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Bud the Spud
Artist: Brenda JonesPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$11.95The famous and irresistible song about potatoes is now on the printed page in lively storybook form.
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The Sharing Circle Stories about First Nations Culture
Artist: Arthur StevensPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$13.95Matthew loves to play games with his friends and share his toys with them. But most of all he loves to share the special treasures that remind him of his First Nations culture. Perhaps his favourite treasure is the medicine pouch that his grandfather made especially for him. This is where he keeps many of his other treasures, including the sacred herbs his mother gave him. Matthew uses the herbs to remind him to be grateful for everything that nature gives us. Another special gift is the eagle feather from his father. Matthew knows that the eagle is a symbol of the spiritual strength of his culture. But there is one other gift that has a special place in Matthew’s heart. It is the dream catcher that Matthew gave to his friend Dustin to help him not have bad dreams. The Sharing Circle is a collection of seven stories about First Nations culture and spiritual practices: The Eagle Feather, The Dream Catcher, The Sacred Herbs, The Talking Circle, The Medicine Wheel, The Drum, and The Medicine Pouch.
Researched and written by Mi’kmaw children’s author Theresa Meuse-Dallien, and beautifully illustrated by Mi’kmaw illustrator Arthur Stevens, this book will engage and inform children of all ages.
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Hatchling’s Journey
Artist: Jeffrey DommPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$10.95In 1953 Nova Scotia zoologist Sherman Bleakney made a surprising discovery. He found a female Blanding’s turtle living near Kejimkujik Lake. Until then, scientists did not know that the freshwater Blanding’s turtles lived in Nova Scotia. In 1990, this small population of Blanding’s turtles in southwestern Nova Scotia became a protected species and three years later was designated a threatened species.
Set in Nova Scotia’s Kejimkujik National Park, this remarkable story is about a young Mi’kmaw girl and her family’s encounter with a Blanding’s turtle hatchling. Richly illustrated by the award-winning artist Jeffery C. Domm, The Hatchling’s Journey provides us with first-hand experience observing the turtle hatchlings emerging from their nests and their fascinating journey into the Kejimkujik woods for winter. Nominated for a 2005 Hackmatack Award. -
A Breed Apart
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95This is the best-selling story of Nova Scotia’s famous tolling dog. The legends and stories of the old tolling men and their dogs of Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia, is part fact and part fiction. Here, at last, is the full story of the Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever and the men and women who bred them, trained them and brought them to prominence.
The Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever is Canada’s first and only true Canadian bred dog. For almost two hundred years the dog was unknown outside of southwestern Nova Scotia. The dog’s particular hunting technique – tolling – was first recorded in North America by Nicholas Denys and became part of the folklore of the Maritimes. Straight out of “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” is the dog’s astonishing ability to lure waterfowl.
This powerful and mesmerizing effect in drawing waterfowl toward the shore is just one of the many intriguing secrets associated with this amazing canine. Gail MacMillan became enthralled with Tollers many years ago and became determined to unlock the dog’s engaging past.
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A Land of Discord Always
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95From 1604 to 1755, the Acadian settlers of present-day Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were the focus of political, economic, and military rivalries between France and Britain. Their stubborn nonconformity and political neutrality baffled and infuriated both European powers fighting for the upper hand. Finally, Britain’s drastic solution was to expel them from their homes.
Little his been published about early Acadia (which included much of the Maine coast and the Maritimes) and the origins of the Acadians. This rich story, peopled with memorable men and women whose lives make fascinating reading, is skillfully chronicled by retired attorney and historical writer, Charles Mahaffie. -
Inspired Halifax
Artist: Dusan KadlecPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95Born in 1942 in what is now the Czech Republic, Dusan Kadlec received his Masters Degree in Fine Arts from the prestigious Academy of Fine Arts in Prague in 1967. Shortly afterward, 1968, he immigrated to Canada and settled in Nova Scotia where he now works and makes his home. Internationally recognized for his highly detailed portrayals of important historical events, as well as painting our seafaring and urban past, Dusan Kadlec is generally regarded as Canada’s foremost historical and marine artist.
