For this young adult anthology, Ann Walsh has selected fifteen captivating stories written by well-kknown authors from across the country. Each contributor has penned a dramatic account of a real episode in Canadian history. From mine disasters to scarlet fever epidemics, from the Great War to the Gold Rush, these writers breathe life into the tales of our ancestors and tell stories only history could have imagined.

After his "wonderful airship" crashes near St. Francis of Assisi's Home for Foundlings in Quebec City, Ben Franklin is thrown slightly off course in his carefully laid plan to coax Canada into joining the Americans in their fight against England's rule.

A motley crew of orphans hides the famous inventor from the British Redcoats during the American War of Independence. One of these orphans, 16-year-old Michael Flynn, is deaf and was abandoned by his parents, who were convinced that his problem was caused by demons who "seized his tongue and prevented him from speaking." Michael leads...

After a shipwreck in 1809, Peter finds himself the victim of amnesia. The sea captain who finds the teenager gives him the only name he knows, while others derisively dub him Peter No-Name. Eventually, Peter finds employment in a Montreal tavern where he meets a French voyageur called Boulard who changes his life irrevocably.

Boulard works for fur trader David Thompson, soon to become one of the world's most famous explorers and mapmakers. Thompson is impressed with the teenager and enlists him in his obsessive quest to establish an overland "northwest" passage to the Pacific Ocean...

Eleven-year-old Josie Grun escapes from Communist East Germany with her mother and father one dark night in 1989 just months before the Berlin Wall comes tumbling down. Braving border guards, barbed wire, and rifle shots, Josie reluctantly turns her back on her best friend, Greta, and all that was once familiar. She crosses the ocean to join her uncle in Calgary, attempts to learn a foreign language, and overcomes the prejudices of her schoolmates in order to forge a new life. Clinging to the passion that has always been a comfort, her figure skating, she enters a local competition to...

Commended for the 2009 Best Books for Kids & Teens

For Skye Haverill and her family, it begins as an ordinary day. But in the annals of Canadian history, October 7, 1825, is the date of one of our greatest national disasters.

The Haverill family has been turned upside down in the last year. Following the death of their mother, Skye and her brother, Tavish, have adjusted to live with a single parent. And when they're asked to make another adjustment when his father remarries and his new wife becomes pregnant Skye finds that some changes are too much to...

It is 1900, and 14-year-old Bertie McCross is a newspaper boy in downtown Toronto. Bertie's family has fallen on hard times and can use every penny he brings home from hawking newspapers on the frigid streets. However, in order to do that Bertie has to keep out of the clutches of the Kelly Gang, a family of slightly older Cabbagetown toughs who are shaking down "newsies."

On Christmas Eve, Bertie is almost cornered by the Kellys but is saved by Tommy Fry and Milwaukee Ed, who introduce Bertie to the thrills of iceboat racing on Lake Ontario. Soon Bertie is swept up in the fast and...