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The Belfast Riot of 1847
Publisher: Island Studies Press$29.95On March 1, 1847, Prince Edward Island experienced the second-worst election riot in Canadian history. About 200 Scottish Protestants and 300 Irish Catholics got into a brawl, resulting in at least three men dead and up to 100 others injured. This event set the stage for the hardening of the sectarian conflict between Protestants and Catholics on Prince Edward Island for the next 125 years.
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Through My Looking Glass: Nova Scotia: 50 Year Photographic Retrospective 1973-2023
Photographer: Joseph RobichaudPublisher: Pottersfield Press$27.95Through My Looking Glass is the culmination of fifty years of documentary photography in Nova Scotia, spanning from 1973 to 2023. It chronicles a half-century of life in a province where the intertwining of diverse cultures and experiences creates a rich and multifaceted narrative. The striking images in this book reflect the many threads of Indigenous, Acadian, and Black experiences. The Mi’kmaq people, the original stewards of this land, have walked these shores for millennia, forging a deep connection with the natural world. Their resilience has shaped the province?s identity, and their stories are integral to understanding Nova Scotia?s historical and spiritual landscape.
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Newfoundland & Labrador Book of Everything Everything you wanted to know about Newfoundland and Labrador and were going to ask anyway
Publisher: MacIntyre Purcell Publishing Inc.$15.00From the number of kilometres of coastline, to the stories behind those unusual place names (hello Blow Me Down) to profiles of Danny Williams and Mary Walsh, no book is more comprehensive than the Newfoundland and Labrador Book of Everything.No book is more fun.
Well-known Newfoundlanders and Labradorians weigh in on a whole range of subjects– Mark Callanan tells us his five favourite Newfinese words; weatherman Bruce Whiffen reveals his Top 5 Newfoundland and Labrador weather stories and Gerald Squires shares his Top 5 memories growing up on Exploits Island. Stories of the First People, the worst weather, Newfoundland and Labrador slang, the Newfoundland moose … It’s all here!
Whether you’re a lifelong resident or visiting for the first time, there simply is no other book that delivers the goods. If you love Newfoundland and Labrador, you’ll love the Newfoundland and Labrador Book of Everything!
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Black Boy, Black Boy
Artist: Ibeabuchi AnanabaPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$14.95A powerful spoken-word poem encouraging Black boys of every shade, size, and passion to reach for the stars. Features vibrant artwork depicting famous Black men such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Chadwick Boseman, and more.
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My Favourite Colour
Artist: Bryanna ChapeskiePublisher: Nimbus Publishing Limited$13.95“Blue’s my favourite colour!
It really is the best.
I love my lucky socks.
Blue’s better than the rest.
Although…” -
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Nova Scotia: Shaped by the Sea A Living History
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$25.95“It is a good tale, well told, which opens the door to the wanderings of the imagination.” —The Globe and Mail
The history of Nova Scotia is an amazing story of a land and a people shaped by the waves, the tides, the wind, and the wonder of the North Atlantic. Choyce weaves the legacy of this unique coastal province, piecing together the stories written in the rocks, the wrecks, and the record books of human glory and error. In this newly revised sweeping true-life adventure, he provides a thoughtful down-to-earth journey through history that is both refreshing and revealing.
Here, well into the twenty-first century, he looks back at the full story of Nova Scotia from the geological history to the civilization of the Mi’kmaq, the arrival of the Europeans, and beyond to the stormy history of English and French. Choyce takes a critical look at the wars that helped shape the province, the scoundrels and the heroes who lived here down through the centuries, and the seas and storms that swept through the land of the Bluenosers. The original edition of Nova Scotia: Shaped by the Sea was published to acclaim by Penguin Books in 1996. This new edition brings the story up to date and looks at the changes in politics, economy, and global climate that will challenge Nova Scotians in the years ahead.
“Lesley Choyce’s writing captures the ebb and flow of Nova Scotia seafaring, from its Golden Age of Sail to the disasters and crimes at sea.” —The Halifax Chronicle Herald
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Muin and the Seven Bird Hunters
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$12.95The story of Muin and the Seven Bird Hunters is a very old Mi’kmaw legend. It happens in the North Sky as the stars that show the story of Muin and the Seven Bird Hunters move around Tatapn, the North Star.
In pictures in this book you can see how these stars, shown as they appear two hours before dawn, move through the night sky. They are in a different position each of the seasons because they are the time-keepers, the calendar. All through the year, as the stars and plants travel through the sky, the Mi’kmaq watch the story of Muin and the Seven Bird Hunters as it unfolds before their eyes.