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Grand-Pré: Heart of Acadia
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$24.95A.J.B. (John) Johnson, a historian with Parks Canada, has published extensively, on French colonial Louisbourg in particular. W.P. (Wayne) Kerr, an interpretation specialist with Parks Canada, has over seen the development of numerous exhibits and projects in Atlantic Canada
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Historic Antigonish Town & County
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$29.95Antigonish County is a rural community steeped in a unique heritage. Mi’kmaq have lived here for hundreds of years; they were joined in the eighteenth century by Acadians, Loyalists—including Black Loyalists—and settlers from New England, Scotland, and Ireland.
Historic Antigonish: Town and County bears witness, in photographs and detailed captions, to this cultural diversity and its many benefits. This is a book not about landscape or politics–although both have naturally affected life here–but about the countless individuals whose everyday lives shaped the area’s evolution, people like John Boyd, founder of the Casket; Lottie Melanson, champion sheepshearer; Alex MacDonald, the “Klondike King”; and Katie MacEachern, a gifted midwife. From the raising of St. Joseph’s Church to the fiery destruction and resurrection of Mount St. Bernard, local events, businesses, and, above all, people are captured and honoured in this wide-ranging tribute to Antigonish town and county.
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Historic Guysborough
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$24.95In Guysborough County, Nova Scotia, located on the eastern Atlantic Coast of Nova Scotia, the forestry, fishing and subsistence farming industries were the usual employers of its inhabitants. One of the larger villages, Sherbrooke, located at the head of the tide on the St. Mary’s River, had commercial interests: a saw mill, stores, including trade shops and a photography studio that made it a bustling centre of activity. Photography, in its infancy in late 19th century Canada, was widely practiced in the small towns of Atlantic Canada. Thankfully, some of the images captured by hobbyists and professionals have been saved to become part of this historical record of the county.
This is a wonderful collection of vintage photos that detail the county and the historic old villages that dot the coast and the interior of the region. -
Rendezvous in the Magdalen Islands
Photographer: George FischerPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$12.95Situated in the middle of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the Magdalens are a series of 12 beautiful islands of sand in the shape of a half moon stretching over 65 kilometres and with over 300 km of wonderful sandy beaches. This archipelago enjoys a Maritime climate, boasts a stunning landscape that always leads to the sea and features a unique human history beginning with the Mi’kmaq, the early French explorers, and the Acadians fleeing the expulsion of 1755, as well as the later Scottish immigrants. English Edition
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Bluenose Magic
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$24.95Bluenose Magic, first published in 1968, is considered a classic of Maritime literature, and its author, Dr. Helen Creighton, is one of Canada’s best-loved and most respected folklorists.
This fascinating and engaging companion to the author’s best-selling Bluenose Ghosts welcomes readers into a world of forerunners, enchantment, dreams, divination, buried treasure, guardian ghosts, home remedies, and mystical occurrences. These unique tales have been passed on from generation to generation of Nova Scotia’s families. -
Historic North End Halifax
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$24.95Halifax’s North End is an historical and photographic sketch of a major section of Atlantic Canada’s largest city. Both in war and in peace the North End has played a vigorous and vital part in the history of Atlantic Canada’s “Warden of the North.” The strategic importance of military forts, the naval presence, housing, and heavy industries that developed in this area, all contributed to the rapid growth of the North End during the late 19th century. As Paul Erickson points out in fascinating historical photos, the Halifax Explosion dramatically changed the fate of this historic section of Halifax and brought the astonishing growth to a screaming halt in 1917. During the 1920s, the distinctive neighborhoods began to thrive again. Erickson profiles the unique communities of the Hydrostone and Africville. Chapters include: Old North Suburbs, Foreign Protestants, Royal Naval Dockyard, Wars and Peace, Expansion North, Age of Rail, Age of Industry, Halifax Explosion, Rebuilding the North End, Africville, Second World War, and Eve of Urban Renewal.
