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My Mother is Weird
Artist: Brenda JonesPublisher: Acorn Press$9.95A hilarious look at a child’s view of a mother’s bad day. Originally published in 1989 by Ragweed Press, this book is considered to be a P.E.I. classic. This unique view of mother’s “bad day” through the observant eyes of a child is a weird and wonderful story for parents and children. My mother is so weird. Some mornings, when she wakes up, she has horns on her head and long pointy teeth and claws. She speaks in a voice like a jackhammer. But after her morning coffee, Mom’s horns disappear, and her teeth and claws shrink back to normal. She speaks in a soft, smooth voice. But, one morning…we ran out of coffee…
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Dreamtime
Artist: Christina PattersonPublisher: Acorn Press$15.95The soothing rhythms and sounds of the words of this story will work their magic on children at bedtime. Written by award-winning author Deirdre Kessler and illustrated by the talented young artist Christina Patterson, this book evokes a quiet nighttime in Prince Edward Island-a perfect going-to-bed story. Dreamtimeis sure to be a classic of the 21st century.
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Chung Lee Loves Lobsters
Artist: Glen Craig, Perri CraigPublisher: Acorn Press$9.95Mr. Chung Lee is a retired restaurant cook who buys one lobster a month with his old age pension cheque, takes the lobster to the seashore, and releases it into the sea. This book, a PEI favourite, was originally published in 1992 by Annick Press, but it has since gone out-of-print. New illustrations and fresh text will make it a favourite for a new generation of Islanders. This story won the L. M. Montgomery Children’s Literature Award in 1990.
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Treasures to Find
Artist: Dale McNevinPublisher: Acorn Press$12.95Dale McNevin is a much beloved PEI illustrator who has illustrated numerous books including Crosby and Me, Everything That Shines, and Three Tall Trees. Her characters from The True Meaning of Crumbfest were immortalized by the City of Charlottetown in re-created large statues painted by artists around the city.
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Crosby and Me
Artist: Dale McNevinPublisher: Acorn Press$9.95I’m off to play hockeybut I’m starting to thinkdad’s dreams are the reasonwe go to the rink.He’s doing the drivingwith Mum at his side,our frisky dog Crosbycomes along for the ride.
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Snow for Christmas
Publisher: Acorn Press$12.95Mother of three young children, Doretta Groenendyk teaches art to young people, is active in her children’s school, and participates widely in the Nova Scotia artistic community, doing workshops around the province, including Word on the Street in Halifax. Based in Canning, NS, Doretta is the illustrator of Bounce and Beans and Burn, with text by Shannon Murray, which was shortlisted for the PEI Book Award in 2008, and I’m Writing a Story, her first book featuring her own stories and illustrations.
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I’m Writing a Story
Publisher: Acorn Press$12.95Mother of three young children, Doretta Groenendyk teaches art to young people, is active in her children’s school, and participates widely in the Nova Scotia artistic community, doing workshops around the province, including Word on the Street in Halifax. Based in Canning, NS, Doretta is the illustrator of Bounce and Beans and Burn, with text by Shannon Murray, which was shortlisted for the PEI Book Award in 2008
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Lookbook!
Publisher: Acorn Press$9.95Jordan McIntyre teaches part-time in the History Department at the University of Prince Edward Island. She researches Canadian museums, aboriginal history, and art history. She is currently working to develop a hands-on Children’s Museum on PEI and was inspired to write this series after many delightful and educational trips with her three young children.
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Butterflies in My Belly
Artist: Brenda WhitewayPublisher: Acorn Press$7.95Jackie MacKay is a therapist who counsels children in a play therapy setting. Butterflies in My Belly was inspired by her work with young children. Jackie works at The Children’s Centre, a division of the Catholic Family Services Bureau in Charlottetown. She has a Master’s Degree in Social Work from Sir Wilfred Laurier University. Jackie lives in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, with her husband and two children.
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Bubba Begonia You’ve Done it Again!
Artist: Dale McNevinPublisher: Acorn Press$7.95Gerry O’Brien writes humourous chapter books, picture books, and lyrics for 7-12-year-olds. His lyrics have been sung by Corduroy Bear, Franklin The Turtle, and The Care Bears, and his stories, poems and plays have won numerous writing awards. He lives in Argyle Shore, Prince Edward Island. This is his third Bubba Begonia book.Illustrator Brenda Jones is a native of Prince Edward Island, and is a commercial designer and film animator who now lives in Montreal. She has illustrated a dozen books, including Bubba Begonia, You’ll be Sorry!, Bubba Begonia and the Mudmen of the Koola Boola, My Mother is Weird, Bud the Spud and Buddy the Blue-Nosed Reindeer.
