Canadian historical fiction for kids
Discover captivating Canadian historical fiction for kids! Explore our curated list of the best books that bring Canada's past to life for young readers. Perfect for learning & adventure!
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Complete Anne of Green Gables
by Lucy Maud Montgomery
Favorites for nearly 100 years, these classic novels follow the adventures of the spirited redhead Anne Shirley, who comes to stay at Green Gables and wins the hearts of everyone she meets.
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The Root Cellar
by Janet Lunn
Twelve-year-old orphan Rose, sent to live with unknown relatives on a farm in Canada, ventures into her aunt's root cellar and finds herself making friends with people who lived on the farm more than a century earlier.
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Dear Canada: Footsteps In the Snow: The Red River Diary of Isobel Scott, Rupert's Land, 1815
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No summary available.
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Dear Canada: A Ribbon of Shining Steel: The Railway Diary of Kate Cameron, Yale, British Columbia, 1882
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No summary available.
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Dear Canada: Orphan at My Door: The Home Child Diary of Victoria Cope, Guelph, Ontario, 1897
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No summary available.
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Alone in an Untamed Land
by Maxine Trottier
Young Hélène St. Onge and her older sister Catherine are orphans. When King Louis XVI orders all men in New France to marry, Catherine becomes a fille du roi, one of the many young women sent to the new world as brides. Hélène will accompany her on the long sea voyage and live with her sister's new family. But Catherine dies during the grueling journey, and Hélène finds herself alone in a strange new country. New France is a far harsher place than she imagined, with bitter winters and the threat of attack from the Iroquois. Will the few friendships she has made on her long voyage enable her to survive?
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Dear Canada: With Nothing But Our Courage: The Loyalist Diary of Mary MacDonald, Johnstown, Quebec, 1783
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No summary available.
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An Ocean Apart
by Gillian Chan
With over 400,000 books already in print, the Dear Canada series has fast become the book series for children. Each fictional diary invites readers into the world of a girl living through a particular period in Canada's past. Gillian Chan's latest addition illustrates the effect the Chinese Head Tax has on one young girl and her family. Mei-ling and her father are struggling to pay the head tax that will allow her mother and brother, who are still living in China, to come to Canada. They must have that money before the impending Exclusion Act bars any more Chinese from immigrating. What will happen if they can't come up with enough in time to reunite their family?
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Blood Upon Our Land
by Maxine Trottier
A young girl watches as the Métis life she knows is threatened by conflict and the men in her family are called to action by Louis Riel, the charismatic leader of the North West Resistance. Tension grips Batoche, Saskatchewan in 1885. Many Métis moved here after the 1870 Riel Rebellion in Manitoba left them disallusioned. But life in Batoche is difficult. The buffalo on which the Métis depended for generations have been hunted almost to extinction, and the coming of white settlers poses a threat to their traditional way of life. The Métis want title to their land, but the government has delayed for years. Promises are no longer enough . . . and talk of a second uprising is in the air. Thirteen-year-old Josephine finds herself torn over her feelings about the Resistance: she is worried for her brother, who is eager to fight; for her father, who prefers a peaceful solution; for Edmond Swift Fox, her friend, whom she loves and will eventually marry; and for Louis Riel, the leader whose efforts to help the Métis preserve their way of life are actions she grows to respect and admire. Through Josephine's faithful diary entries, the reader is transported into this pivotal moment in Canadian history -- the time leading up to the defeat of the Métis and the allied First Nations forces at Batoche, the execution of Louis Riel, and the growing tensions between English Canada and French Canada.
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On a Canadian Day
by Rona Arato
Introduces nine children whose stories touch upon pivotal moments in Canadian history.
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Wintering
by William Durbin
In 1801, fourteen-year-old Pierre returns to work for the North West Fur Company and makes the long and difficult journey to a winter camp, where he learns from both the other voyageurs and from the Ojibwa Indians whose land they share.
