Non-Fiction: Zoobots (Wild robots inspired by real animals)

Book: Zoobots: Wild Robots Inspired by Real Animals

Author: Helaine Becker, Alex Ries

Publisher: Kids Can Press

Link: Silver Birch 2015

Innovations in the world of robotics are multiplying, with many cutting-edge breakthroughs, and this exciting and timely new book for young readers explores one particularly intriguing area: the world of robo-animals, or zoobots. In an attempt to design robots that can solve problems or perform tasks that humans can't, or just can't do easily, roboticists have been looking at the unique skills some animals have. Using something called mechatronics — mechanical and electrical engineering combined with computer science — they are finding ways to closely mirror those skills in robot form. Some fascinating examples from the book of what zoobots can do include: finding survivors of a fire using sensitive, computerized "whiskers"; scaling skyscraper walls using super stickiness; or delivering drugs deep within the human body using microscopic whiptails for locomotion... Click link to read MORE!

Non-Fiction: From Vimy to Victory (canada's fight to the finish in world war l)

Book: From Vimy to Victory: Canada's Fight to the Finish in World War I

Author: Hugh Brewster

Publisher: Scholastic Canada

Link: Silver Birch 2015

Hugh Brewster captures the remarkable heroism, sacrifice, and victories of Canadian soldiers during the Great War. All was not quiet on the Western Front during the last years of WWI. Soldiers faced mud, trench foot, bombardments, barbed wire, snipers, and poison gas. Despite dreadful odds, the Canadian Corps moved forward, reaching deep inside enemy-occupied Belgium. The war cost Canada 60,661 of its finest citizens and thousands more who were wounded in body and mind. After their hard-won victory at Vimy Ridge, Canadians earned the admiration of the world - and a reputation as soldiers who could get the job done... Click link to read MORE!

Non-Fiction: Every Last Drop (bringing clean water home)

Book: Every Last Drop: Bringing Clean Water Home    

Author: Michelle Mulder

Publisher: Orca Book Publishers

Link: Silver Birch 2015

In the developed world, if you want a drink of water you just turn on a tap or open a bottle. But for millions of families worldwide, finding clean water is a daily challenge, and kids are often the ones responsible for carrying water to their homes. Every Last Drop looks at why the world’s water resources are at risk... Click link to read MORE!

Non-Fiction: Cat Champions (caring for our feline friends)

Book: Cat Champions: Caring for our Feline Friends

Author: Rob Laidlaw

Publisher: Pajama Press

Link: Silver Birch 2015


Around the world, young people are making a difference in the lives of cats. In Cat Champions: Caring for our Feline Friends, meet kids who are helping at shelters, fostering kittens, volunteering with sterilization programs and caring for abandoned cats. Animal advocate Rob Laidlaw brings readers a hopeful, inspiring look at the issues facing domesticated and feral cats, and the cat champions who are working to help them... Click link to read MORE!

Non-Fiction: It's a Feudal, Feudal World

Book: It’s a Feudal, Feudal World: A Different Medieval History


Authors: Stephen Shapiro, Ross Kinnaird 


Publisher: Annick Press

Link: Silver Birch 2015

Enter a medieval world unlike any you’ve seen before. Welcome to an innovative and reader-friendly approach to medieval history, one that combines visually appealing infographics, whimsical cartoons and lively, informative text. Each spread offers a snapshot that highlights an aspect of the diversity and intercultural dynamics of the medieval world, from Europe to the Byzantine, Ottoman and Islamic empires. Readers get the inside scoop on crusaders and caliphs, Mongols and midwives, as they read about expanding trade routes, power shifts, conquests, adventure, and persecutions. From the daily life of the medieval child to Rabban bar Sauma’s extraordinary pilgrimage, the result is a colorful and varied picture of what life was like a thousand years ago. For example, did you know... Click link to read MORE!

Non-Fiction: A History of Just About Everything

Book: A History of Just about Everything: 180 Events, People and Inventions That Changed the World

Author: Elizabeth MacLeod, Frieda Wishinsky

Publisher: Kids Can Press

Link: Silver Birch 2015

Here is a thorough and thoroughly entertaining compendium of important people and events. From Buddha and Muhammad to King and Mandela, from the discovery of fire to the invention of the World Wide Web, and from Romeo and Juliet to Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone... Click link to read MORE!

Non-Fiction: The Extraordinary Life of Anna Swan

Book: The Extraordinary Life of Anna Swan

Author:Anne Renaud

Publisher: Cape Breton University Press

Link: Silver Birch 2015

On a balmy August morning in 1846, a child was born to Ann and Alexander Swan in the couple’s small wood cabin in Millbrook, Colchester County, Nova Scotia. This in itself was not odd, as home was where babies were most often born in the mid-19th century. What was surprising, however, was that Anna Swan weighed an amazing 6 kilograms (13 pounds) – almost twice the size of an average newborn.
Anna Swan grew to an astonishing size – nearly 2.5 meters (almost 8 feet) tall... Click link to read MORE!

