• Age: 12 to 15
• Grade: 7 to 10
• Reading age: 12 to 15

Short-listed for the 1995 Silver Birch Award
Eleven-year-old Josie Grun escapes from Communist East Germany with her mother and father one dark night in 1989 just months before the Berlin Wall comes tumbling down. Braving border guards, barbed wire, and rifle shots, Josie reluctantly turns her back on her best friend, Greta, and all that was once familiar. She crosses the ocean to join her uncle in Calgary, attempts to learn a foreign language, and overcomes the prejudices of her schoolmates in order to forge a new life. Clinging to the passion that has always been a comfort, her figure skating, she enters a local competition to prove that she is free on the ice and off.

Ann Alma was born and raised in the Netherlands and was a teacher for many years. Her novel Summer of Changes won a Silver Birch Regional Award. Her latest book of non-fiction, Kids Who Grow Their Own Food, has been well received by teachers and librarians.

She now spends her time writing at her home in the Kootenay mountains of British Columbia.

Ann Alma's profile page

• Short-listed, Silver Birch Award