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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.Â
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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. Â
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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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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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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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Comment Naquirent un poulain,cinq chatons et la Confederation
Artist: Brenda JonesPublisher: Acorn Press$12.95L’action du dernier roman de l’auteure primée de livres pour enfants Deirdre Kessler se déroule à l’été de 1864. Les jumeaux Gabriel et Grace, de neuf ans, aident leurs parents à l’écurie familiale de la rue Great George, à Charlottetown. Ils assistent à toute l’excitation provoquée par la venue d’un cirque en ville et l’arrivée par bateau de politiciens des Maritimes et de la province du Canada-Uni. Les jumeaux suivent des leçons de dessin de leur ami, l’artiste Robert Harris, de quatorze ans, qui joue dans l’orchestre chargé de divertir les délégués lors du grand bal et du banquet offerts à l’édifice colonial. Mais les jumeaux sont plus excités à cause de leur cheval préféré, qui va bientà t donner naissance à son premier poulain.
Remontez dans le temps et parcourez les rues de Charlottetown pour jeter un regard sur les réunions ayant mené à la Confédération, avec ce livre magnifiquement illustré par l’artiste primée Brenda Jones.
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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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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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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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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. Â
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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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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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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.Â
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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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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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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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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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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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Love You More than Anything
Publisher: Acorn Press$19.95This colourful new picture book by Doretta Groenendyk is filled with whimsical images of love from many different backgrounds. It is about the expression of glee, surprise, intense emotion and delight. It is between friends and neighbors, children or seniors, women and family.
This book crosses cultures and generations, social change and tradition. It exudes warmth and playfulness, sharing whimsical images and sweet memory. The childlike, playful evaluation and understatement of “what is loved more” is immediately addictive.
Each colourful, whimsical page depicts a different “couple” enjoying the expressed scene together, two grandparents, two teenagers, a girl and her granny, two boys, a boy and a girl, two men, young girlfriends, a child and parent, persons of diverse race, religion, size….essentially love happening between anyone, anywhere. Love You More than Anything is a simple, beautiful book to remember love.
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And All the Stars Shall Fall
Publisher: Acorn Press$12.95After years of struggle by Blanchfleur to maintain its independence, the idyllic walled city of Aahimsa, a community of girls and women dedicated to making a life of peace free of the brutality and aggression of outsiders, and its prospering Manuhome, are suddenly victims of a brutal surprise attack by the forces of The World Federation of City States. Mabon and Nora are in hiding outside the city where they witness all the horrors of the assault. Adam, their adoptive son, is no longer with them, having been placed under the protection of Doctor Ueland at the Manuhome. Adam, known to the federation as The Last Wild Boy has been hunted down since his unauthorized birth in Aahimsa. Blanchfleur the mayor of Aahimsa along with her daughter and granddaughter Tish, flee for their lives along with hundreds of the Manuhome workers. A few of them are thrown together and, although some are strangers and long-time enemies, they are forced by circumstance to attempt to find a way to escape extinction in the outside world against powerful and relentless common enemies, traitors and especially the federation’s murderous and heartless robotic army. They must deal with great dangers and unexpected revelations. Can they manage to work together and adjust their thinking enough to survive and find happiness against such seemingly insurmountable odds?
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The Last Wild Boy
Publisher: Acorn Press$12.95This is a new young adult novel by P.E.I.’s Poet Laureate. It is a dystopic story about Nora who lives in the walled city of Aahimsa, anidyllic community of girls and women working together to make a peaceful life free of the brutality of the outsiders. As the companionof the mayor of Aahimsa’s daughter, Alice, she enjoys privileges that other women from the working class can only dream of.But when she and Alice find an outsider baby abandoned within the city walls, Nora starts to question whether the outsiders poseas much of a threat to her civilization as she’s been taught. With the baby’s life in danger, Nora must decide whether she’s willingto give up everything she has to save him, and who she can trust to help her.
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Rika’s Shepherd
Publisher: Acorn Press$12.95Rika is a happy, energetic girl in control of her life and her small flock of sheep and helping her father run their farm and household since her mother died six years earlier. The one thing that would make life even more perfect would be a Border collie pup she could train to herd the sheep. But her tidy life begins to unravel with the discovery of a deadly coyote attack on her flock.
With the help of a young veterinarian, and an eccentric breeder of guard dogs, Rika takes on more responsibilities. She encounters challenges which reveal that she has not coped well with the death of her mother, especially when her father and the veterinarian become romantically entangled. Rika is further demoralized when she fails to train a guard dog pup and must return him to the breeder. When the valuable and beloved older dog who guards her sheep is gravely injured because of her poor judgment, Rika slips into a depression.
When Rika starts to get better, she takes stock of her blessings, and begins to deal with the changes that are imposed on her. She makes amends with her future stepmother, and the injured dog, now recovered, is returned to her care.
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Summer in the Land of Anne
Artist: CarolynPublisher: Acorn Press$22.95Six-year-old Elspeth’s mother has a surprise in store for her daughters. She’s taking Elspeth and her eleven-year-old sister on a surprise vacation. When she starts reading Anne of Green Gables aloud to the girls, they catch on–they’re going to Prince Edward Island!
