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I Spy a Bunny
Artist: Richard RudnickiPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$12.95Mandy and her Aunt Carla are spending the day at White Point Beach. They are playing I Spy, but Mandy is too busy climbing rocks, building sandcastles, and watching surfers to find the white-nosed bunny rabbit Aunt Carla spies.
This is a wonderful book for anyone who loves Nova Scotia beaches, bright colours, and bunny rabbits!
Now available in softcover.
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A Bluenose Twelve Days of Christmas
Artist: Doretta GroenendykPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$17.95On the fifth day of Christmas,
My true love gave to me
Five Highland flings!
Four coal seams,
Three lobster traps,
Two fiddle tunes,
And a Bluenose in at Pier Three.“The Twelve Days of Christmas” gets a taste of Nova Scotian revelry in this energetic retelling by storyteller Bruce Nunn. With Doretta Groenendyk’s charming and funny illustrations, readers young and old will want to read–and sing!–this version of the carol every Christmas.
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Baby Play
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$9.95Playing with baby is a bit like a dance-a joyful, back-and-forth rhythm. Baby Play gets the fun rolling with this loving look at baby’s day. Babies will love listening to the bouncy rhythm and rhyme of the text and looking at the bright, bold photos of a baby and family. This is the perfect board book for new parents, baby programs, and baby shower gifts. Extra information for parents is also available through the web link provided on the book’s back cover. Baby Play is the first book in a new series, “Baby Steps”. Each book in the series will focus on a key developmental stage in baby’s first year.
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Up Home
Artist: Susan TookePublisher: Nimbus Publishing$12.95Happy memories sparkle in this journey through poet Shauntay Grant’s childhood visits to North Preston, Nova Scotia. Her words bring to life the sights, sounds, rhythms, and people of a joyful place, while Susan Tooke’s vibrant illustrations capture the warmth of one of Canada’s most important black communities. Up Home celebrates the magic of growing up, and the power in remembering our roots now in a new softcover edition.
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Time Flies When You’re Chasing Spies A Halifax Mystery
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$12.95Andrew’s mother, Marion, works for Epsom Electronics, a security company that makes high-tech spy gear to keep world leaders safe. When she goes missing on the eve of a G8 summit in Halifax, Andrew and his father work desperately to find her. Luckily, Andrew and his best friend, both thirteen, are no strangers to danger, and they follow Andrew’s instincts-which run directly counter to the instructions his father gave him.When the two friends are nearly caught in a huge explosion at Citadel Hill, Andrew realizes his mother could be in even deeper trouble than he thought. Enlisting help from a credulous news reporter, the boys chase clues all over the HRM, narrowly avoiding serious harm on many occasions.Finally, they finally uncover a top-secret assassination plot-but are they just in time, or just a little too late?
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Oak Island Revenge A Jonah Morgan Mystery
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$12.95Jonah is fourteen and lives on the Western Shore of Nova Scotia in 1958. He and his best friend, Beaz, have figured out a way to get to the forbidden Oak Island to seek treasure. They find a gold locket down one of the treasure shafts and can’t believe their luck—until they realize that the locket is not pirate’s booty but possibly evidence in a current murder investigation, one which Jonah already knows more about than he can handle. Beaz is in danger from his abusive mother if she finds out he’s gone to Oak Island, so Jonah keeps the secret even though there is a killer at large in his small community.
Oak Island Revenge is a coming-of-age story, with much higher stakes than most teenagers have to contend with.
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Last Summer in Louisbourg
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$11.95Fifteen-year-old Andrea Baxter is thrilled when she is offered a summer job on Cape Breton Island. Although her mother worries that Andrea is too young to move so far away, Andrea welcomes the chance to strike out on her own. It seems the perfect opportunity to escape from all the changes that have come into her life with her mother’s recent marriage: a new stepfather, a new school, and a new house in the suburbs, worlds away from all her old friends.
At last, her mother’s fears alleviated and her bags packed, Andrea sets out on a journey to the east coast that marks the beginning of her most memorable summer ever. Not only does she play a role in a movie that is being shot at the historical site where she works, but Andrea also makes great new friends, finds romance, and learns a family secret that will change her life forever.
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A Christmas Dollhouse
$18.95Dot’s family is having a hard time. Her father has work, but her mother is terribly sick, and there is barely enough to make ends meet—and definitely not enough money for a lot of presents this Christmas. In the window of the town’s drugstore, Dot sees a beautiful dollhouse that is being raffled away. But her family doesn’t even have a dollar to spend there so she can enter the contest.