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Historic Town of Pictou
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95Monica Graham is a long-time resident of Pictou County and is a freelance journalist and photographer whose work has been published in many newspapers and magazines including The Chronicle Herald, Pictou Advocate, and Canadian Living. She is the author of Pictou County.
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Joe Howe to the Rescue
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$12.95It is Halifax Nova Scotia in 1834, and 12-year-old Jack Dance, whose captain father is lost at sea and whose mother is poor, has to leave school and go to work. By chance he meets Joe Howe, who is impressed by Jack’s brightness and invites him to be his printer’s boy at the office of his newspaper The Nova Scotian. From then on, a series of things happen to make Jack’s life exciting and even dangerous. He stumbles on a major smuggling ring, is kidnapped by the king of the smugglers, escapes with the help of a black ex-slave, befriends the smuggler’s daughter Lucy, and then slowly uncovers the evidence that will destroy the whole smuggling business. Meanwhile Joe, who has already written articles about smuggling in Halifax and is seen as the smugglers’ arch-enemy, has printed a letter in his paper which attacks the powerful and corrupt men running the town – including the king of the smugglers. They charge him with criminal libel, and he has to defend himself in court, to avoid fines and imprisonment.
Joseph Howe to the Rescue weaves together the true story of Joe Howe’s fight for freedom of the press during this period, with the exciting fictional story of his printer’s boy. Jack learns to love and respect his boss and his friend, who went on to become the greatest Nova Scotian who ever lived. -
Evangeline
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$13.95La Nouvelle-Écosse est hantée par son passé—l’Acadie qui fut établie en 1605. Longfellow décrit magnifiquement la beauté des lieux qui devinrent le “Pays d’Évangéline,” dans son conte d’amants qui furent séparés pendant la déportation des Acadiens en 1755; une des oeuvres les plus aimées de la littérature canadienne. Personne ne peut lire l’histoire de Grand Pré sans avoir le désir de visiter l’Acadie; personne ne peut visiter l’Acadie sans être fasciné par son histoire.
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Ghost At Mahone Bay
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$10.95Do ghosts exist? Join inseparable friends Emmie Seegal and Angela Black, who live near Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia, as they discover that the answer to that question could be yes! One memorable summer, unexplained events and strange rescues from life-threatening dangers lead the two girls to believe that a kind spirit must be watching over them. Ghosts or no ghosts, Angela and Emmie have no shortage of escapades, encountering rogue kittens, friendly boat captains, and other colourful characters as they involve the whole town of Mahone Bay in their spirited adventures.
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The Alpine Path
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$18.95Lucy Maud Montgomery, the creator of Anne of Green Gables and many other popular children’s stories penned this memoir during World War I and it is often considered the best account of her childhood on Prince Edward Island and her first years as a writer. The Alpine Path references her long and difficult journey to become a full-fledged writer and describes, in charming detail, her childhood in rural Prince Edward Island during the closing years of the 1800s.
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Christmas with the Rural Mail
Artist: Maud LewisPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$12.95A gentle poem describing the journey of a mailsleigh through rural Nova Scotia at Christmas time, delivering packages and parcels to children, Christmas with the Rural Mail is a holiday classic. The poem is carefully crafted to fit Maud Lewis’s colourful paintings, and the mailsleigh passes children skiing and tobogganing, oxen and Clydesdale horses pulling heavy loads, and the train station, among other classic rural winter scenes.
Lewis’s artwork is ideal for babies and toddlers, with its bright colours and simple forms, and the paintings and poem together perfectly evoke Christmases gone by. This is a sturdy board book edition great for young readers.