Elspeth proudly dons her Anne hat on the ferry, ready to explore the Land of Anne. Although she knows she’s really visiting Lucy Maud Montgomery?s house, she feels like she recognizes everything from the books and is thoroughly enchanted. At first devastated that Montgomery’s first house was torn down by Montgomery’s uncle, Elspeth sees signs of life–chipmunks living in the old cellar.
Elspeth’s imagination is ignited. No longer satisfied with pretending to be Anne, Elspeth is instead inspired to become more like Montgomery: famous writer Elspeth of Cavendish, writing about the world she loves.
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Headliner
Publisher: Acorn Press$12.95Franny Callaghan feels invisible. With a missing mother only seen occasionally who speaks to the family through the closed door of her bedroom or the ensuite bathroom and a father and younger sister, who travel most of the time, home long enough to wash their underwear and re-pack before heading to the next competition so her sister can be an Olympic speed skater, Franny feels alone most of the time.
Franny’s brother died a few years before and is only seen in the photos on the wall. Her family hasn’t spoken of him since the day of his big funeral and all the news coverage of the tragic accident that killed eight members of the Ridgewood High School Orchestra and one of his teachers. And Franny Callaghan remains… just the awkward middle kid in a family that used to look like everyone else’s.
What if Franny just took off to go see her brother’s favorite band on the anniversary of his death? Maybe that would be the jolt her family so badly needed.
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You Make Me Happy
Publisher: Acorn Press$16.95With Doretta Groenendyk’s whimsical illustrations and narrative style, Small Things Make Me Happy explores the joys of everyday wonders and important, intangible things. Whether we are big or little, there are always things that we truly love. Whether it be sitting by the fire, reading in the bath, or travelling at night, this book explores the importance of finding happiness in all around you.
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Welcome to Camp Fill-in-the-Blank
Publisher: Acorn Press$12.95Page’s perfectly organized life turns upside down when her parents send her to Prince Edward Island to babysit her cousins Crusoe and Danger (those are their real names) for the summer. The only problem is that her cousins feel that they are too old to have a babysitter—they would rather be at summer camp. Page realizes the solution to the problem is to give her cousins exactly what they want: summer camp in their own backyard. Despite Page’s meticulous efforts to plan a different theme for each week of Camp Fill-in-the-Blank, she quickly learns that life with her cousins rarely goes according to plan.
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Maurice the Moose
Artist: Lori Joy SmithPublisher: Acorn Press$19.95Maurice the Moose is lonely. So lonely, in fact, that when one day, he is attracted to the call of what he thinks is another moose. He runs far and wide to respond to the call only to find that instead of another friendly moose, it is the call of a moose hunter that has attracted him. Luckily, another moose has answered the call and scares away the hunter. And, most importantly, the Maurice makes a new friend. Maurice the Moose is about making friends in unlikely circumstances as well as the strong bond that is formed when thrown together.
Lorne Elliott has performed from Newfoundland to New York City, from Los Angeles to Australia and points in between. Lorne started performing in 1974 as a folk musician in East Coast Canada. At the same time he kept writing fiction as well as songs, monologues and one-liners. The outcome of such a training is a very special show of comedy and music, totally original, entertaining, foolish and uplifting. Along with his unique performance style it is the timelessness of his material, joined with keen observations on today’s trends that make Lorne Elliott’s work so special. He is the author of Beach Reading and a novella The Fixer Upper. This is his first picture book.
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Kira’s Crossing
Publisher: Acorn Press$14.95Five years had passed since Kira discovered that she was a mermaid adopted by a fisherman and his wife. Her birth parents were merrow royalty who had been imprisoned by their enemies, the shape shifting Finfolk. The Finfolk had also taken over Merhaven, the hereditary undersea home of the West Atlantic merrows. Encouraged by merrow clans and supported by the local fishing community, Kira decided to join a Merhaven recovery mission. Also volunteering for the operation was Janus, a mysterious, handsome young merrow from the North Sea, as well as several Spegars, large merrows from across the Atlantic, who hunted with spears. In the chaos that followed the mission, Kira found herself on an unexpected journey that would take her across the continent and a fight for her own survival.
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Broken Crayons
Artist: Marla LesagePublisher: Acorn Press$14.95When Ms. Gillis, a preservice teacher on Prince Edward Island, decides to complete her International Teaching Practicum in Kenya, sponsored by Farmers Helping Farmers, she is very excited. She can’t wait to start her adventure in the warm African sun, leaving behind cold February days in Canada and (as she comes to learn) a well-stocked Island classroom. She is eager to share her newly-acquired teaching skills with the children in Kenya. She arrives laden with gifts and school supplies from friends on PEI. As she distributes a gift of crayons to her students, she soon realizes that she is the one who has the most to learn. Broken Crayons is a delightful story written for school age children. It is based on a true story that never grows old and one which carries a message for all, no matter your age.
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