Ghost Voyages — Cora Taylor

In this reissue of a great Canadian favourite, Jeremy discovers how to travel back in time to the decks of ships from Canada's past, using the stamps and magnifying glass left to him by his grandfather.

It all started when Jeremy opened that stamp book that his great-grandmother sent. He picked up the magnifying glass for a quick look, and the next thing he knew, he was standing on the deck of the ship! And it wasn't just one stamp that worked, it happened again.

His first trip is to a steamer called The Northcote, which just happens to be in the middle of a battle during the Northwest Rebellion. On his next trip, aboard a ship called The Nonsuch, he's sailing through the icy waters of Hudson Bay.

Jeremy realizes that he really is a "ghost" on these trips―he is invisible, although he can touch and move things―and on both ships he manages to save the day. This only adds to the sailors' already-powerful suspicion about ghosts. Also, his real body stays at home, holding a magnifying glass, looking at a stamp, while he's off travelling. Things start to get complicated―a teacher is super impressed at Jeremy's sudden startling knowledge about these historical events. When his great-grandmother tells him that an ancestor was saved by a "ghostly hand," Jeremy is astonished. But when he hears that his great-grandfather used to spend hours bent over the same stamp book, just staring through the magnifying glass, his head really starts to spin!

Cora Taylor is one of Canada's best-known children's authors. She has published more than a dozen juvenile novels. Cora's Coteau titles include the very successful Ghost Voyages series and the Spy Who Wasn't There series, which includes Adventures in Istanbul and Murder in Mexico as well as her latest book, Chaos in China.