New in the SDCH library this month:

In fiction:

Three Day Road, by Joseph Boyden
It is 1919, and Niska, the last Oji-Cree woman to live off the land, has received word that one of the two boys she saw off to the Great War has returned. Xavier Bird, her sole living relation, is gravely wounded and addicted to morphine. As Niska slowly paddles her canoe on the three-day journey to bring Xavier home, travelling through the stark but stunning landscape of Northern Ontario, their respective stories emerge-stories of Niska’s life among her kin and of Xavier’s horrifying experiences in the killing fields of Ypres and the Somme.

War brothers, by Sharon McKay
Sharon McKay’s novel is set in Uganda, where Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has, since 1987, abducted up to 30,000 children from their villages and homes for use as soldiers and slaves. It is in these nightmarish times that the fates of five boys and a girl are entwined. Captured from their school by the LRA, the boys wait for rescue only to discover that if they are to survive they must rely on themselves. But friendship, courage, and resilience might not be enough to save them.

Marcelo in the real world, by Francisco X. Stork
This summer, Arturo Sandoval declares, his son Marcelo will learn about the real world. He will work in the mailroom of Arturo’s law firm. He will interact with everyone in the office. He will be normal, as Arturo has always said he is, and not have a highly functioning form of Asperger’s Syndrome, as Marcelo knows he does. And Marcelo, reluctantly, must agree to his father’s terms. He soon learns reality isn’t easy. Wendell, the son of Arturo’s partner, offers friendship to further his own ends. The law firm hides an injustice that will transform Marcelo’s world. But through it all, there is Jasmine, his beautiful and tenacious coworker, his true friend and perhaps more. Reminiscent of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time in the intensity and purity of its voice, this extraordinary novel encompasses a legal battle, a subtle love story, and the primal coming-of-age narrative: discovering the truth of one’s own capabilities.

Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson
Melinda Sordino busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops. Now her old friends won’t talk to her, and people she doesn’t even know hate her from a distance. The safest place to be is alone, inside her own head. But even that’s not safe. Because there’s something she’s trying not to think about, something about the night of the party that, if she let it in, would blow her carefully constructed disguise to smithereens. And then she would have to speak the truth.

Leonardo’s Shadow, or My astonishing life as Leonardo da Vinci’s servant, by Christopher Grey
Milan, 1497. The height of the Renaissance. And for Giacomo, servant of the famous painter Leonardo da Vinci, it’s the most difficult time of all. His Master has been working on the Last Supper, his greatest painting ever, for nearly two years. But has he finished it? He’‘s barely started! The all-powerful Duke of Milan is demanding that it be completed by the time the Pope visits at Easter. And Giacomo knows that if Leonardo doesn’t pick up his pace, the Duke may invite a young genius—Michelangelo—to finish the painting instead.

In non-fiction:

Tea with Hezbollah, by Ted Dekker and Carl Medearis
Is it really possible to love one’s enemies?

That’s the question that sparked a fascinating and, at times, terrifying journey into the heart of the Middle East during the summer of 2008. It was a trip that began in Egypt, passed beneath the steel and glass high rises of Saudi Arabia, then wound through the bullet- pocked alleyways of Beirut and dusty streets of Damascus, before ending at the cradle of the world’s three major religions: Jerusalem.

Tea with Hezbollah combines nail-biting narrative with the texture of rich historical background, as readers join novelist Ted Dekker and his co-author and Middle East expert, Carl Medearis, on a hair-raising journey. They are with them in every rocky cab ride, late-night border crossing, and back-room conversation as they sit down one-on-one with some of the most notorious leaders of the Arab world. These candid discussions with leaders of Hezbollah and Hamas, with muftis, sheikhs, and ayatollahs, with Osama bin Laden’s brothers, reveal these men to be real people with emotions, fears, and hopes of their own. Along the way, Dekker and Medearis discover surprising answers and even more surprising questions that they could not have anticipated-questions that lead straight to the heart of Middle Eastern conflict.

66 Love letters, by Dr. Larry Crabb
The story of God written in intimate love letters just for you.

Dr. Larry Crabb knows that if we could see the larger story of God and humanity, our world would never be the same. That story is found in large part in the sixty-six letters of the Bible.

Written in a conversational first person, as if God is speaking directly to us, Dr. Crabb looks at each individual book in scripture and boils it down to a one- or two-sentence message to us from that particular book. He then unpacks each sentence in a short chapter answering the question, What does God want me to hear from this love letter? The book’‘s epilogue then fits all sixty-six pieces of the jigsaw puzzle together into one coherent paragraph and reveals the beautiful picture of what God has been about since the creation of the world. Far from being comprehensive, this is a personal approach to helping readers know God and his great love for them, his message for all mankind, and how their lives fit into His larger story.

I stand at the door and Knock, by Corrie ten Boom
Contains Forty New, Never-Before-Published Devotions. At the height of Nazi power, amid the horrors of a concentration camp, the seeds of faith and forgiveness grew to fruition in the heart of a young Dutch woman named Corrie ten Boom. Outlasting Ravensbruck and Hitler’s regime, Corrie went on to accomplish what brute power never could: conquering hearts across the world with healing words of hope, forgiveness, and trust in God.This is Corrie ten Boom at her best and most inspiring. These forty timeless devotionals remind you of the treasures of faith in Christ, the mysteries of God’s kingdom, and joy of a surrender that leads you out of fear into the freedom of love and forgiveness.I Stand at the Door and Knock offers timeless messages of faith, hope, and forgiveness.

There are many more new books available for you to enjoy. Come check them out in your library today. (Grand-)parents of our students are also very welcome to borrow books from our library.
Please check back regularly for updates and new additions to our collection. For more information contact the librarian Annelies de Groot: by phone (905) 957-3255 or by e-mail: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

April 2010