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Bubba Begonia and the Mudmen of the Koola Boola
Artist: Dale McNevinPublisher: Acorn Press$7.95Bubba Begonia’s back! This time he and his two pals, Harold Haymow and Rad Chad Disco, learn the hard way that if you’re going to mess with the colourful and unpredictable Moonbaby Orbit, then you’d better be prepared to pay the price.After playing a wildly successful practical joke on Moonbaby and her sidekick, Margo Marvelous, the boys find themselves out in the middle of nowhere, drenched in stinky perfume and watching helplessly as Moonbaby and Margo run off with their clothes. The boys’ journey back to civilization is a zany adventure that ends when the boys, dressed in mud and rhubarb leaves, enlist the help of Hippo, The Black-Nosed Rottenweiler to invade Camp What-A-Girl to find their missing clothes.
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Bounce and Beans and Burn
Publisher: Acorn Press$7.95After breakfast Sam is so excited that he’s bouncing off the walls. His mother tells him to go out to the garden to play. At lunch he’s so full of beans that all he can get up to is mischief. His grandmother tells him to go out to the garden to play. After supper he has so much energy to burn that he can’t sit still. His father tells him to go out to the garden to play. Little do they know that when Sam does, he turns into a ferocious Samurai, goes on an adventure with Jack and the Beanstalk, and meets a fire-breathing dragon. Bounce & Beans & Burn follows Sam through an ordinary day of extraordinary adventure.
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Everything That Shines
Artist: Dale McNevinPublisher: Acorn Press$9.95This is a magical tale about a girl, Maddie, and her horse, Shekinah, and the bonds of family and friendship. It’s also about growing up and having those you love grow old and leave you, and about the magical light that shines in everything when you love something very, very much- even after they’re gone.
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Three Tall Trees
Artist: Dale McNevinPublisher: Acorn Press$7.95Narrated by Enigma the Crow, this charming picture book for children aged four to seven, is a delightful rhyming fable that tells the story of three tall trees. Living in close proximity in the woods, the ancient trees “bump and collide constantly.” Jacob claims that his roots are the deepest. Paul brags that his branches are wider, while Elijah Ali insists that his sap is the purest of all. There is “war in the forest” until Enigma observes a basic truth: the trees aren’t three trees at all. They’re part of the very same tree. With its gentle humour and heartfelt message about the connectedness of all living things, Three Tall Trees is certain to captivate young readers.
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Bubba Begonia, You’ll Be Sorry
Artist: Brenda JonesPublisher: Acorn Press$8.95Bubba Begonia is a young boy who desperately wants to make a good impression on the first day at his new school. But Bubba is nervous. Very nervous. And when he gets nervous his finger just seems to naturally head to his nose. “Bubba! Don’t be messin’ with your nose,” admonishes his mother. “Your finger’ll get stuck and then you’ll be sorry!”But Deerwatson Elementary isn’t your ordinary school. And Bubba’s classmates aren’t your ordinary students. In meeting the zaniest bunch of kids ever assembled, Bubba makes a memorable first impression when his mother’s words of warning come true.In his first chapter book (ages 8 and up), Gerry O’Brien creates an hilarious story of a young boy who overcomes an embarrassing personal habit with the help of his equally embarrassing little sister.
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True Meaning of Crumbfest
Artist: Dale McNevinPublisher: Acorn Press$12.95“Winner of the Ann Connor Brimer Award for Children’s Literature; over 17,000 copies in print; animated Christmas special on TELETOON, with the spin-off series Eckhart, The True Meaning of Crumbfest is the story of a curious little mouse named Ekhart, who sets off to discover the truth about that most abundant time of year called ‘Crumbfest,’ when bounteous crumbs miraculously appear in the old Prince Edward Island farmhouse in which he lives. Much anthologized — particularly by CBC Radio’s ‘Fireside Al’— this a heartwarming tale of the magic that happens when the ‘Outside’ and the ‘Inside’ come together.”