Non-Fiction: 50 Body Questions: A Book That Spills It's Guts

Book: 50 Body Questions: A Book That Spills Its Guts

Author: Tanya Lloyd Kyi, Ross Kinnaird

Publisher: Annick Press

Link: Silver Birch 2015

Most of us eat, run, or sleep without thinking about it. But our bodies are masterful machines of intricate design that perform amazing feats daily.
The fifth book in Annick’s successful 50 Questions series guides readers through the details of how our bodies function, from the miracles of genetics, to immune cells shaped like sea monsters.
With her engaging, lucid style, Lloyd Kyi incorporates recent scientific research to explain our body’s complex workings. Kids will love finding the answers to questions such as... Click link to read MORE!

Non-Fiction:The Big Book of Hockey for Kids

Book: The Big Book of Hockey for Kids

Author: Eric Zweig

Publisher: Scholastic Canada

Link: Silver Birch 2015

This book will answer all your questions, and more! From the first game (with roots in Irish hurling and Scottish shinty) to the billion-dollar industry it is today - including the evolution of hockey equipment, the Stanley Cup, and every NHL team - fans will learn the complete A to Z of hockey... Click link to read MORE!

Non-Fiction:Annaleise Carr: How I Conquered Lake Ontario to Help Kids Battling Cancer

Book: Annaleise Carr: How I Conquered Lake Ontario to Help Kids Battling Cancer 

Author: Annaleise Carr, Deborah Ellis

Publisher: Lorimer

Link: Silver Birch 2015

Over eight months of planning, hundreds of hours of hard physical training, amassing a team of dedicated crew mates, approaching sponsors and collecting donations--and, finally, swimming for twenty-seven hours across the cold, rough waters of Lake Ontario. Why would a fourteen-year-old girl take on such a challenge? For Annaleise Carr, the motivation did not come from a desire for glory. Her ultimate goal was to raise money for her new friends at Camp Trillium, a charity that provides a camping experience for kids with cancer. What kept her going through the cold water, the exhaustion and the terrifying night swim was the thought of those kids and their families that she was helping... Click link to read MORE!

Fiction: Striker

Book: Striker

Author: David Skuy

Publisher: Lorimer

Link: Silver Birch 2015


“Cancer is just a word, like pizza.” That is what Cody tells his overprotective mother to convince her to let him try out for the soccer team. He wants to play more than anything, but after going through treatment to remove a tumour from his leg he’s worried whether he’ll make it. But that’s not all he has to worry about. His dad dealt with his illness by working, and he misses the time they used to spend together; an overbearing team manager sends him to the bench so his son will get all the playing time; and a group of kids make it clear they have no interest in having an “Egg Head” on the team. Cody is resilient, however; a kid who can handle cancer treatment and then make a competitive soccer team is no quitter. His skills begin to attract the attention of a few of his teammates; and when a new coach arrives on the team, Cody finally gets his chance...Click link to read MORE!

Fiction: Me & Mr. Bell

Book: Me & Mr. Bell

Author: Philip Roy

Publisher: Cape Breton University Press

Link: Silver Birch 2015

Alexander Graham Bell, Baddeck’s most illustrious resident, and one of the world’s greatest inventors, is also famous for the greatness of his compassion. It’s 1908, and ten-year-old Eddie MacDonald shares the friendly inventor’s passion for solving problems and for taking long walks in the fields above Bras d’Or Lake. But whereas Bell is renowned by many for being the smartest man in the world, Eddie is just a local farm boy who struggles to learn to read and write. Click link to read MORE!

Fiction: Dial - M - for Morna

Book: Dial M for Morna – The Dead Kid Detective Agency
Author: Evan Munday

Publisher: ECW Press

Link: Silver Birch 2015

October Schwartz and her five deadest friends are back. The holiday season has descended upon the town of Sticksville like an eggnog rainstorm, but October has no time for candy canes or mistletoe. She’s busy dealing with an oddly pleasant new history teacher, her living friends’ new roles as high-school radio DJs, and two (!) new mysteries that need solving before the new year. October and her ghost friends are hot on the trail of the person (or persons) responsible for Morna MacIsaac’s death in 1914 — or as hot as one can be on a 100-year-old trail — when October’s friend Yumi finds herself the target of anti-Asian harassment at school... Click link to read MORE!

