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Riptides New Island Fiction
Publisher: Acorn Press$21.95A call was sent out asking writers to submit unpublished short stories for a fiction anthology featuring newer writers with a significant P.E.I. connection. There were no boundaries for setting or genre, only a limit of 5,000 words. PEI is strong on tradition, which includes out-migration and immigration. Thus, its culture and demographics are changing, and these PEI writers both are Island-born and hail from away – Australia and Calgary, Newfoundland and Ukraine. The result is twenty-three stories, which take the reader from a ritual gathering of PEI widows to Chernobyl in the nuclear disaster’s aftermath, from a menacing marital game of hide-and-seek through the Maritime landscape to gender clashes on an outback sheep ranch, from a religious commune in Alberta to the Enlightenment Tour bus into Quebec. Whether the characters are struggling for dear life in breaking surf, gasping for emotional air at a ladies’ candle party or fearing the Tall Tailor’s scissors, the authors demonstrate a rich variety of fictional talent and imagination emerging from what Island poet Milton Acorn called the “red tongue…In the ranged jaws of the Gulf,” and revising our perception of “the land of Anne.”
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Right Place, Right Time
Publisher: Acorn Press$27.95With over 25 years of broadcasting experience, Bruce Rainnie has collected stories from every arena He has worked intimately with PEI’s legendary broadcaster “Boomer” Gallant as well as many other well known characters from across the country. Bruce did the first TV interview with Sidney Crosby back in 1996 and has remained in contact with him ever since. He also worked closely with Olympic Gold Medalist, Heather Moyse. The book will include these anecdotes and stories from his work as a news and sports broadcaster.
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Ghost Boy of MacKenzie House
Publisher: Acorn Press$11.95Ten-year-old Chloe Sutton arrives on Prince Edward Island from her home in Ontario after the tragic loss of her parents in a car accident. Her Aunt Laverne (Larry) is a doctor and her only relative able to take her in. Chloe isn’t sure what to make of her aunt’s big old house on the red cliff overlooking the Northumberland Strait, or the skinny, red-haired and heavily freckled boy who wants to be her friend. Her first night in her new home, Chloe is tormented by the loss of her mother and father and hides in the dark to speak to them. When she does, she unknowingly invites the attention of a ghostly boy who inhabits the oldest part of the farmstead. Terrified but intrigued by the encounter, Chloe decides to uncover his history, setting her off on a set of adventures. When she does finally find the ghost boy’s secret, she realizes he has been blaming himself for years for the death of his brother, much like she has been blaming herself for surviving her parents. With the wrong made right, Chloe is finally let go of her own grief and accepted her new life.
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I am an Islander
Publisher: Acorn Press$19.95No man is a Prince Edward Island. That’s a good thing, because the tiny province is eroding a metre per year. In the collection I am An Islander, Patrick Ledwell explores the hilarity of life viewed from the country’s crumbling Eastern edge. Raised in a big family, the Island comedian looks back at his rural roots and asks: I am an Islander is a funny and heartfelt stockpile of standup, sketches, and rants, banked up to defend your good humour against everything that might erode it.
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The Reluctant Detective
Publisher: Acorn Press$17.95A young widow, orphan and mother, Wilhelmina Anne Brown is just beginning to find some stability in her new home in Prince Edward Island when she is forced to deal with the death of her beloved uncle, Bill Darby. Darby, a Charlottetown private investigator, leaves Anne and her fourteen-year-old daughter a small savings account and his business, where Anne has worked as office manager for six years. What follows is Anne’s struggle to protect her family, find justice for her clients, and forge a new life for herself in this page-turning thriller.
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My Mother is Weird
Artist: Brenda JonesPublisher: Acorn Press$9.95A hilarious look at a child’s view of a mother’s bad day. Originally published in 1989 by Ragweed Press, this book is considered to be a P.E.I. classic. This unique view of mother’s “bad day” through the observant eyes of a child is a weird and wonderful story for parents and children. My mother is so weird. Some mornings, when she wakes up, she has horns on her head and long pointy teeth and claws. She speaks in a voice like a jackhammer. But after her morning coffee, Mom’s horns disappear, and her teeth and claws shrink back to normal. She speaks in a soft, smooth voice. But, one morning…we ran out of coffee…
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This Navy Doctor Came Ashore
Publisher: Acorn Press$17.95Dr. Read entered the Royal Canadian Navy in 1943 and worked for three years as a flight surgeon. When the war was winding down, he realized that his career as a flight surgeon was also over. But he remembered how much he had enjoyed the three weeks he spent in Charlottetown when he relieved the medical officer at HMCS Queen Charlotte. This city of 20,000, in which this landship was ‘moored’, was much to his liking partly because he had grown up in Amherst, Nova Scotia, just across the Northumberland Strait, where he thought the culture was very similar. He also knew that as the only medical officer there would be independence, significant responsibility and virtual freedom from naval protocol and politics. One couldn’t ask for more. But this was during prohibition on the Island and little did he know that a great deal of his time would be spent writing “prescriptions” for alcohol so that the officers could be allowed to drink. Nor did he know that because of the lack of family physicians on the Island, he would be asked to open a general practice in a rural area of the province. For a flight surgeon who had little experience in family medicine, this would be a whole new adventure. This book chronicles some of the noteworthy events of the time he spent spent as a country doctor.