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Lullaby for New Brunswick
Artist: Chris BrownPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$9.95Sing your way around the province with this charming lullaby. Vibrant imaged and evocative language combine to celebrate the beauty and diversity of New Brunswick’s landscape.
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Jack and the Manger A Christmas Jack Tale
Artist: Darka ErdeljiPublisher: Running the Goat$14.95The Christmas story told with a folktale twist. This reverently irreverent story gives a whole new take on the birth of Jesus.
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Wolverine and Little Thunder
Artist: Alan SyliboyPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$22.95From the bestselling creator of The Thundermaker comes another adventure featuring Little Thunder and Wolverine—a trickster, who is strong and fierce and loyal. The two are best of friends, even though Wolverine can sometimes get them into trouble. Their favourite pastime is eel fishing, whether it’s cutting through winter ice with a stone axe or catching eels in traditional stone weirs in the summer. But that all changes one night, when they encounter the giant river eel—the eel that is too big to catch. The eel that hunts people!
At once a universal story of friendship and problem-solving, Wolverine and Little Thunder is a contemporary invocation of traditional Mi’kmaw knowledge, reinforcing the importance of the relationship between the Mi’kmaq and eel, a dependable year-round food source traditionally offered to Glooscap, the Creator, for a successful hunt.
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Uncle Farley’s False Teeth
Artist: Michael MartchenkoPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$10.95Every afternoon, Uncle Farley takes a three-hour nap. And every afternoon, he pops his false teeth out of his mouth and into a glass of water. One day, Morgan decides she’ll steal them to show her friends. But while they’re on the wharf oohing and ahhing, Morgan accidentally drops Uncle Farley’s teeth into the ocean! She thinks they’re gone forever until she sees a fabulous fish…with a fabulous set of teeth in its mouth.
Morgan and her friends pool their resources to get the teeth back—Ian’s dad is a fisherman, Zakia’s mom is a dentist, Markee’s dad is a police officer—but the fabulous fish just won’t spit them out. Will Morgan be able wrangle Uncle Farley’s false teeth back before he wakes up? Originally published in 1998, this new edition features updated text and illustrations from the artist behind Canadian classics like The Paperbag Princess and Thomas’s Snowsuit.
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Sid the Kid and the Dryer
Artist: Brenda JonesPublisher: Nimbus Publishing Limited$12.95A fresh and fun take on the younger years of hockey superstar Sidney Crosby, through an unlikely character: the dryer in the basement. Author Lesley Choice imagines the early life of W. P. (Whirpool) the dryer, now a popular attraction at the NS Sport Hall of Fame, as W.P. is hit with stray pucks while Sidney works on his shot in the basement. Vibrant artwork from illustrator Brenda Jones completes this imaginative tale.
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Santa Never Brings Me A Banjo
Artist: Murray BainPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$22.95The celebrated holiday song from multi-talented and multiple-award-winning Halifax-based roots musician David Myles is now available as a bright and fun children’s picture book. Young David writes frantic letters to Santa every year, requesting a banjo, but to no avail: “How does he miss / the one thing on my list / in the letter that I sent to him?” Follow the ups and downs of the holiday season with David, his furry friends, and his family, as he pines for his most-wished-for holiday gift.
Featuring illustrations from the animation studio that created the song’s well-loved music video, a special holiday message from David Myles, and original sheet music for those who wish to play along, Santa Never Brings Me A Banjo is sure to inspire many a holiday singalong.
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Music is for Everyone
Artist: Sydney SmithPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$12.95Music is for Everyone is sure to get you excited about making music! Singer-songwriter Jill Barber takes her young readers through many different kinds of music–hip hop, jazz, classical, folk–and instruments in an energetic, rhyming tour. Sydney Smith’s gleeful illustrations capture all the joy that comes from making music–in all its forms!
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EveryBody’s Different on EveryBody Street
$22.95If ever you go travelling
On EveryBody Street
You’ll see EveryBody’s Different
Than EveryOne you meetSheree Fitch’s playful words lead you into this beautiful children’s book and invite you to celebrate our gifts, our weaknesses, our differences, and our sameness. Fitch displays her wit and mastery of words in quick, rollicking rhymes that are complemented by Emma Fitzgerald’s lively illustrations. EveryBody’s Different on EveryBody Street was originally produced in 2001 as a fundraiser to commemorate the 10th Anniversary of the Festival of Trees in support of the Nova Scotia Hospital and to raise awareness for mental illness and addiction.