A Christmas Dollhouse is about hope in the face of hardship and about communities gathering close and taking care of each other. Set in Nova Scotia during the Great Depression, this is a story that will appeal to anyone who believes in the magic of Christmas.
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Mabel Murple (pb)
Artist: Sydney SmithPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$13.95What if there was a purple planet with purple people on it? Sheree Fitch answers this question with a zany tongue-twister of a poem featuring Mabel Murple, a daredevil who rides a purple motorbike through purple puddles, skis on purple snow, and on her pancakes pours maple syrup.
With a rich and vivid purple palette, Sydney Smith’s brand-new illustrations reflect the wild joy in this classic poem. Originally published in 1995, Mabel Murple won the Ann Connor Brimer award for children’s literature.
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My Goat Gertrude
Artist: Dayle DodwellPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$18.95Starr Dobson is a little girl living in a big, rambling house in the country with her family and lots of pets–including a mischievous goat, Gertrude Allawishes, who is known for eating anything and everything. One day Starr’s cousin Leanne comes to visit, but this time, she’s only brought one chocolate bar and doesn’t want to share with Starr. Before either Starr or Leanne realize what is happening, Gertrude arrives and solves the problem! Although names have been changed to protect certain cousins (who usually shared their chocolate just fine), Starr’s account of Gertrude Allawishes and her bizarre tastes is absolutely true!
Now available in a softcover edition.
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Sinking Deeper
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$12.95The tiny fishing community of Deeper Harbour is in deep trouble-and so is fourteen-year-old Roland MacTavish. Roland’s mom wants to move with him to Ottawa, away from his father, his weird friend Dulsie, and his even weirder grandfather, Angus. So Roland does what any sane teenager would do: he invents a sea monster. Unfortunately, the scheme quickly spins out of Roland’s control, and he has to go to greater and greater lengths to keep up the illusion. And then Roland must deal with a situation far more terrifying than any sea monster.As moving as it is irresistibly funny, Steve Vernon’s portrait of Roland and Deeper Harbour is perfect for anyone who’s ever been stuck badly enough to do something awesomely, brilliantly, heroically stupid.
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Lost on Brier Island
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$12.95Fourteen-year-old Alex’s life is in ruins. Her family ripped apart by unspeakable tragedy, she is stuck on Brier Island for the summer with her aunt. At first, Alex is desperate to escape this place where everyone’s business is public knowledge and there is too much time to think. But the island begins to work its magic, with its quirky characters, rugged landscape, and whale-filled ocean, and Alex forms a special bond with an adventurous baby whale she names Daredevil.
Through her attachment to Daredevil and the beauty of Brier Island, Alex slowly begins the long journey toward healing. But everything changes when Alex is suddenly thrown into a life-or-death struggle. Can she find the courage and the strength to save Daredevil- and herself?
Moving, funny, and honest, this is a powerful story of losing loved ones and finding yourself, set against the stunning backdrop of Brier Island. -
A Day With You In Paradise
Artist: Patsy MacKinnonPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$12.95This beautiful picture book depicts a family’s fun-filled day at a Prince Edward Island beach. Racing past dunes, building sand castles, and singing songs by a bonfire at night, the family revels in the peaceful beauty of an Island beach. Lennie Gallant’s lyrical description of a PEI summer day is matched perfectly with Patsy MacKinnon’s sun-soaked illustrations. A Day with You in Paradise is based on Lennie’s song of the same name from the Juno-nominated album When We Get There.
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Pumpkin People
Artist: Ron LightburnPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$13.95Every autumn, strange figures start appearing around Kentville, Nova Scotia. Sauntering down the sidewalk, sitting in a tree, cavorting on a lawn—who are these peculiar people?
They’re the Pumpkin People! Made of cornstalks, straw, and, of course, pumpkins, these folkloric figures arrive every year to celebrate the harvest in a most creative way.
The immensely popular 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 illustations bring their wild Ceilidhs to life. And a special section in the back teaches pumpkin fans young and old how to build their own pumpkin person!
