Showing results by publisher "Second Story Press" in All Categories

Rachel and her little sister, Jane, are spending the summer with two strangers who happen to be their grandparents. Up until their mom’s death a few months ago, Rachel didn’t know these people existed, and now she’s been packed off to the family ranch in the interior of British Columbia—a place with mountains, lakes, and zero cell service. But her newfound family isn’t the only secret that’s been kept from her.

A collision with a moose on a dark highway left Susan Mockler with an incomplete spinal injury, suddenly compromising her ability to walk and to care for herself. She spent months in a rehabilitation facility learning how to adjust to her new reality, and though her body partially recovered, every aspect of her life changed.

Irene grew up traveling around Germany with her family’s circus, surrounded by her loved ones and thrilling the crowds with her performance on the high wire…until one day, the audience boos. The Lorch family is Jewish, and the increasing power of Adolf Hitler’s Nazis has put them all in grave danger.

On a freezing cold winter night, nine-year-old Konisola and her mother step off a plane in Canada. Their home in Nigeria is no longer safe for them, and they are taking the biggest chance of their lives to travel across the world in search of refuge. Soon after they land, disaster strikes, Konisola’s mother falls ill and they become separated. Konisola is forced to fend for herself in a strange country, with no family and no friends. Then she meets a remarkable nurse and things begin to change for the better.

In the spring of 1970, seventeen women set out from Vancouver in a big yellow convertible, a Volkswagen bus, and a pickup truck. They called it the Abortion Caravan. Three thousand miles later, they “occupied” the prime minister’s front lawn in Ottawa, led a rally of 500 women on Parliament Hill, chained themselves to their chairs in the visitors’ galleries, and shut down the House of Commons, the first and only time this had ever happened. The seventeen were a motley crew. They argued, they were loud, and they wouldn’t take no for an answer.

Lucky loves her grandparents, and they are all the family she really has. True, her grandma forgets things … like turning off the stove, or Lucky’s name. But her grandpa takes such good care of them that Lucky doesn’t realize how bad things are. That is until he’s gone. When her grandma accidentally sets the kitchen on fire, Lucky can’t hide what’s happening any longer, and she is sent into foster care. She quickly learns that some foster families are okay. Some aren’t. And some really, really aren’t.

Thirteen-year-old Jakob’s family has hidden their true identity as Jews and are living as Catholics in Budapest during WWII. One day, in a burst of loyalty, Jakob decides to reveal that he is Jewish, a choice that puts his whole family in danger. Jakob hopes his best friend Ivan, a Christian whose father is a high-ranking military official, will help his family, but he comes to believe that Ivan has abandoned them. Sent as a prisoner to Auschwitz, Jakob is kept alive by his passion for revenge against Ivan. When Jakob is freed, he discovers that Ivan, too, made a choice that day.

In her bittersweet memoir, Mary Fairhurst Breen sketches scenes from a life darkened by generations of mental illness and addiction. Despite the odds, Mary’s sense of humor and willingness to practice “radical acceptance” see her through the chaos to a life full of friends, art, and the joys of being a grandmother. Ultimately, she must face her greatest challenge of all when her daughter becomes one of the tens of thousands of people every year to die of opioid poisoning. This is a journey of awakening and activism, and a portrait of a life to be celebrated in all its complexity.

It’s 1938 in Dusseldorf, Germany, and Paul is feeling pressured to join the Hitler Youth. The last thing he wants to do is march around with a bunch of bullies, supporting the Gestapo and abusing the city’s Jews, but even Paul’s parents think he should go along with his classmates in order to keep himself safe. Just when he’s starting to despair, Paul meets the Edelweiss Pirates, a group of teenage boys and girls who are working to undermine the growing power of the Nazis. When he joins the rebel organization, he finds out just how hair-raising and dangerous it is.

Thirteen-year-old Jacob’s life is hard in 1920s Poland, where he lives in an orphanage for Jewish children. His days are brightened by playing in the orphanage mandolin orchestra. When an American benefactor arrives with the promise of a new life in Canada at a farm school, Jacob and his friends are thrilled. But can they trust this man to keep his promises?

Life in her traditional Mennonite community is peaceful, if a little dull, for 12-year-old Beth who dreams of being an artist. She goes to school, helps with the cooking and cleaning at home, and works with her parents at the local farmer’s market. One Saturday, however, excitement shows up in the form of a determined lawyer from New York City who insists she needs a family cookie recipe to win a multi-million-dollar lawsuit.

The National Assembly of Cree Peoples has gathered together in the Windy Lake First Nation, home to the Mighty Muskrats - cousins Chickadee, Atim, Otter, and Sam. But when the treaty bundle, the center of a four-day-long ceremony, is taken, the four mystery-solving cousins set out to catch those responsible and help protect Windy Lake’s reputation!

Alison Green, desperate Valedictorian-wannabe, agrees to produce her school’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. That’s her first big mistake. The second is accidentally saying yes to a date with her oldest friend, Jack, even though she’s crushing on Charlotte. Alison manages to stay positive, even when her best friend starts referring to the play as “Ye Olde Shakespearean Disaster.” Alison must cope with the misadventures that befall the play if she’s going to survive the year.

Growing up in the shadow of a famous mother, Clara has never felt good about her body. Now, at 16, she has an unhealthy obsession with healthy eating. After a social media disaster, she decides to escape for the summer to Paris to stay with her estranged dad and her six-year-old brother, Alastair, who is on the autism spectrum. Charged with his care, Clara and Alastair set out to explore the city.

It is the end of the First World War, and 13-year-old Meredith yearns to become a teacher. But she must leave school to help support her family, moving to the city to work as a maid in a wealthy doctor's home. As the deadly Spanish Flu sweeps across the city, members of the household fall ill one by one. With the doctor working night and day at the hospital, only Meredith and the doctor's children, Maggie and Jack, are left to care for them.

Sam, Otter, Atim, and Chickadee are four inseparable cousins growing up on the Windy Lake First Nation. Nicknamed the Mighty Muskrats for their habit of laughing, fighting, and exploring together, the cousins find that each new adventure adds to their reputation. When a visiting archeologist goes missing, the cousins decide to solve the mystery of his disappearance.

It’s 1942, and the Nazis are rounding up Jews in the Polish town of Pinczow for transport to the Treblinka death camp. Leib and Hanna Gold thought they had more time to develop an escape plan. While Leib leaves to negotiate a hiding place, Hanna and their children, Shoshana, Esther, and 12-year-old David, steal away in the night to find shelter with a family friend. Leib promises to join them in the morning, but when daylight breaks, Leib had vanished. Hanna must flee to a safer refuge or she and her children will perish.

Edith Schwalb’s story is remarkable not only for her own bravery, but for the bravery of those that helped her: an entire village, including its mayor and citizenry, heroically conspired to conceal the presence of hundreds of Jewish children who lived in the safe house. Hiding Edith details not only the amazing courage and struggles of one young girl, but the inspiring spirit of the people she met.

Europe, on the eve of the Second World War, and a Jewish family feels the Nazi danger closing in. Led by their indomitable mother, Marie, the Reesers make a daring escape from under the watchful eyes of the Gestapo, fleeing their comfortable home in Czechoslovakia to safety and a new life in Canada. Their lives are saved, but all else is lost, including four beautiful and valuable paintings that Marie loved.

Separation and divorce can be a grueling experience. Spouses who once loved each other can be swept up by an adversarial system where they declare war on each other, forgetting all that was good between them and disregarding the needs of their children. It doesn't have to be that way. When Cate Cochran and her ex-husband’s marriage failed, they tried an unusual arrangement to keep their family together.