Fiction: Saving Houdini

Book: Saving Houdini

Author: Michael Redhill

Publisher: HarperCollins Canada

Link: Silver Birch 2015

A classic adventure story set in historic Toronto—with a dash of humour and a lot of heart. Dashiel Woolf is ecstatic when famous magician Bloom the Beguiler brings him onstage during a special performance to mark the eighty-fifth anniversary of Harry Houdini’s death. But a century-old trick invented by Bloom’s grandfather goes inexplicably wrong—sending Dash back to 1926... Click link to read MORE!

Fiction: The Madman of Piney Woods

Book: The Madman of Piney Woods

Author: Christopher Paul Curtis

Publisher: Scholastic Canada

Link: Silver Birch 2015



Benji and Red couldn't be more different. They aren't friends. They don't even live in the same town. But their fates are entwined. A chance meeting leads the boys to discover that they have more in common than meets the eye. Both of them have encountered a strange presence in the forest, watching them, tracking them... Click link to read MORE!

Fiction: The Hidden Agenda of Sigrid Sugden

Book: The Hidden Agenda of Sigrid Sugden

Author: Jill MacLean

Publisher: Fitzhenry & Whiteside

Link:Silver Birch 2015




Sigrid Sugden is a Shrike, a member of one of the toughest group of girls in school. They are experts at blackmail, extortion and bullying their terrorized classmates. But one day, the Shrikes go too far. Sigrid realizes that their favourite victim, Prinny Murphy, is in real danger. She makes a decision that will save Prinny from danger but will turn the Shrikes anger and bullying against the former friend who betrayed them to the authorities. For Sigrid, this is a transformative moment. She wants to be a better person and begins to reflect on the events that led to her being a Shrike. Participating in their mean pranks made her feel powerful and safe. But now, she realizes she needs and wants to turn over a new leaf - make new friends and be kinder to others. But overcoming her bad girl image is a whole lot harder to do than she originally thought... Click link to read MORE!

Fiction: Red Wolf

Book: Red Wolf

Author: Jennifer Dance

Publisher: Dundurn

Link:Silver Birch 2015


Life is changing for Canada's Anishnaabek Nation and for the wolf packs that share their territory. In the late 1800s, both Native people and wolves are being forced from the land. Starving and lonely, an orphaned timber wolf is befriended by a boy named Red Wolf. But under the Indian Act, Red Wolf is forced to attend a residential school far from the life he knows, and the wolf is alone once more. Courage, love and fate reunite the pair, and they embark on a perilous journey home. Click link to read MORE!

Fiction: The Night Gardener

Book: The Night Gardener


Author: Jonathan Auxier

Publisher: Puffin Canada

Link:Silver Birch 2015


This much-anticipated follow-up to Jonathan Auxier's exceptional debut, Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes, is a Victorian ghost story with shades of Washington Irving and Henry James. More than just a spooky tale, it’s also a moral fable about human greed and the power of storytelling. The Night Gardener follows two abandoned Irish siblings who travel to work as servants at a creepy, crumbling English manor house. But the house and its family are not quite what they seem... Click link to read MORE!

Fiction: The Creature Department

Book: The Creature Department

Author: Robert Paul Weston

Publisher: Penguin Books

Link:Silver Birch 2015




Elliot Von Doppler and his friend Leslie think nothing ever happens in Bickleburgh, except inside the gleaming headquarters of DENKi-3000—the world’s eighth-largest electronics factory. Beneath the glass towers and glittering skywalks, there’s a rambling old mansion from which all the company’s amazing inventions spring forth. And no one except Uncle Archie knows what’s behind the second-to-last door at the end of the hall.
Until Elliot and Leslie are invited to take a glimpse inside. ... Click link to read MORE! 

FICTION: September 17

September 17: A Novel

Author: Amanda West Lewis

Publisher: Red Deer Press

Link:SilverBirch

In July 1940, a British government-sponsored program called Children's Overseas Reception Board -- or CORB -- was set up to send children from Britain to Canada and other Commonwealth countries, in order to rescue them from the bombings of British cities. The City of Benares was a luxury liner that was recruited in September 1940 to transport 90 of these children to Canada, along with the ship's regular passenger complement. A convoy of ships including The City of Benares set off from Liverpool in mid-September. Approximately six hundred miles out, after the naval escorts had withdrawn, the ship was torpedoed by a German U-boat and sank in about half an hour. Only thirteen of the CORB children survived the sinking. As a result of this tragedy, the program was cancelled. September 17 is a novel that tells the story of three of the children that were on board The City of Benares, as they experience and survive the disaster and wait to be rescued... Click link to read MORE!

Welcome to our Silverbirch Reading Club

The purpose of the Silverbirch Club Blog is to engage students in reflection and dialogue of the books they are reading during the next few months.  This blog forum not only provides students a voice but encourages peers to provide constructive/descriptive feedback, making further connections to their reading experiences and asking questions along the way. Students write about what they are reading and include reading strategies such as inferencing, making connections, summarizing and/or evaluating the text. 
Enjoy :o)