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The Golden Boy A Doctor’s Journey with Addiction
Publisher: Acorn Press$21.95Before opioids destroyed Grant Matheson’s career, he was a pillar of his community. Respected physician, loving husband, devoted father, and trusted friend. Grant was a straight-laced kid who grew up to be a clean-living adult. No drinking, no smoking, and certainly no drugs. It took everyone by surprise, most of all himself, when he became addicted to narcotics in his 30s. His story hit local press when he was found guilty of professional misconduct related to his addiction, including over-prescribing painkillers to patients so he could buy them back–an infraction that caused his physician license to be suspended.
Matheson’s memoir is a gritty account of his narcotic addiction and all that it cost him: various relationships, his career, and almost his life. The Golden Boy takes the reader from the very first day of Matheson’s drug addiction to that moment when he decided to rebuild his life through rehab and recovery.
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Maple Sugar Pie
Publisher: Acorn Press$19.95Maple Sugar Pie is the story of Hazel Whitford and her family’s past, Told through old black and white photographs, we see the events that caused deep fractures in her family and her estrangement from her husband and all but one of her living children.
We also see the story through the eyes of Hazel’s grandson Michael’s wife Jennifer, who live with the elderly Hazel for five years. After Hazel’s death Jen and Mike’s future on the farm, and the small business Jen has started, could be in jeopardy. Jen plans a reunion for the Canada Day long weekend hoping to reunite the family and to gain title to the farm. But will the estranged family want to return and will they be able to come to terms with the pain the events of the past have caused?
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Minegoo the Mi’Kmaq Creation Story of Prince Edward Island
Publisher: Acorn Press$13.95A long time ago, the Great Spirit created all of the sky and stars but it wasn’t enough. He then made a beautiful place called Minegoo, a place so beautiful that He almost placed it amongst the stars. He decided that instead, he would place Minegoo in the most beautiful spot on earth. He summoned Kluskap and asked him to find this spot. After searching the whole world, Kluskap found the Shining Waters, the spot in the Gulf of St. Lawrence that would be home of the Mi’kmaq people created in his own image.
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Blue Waiting
Publisher: Acorn Press$19.95Blue Waiting is a collection of poems in conversation with small beauties formed through the geography of living. This geography takes shape in the edges of islands, mountains, families, and most of all the terrain of the inner life. The inner life is imbued with the details of ordinary life, where the contours of presence is unraveled in attention to what is in before us as humans.
This collection is one of two poets, whose work intersects not only thematically, but particularly in how Wiebe and Snowber continue to find the holy in the ordinary, and wonder in the sensate world. One poem has fed the other, and as each was written separately we invite you to see them as a place for dialogue. Dialoguing with self, other, and the soil beneath the words, which gives breath and life to language itself.
As both poets and educators Snowber and Wiebe find the immersion in present life as the catalyst for the deepest lessons, and the writing of poetry becomes a place of unfolding to what it means to be human and sustain nourishment on the planet. We invite you as a reader to travel along your own wondrous journey and be in dialogue with us.
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Finding Forgiveness
Publisher: Acorn Press$21.95Adrian Smith was raised in what seemed to be a very traditional, Roman Catholic upbringing. His father, Adrian Smith Sr, was very religious. He had studied to be a priest and left the seminary only 6 months before his ordination. After he left the seminary, Adrian Sr then worked for 30 years as a child psychologist for PEI’s Department of Education. He died at the age of 58 from a brain tumor. A week later after his death, Adrian Jr discovered that his father had been living a lie and that he was homosexual; he had kept it hidden his whole life.
Adrian kept his father’s sexuality a secret until his mother died. At that time, he decided to make a conscious effort to face his and his father’s story. He ended up having travel away from PEI to get counselling to help him get over the lies of his past. He was finally making progress when allegations of sexual abuse against my father surfaced.
The book details a son’s experience with coming to terms with the secrecy and betrayal. But it is also a story of redemption as after years of hard work Smith could finally find forgiveness.