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Bluenose: The Ocean Knows Her Name
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$22.95The story of the original Bluenose has permeated maritime lore, but the truth is more riveting than any fictionalized account. This is the true story of Bluenose, launched in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, in 1921 and lost at Haiti in 1946. Filled with never-before-published tales of crew members and photographs, Bluenose: The Ocean Knows Her Name ranks as the most accurate and entertaining account of the Queen of the North Atlantic.
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Historic North Sydney
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$21.95North Sydney has an exciting history. Once the fourth-busiest seaport in North America, the little town was also known as “Canada’s Gateway to the (European) World” when an underwater telegraph cable between North America and Europe was successfully laid, with the end of the cable in North Sydney. Because of its transport and communications advantages, the town played a vital role through both world wars.
Historic North Sydney is divided into chapters by topic. Rainnie Gillis uses historical images and extensive research to explain transportation, business, the Newfoundland Ferry Service, and public service in North Sydney, among other subjects.
Historic North Sydney is a much-anticipated addition to the Images of Our Past Series. -
Valiant Hearts
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$26.95Valiant Hearts chronicles the stories of inspiration and courage shown by men in wartime, stretching from the Crimean War (1854-1856) to World War Two, telling the life stories of the gallant men from Atlantic Canada who won that most coveted of bravery awards- the Victoria Cross.
The twenty men profiled in this book all have strong connections to Atlantic Canada (11 of them were born in the region; 9 have other ties to the region, having either lived or served here). With a focus on historical accuracy, this book tells the stories of these courageous men by filling in the details of their lives before and, for those who survived, after winning the VC, with attention to the specific events that led to their recognition as heroes.
No comparable book has ever been written. Most books about Canadian Victoria Cross winners cover the entire country and were published some time ago. Most of the previously published books contain little more than citations for the awards or excerpts from them, with only the briefest of personal details. This book is particular to the Atlantic region, and is detailed, personal and informative as well as being carefully written. -
Lighthouse Legacies
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$24.95Imagine living your life perched on a tiny island, without electricity, exposed to the fury of the sea, and always at the service of the mariner. This is how lightkeepers and their families spent their lives, even up until the 1960s. We are very close to losing the last of the people who lived this isolated life and experienced the heyday of lightkeeping in Canada. Lighthouse Legacies lets us share in the memories of those who kept the lights.
These stories are presented largely in the words of the people, with context and history by author Chris Mills. Each chapter deals with an element of lighthouse life and is complemented by photos from lighthouse family collections, the Coast Guard and Mills’ own collection.
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Danger At Mason’s Island
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$10.95Danger at Mason’s Island, the second in the Angela and Emmie Adventure series, is a junior fiction adventure aimed at middle readers.
It’s summertime once again in Mahone Bay, and Angela and Emmie are hoping to make some money with their pet-sitting business. But when they go to Mason’s Island to take care of the troublesome cat Rascal, they find a lot more money than they’ve ever dreamed of! Who’s hidden twenty thousand dollars on the captain’s island? When are they coming back for it? And will Angela and Emmie be safe when they do? Join the girls in a heart-pounding adventure story, as they discover that even the quaint town of Mahone Bay has a criminal underworld. -
Historic Mahone Bay
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$21.95Mahone Bay has played an important role in Nova Scotia’s history, contributing significantly to the forestry, fishing and shipbuilding industries, and in recent years emerging as an important tourism destination.
With an emphasis on people and anecdotal history and more than 150 photographs and other images, Historic Mahone Bay covers the period from 1754 through 1960, with the focus on the period from the 1880s to the 1930s. -
Historic Windsor
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$21.95Windsor has undergone a dramatic change in appearance over the years due to complete changes of inhabitants, from Mi’kmaq to Acadians to British. A fire destroyed the town in 1897, which led to the construction of a new set of buildings and, as a result, all new streetscapes. The images collected here will be a revelation to many Windsorians, who will not recognize the town that they have known. Many of the inhabitants who have been important to the town will not be familiar either. Historic Windsor promises to offer a portrait of the town through images that will waken the memory, but teach as well.
