Saturday, January 21, 2017

Saturday's Blurbs featuring Books by Joan Yarmey-Donaldson #historical #youngadult #Canada #HudsonBay

Gold Fever
Also available as a print book in Coles, Chapters, and Indigo bookstores
Boni Baldwin is taken out of the city and thrust into an environment she dislikes-- camping. Her mother, Elsie Wiggins, is on a quest to find information on her father who disappeared fifty-five years ago in the mountains of southern British Columbia and Boni is the only one of her children who is able, but reluctant, to accompany her.
The first person they meet is Rick, a mountain man who has a claim on the Salmo River and is prospecting with his grandfather for gold. He offers to show Boni around the area hoping to convince her that being in the bush is not a terrible thing. They also meet Jerry, who is the one Elsie contacted about camping on his gold claim. Jerry offers to show Elsie how to pan for gold during her stay. Boni and Elsie are threatened by other prospectors along the river and told to leave. When they don't, their campsite is trashed, twice. This scares Boni but only makes Elsie mad. No Rambo wannabees are going to frighten her away. They do discover some new clues about Elsie's father after all these years, but all that comes to an end when the man they are scheduled to interview is murdered before they get to his house. As much as they hate to admit it, both Rick and Jerry are on their list of suspects for the trashing of their campsite and for the murder.

Crazy Cat Kid
Print
ebook
Lilly Thornton is a fourteen-year-old girl who lives on an acreage just outside Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. She owns four rescued cats and has helped find homes for many more. Her mother belongs to a dragon boat race team and some of the team members have decided to go camping around the island with their families.
Lilly is considered too young to be left at home alone. Since one of Lilly's cats is diabetic and needs an insulin shot twice a day she has to bring her along. The other three have never been left alone before so Lilly convinces her parents that they have to come, too. It sounds like a simple solution until they begin to drive away from their house and the cats start howling.
While camping the cats try to find ways to get out. They hover at the screen door waiting for it to open. One checks every open door searching for the magic way outside and spends the night pawing at the metal window blinds so she can look out. Are they going to ruin the camping trip or is boredom? The first day there is no one Lilly’s age and by the afternoon she wants to go home. And then she meets Jesse, the fifteen-year-old Metis son of another team member.

West to the Bay


Available as a print book from Chapters, Coles, and Indigo bookstores.

In 1750, Thomas Gunn, along with three friends, join the Hudson's Bay Company and sail from Stromness on the Orkney Islands of northern Scotland to York Factory fort on Hudson's Bay. They believe they are starting a new and exciting life in what is called Rupert's Land, but tragedy follows them, striking for the first time on the ship. At the fort Thomas finds his older brother, Edward, who had joined four years earlier. He also meets Little Bird, sister of Edward's wife, and her family.
During the first year Thomas takes part in the goose and duck hunts, the fishing, the woodcutting, Guy Fawkes Day, the Christmas celebrations, and the burial of a friend. He also deals with the snowfall, the cold, the boredom, and a suicide, and learns how to survive in the lonely and sometimes inhospitable land.




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