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Bubba Begonia, You’re Such A Lucky Guy
Artist: Dale McNevinPublisher: Acorn Press$9.95Bubba is distraught? so distraught that he decides he is going to skip Christmas this year. He can?t help but think about how his life was blowing up; how his favourite teacher, Miss Pimple, is getting married on Christmas day, his parents have forgotten he existed since his new baby brother, Bob, arrived a few months ago, and he is sure that he won?t get what he most wants for Christmas ? a puppy. That is until Miss Pimple ask him for a big favour? to take on her dog as her fiancé is allergic. Life changes dramatically with a new puppy and a new baby to look after but soon Bubba realizes that his dog is the best Christmas present ever.
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From Humble Beginnings A History of the Credit Union Movement On Prince Edward Island, 1936-2016
Publisher: Acorn Press$24.95D. Scott MacDonald’s new book From Humble Beginnings: A History of the Credit Union Movement on Prince Edward Island 1936-2016 traces the story of the credit unions on Prince Edward Island over the past eighty years. Telling the history through the seventy five different and unique credit unions that were incorporated up until the present day. Today there are seven credit unions still operating in the province, all owing their success to the humble beginnings and dedication of many pioneers of the movement. Filled with historical and present-day photos, this history chronicles the impact of credit unions on their community and the importance the movement had on the settlement of the Island.
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Your’re Flying, Baby
Artist: Christina GaudetPublisher: Acorn Press$9.95“Christina is a little baby. She can’t walk, she can’t even crawl. Her mother puts her on the floor on a blanket. She lays her down on her stomach and turns away to make the supper.”
You?re Flying, Baby is a lovely tribute to the tummy time. When Christina was a baby, she spent lots of time on her tummy. But Christina wantd to do more than that. By kicking her arms and legs, her mother imagined that Christina really wanted to fly. Based on the experiences of this mother-daughter team, You?re Flying, Baby is a sweet addition to the any baby’s tummy time.
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Acadian Women of Prince Edward Island Three Centuries of Action
Publisher: Acorn Press$19.95From the time of their arrival on Isle Saint-Jean in the early 1700s,Acadian women played a major role in the survival of the colony.Over the generations, they have been active in the home and in the community. They have nursed, taught, worked, sung, prayed, and served. Integrated into a well-documented text with numerous photographs, their testimonies provide a history of the Acadie of Prince Edward Island. This book relates how that history was lived by Acadian women and influenced by their action and determination.
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You Know You’re an Islander When….
Publisher: Acorn Press$14.95<
You might be an Islander if…
- You cried when Stompin’ Tom died
- You still give directions based on the purple house on St. Peter’s Road
- You were born knowing how to break down a lobster
A book about the Island for Islanders.
“Prince Edward Island is far more than postcard vistas, bountiful food and literary heroines with red hair. This book is full to the scuppers with everything that makes it unique and colourful!” – Chef Michael Smith
“Brilliant!” – Brad Richards, 2 time Stanley Cup Champion and PEI’s best hockey player ever.
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Queen of the Crows
Publisher: Acorn Press$12.95Elsa’s mom has disappeared again, but eleven-year-old Elsa is doing her best to fool the world into thinking her life is normal. As food, money and luck begin to run out, Elsa fears she won’t be able to keep her desperate, lonely secret any longer.
Then one day a crow talks to Elsa and a world of wonder opens up to her. The queen of the crows has also gone missing and the rest of the crows struggle to know what to do next.
Could the secret, magical world of the crows be the key to Elsa’s mental health?
Based on the award-winning short film screened by Telefilm Canada at the Cannes Film Festival, Queen of the Crows explores a family story of mental illness, love and imagination and triumph.
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Home Plate, Blue Helmet: From Charlottetown to the Holy Land and Back
Publisher: Acorn Press$22.95Michael Conway grew up in Charlottetown’s historic north and east ends. After grade ten, Conway left PEI for a career in the Canadian Forces. We follow Private Conway through the rituals of training — rigorous, comic, and occasionally tragic. He shows us the challenges and rewards of military life for a marriage. We join Conway overseas with Canada’s NATO troops and United Nations’ peacekeeping forces. He often returns, in his mind and on leave, to his beloved neighbourhoods, remembering the Lebanese shopkeepers and J.R.’s famous nite-club where Anne Murray and Stompin’ Tom launched their careers. Conway’s memoir is the story of a soldier’s return to his home ground, to his people in their aspirations and camaraderie, struggles and triumphs.