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The City Speaks in Drums (pb)
Artist: Susan TookePublisher: Nimbus Publishing$12.95Available for the first time in paperback, the award-winning The City Speaks in Drums follows two boys from North End Halifax as they explore their neighbourhood and the city beyond, finding music everywhere. At the skate park, by the Public Gardens, down Spring Garden Road, and on the boardwalk, drums and saxophones and dancers and basketballs create the jumbled, joyful, pulsing rhythm of Halifax. Shauntay Grant’s playful spoken word-style poem and Susan Tooke’s vivid illustrations create a wildly energetic and appealing journey through the big, bright city.
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Apples and Butterflies
Artist: Tamara Thiébaux-HeikaloPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$12.95From patchwork-quilt farmland to the winding red roads, from sandy beaches to the endless stars at night, Apples and Butterflies shows Prince Edward Island shining in the bright blue and gold light of fall. Shauntay Grant’s award-winning poetry and Tamara Thiébaux Heikalo’s rich and wild illustrations pull the reader towards the wide-open space of the island. New softcover edition.
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Pier 21 Listen to My Story
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$15.95Discover some of the most important moments of Canada’s history by getting to know the children and their families who arrived at Halifax’s Pier 21. From countries as far away as Estonia, Italy, and the Ukraine (just to name a few), these immigrants all travelled through the “gateway to freedom” to call Canada home.
“Guest child” Jamie from Scotland and Jewish orphan Mariette were both sent to Canada as children to escape the same war. Heili’s Estonian family boarded the Walnut to sail away from Russian Communist rule. Luigi’s family came from Italy to find work in Canada after the war, while Maryke’s arrived from Holland in search of farmland.
Now renamed the Canadian Museum of Immigration, Pier 21 accepted over one million new Canadians between 1928 and 1971. Many were nervous about their new home, but although they arrived from distinct countries and cultures, each family embraced the safety and possibility of a life in Canada. To arrive was to escape the past while keeping memories of their homelands close. Pier 21 was the first step toward a new life.
With over 40 photos, a glossary, timeline, and sidebar features on the pier itself and the home countries of those who passed through it, Pier 21: Listen to My Story provides an excellent introduction for chilldren to this key landmark in Canada’s immigration history.
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Evangeline for Young Readers
Artist: Patsy MacKinnonPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$17.95Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s epic poem, Evangeline, tells the story of two young people deported from beautiful Acadie just before they are to be married and their search for each other that lasts the rest of their lives. First published in 1847, the poem has been important to Acadian identity ever since.
In Evangeline for Young Readers, the tragic story of Evangeline and Gabriel’s Deportation is recounted to a new generation. In simple prose true to Longfellow’s poem, Hélène Boudreau describes the utopian village of Grand-Pré where Evangeline grows up, the traumatizing Deportation, and Evangeline’s relentless search across America for her true love. Patsy MacKinnon’s stunning illustrations bring the story to life in full colour.
Evangeline for Young Readers is a vital interpretation for children of Longfellow’s classic.
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The Sky’s The Limit! Canadians Who Blazed a Trail in Aviation
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95The first juvenile non-fiction book celebrating diverse Canadian aviators, from the author of Birchtown and the Black Loyalists.
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Memoirs of a Lightkeeper’s Son 2nd edition
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$21.95William (Billy) G. Budge was born in 1948 in the small fishing village of Neil’s Harbour on the northern tip of Cape Breton. In 1955 his father accepted the position of lighthouse keeper on St. Paul Island, a rugged and forlorn mountain in the sea. Positioned at the entrance to the Gulf of St. Lawrence between Cape Breton and Newfoundland, this island is subject to violent gales, snowstorms and is often shrouded in fog. Early seafarers called it the “Graveyard of the Gulf” due to the vast numbers of ships and countless lives that were lost along its shores.
Billy moved to St. Paul Island with his parents and younger sister in September of 1955. For the next five years they lived at the southwest light station in almost total isolation. His family quickly learned to cope in a world without neighbours, electricity, schools, or any sports activities. They lived off the land – hunting ducks along the coast, berry picking, and jigging cod on the sea. Almost daily there were hardships to overcome and problems to be resolved. Life on the island was one of both tragedy and triumph. Billy tells his story of survival on that lonely rock. Sense the lush green of the island in summer in the midst of a crystal blue sea and feel the harshness of winter while buried under snow and surrounded by drift ice.
Share with Billy the excitement of unexpected guests, the arrival of a supply ship as well as the sadness of sickness and loss. Experience the many technical problems such as a fire in the lighthouse and learn how the entire family worked together to restore service.
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L’Nu’k: The People Mi’kmaw History, Culture and Heritage
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95The Mi’kmaq lived in Canada long before the country even got its name. Before Europeans arrived, they lived in homes called wigwams and hunted and fished throughout the Maritime provinces, living off and giving back to the land. They enjoyed storytelling, drumming, and dancing within their tightÂknit communities.
In L’nuk: the Mi’kmaq of Atlantic Canada, First Nations educator Theresa Meuse traces the incredible lineage of today’s Mi’kmaq people, sharing the fascinating details behind their customs, traditions, and history. Discover the proper way to make Luski (Mi’kmaw bread), the technique required for intricate quillwork and canoeÂbuilding, what happens at a powwow, and how North America earned its Indigenous name, Turtle Island.
