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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.
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Bodies and Sole A Shores Mystery
Publisher: Acorn Press$22.95The Shores is celebrating a killer 200th anniversary. A skull tossed up on the beach sparks a heritage murder investigation.
Meanwhile, serial widow Vera Gloom moves into the village with her three ex- husbands. Are they one big happy family? Amateur sleuth, Hy McAllister has her doubts, and things get even more interesting when Vera starts working on husband number four. Hy has to convince Mountie Jane Jamieson that these people are more than just a little dysfunctional—before it’s too late.
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Prince Edward Island: Landscape and Light
Photographer: John SylvesterPublisher: Acorn Press$29.95In 2014, John Sylvester is celebrating his 30th year of photographing some of Canada’s most remarkable places. This book is a retrospective of his main inspiration — Prince Edward Island. It includes much new material, but also includes many beloved classic images that have graced the pages of his previous books. Prince Edward Island: Landscape and Light takes us on a journey showcasing John Sylvester’s approach to photography, not only making images at the edge of day and night, but also the nature of photographing on an Island, where both the landscape and the light inspires his spectacular work.
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Charlottetown: Then and Now
Photographer: W.Blair MacDonaldPublisher: Acorn Press$19.95D. Scott MacDonald’s father, W. Blair MacDonald had a keen interest in the changing landscape of Charlottetown, and documented a number of these changes with his slide camera. Instilled with a keen sense of history at an early age, Scott and his family have always treasured the work that their father did to preserve Charlottetown’s history. So, over 50 years later, Scott has nowretraced his father’s steps to record how the city has changed over that time. Standing in the exact spot where his father stood, Scott has captured how the streets and buildings of Charlotttown have changed and remained the same. Scott has also researched the history of the buildings he protrays, both back to his father’s time and much earlier. The result is a fascinating glimpse into why and how even a small city can change so much.
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Prince Edward Island ABC
Artist: Dale McNevinPublisher: Acorn Press$12.95Prolific P.E.I. illustrator has a new take on the P.E.I. alphabet. Avoiding the predictable icons such as “A is for Anne of Green Gables” this book is meant to appeal to PE Islanders both at home and away. With images that include A is for Acadian; B is for Blue Jay; C is for Confederation; D is for Old Donald, E is for Exploring a Tidal Pool, F is for Farmers and Fishers; H is Harness Racing; J is Jams and Jellies; K is for Kindred Spirits.; and L is Lighthouse, this Prince Edward Island ABC will to appeal to both children and adults.
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Village that Loved Oysters
Artist: Meredith LucePublisher: Acorn Press$9.95The Village that Loves Oysters is a children’s picture book that describes the quaint PEI village of Tyne Valley, and its odd obsession with Malpeque oysters. As the story goes, “the villagers eat oysters for breakfast and dinner and lunch, and on hot summer days they drink oyster-laced punch!”. The villagers get even more oyster-crazed at the onset of the Tyne Valley Oyster Festival, for which the story is written to commemorate. It will be launched during the 50th anniversary of the Tyne Valley Oyster Festival this summer.
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Step Outside
Publisher: Acorn Press$19.95Doretta Groenendyk’s new book, Step Outside, promotes the valuable goal of relating to each other and the natural environment in a creative and enchanted way. Childhood obesity and the addiction to electronics is a growing concern that needs to be addressed. Step Outside is an artistic approach to inspire movement, to strengthen family bonds, to generate memories and celebrate the outdoors. It also visually enriches the readers repetoire with enticing, original, collaged, watercolour and acrylic creations within a moment of words. A beautiful combination of sport, art, poetry, nature and family, Step Outside, is sure to get you off your chair and enjoying the outdoors.
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Kira’s Secret
Publisher: Acorn Press$12.95Twelve-year-old Kira loves to swim. But her parents, who adopted her as a baby, have forbidden her to go near the sea where they live on the north Atlantic coast. Frustrated by their rules, Kira decides to rebel and jumps into the icy waters. She is shocked by what she learns about herself. With the help of her friend Cody, Kira begins the search for her original family. She soon discovers why her adoptive parents were afraid to let her go into the sea.
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Bubba Begonia and the Bully
Artist: Dale McNevinPublisher: Acorn Press$8.95It was the first day of school and Bubba Begonia felt great. Then -SPLAT! Bubba meets his new classmate Stinky Biggs. He also meetsa stalking crow, a pair of puppets who speak Wabatawbee, a skunknamed Chiclet, a Flying Bag of Doom, and a dog with gas. He accidentallyrobs a bank, he’s called a ‘hero’ and is given a reward. Hehas the worst birthday party ever, sees his favourite teacher drippingwith egg, buys a wedding cake that tastes like ‘looove’, saves abully’s butt and nearly ends up in the slammer. This can’t be good,can it?
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Something Fishy A Shores Mystery
Publisher: Acorn Press$22.95Herrings are falling from the sky over The Shores – an unusual phenomenon anywhere, but especially so in this case. A newcomer, Anton Paradis, has set up a restaurant that specializes in dangerous dining, cooking up food that can kill to tantalize the palates of wealthy clients. It’s a recipe for death. Someone’s bound to get hurt.
Someone does. Oddly, the victim dies laughing. By accident or design?
Mountie Jane Jamieson suspects it’s no accident. But could there really be another murder at The Shores?
All the while, a wind turbine slices its blades over the cape, menacing the villagers with its eerie presence. Death is in the wind as well as on the dinner plate.
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Fairies on My Island
Artist: Christina PattersonPublisher: Acorn Press$12.95If you look closely, maybe you too can discover the world of fairies. Get ready for Shaun and Christina Patterson to take you into a magical worlds of Fairies. A place where silliness and fun are just as important as being true to yourself and taking care of nature. The Pattersons have traveled far and wide on Prince Edward Island to uncover the secret world of fairies. Join them now as they discover the world of fairies. Complete with instructions to make your own fairies, this book is a true guide to many of the fairies you will see on your search.