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Colour Prince Edward Island
Publisher: Acorn Press$14.95Colouring is becoming a serious pasttime for all ages. Increasingly, studies have shown that the health benefits to colouring appear to be as good as the benefits of meditation. In a unique, easy-to-pack, format, Colour Prince Edward Island is a new book that will create hours of fun for the whole family.
Nadine Staaf is a nature-inspired colouring book illustrator, living and working in beautiful Prince Edward Island with her husband and their son. Originally from British Columbia, Nadine’s art has most recently been influenced by the contrasting environment of P.E.I., which is prominently displayed in her newest book, Colouring Prince Edward Island.
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Waiting for Still Water
Publisher: Acorn Press$19.95These are the rules at foster mother Amelia’s farm–the rules that saved Rachel when she first came to stay at Walton Lake as a troubled girl. Now, after a horrifying crisis at work, Rachel has run back to the farm again.
But she doesn’t find the peace she’s hoping for. There are new fostered teens at the farm with their own demons, and the sprawling family she became a part of at Amelia’s farm seems to be full of heartbreak and worry.
There’s Crystal, grieving her twin sister. Jodie and Zac are struggling to bring a pregnancy to term. Kate is reeling from her mother’s abandonment.
And Amelia, stalwart and dependable and loving Amelia, their glue, has become worryingly forgetful.
A sweeping story of love and redemption, Waitng for Still Water will delight fans of Maeve Binchy and Lesley Crewe.
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The Porridge is Up ! Stories from My Childhood Stories from My Childhood
Publisher: Acorn Press$19.95The Porridge is Up! Stories from My Childhood is a collection of stories from those years–from a time when a secondhand bike or a brand new pair of pants were a big deal. But this is not the story of angels–as McIsaac hilariously recounts, he and his siblings courted their share of trouble. The Porridge is Up! is charming and laugh-out-loud funny; the tale of McIsaac’s strong desire for a box of Wagon Wheel cakes will make you laugh until you cry. -
Prometheus Reconsiders Fire
Publisher: Acorn Press$17.95In his new collection of poems, Prometheus Reconsiders Fire, PEI poet Brent MacLaine undertakes an exploration of fire. The prefatory title poem establishes Prometheus as the poet’s persona, a voice that is dedicated to the reconsideration of fire in both its benevolent and malevolent aspects. Formal and elegant, Prometheus plots a trajectory between the classical and the local, a bearing that will be familiar to readers of MacLaine’s earlier work Athena Becomes a Swallow. Wide-ranging in its geography, the new book is wrapped ’round by “The Fire Hall Suite” that begins and ends the book. These are poems that respond to the “drive-by wisdom” created by the anonymous “Sign Person” who speaks to the local community by way of the Fire Hall’s roadside sign. Framed by the “Suite,” the poems of Prometheus move between city and country. A naturalist in the city, MacLaine brings to the urban environment the acutely observing eye that has always characterized his Island nature poems. MacLaine’s imagery, both urban and rural, is remarkable, and no other Canadian poet is quite as capable as MacLaine is in marrying the formal and the colloquial.
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Prince Edward Island Then and Now
Photographer: Scott MacDonald, Victor RuntzPublisher: Acorn Press$29.95Vic Runtz, a long-time cartoonist for The Guardian newspaper in Charlottetown, had a large collection of phototgraphs from his time there. Through his position with the newspaper, he was able to get to know Elton Woodside, the Flying Farmer who delivered the newspapers across the province therefore allowing for highly-detailed aerial photographs of many of the communities at the time. Upon discovering this amazing collection, D. Scott MacDonald set out on the task to take photographs of the same communities today.
Together with photos from Vic’s collection that shows his varied interest in the Island, Prince Edward Island Then and Now is a fascinating look at the way the Island has changed over the past sixty years.
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Kira’s Quest
Publisher: Acorn Press$12.95Now that Kira knows the secret of her past, she can’t help but want to know more about her underwater world.
