The Taliban forbid women and girls to appear in public without being covered from head to toe and accompanied by a male family member. Parvana's father is arrested and the family is left without a breadwinner - someone who can earn money and shop for food. As conditions for the family become desperate, only one solution remains. Forbidden to earn money as a girl, Parvana disguises herself as a boy and becomes the breadwinner. This novel brings to life an issue that has recently come to light around the world.

Fifteen-year-old Ian must complete community volunteer service in order to pass his Civics class. He chooses to work at "The Club," a soup kitchen for the homeless in an unsafe part of the city.
When the man who saved Ian shows up at the soup kitchen, he gets to know "Sarge." Jacques was a soldier in the Canadian Armed Forces and his last tour of duty was as a peacekeeper stationed in Rwanda, an African nation Ian knows little about.
Ian begins to learn truths not only about Rwanda, but about the world, for which he is not at all prepared. Shattered invites students to ask themselves what they can do to make a difference in the world.
Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire, the Force Commander for the United Nations Mission to Rwanda, wrote the foreword to the book.

Sidonie Quince lives in Elizabethan England. Her father is an alchemist who conducts unsuccessful experiments in an effort to transmute base metals into gold. He promises the Queen results and Sidonie fears for his life if he fails.
Sidonie has a gift for scrying - foretelling the future by gazing into a crystal. Sidonie and her friend, Kit, set off to Glastonbury Abbey in search of the missing ingredient that will make her father's experiments successful.
Many historical characters and events provide the backdrop for Sidonie's adventures, including Queen Elizabeth I, William Shakespeare, Sir Philip Sidney and the Spanish Armada. Conversations are conducted using words, expressions and linguistic structures typical of the Elizabethan period.
The Alchemist's Daughter was nominated for a 2005 Saskatchewan Book Award.

McKay successfully blends fact and fiction about her great uncle, Charlie Wilcox. Charlie Wilcox is a Newfoundlander born into a family of sailors and sealers. A clubfoot prevents Charlie from following in the family tradition. When Charlie is in St. John's pursuing a higher education, he makes his way to the harbour and boards a boat that he thinks is a sailing vessel. Fourteen-year-old Charlie does not realize that he has climbed on a boat sailing for Europe with soldiers to fight in World War I! Because Charlie is too young to fight, he becomes a medic. Charlie Wilcox highlights the historical context of Newfoundland before Confederation and the life of a soldier.
The Saskatchewan Young Readers' Willow Choice Awards Committee nominated this book for a Snow Willow Award in 2004.

While hockey provides a thematic strand for the book, the protagonist, Sean, has more to address than pressures of the team sport and a perfectionist father. Complex family issues include an ethical situation that requires Sean to decide whether to do what is right or to support his father by withholding evidence involving criminal charges. The story is one that provides the hook of hockey and a familiar prairie setting in Alberta, but is given depth through the issues and the complexities of human relationships.