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Gadzooks the Christmas Goose
Artist: Ivan MurphyPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95Corina lives with her grandparents in Shepody Bay. One day close to Christmas, a big storm blows in an injured Canada goose. Corina immediately warms to the bird and wants to nurse it back to health, but her grumpy grandfather wants to cook the goose for Christmas dinner. The bird gets up to all kinds of mischief–spooking the cows while Granddad is milking them, sabotaging Christmas decorations, and eating all of Grandma’s pies. Can Corina keep the cheeky bird safe from her curmudgeonly grandfather?
Award-winning author Jennifer McGrath Kent’s story and Ivan Murphy’s humorous and energetic illustrations combine to make this a charming Christmas tale.
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Christmas with the Rural Mail
$14.95A 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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Dread Crew
Artist: Sydney SmithPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$12.95The pirates of the Dread Crew, ruthless junk hunters, are on the rampage through the Maritime woods. On their trail is a boy pirate tracker Eric Stewart, who gathers mounting evidence of their hooliganism until one day their clue-laden path of destruction completely disappears. Little does Eric know that the rumbling, stinking pirates are much, much closer than he thinks. This paperback edition includes eight pages of new content including a pirate glossary and praise pages. Check out dreadcrew.com for lots more additional content!
This book is recommended for antsy boys who long for glory, for spritely girls inclined to reach out for adventure, and for good-humored grown-ups who like the smack of Limburger and devils’s club sandwiches with a dash of junebug pepper.
The Dread Crew: Pirates of the Backwoods contains things disgusting, rude, repulsive and crush-like in nature. It also includes the most gigantic party ever seen, a rampaging woodship, random explosions, a prison, an escape, inventions, blackberry sploosh and many, many secrets as well as unexplained stinks.
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Anne: La Maison aux pignons verts récits pour jeunes lecteurs
Artist: David Preston SmithPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$12.95Anne Shirley is hot-tempered, melodramatic, impulsive, accident-prone, and one of the best-loved literary characters in the world. From her feud with Gilbert Blythe to her near-drowning in the pond to the incident with the currant wine, Anne’s adventures come to life for a whole new generation in Anne of Green Gables: Stories for Young Readers. This French-language adaptation of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables, written by Prince Edward Island writer Deirdre Kessler and translated by Jo-Anne Elder, is suitable for readers ages six and up. With twenty-eight colourful, historically accurate illustrations by award-winning illustrator David Preston Smith, Anne of Green Gables: Stories for Young Readers will delight readers too young for chapter books but nonetheless enthralled by the enduring appeal of Montgomery’s timeless story.
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Fossil Hunter of Sydney Mines
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$11.95Thirteen-year-old Grace already has too much going on — grieving over her father’s mysterious death, dealing with her distraught mother’s erratic parenting, and evading her creepy nosy neighbour, Mr. Stuckless, just for starters. She and her friends Fred, Mai Ling, and Jeeter like to get away from it all by hunting for fossils near their secret hideaway, the abandoned mine they’ve nicknamed The Black Hole. But when Grace receives a strange note regarding her father’s death, it sets off a chain of events that sees Grace and her friends turning into detectives to solve the mystery behind his suspicious disappearance. As the clues and suspects start piling up and the investigation becomes more and more dangerous, Grace and her friends find themselves racing against time through treacherous sinkholes and abandoned mine shafts to figure out what really happened to her father.
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Lobster Fishing on the Sea
Artist: Brenda JonesPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$12.95Susan’s father is a lobster fisherman in the Northumberland Strait, and one Saturday morning he lets Susan come on the boat with him. They empty their traps together and Susan sees all different sea creatures- rock crabs, sculpins, and more. Wonderfully illustrated in vibrant colours by Brenda Jones, Lobster Fishing on the Susan B has a simple storyline and incorporates information about lobster fishing and marine life.
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Bitter, Sweet
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$10.95Pru Burbidge lives a simple life on the family homestead on Dalhousie Road in 1940s rural Nova Scotia- until her father abandons the family and her mother falls ill. Her life is turned upside-down by these events, and she is forced to take on the role of primary caregiver to her siblings, Jessie, Flora, and Davey. Things go from bad to worse when Pru’s mother dies, leaving Pru and Jessie, her older brother, to care for the family in secret so they are not separated and sent away to foster homes, or worse- the orphan house. Pru and Jessie do everything they can to hide the fact that their mother has passed away and keep the family together, but their situation becomes increasingly dire as their money and food supplies begin to run out and their neighbours start getting suspicious. When the situation comes to a head and they are on the verge of being found out, Pru and her siblings must work together to save their family from being torn apart.