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Prince Edward Island National Park Past and Present
Publisher: Acorn Press$16.95Since Prince Edward Island National Park was first created in 1937 it has welcomed visitors from around the world, captivating the hearts of all who experience its serene and tranquil beauty. Stretching for about 40 km along the north shore of Prince Edward Island between New London and Tracadie Bays and the tip of the Greenwich Peninsula in St. Peters Bay, this dynamic coastal landscape is constantly changing, shaped by the wind and waves. The sand dunes and beaches, wetlands and forests provide a home for many plants and animals. Wildflowers add colour everywhere and marram grass glistens in the sunlight, rippled by the coastal breezes. Great blue herons grace the ponds and marshes and shorebirds feed along the water’s edge. Several species at risk are protected in the park, including the endangered piping plover. People have been part of this coastal landscape for thousands of years. At Greenwich, archaeological evidence reveals 10,000 years of cultural history, from early Aboriginal peoples to the Mi’kmaq, early French and Acadian settlers and immigrants from the British Isles. Once an elegant summer home built in 1896, Dalvay-by-the-Sea National Historic Site is now a heritage inn. Green Gables Heritage Place, also part of L. M. Montgomery`s Cavendish National Historic site, inspired L.M. Montgomery’s setting for Anne of Green Gables. This book, with stunning new photography by the Island’s best photgraphers complimented with archival photos, captures the essence of this special place, preserved and protected for you to return to again and again.
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All is Clam A Shores Mystery
Publisher: Acorn Press$22.95It’s Christmas at The Shores. There’s no snow yet, but there are so many outdoor lights that the tiny coastal village can be seen from space. Apart from Ian Simmons’ place, and he’s considered odd, there’s only one house in the village that isn’t lit up. It’s been dark for years. That’s about to change. Wild Rose Cottage is about to come to life, and death, once again. Meanwhile, the villagers wish for snow to complete the Christmas portrait. When it comes, it’s with the body of newcomer, Fitz Fitsimmons, a former acrobat turned bully and drunk. Mountie Jane Jamieson has seen murder here before, but none where she’d rather not catch the killer.
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Acadian Traditions on Candlemas Day Candles, Pancakes and House Visits
Publisher: Acorn Press$19.95Georges Arsenault’s latest edition to the Acadian Traditions series Most English-speaking people just associate the 2nd of February, or Groundhog Day, with superstitions related to the weather. In Acadian communities, however, it was known as Candlemas Day and at one time was an important religious and social festivity. Pancakes were the symbolic food of choice. In many villages, young Acadians went from door-to-door collecting food for a communal feast or to give to the poor. This book by Georges Arsenault enables us to discover a festivity rich in traditions and a significant part of the cultural heritage of Acadians everywhere.
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Here for the Music
Publisher: Acorn Press$17.95Laurie Brinklow’s long-awaited first collection of poems beaches the reader on the shores of contemporary womanhood. Strewn with memories of the tumultuous journey through childhood to adulthood and the detritus of relationships chanced and abandoned, finally being “here” brings to devotion to daughters and friends and an Island place. Brinklow’s book contains the tidal pull of loss and renewal, departure and arrival that keeps a lover of islands so close to the edges of life and death. That’s the here. But what she is “here” for is both more magical and more pragmatic: the music. It’s the music of language and the dance of human relationships, the sex and love melodies that bewilder and beguile. Brinklow brings this music down to us where we live, with the earthy touch of the “angel-in-charge-of-things-as-they-really-are.”
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Ten Thousand Truths
Publisher: Acorn Press$12.95A moving story of losing family but finding a new one. Thirteen-year-old Rachel is bad news, or so her foster care worker tells her. She’s been shuttled from one rotten foster family to another ever since her mother and brother died in a car accident five years ago, and she’s running out of options. So when she gets caught shoplifting and is kicked out of her latest home, the only place left to send her is the last resort for kids like her: a farm in the middle of nowhere run by a disfigured recluse named Amelia Walton, whom Rachel nicknames “Warty” because of the strange lumps covering her face and neck. Rachel settles into life at the farm, losing herself in her daily chores and Amelia’s endless trivia, and trying to forget her past and the secret she’s holding inside. But when a letter arrives for her out of the blue, Rachel soon realizes that you can’t hide from your past-or your future.