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The Land Beyond the Wall An Immigration Story
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$22.95Emma lives on the grey, cold, lonely side of a wall, where people speak in whispers and no flowers grow. On the other side, there is happiness and colour, but she can never go there. When Emma’s parents disappear, she is sent to live with her Aunt Lily, who, “just like the land withered from lack of sunshine, was broken by the life she led.” One day, Aunt Lily discovers Emma drawing and dashes her niece’s dream of becoming an artist. That is, until one day, when a strange boat captain, and an even stranger boat, arrive, and she leaves her world behind forever.
Following Emma’s arrival in a strange land (Halifax’s Pier 21), her placement in a group home, and the discovery of her voice through art, The Land Beyond the Wall is a beautifully rendered allegory that uses magic realism to confront the harsh realities of immigration, and the universal struggle of finding one’s voice, and one’s place in the world.
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The Snow Knows
Artist: Josée BisaillonPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$22.95The snow knows
where the rabbit goes.
It knows the hushÂshush
of the owl’s wing.In this deceptively simple children’s picture book, a pair of awardÂwinning storytellers share the joys of winter. A lyrical prose poem, The Snow Knows introduces readers of all ages to animals both domestic (a tabby cat by the wood stove) and wild (a slinking lynx; a choir of coyotes), celebrating wilderness and outdoor play.
With whimsical hideÂandÂseek illustrations, readers will love following footprints and catching a glimpse of an owl’s wing or pheasant’s feathers, suggesting what appears on the following page. A beautiful book, destined to be a perennial winter favourite, and read aloud by a crackling fire.
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Be a Pond Detective
$17.95Do dragonflies bite? What is the difference between a frog and a toad? Are leeches dangerous? Naturalist and artist Peggy Kochanoff answers these questions and more in this illustrated guide to solving the many nature mysteries of freshwater ponds.
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If I Were a Zombie
Artist: Eric OrchardPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95If I were a zombie
I’d package my drool
put it in a mason jars
sell it at school.In this hilarious picture book written by Hackmatack Award-nominated author Kate Inglis and brilliantly illustrated by Eric Orchard, two best friends imagine ordinary life as classic monsters and mythical creatures. What would Evan the Zombie do for the school talent show? Who would Poppy the Muddy Wood Fairy have over for dinner? From an alien with three hundred eyeballs to giants and goblin queens, this book of tickle trunk fun will delight kids of all ages.
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The Thundermaker
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95Mi’kmaw artist Alan Syliboy’s The Thundermaker is based on Alan’s spectacular mixed-media exhibit of the same name. In the book, Big Thunder teaches his son, Little Thunder, about the important responsibility he has making thunder for his people. Little Thunder learns about his Mi’kmaw identity through his father’s teachings and his mother’s traditional stories. Syliboy’s spectacular, vibrant artwork brings the story of Little Thunder to vivid life.
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Abigail’s Wish
$22.95Spring. Beautiful blossoms. Chirping peepers. Trees swaying in their new greenery. Pussy willows glistening in furry white coats. Rain and warmth. New births and new beginnings…
Ten-year-old Abigail Price is excited about spring in her new home in Birchtown. Spring means lots of things, like flower buds and fresh leaves and her Aunt Dinah’s new baby. She’s hoping it also means she’ll get a new dress to wear for the celebration, but new clothing, like many things, is hard to come by.
The first children’s picture book set in historic Birchtown, Nova Scotia, Abigail’s Wish is a window into the life of a Black Loyalist family in the early years of the historic colony. Through the eyes of young Abigail, this stunning collaboration between poet and novelist Gloria Ann Wesley and awardÂwinning illustrator Richard Rudnicki will teach readers about Black Loyalist life, and the value of friendship and patience.
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Pumpkin People
Artist: Ron LightburnPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$12.95Now in a new smaller format, Pumpkin People tells the magical secrets of Kentville’s famous residents. Sandra Lightburn’s verse reveals the nighttime revelry of the half-funny, half-spooky figures; Ron Lightburn’s colourful illustrations bring their wild celebrations to life.
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Animal Signatures (2nd edition)
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$9.95Animal Signatures is a handy field guide that teaches one how to recognize and interpret animal signs — the tracks, droppings and nibbled twigs that animals leave behind.
