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The Bygone Days Folklore, Traditions & Toenails
Publisher: Acorn Press$22.95Reginald—better known as “Dutch”—Thompson is a multi-faceted storyteller with unforgettable voices—those of Roy from Murray Harbour North, Adelaide from Bunbury, Gus from Chepstow, and countless others—to tell the stories of the Bygone days in Prince Edward Island [sometimes NS, too]. Stories that, without Dutch’s talent and care, might be remembered only by family and close friends or lost altogether.
Remember when the train ran from tip to tip and along all the small branches, taking goods, people, and baseball teams to other parts of the Island? How about when ice cream and two pieces of cakes cost 10 cents at White’s Ice Cream Parlour on Kent Street? When lobster was not the gourmet’s delight it is now and the backs were used to fertilize the crops? That butchering the pig before a full moon will mean less fat on the meat? Or that it was bad luck to cut your nails on Sundays.
From CBC Radio to the pages of this book, you’ll hear Dutch’s voice encouraging these informative, illuminating, poignant, and hilarious stories from the minds and hearts of Maritimers born between 1895 and 1925, almost as if they were all still here and telling them to you.
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At First, Lonely
Publisher: Acorn Press$17.95Best-known as a musician and a spoken-word performer, poet Tanya Davis has now taken to the page with At First, Lonely. In this collection, she reflects on life’s many passages: falling in love and out, the search for personal truth, the search for home. Davis’s style is one-of-a-kind: a blend of contemporary phrasing with profound personal expression. But her message is universal; over two million people have watched How to Be Alone, a film adaptation of her poem created by independent filmmaker Andrea Dorfman. Tanya Davis’ poetry challenges the intellect and touches deep places in the heart.
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Acadian Christmas Traditions
Publisher: Acorn Press$19.95Based on written sources and interviews with Acadians throughout the Maritimes, Acadian Christmas Traditions offers a fascinating look at the evolution of Christmas. This very readable book shows how customs, both spiritual and secular, take hold in families, in villages, and in a culture as a whole. Georges Arsenault, the well-known historian and folklorist, examines all the aspects of the feast of Christmas, from midnight mass to holiday foods. As he chronicles the cultural changes that have taken place over the centuries, he proves that Acadian Christmas today is the result of a wonderful blending of old, new, and borrowed traditions.
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Baby Smiles/ Weskewikwa’sit mijua’ji’j
Artist: Loretta GouldPublisher: Nimbus Publishing Limited$14.95 -
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Canada Wild
Artist: Alex MacAskillPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$15.95Canada Wild, Animals Found Nowhere Else on Earth is a full-colour illustrated guide to Canada’s endemic species for young readers, from the award-winning author of Snooze-O-Rama: The Strange Ways that Animals Sleep.
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Lasso the Wind Aurelia’s Verses and other Poems
Artist: Susan TookePublisher: Nimbus Publishing$24.95George Elliot Clarke started writing poems for his daughter the day she was born.Tooke, a three-time winner of the Lillian Shepherd Memorial Award for Excellence in Illustration, aprroached Clarke (Regarding their collaboration).For this 24-page hardcover book, she has created bold and graphic collaged images, ranging from a grim image of imprisoned families to a whimsical vision of a dragon at a picnic to endearing pictures of Aurealia as a baby.This book is aimed at kids aged seven to fourteen and the birthday poems end at age nine because they “have a particular sequential feel” says Clarke, a Windsor born, prize winningpoet laureate of Toronto and teaches Canadian literature at the University of Toronto
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Steam Lion PB
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95This is the story of a man born and raised in Halifax, Nova Scotia, who became one of the most powerful forces in international trade in the nineteenth century.
Samuel Cunard’s list of interests reads like a history of the Maritimes-shipbuilding in chatham, coal mining in Cape Breton, forestry in PEI, and warehouses in Halifax. But his business acumen and vision extended far beyond Eastern Canada: His innovative steamship Britannia was the first reliable, timely link between the Old World and the New, and the transatlantic transportation of mail, goods, and passengers was revolutionized. The continued success of the Cunard Line is a testament to Samuel Cunard’s brilliance as both a mariner and a businessman.
The first full-length biography of one of the most fascinating figures in mercantile history, Steam Lion is an important and engaging record of a man, his business, and his times.
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Our Maud The Life, Art and Legacy of Maud Lewis
Publisher: Art Gallery of Nova Scotia$29.99Our Maud: The Life, Art and Legacy of Maud Lewis tells the story of Maud’s life, and traces her impact on Nova Scotia, her fame, the saving of her painted house, and the Nova Scotia folk art renaissance sparked by her example. The book looks at how Maud Lewis has become a role model for children with juvenile arthritis, her posthumous role in the creation of Atlantic Canada’s largest art museum, and how her story has become known around the world, culminating in the hit feature film Maudie starring Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke.
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Angle
Publisher: Paul Power$22.95It was supposed to be a simple recovery operation. All Harder Security had to do was liberate a ransomed plane and fly it from Angola to anywhere else. Maybe the mistake was his insistence on being part of the operation. If he wasn’t there, Phil wouldn’t have known there was a crate of uncut diamonds on the plane. He wouldn?t be in a position to decide to crash-land the plane at their base in Ethiopia to keep from declaring them. And the government wouldn’t be forced to ask them to pack up their stuff and go. The crate of diamonds could have been the infusion he needed to grow the company. Now it seems to be the thing that will take them all down. But not without a fight.
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Skunks for Breakfast
Artist: Brenda Jones$8.95Everyone knows there are no skunks in Nova Scotia…Right? Well, that’s what Pamela thinks, until she wakes up one morning to a terrible smell.
Now Pamela stinks, her father stinks, her sister stinks, and her mother stinks. Soon her life stinks—her friends at school won’t come near her! And no matter how many skunks her father catches underneath the house, there always seems to be another.
Join Pamela and her family as they confront the odorous onslaught—and watch Pamela slowly start to like the unexpectedly cute creatures.