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Hockey Night Tonight (Board Book)
Artist: Brenda JonesPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$14.95An engaging story book version of the Stompin Tom Connors Hockey Song that will stir every hockey lover’s heart.
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I Spy a Bunny
Artist: Richard RudnickiPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$17.95Mandy and her Aunt Carla are spending the day at Nova Scotia’s White Point Beach. They are playing I Spy, but Mandy can’t see the white-nosed bunny Aunt Carla spies!
On each page, Mandy sees another beautiful part of White Point. There are surfers out in the water and families playing on the beach. There are big rocks to climb and colourful chairs to relax in. Mandy spies white in the waves, in the sand, in the lighthouse, and even in a white-capped chickadee- and just before she snuggles into Aunt Carla for a nap, she finally sees the little black bunny with a white nose.
This is a wonderful book to read aloud to young children and for early readers to read themselves, especially those who are learning their colours and who love bunny rabbits! -
Back to the Beach
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$12.95Back to the Beach is a simple but lively story about Gus and his dog, Sam, who experience a gleeful day at the beach. Amidst their playful romping, racing, splashing, and exploring, Gus and Sam come across various beach treasures. One by one, they present each treasure to Gus’s parents, who relax “back at the blanket,” and one by one, each treasure is denied in the rhyming chorus. This story is suitable for early/emerging readers and beachlovers alike. Written primarily in prose, there is a recurrent rhyming refrain that contributes to its appeal for “chiming in” when shared aloud. The illustrations, intended to be bright, lively, and engaging, feature mixed media, including coloured pencil, graphite, and watercolour.
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Bisous bisous bébé-ô!
Artist: HildaRosePublisher: Nimbus Publishing$11.95Bisous, Bisous, Bebe-O! is the french translation of the immensely popular board book, Kisses, Kisses, Baby-O!
Using rhythm and onomatopoeia, Sheree Fitch’s bubbly text, expertly translated by Jo-Anne Elder, begins with baby waking, and follows through eating, bathing, playing, and finally sleeping. Repetition, rhythm, and active verbs create a lively story that can be read again and again.
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The Terrible, Horrible, Smelly Pirate
Artist: Eric OrchardPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$12.95A fun, read-aloud pirate story that will be a favourite with educators.
Set in the misty waters around Halifax Harbour, this fun read-aloud pirate story follows the adventures of a terrible, horrible, smelly pirate named Sydney and his friend Parrot Polly. After answering a riddle set by a tricky mermaid the rascals dig for treasure by the old lighthouse on McNab’s Island. Children will enjoy the anticipation as the chest is raised to the surface, and the surprise as its unexpected contents are revealed. The clean and dirty theme will make this book a circle time favourite with many daycare and library programmers. Parents will love it too.
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Lightning and Blackberries
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$10.95Seventeen-year-old Elizabeth Evans is the privileged and naive only child of prominent New Englanders, part of a group of Planters who settled in Nova Scotia following the deportation of the Acadian people. As a teenager, she is leading a carefree life in the Annapolis Valley, tending to her cows on the family farm, daydreaming by the brook, and resisting her mother’s attempts to refine her manners and marry her off. She thinks nothing will ever change. But a stranger’s arrival at Evans Hall, and a chance meeting with a mysterious Acadian girl in the woods nearby turn Elizabeth’s carefree life upside down. And when she learns the truth about the history of the farm she loves so well, she knows nothing will ever be the same.
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Return to the Sea PB
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$11.95In Return to the Sea, a young girl and her family set off on a summer road trip from Ontario to the Maritimes. On their way to their grandparents’ cottage in New Brunswick they visit many of the most famous tourist attractions east of Ontario: historic Quebec City; the world’s longest covered bridge in Hartland, New Brunswick; the legendary tides of the Bay of Fundy; Peggy’s Cove; the city of Halifax; and Anne’s Prince Edward Island. Everything from the car ride, to pirate stories, bonfires, and bike rides, is cherishingly documented by a young girl.
Following in the footsteps of East to the Sea, Heidi Jardine Stoddart’s Return to the Sea is another enchanting story that captures the wonder and curiosity of a child. Stoddart’s storybook rhyming verse is accompanied by her detailed illustrations making this a perfect tale for all children. In particular, this book makes a wonderful souvenir for boys and girls who have visited the east coast: like the characters in the book, they can remember and recount their magical trip. -
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 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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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.
