And Elsie’s achievements weren’t limited to the skies. When World War II broke out, it was Elsie who oversaw the production of Canada’s Hawker Hurricane, a war plane that was very important for the Allied forces. But Elsie wasn’t going to let anything interfere with her love of engineering and airplanes. In 1929, Elsie was the first woman in the world to earn a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering - which she had to accept from a hospital bed after contracting polio.

Meet Elsie MacGill, internationally renowned aeronautical engineer and feminist!

Commended, Best Books for Kids and Teens, Canadian Children’s Book Centre, 2019.

And nobody plays a guitar in space or rocks a mustache better! Chris Hadfield has rocketed into space three times, been on two space walks and was the first Canadian to command the International Space Station. And with everything Chris did, from learning to fix farm machinery and joining the Air Cadets to flying fighter planes and becoming a test pilot, he prepared himself to get there. But from the moment he saw a man first walk on the moon, young Chris decided he would somehow get to space. When Chris Hadfield was a boy, growing up on a farm in Milton, Ontario, Canada didn’t have a space program. Meet Colonel Chris Hadfield, the first Canadian to walk in space - and make a music video while in orbit!

Commended, Resource Links, Best of the Year, 2018.

Commended, Best Books for Kids and Teens, Canadian Children’s Book Centre, Starred Selection, 2019.

Short-listed, Hackmatack Children’s Choice Award (Atlantic Canada), 2019.

Winner, OLA Silver Birch Express Award, 2019.

Historical Photos and a timeline support the narrative. This new picture book biography series features simple text and full-colour, comic-flavoured illustration with speech balloons that help bring the story alive. Her sister Wanda worked hard to promote Viola’s legacy, which has been finally honoured by Viola’s inclusion on the new Canadian $10 bill.

While she ultimately did not succeed, she was a beacon to other early civil-rights activists. Supported by the Nova Scotia Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NSCAACP) and the black-owned newspaper The Clarion, Viola took her quest for the right to freedom from discrimination to the courts. On the night of November 8th 1946, Nova Scotia businesswoman Viola Desmond stood up for her right to be in the “unofficial” whites-only section of a New Glasgow movie theatre. Meet Viola Desmond, community leader and early civil rights trailblazer!

Meet Viola Desmond by Elizabeth MacLeod