Peggy Dymond Leavey

2013 Speaker’s Book Award – Shortlisted Laura Secord is now famous for her singular feat of bravery during the War of 1812, but did she warn the British and help defeat the American invaders as her legend says? After dragging her injured husband off the battlefield during the War of 1812, Laura Secord (1775-1868) was forced to house American soldiers for financial support while she nursed him back to health. It was during this time that she overheard the American plan to ambush British troops...

Twelve-year-old Martin Jessup, teller of tall tales and other untruths, cannot understand his sister’s objections to the family’s move from Winnipeg to small-town Ontario. With Dad in the military, moving is a fact of life. Settling into his new home, Martin is intrigued by a deserted house across the street and by an unfriendly neighbour, who seems to be waiting for something to happen. Martin and new friends Granger and Holly form a club that meets in the deep end of an empty swimming pool....

Thirteen-year-old Mark Rogers knew that his Grandpa Luigi had Alzheimer’s but he hadn’t counted on it turning his life upside-down. When his mother suggests that the two of them move in with Grandpa and help care for him, Mark reluctantly agrees because his grandfather has always been something of a hero to him. He doesn’t know, however, how strange Grandpa’s behaviour has become or that the kids in his new school have a nickname for him: Crazy Luigi.

Thirteen-year-old Jane Covington doesn’t want to go to Sky Lake to visit her grandmother for the summer holidays – she wants to visit her father in the north. But when she returns to the cottage on the lake with the tall cliff, she is happy to be back in the golden country sunshine. However, Jane soon involves herself in a mystery when she finds a seventy-year-old cry for help in the form of a very old letter. She traces it to the story of a suspicious fire that took place long ago. With the...

Thirteen-year-old Norah Bingham and her mother plan to spend Christmas in the country with Caroline Stoppard, Norah’s great-aunt. When her mother is called away on business, Norah goes on her own to stay with the aunt, someone she has never even met. From the start, the woman makes it plain that she does not welcome Norahs company, nor that of Norah’s cousins, Andrew and Becca, who arrive two days later. The isolated Stoppard mansion is as dismal as the Ontario winter. But the cousins soon...

It’s an exciting time for seventeen-year-old Libby, as she announces to her aunt that she plans to leave Toronto in the 1950s to spend the summer living alone in the empty family home in Pinkney Corners. Libby is determined to make it on her own and to spend some time honing her skills as a writer so that she can become a novelist and journalist like her deceased mother. But living alone can be a challenge. Libby makes a little money working at the five and dime, but the local paper can’t afford...

Mary Pickford’s ambition, passion, innate talent, and savvy business acumen sent her career into the stratosphere and set the blueprint for the modern movie star. Born Gladys Louise Smith in 1892, Pickford was raised in a house on University Avenue in Toronto and began her acting career on the stage. However, her determination led her to the new world of motion pictures, where she not only revolutionized acting method but negotiated her own terms for the highest salary for any actress and...