help from the local Cree band are Isobel and her family able to put down roots in the Red River Valley.

A Season for Miracles


Sarah EllisJanet Lunn - 2006
    These touching stories of Christmas offer a glimpse into each girl’s diary a year after the events of their original diary.

A Trail of Broken Dreams: The Gold Rush Diary of Harriet Palmer


Barbara Haworth-Attard - 2004
    Harriet decides that she must disguise herself as a boy and travel overland to the Cariboo gold fields to find her father and reunite what remains of her family. But will her disguise hold out?

A Sea of Sorrows: The Typhus Epidemic Diary of Johanna Leary


Norah McClintock - 2012
    But typhus and other illnesses plague the "coffin ships," so named for the staggering number of immigrants who died enroute. One by one Johanna loses the members of her family — first her baby brother on the journey over, then her mother in the Grosse Isle fever sheds where sick passengers are quarantined when they reach the port of Québec, and her father soon after. Johanna has only her brother Michael left when she sets foot on Canadian soil. When her brother is mistakenly told that she too has died, he sets off to find their uncle "somewhere in Canada," leaving Johanna to face a new life in a strange land... totally alone. A Sea of Sorrows captures a dreadful time in history for those desperate, impoverished Irish families who hoped to make Canada their home. Johanna's incredible journey of survival is told with insight and sensitivity by master storyteller Norah McClintock.

Prisoners in the Promised Land: The Ukrainian Internment Diary of Anya Soloniuk


Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch - 2007
    But soon after they arrive in the land they hoped would welcome them, World War I is declared, and Ukrainians are considered “enemy aliens” — many of them sent away to internment camps. Anya must find a way to deal with the challenges in the land she now calls home.

Whispers of War: The War of 1812 Diary of Susanna Merritt


Kit Pearson - 2002
    When war breaks out between the United States and Great Britain in 1812, eleven-year-old Susanna chronicles her experiences when her father and brother go off to fight leaving the women to fend for themselves on the family farm on the Niagara Peninsula of Upper Canada.

Hoping for Home: Stories of Arrival


Lillian Boraks-Nemetz - 2011
    In this wonderful new short story anthology, eleven of Canada's top children's authors contribute stories of immigration, displacement and change, exploring the frustration and uncertainty those changes can bring. Told in first-person narratives, this collection features a diverse cast of boys and girls, each one living at a different point in Canada's vast landscape and history. With unforgettable protagonists -- such as Miriam, a Warsaw-ghetto survivor, now reunited with her family in Montreal; Wong Joe-on, a young Chinese immigrant who faces racism in a small Saskatchewan town; and Insy, an Ojibwe girl who makes her first trip to a "white" town in Northern Ontario -- young readers will be moved by the opportunities and difficulties that these characters face, as each one ponders what it means to be Canadian, and struggles to fit in.