Includes informative sidebars, highlighted glossary terms, recommended reading, a historic timeline, index, and over 60 fullÂcolour historical and contemporary images.
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Elapultiek (We Are Looking Towards) A Play
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$19.95Set in contemporary times, a young Mi’kmaw drum singer and a Euro-Nova Scotian biologist meet at dusk each day to count a population of endangered Chimney Swifts (kaktukopnji’jk). They quickly struggle with their differing views of the world. Through humour and story, the characters must come to terms with their own gifts and challenges as they dedicate efforts to the birds. Each “count night” reveals a deeper complexity of connection to land and history on a personal level.
Inspired by real-life species at risk work, shalan joudry originally wrote this story for an outdoor performance.
Elapultiek calls on all of us to take a step back from our routine lives and question how we may get to understand our past and work better together. The ideal of weaving between Indigenous and non-Indigenous worlds involves taking turns to speak and to listen, even through the most painful of stories, in order for us all to heal. We are in a time when sharing cultural, ecological, and personal stories is vital in working towards a peaceful shared territory, co-existing between peoples and nature.
“It’s a crucial time to have these conversations,” offers joudry. “The power of story can engage audience and readers in ways that moves them to ask more questions about the past and future.”
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Deportation of the Acadians
Publisher: Societe de Grand-Pre$5.95A condensed account of the deportation of the Acadians.
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Dykes & Aboiteaux
Publisher: Societe de Grand-Pre$5.95Sally Ross studied in France and taught the history and culture of French Canada for ten years and now works as an author, translator, and consultant.
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Whales of Bay of Fundy
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$6.95A concise guide to the various whales of the Bay of Fundy.
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Blacks
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$14.00This book documents the experience of the Blacks in the Maritimes, the difficulties they encountered and the institutions that sustained them. It profiles a selection of prominent individuals who overcame the prejudice and discrimination of a dominant culture to become outstanding in their careers while contributing to the greater good of society.
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Unspoken Truth Unmuted and Unfiltered
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$19.95With strength and resilience, Africans have persevered through the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and were able to rebuild a life after slavery while enduring the inhumane conditions of the civil rights Jim Crow era forced upon them by the African diaspora. The lack of acknowledgement of the generational trauma these events have had on their descendants continues to create further injury. Even today, barriers prevent their healing and transition from survival to a thriving existence.
Unspoken Truth is a bold collection of poetry highlighting the generational pain of Africans living in the diaspora. Through her poems, Bowden creates a panoramic view of the terrible conditions they endured for centuries. Deliberately, with dignity, she brings the trauma stories of African Nova Scotians told around kitchen tables for decades to the homes of readers while restoring the balance of humanity and royalty from which the African journey began. Despite all odds, they were able to preserve their lineage and lean on the resilience buried deep in their souls while passing this pride, culture, and strength on to future generations so they may one day fulfill the hopes and the dreams of the former slaves.
This collection seeks to spark the necessary conversations the larger society needs to engage in around the perseverance of systemic racism, a society now grappling to make the connections between historical trauma and current-day conditions of inequality. It summons the conscience of every reader to acknowledge the truth and reconcile it with their own dissonance. The poems pay homage to the ancestors, honour the elders, and provide inspiration for the youth so they can heal from this historical inheritance and build upon their own narratives.
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The Hermit of Africville The Life of Eddie Carvery
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$21.95As Black Lives Matter protests swept the world, one of Canada’s greatest anti-racism fighters returned to reclaim the Black space and Black history to which he’s dedicated his life.
Eddie Carvery’s Africville protest reached its 50th year in 2020. He was just 23 when the City of Halifax bulldozed Africville, an African Nova Scotian village on the shores of the Bedford Basin. Under the disguise of “urban renewal” and using lies of a “home for a home,” the city destroyed every house and business before finally smashing the church in the middle of the night.
In the city, he found drugs, violence, and ultimately prison. His life was engulfed in tragedy and he hurt those he loved most. But in Africville, the land of his ancestors, he developed a great strength. His mind cleared and he saw the purpose of his life was to stand for Africville.
On a fine summer day in 1970, Eddie walked out to Africville, looked in sorrow at the ruins of his world, and decided to fight back. He pitched a tent and vowed to stay until everyone saw what he saw: that it was racist and wrong to destroy Africville, and that Halifax ought to give it back to its people.
Standing alone in Africville, he endured as racists set fire to his home, shot bullets at him, and tried again and again to drive him off the land.
This updated edition of The Hermit of Africville includes an introduction from Eddie himself reflecting on 50 years of fighting racism and his vision for a Canada that embraces all its peoples.
100% of the royalties from The Hermit of Africville go to Eddie Carvery and his Africville protest.