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Bully 101
Publisher: Acorn Press$18.95Bully 101 is an irreverant look at a familiar and ongoing issue. It explores both the temptations of bullying and the remarkable possibility of kindness. It is an excellent conversation starter for both families and schools, or anyone who hopes for peace. The illustrations are funky. The text rhymes and twists. Geared towards primary-grade 7 Bully 101 identifies ways in bullying occurs, (cyber, playground, bus,) the feelings that result (for both the bully and victim) and the simple notion that anyone can chose kindness instead. The book does not answer all questions surrounding bullying; it does not preach either. Rather, it will begin conversations on why we bully, or watch it happen and it presents the idea that everyone has the choice to not participate in it.
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Spin to Sea
Publisher: Acorn Press$12.95Every year at harvest, in a cosy cove on the south shore of Nova Scotia, families and neighbors gather by the water and send their carved pumpkins out into the bay. Spin to the Sea celebrates this enchanted, annual event through magical illustrations and lyrical text. Izra Fitch is 15 years old and lives in the Annapolis Valley with her parents, two brothers and their cats.Her first book, Spin to the Sea was created outside, in cafes and at the kitchen table. Izra loves to make art, stories and music. She also likes rainy weather, graphic novels, travelling, gorillas and chocolate. No pumpkins were harmed in the making of this book.
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Eating Well with Karin
Publisher: Acorn Press$24.95Eating well has never tasted so good! Karin Antolick brings her experiences from her catering and farmer’s market business to the page for the first time. Scrumptious recipes include classics such as Miso Soup and Hummus, but also include some of Karin’s signature recipes such as Karin’s Crazy Cheese Ball, African Chick Pea and Peanut Stew, and Spelt, Cranberry and Walnut Cake a.k.a Catch (or Keep) a Husband Cake. Working with fresh ingredients that can be sourced locally, Karin has compiled healthy and delicious recipes that include vegan, dairy-free, and gluten-free options — options for every body!
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Beach Reading
Publisher: Acorn Press$22.95Lorne Elliott’s new novel, Beach Reading, takes us back to the early 1970s on the North Shore of Prince Edward Island, where a hilarious and colourful cast of Lorne Elliott characters are engaged in uproarious political, financial, musical, amorous, and ecological shenanigans. Our young hero, Christian, is an eloquently wry and precocious university drop-out, who has never savoured the wonders of women or alcohol. A budding naturalist raised in central Canada, he arrives on PEI for a summer job in the newly-established Barrisway National Park, and sets up camp on the beach. There, he becomes enmeshed in the struggles of the boisterous MacAkrin siblings to remain in their park-enclosed home, rivalries and lustful longings at park headquarters, and the skullduggeries of an Island political campaign. Lorne Elliott gloriously conjures the mischief and zaniness, the lovable rascals and lamentable rogues, of Island life behind the tourist posters. He deftly evokes the kindness and camaraderie of Islanders, and the Island’s high-spirited revelry. Beach Reading transforms the Land of Anne and Avonlea into the land of Wallace MacAkrin, the Barley Boys, and Barrisway. “Come play on our Island,” as the tourist slogan says, and you’ll be laughing with bittersweet delight for days.
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Ni’n na L’nu The Mi’kmaq of Prince Edward Island
Publisher: Acorn Press$19.95- Winner of APMA Best Atlantic-Published Book Award
- Winner of PEI Book Award for Non-fiction
This lavishly-illustrated book tells a story through words and images that has never before been told, not in any single book. The focus is entirely on the Mi’kmaq of the Island, an island which for thousands of years has been known to the Mi’kmaq and their ancestors as Epekwitk. That name means “cradle on the sea” and no more poetic description of PEI has ever been penned. The story of the PEI Mi’kmaq is one of adaptation and perseverance across countless generations in the face of pervasive change. Today’s environment is far from what it was millennia ago. So too, the economy, society, lifestyle, language and religion of the people has witnessed some dramatic shifts. Nonetheless, despite all the changes, today’s Mi’kmaq feel deeply connected to the Island in its entirety and to their ancestors and the values they still share. This book tells those many stories, and communicates much more. While the book is a stand-alone publication, it is also a companion to a travelling exhibition of the same name.