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Sky Pony in Iceland
Publisher: Acorn Press$12.95Siggi, Katie and their family are starting a new adventure! They are moving from Yukon Territory to Prince Edward Island to help their grandparents run their trail ride business.
Siggi is nervous about the move, but he has bigger things to worry about. Some of the older boys at school are picking on him, and he’s not sure how to get them to stop. He wishes he could just be like everyone else; instead, his Icelandic name makes him stand out.
Things get better for Siggi on the move to PEI, when he begins to learn some pretty cool things about his heritage. However, an unexpected magical trip to Iceland makes Siggi realize just how lucky he really is.
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I’m Drawing a Picture
Publisher: Acorn Press$12.95I’m Drawing a Picture combines story and images to captivate and inspire young readers to harness their creative spirit. A collaboration between artwork and text, this whimsical book has a different inspirational idea on each page, with a scene that each “artist” imagines. The concept is based on Doretta Groenendyk’s experience working with children in schools and trying to inspire them to be creative in all forms of mediums of art. The text is geared to four- to ten-year-olds, and is an excellent teaching tool for aspiring writers. An ideal elementary teacher’s resource, the book’s characters span cultures, genders, and ages.
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Island Morning
Artist: Brenda JonesPublisher: Acorn Press$19.95Island Mornging is a gentle story of a girl and her grandfather’s early morning walk through the fields of Prince Edward Island. On their journey, they see gentle pastures, farm animals, scenic vistas and a glorious sunrise. But this walk is about more than just viewing the beautiful scenery. It is also about the special time between grandfather and granddaughter and how they see the world through each other’s eyes.
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Fixing up the Farmhouse Forty Years of Living, Loving and Lamenting
Publisher: Acorn Press$19.95When Dianne Morrow and her husband, Andy, first saw the ramshackle old farmhouse, they fell in love. What they didn’t see was the years of work it would take to make the old house a home. Morrow describes, through essays, journal entries and poetry, the triumphs and the challenges of rebuilding a cozy farmhouse – and nurturing a growing brood of kids and animals. Often humourous, sometimes sad, this is the story of building a home, and a life under the Lindens.
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Snow Softly Falling Holiday Stories from Prince Edward Island
Editor: Richard LemmPublisher: Acorn Press$19.95A call was sent out asking writers to submit unpublished short stories for a fiction anthology featuring writers with a significant P.E.I. connection. Ther qualification was that it the story be about the holidays. PEI is strong on tradition, which includes out-migration and immigration. Thus, its culture and demographics are changing, and these PEI writers both are Island-born and hail from away.
The result is a collection of stories, essays and poems that will resonate with readers from all backgrounds.
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This I Know
Artist: Joanne Snook-HannPublisher: Acorn Press$19.95Originally written as a song by Michael Pendergast, one of Prince Edward Island’s best-known musicians, “This I Know” is a comforting verse about life’s passing. Beautifully written and illustrated, “This I Know” takes us on a spiritual journey, providing solace and inspiration to those who need it most.
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The Pup From Away
Artist: Christina PattersonPublisher: Acorn Press$9.95Dukes the pup is brought to rural Prince Edward Island from the city. He is used to the glamour of city life and isn’t sure what to make of life in the country. Over time, though, he begins to explore the fields and streams and finds that he loves it more than he could have imagined. When it is time to go home to the city, it is clear that Dukes is better off in his new home.
With a BFA and MBA, Shaun Patterson’s professional experience working in the creative field has taken him from designing multimedia collateral for Fortune 500 companies to creating art and producing video games for some internationally recognizable brands such as Six Flags, A&E and National Geographic. As a freelancer Shaun has produced high quality pieces of art and illustration ranging from children’s books, album covers, board game art and numerous private commissions. Shaun works both traditionally and digitally, and has a real love for doing genre work. Originally hailing from Barrie Ontario, Shaun and his wife Christina (also an artist) have made P.E.I. their home over the last five years and find the island to be a constant source of inspiration for them. Visit his website at www.shaunpatterson.com.
