Canadian history through literature

Hello!
Shadows on the Rock by Willa Cather is a wonderful YA novel about 17th century Quebec.
Madeleine Takes Command by Ethel C. Brill is YA. There's fair amount of French, in the names especially. I'm sure I mangled it when I read this aloud some years ago. It also takes place in Quebec, in the 17th or 18th century.
Mrs. Mike by Benedict and Nancy Freedman is an incredible story of a very young bride marrying a Mountie and moving to the far north. Kind of a Little House in the Big Woods, except that it happens in the early 1900s, and it's definitely the far north of Canada!
Enjoy.

Hi, glad you joined our group. Thanks for the books, we've read Madeleine Takes Command, but I have not heard of the others you have mentioned. I'll be looking for those at the library they sound good. I have been reading through Canadian History with my kids, so far we are up to the Loyalists coming to Canada. My next plans are moving West and the War of 1812.

Thanks again...Carol

If we stick with 17th-18th century New France, which should be plenty for one thread, some of the best children's and YA historical fiction I have read is set in that era.

The King's Daughter -- (whoa, that was hard to touchstone with 57 possibilities) -- by Suzanne Martel is one that I really like. I think it would appeal to Anne of Green Gables fans because it's got a lot of adventure and sense of place with romantic but not explicitly physical elements. I had to get an extra copy for my grown daughter because she loves this book as much as I do.

For younger children, a picture book: The Last Ship gives a real sense of the isolation of the colony when ships would leave in the fall -- or late summer -- and there would be no news, no new faces in the streets, no new goods in the stores, until many months later. I wouldn't part with this book!

Anyone who's up to reading Shadows on the Rock (which I had thought of as very accessible but not quite YA) would definitely be up to Land for their Inheritance which is historical fiction about the life of Louis Hébert, honoured as Canada's first pharmacist, but who was much more and had a great deal to do with the establishment of a stable French community at Quebec because of his passion to establish a farm with his family and consider Canada as home.

The Last Fort by Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth. Amazing story. A good read-aloud as it's suitable to kids younger than the 10+ who could actually read it.

Alphonse that Bearded One by Natalie Savage Carlson -- far-fetched fiction but great fun. For all ages.

With Pipe Paddle and Song by Elizabeth Yates (does that make three Newbery authors in a row?) isn't one of my particular favourites, but Bethlehem Books' editors, whose judgement I trust, thought enough of it to reprint it. For older YA.

I think in this group I will be tedious and recommend Heritage of Canada: Our Storied Past and Where to Find It in every thread. It is such a wonderful book -- not intended for children specifically but very accessible to families -- with lots of colour pictures, short chapters on each era of Canadian history from the Vikings to the First World War, fascinating sidebars, and "where to find it" at the end of each chapter, which is basically field trip suggestions! I used it pretty much every day for 13 years of homeschooling.

I actually have more books on New France, even YA books, in my library, but this is too much typing already... I have to go start the day.