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East to the Sea
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$11.95Imagine being crammed into the backseat of the family car, pyjamas already on, staking out space amidst sisters, knapsacks, blankets and pillows. Excitement is in the air as everyone gets ready to start the long drive though the dark, starry night. Sound like a familiar start to a summer vacation?Join a young girl and her family on a nostalgic journey to her grandparents’ summer cottage on the east coast, where afternoons at the beach and bonfires at dusk become magical, extraordinary events when viewed through the eyes of a child.Heidi Jardine Stoddart holds a Master of Arts degree in Art Education from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, and was an elementary school teacher where she grew up, in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario. She currently lives in Rothesay, New Brunswick and spends much of her time teaching, drawing, painting, and looking for shells at the seashore.
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View From a Kite
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$15.95I must admit that when I first started losing weight I was pleased. I dropped from a pudgy hundred and twenty-five down to one-eighteen in a month, and kept on going. One hundred and five, and my breasts disappeared. By the time they hauled me off to the Sanatorium, a feverish, weepy, ninety-pound weakling, I was out of love with elegant bones and scared that I was coming out through my skin.
A teenager in the 1970s, Gwen is stuck in a tuberculosis sanatorium with only her journal and the occasional illicit cigarette to keep her sane. Her twisted sense of humour helps her deal with invasive medical procedures, oversensitive friends, and dictatorial nurses, but nothing can spring her from prison.
Not that life outside would be much better. Gwen is haunted by the dark and violent turn her life took just before she got sick. Her family has been shattered, and Gwen is fighting hard—with all the stubbornness and humour she can muster—not to be shattered too.
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East Coast Gardener
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$39.95Marjorie Willison grew up gardening on the Canadian prairies but has spent much of her life in Maritime Canada growing and using a wide variety of plants. Since 1985, she has been answering gardening questions on CBC Radio’s Maritime Noon.
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The Best of Wilfred Grenfell
Editor: William PopePublisher: Nimbus Publishing Limited$22.95True life stories of the heroic efforts of people by a man as legendary as his subject. In the fifty years since his death, Wilfred Grenfell has become a folk hero-a missionary doctor who served the northern reaches of Newfoundland and Labrador.
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Mi’kmaq Hieroglyphic Prayers
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing Limited$22.95Mi’kmaq Hieroglyphic Prayers is a collection of sacred readings (prayers, narratives, and liturgies) represented by hieroglyphs developed from pictographic symbols used by the Mi’kmaq Indians of Atlantic Canada before European contact, and later expanded by French missionaries. This volume contains some of the most important texts in native religious life, such as “The Passion of our Lord” and “The Sacraments,” as well as common prayers for everyday recitation. Transliterations in Mi’kmaq and translations in English accompany the hieroglyphic text.
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Canada’s Flowers
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$17.95For the British and Allied navies, the corvette, however useful, was a stop-gap, a “hostilities only” expedient useed to fill out the escort forces worn desperately then by the wartime attrition of the traditional destroyer flotillas. But for Canada, the corvette assumed an infinitely greater signifignance. It was the first warship the country had ever built in numbers; with the corvette, Canadian shipbuilding established itself, so that at thge wars end a complex of shipyards had been founded on each coast, as well had a resevoir of skills and expertise been established which would become the basis for the Canadian naval industry.
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A Watch in the Night
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95A Watch in the Night chronicles the struggles of one Nova Scotia family to survive on a tiny windswept island without running water, electricity, or reliable communication with the mainland. For thirty-six years, George and Ruth Millar tended the Pomquet Island light, raised generations of livestock, brought up their six children, and lived through violent storms and other weather disasters.A Watch in the Night is not a dry account of lightkeeping life, but rather a tale in which faith, ingenuity, and tenderness triumph over adversity.