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The Memory Chair
Publisher: Acorn Press$12.95Thirteen-year-old Betony has always hated going to her cranky great-grandmother’s house. It’s old and stuffy and boring and the woodstove in the kitchen is always burning too hot. But her Gram doesn’t have any other family living close by on the Kingston Peninsula, so Betony ends up being dragged along all the time.
She’d rather be pretty much anywhere…until one day Betony sits on her Gram’s favourite chair. She is suddenly transported into the past, and is experiencing her Gram’s life as if it were in her own memory. At first Betony is excited and curious, and begins to develop a close relationship with Gram, even learning to cook and quilt. But after she has experienced a few more of her great-grandmother’s memories, she realizes she is slowly uncovering a terrible, shameful family secret.
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Door to the Past Abandoned Properties of Prince Edward Island
Publisher: Acorn Press$19.95If you have ever gone for a drive around rural Prince Edward Island, you would have noticed that the rural landscape is littered with abandoned buildings. Tony Gallant began to get curious about these properties and started investigate them, looking for signs of thier past. He began to not only photograph the homes, buildings or barns that have been abandoned on P.E.I, but post what he found on his Facebook page. The result is a curious collection of images of the homes and what is left of the former inhabitants, leaving the reader to only imagine the stories they hold.
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Dead Letter
Publisher: Acorn Press$19.95It is 2001 and the police constable’s girlfriend is murdered in a fit of jealous rage. When the constable realizes what he has done, he manages an elaborate cover-up. Only one person knows the truth.
Flash forward to 2012. Anne Brown is still running her late uncle, Bill Darby’s, detective agency after spending four or five years as his assistant. One day, the postman delivers an eleven year-old letter. The letter is addressed to her uncle from a woman named Carolyn Jollimore. She says she has evidence about a murder and begs for help from Darby. But Bill Darby is dead. And when Anne looks up the letter’s author, she finds that Jollimore too is now dead. Troubled with the evidence at hand, Anne must decide if she should investigate this eleven-year old murder.
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Born ! A Foal, Five Kittens and Confederation
Artist: Brenda JonesPublisher: Acorn Press$12.95Award-winning children’s author Deirdre Kessler has set her latest story in the late summer of 1864. Nine-year-old twins Gabriel and Grace help their parents run the Great George Street Livery Stables in Charlottetown. They are part of all the excitement as a circus comes to town and as politicians arrive by steamship from the Maritimes and the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada. The twins have drawing lessons with their friend, fourteen-year-old artist Robert Harris, who plays in the band that entertains the delegates at a grand banquet and ball at Province House. But the twins are most excited about their favourite horse, who is about to give birth to her first foal. Travel back in time to the streets of Charlottetown for an insider’s peek at the meetings that led to Confederation, beautifully illustrated by award-winning illustrator, Brenda Jones.
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Hockey Morning Noon and Night
Publisher: Acorn Press$12.95Hockey Morning, Noon and Night is a warm, light-hearted story about one little boy’s love of the game. Based on her seven-year-old son’s real-life obsession with hockey, author Doretta Groenendyk has created a delightful book for young budding stars, with bright, colourful ink and acrylic illustrations..
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An Islander Strikes Back
Publisher: Acorn Press$25.95New from P.E.I.’s most beloved comedian!
In his new book “An Islander Strikes Back,” humourist Patrick Ledwell admits his little province is way behind the mainland. But it means Islanders like Ledwell can see where they’re going– about 10 years before they manage to get there.
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Somewhere I Belong
Publisher: Acorn Press$12.95In Somewhere I Belong, we meet young P.J. Kavanaugh at North Boston Station. His father has died, the Depression is on, and his mother is moving them back home. They settle in, and P.J. makes new friends. But the P.E.I. winter is harsh, the farm chores endless, and his teacher a drunken bully. He soon wants to go home; the problem is how.
A letter arrives from Aunt Mayme announcing a Babe Ruth charity baseball game in the old neighbourhood. But Ma won’t let him go. P.J is devastated. The weeks pass, then there is an accident on the farm. P.J. becomes a hero and Ma changes her mind. He travels to Boston, sees his friends, watches Babe Ruth hit a home run, and renews his attachment to the place. But his eagerness to return to the Island makes him wonder where he really belongs.