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Maritime Seafood Chowders, Soups and More
Publisher: Acorn Press$19.95Prince Edward Island Chef Paul Lucas is back with another book that’s chock full of new ways of cooking old fare – and vice versa. With his first book, Prince Edward Island Seafood: Local Fare, Global Flavours, Chef Paul created seafood fusion dishes that were fit for a (future) king and queen. Now he goes back to basics, focusing on soups and sauces that form the basis of most good recipes – which, of course, he includes here. In these 64 pages you’ll find everything you need to know about making good soup stock – beef, pork, fish, veggie – and sauces – white, velouté, glace, fruit purée – then turning them into a soups and stews, risotto and bouillabaisse, which will leave your guests feeling like royalty, too. Paul writes recipes like he’s talking to you in your own kitchen. Whether it’s common-sense stuff, like “There’s no sense in wasting time in producing a fine dice of vegetables if your end product is going to be puréed,” or quips like “When it comes to stocks, size does matter,” Lucas adds as much zest to the writing of recipes as he does to the recipes themselves.
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Owen’s Pirate Adventure
Artist: Shaun PattersonPublisher: Acorn Press$11.95Every kid wants to be a pirate, don’t they? Owen’s nighttime prayer to be a pirate attracts the attention of a crew who whisk him away on their magical flying ship. But the pirate’s life isn’t what he expected-especially when they are attacked by a rival vessel, a hungry sea monster before angering a storm cloud. Owen recruits his new monster friend to rescue him and return him home.
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Morgan’s Boat Ride
Artist: Anna BaldPublisher: Acorn Press$12.95Morgan and her dog head out on an accidental journey down the river that flows past the summer cottage where they holiday with Morgan’s mother. As they float along the river they observe landscape and life on the water, various birds and people enjoying the activities the river has to offer. But the story is not only about their adventure, it is also about community, about how all the people who see them drifting past hurry off to make sure that they come to no danger. The story ends at the local wharf where the entire community comes together to celebrate their adventure and their safe return.
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Tallulah the Theatre Cat
Publisher: Acorn Press$9.95Tallulah the village cat is passionately drawn to the theatre in Victoria-by-the-Sea, Prince Edward Island. Her search to fit in takes us on a humourous behind-the-scenes tour of a theatre. Her rise from being most unwelcome to greatly appreciated is a story of the values of persistence, loyalty and following one’s bliss.
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Sewing Basket
Publisher: Acorn Press$12.95Dealing with a parent’s illness can be difficult at any age It is 1967 and twelve year old Ruth Iverson’s world pretty much revolves around her friends, a boy she likes, the Monkees and spending time with her Dad doing special stuff like watching the Toronto Maple Leafs win the Stanley Cup. But she is soon to realize that her mom’s strange behaviour which has become an embarrassment, are symptoms of a disease that will affect the family’s life and possibly Ruth’s future. While she watches major events like the marriage of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, the birth of Priscilla Presley, the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy and Neil Armstrong walking on the moon, Ruth faces some major life events of her own and struggles to come to terms with the changes they bring.
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Fairies on My Island
Artist: Christina PattersonPublisher: Acorn Press$12.95If you look closely, maybe you too can discover the world of fairies. Get ready for Shaun and Christina Patterson to take you into a magical worlds of Fairies. A place where silliness and fun are just as important as being true to yourself and taking care of nature. The Pattersons have traveled far and wide on Prince Edward Island to uncover the secret world of fairies. Join them now as they discover the world of fairies. Complete with instructions to make your own fairies, this book is a true guide to many of the fairies you will see on your search.
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Lionel F. Stevenson Fifty Years of Photographs Fifty Years of Photographs (1962-2012)
Publisher: Acorn Press$24.95A companion to an exhibit at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery
This survey of work by distinguished Canadian photographer, Lionel F. Stevenson, elaborates on the exhibition Lionel F. Stevenson: Fifty Years of Photographs (1962-2012), and illustrates Stevenson’s long fascination with documentary and artistic works ranging from the poetic, personal landscapes, to street scenes, and architectural subjects. Also illustrated are portraits, including selections from his acclaimed series Elders of Prince Edward Island. The book features an essay on Stevenson’s career by Pan Wendt.
Pan Wendt grew up in Prince Edward Island, where he is now curator at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery. He received his M.A. in art history from Williams College, and is a PhD candidate at Yale University. He has contributed writing to numerous art publications, including Funkaesthetics (Justine M. Barnicke Gallery, University of Toronto); A Modern World (Yale University Press); and Oh, Canada! (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art).
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Something Fishy A Shores Mystery
Publisher: Acorn Press$22.95Herrings are falling from the sky over The Shores – an unusual phenomenon anywhere, but especially so in this case. A newcomer, Anton Paradis, has set up a restaurant that specializes in dangerous dining, cooking up food that can kill to tantalize the palates of wealthy clients. It’s a recipe for death. Someone’s bound to get hurt.
Someone does. Oddly, the victim dies laughing. By accident or design?
Mountie Jane Jamieson suspects it’s no accident. But could there really be another murder at The Shores?
All the while, a wind turbine slices its blades over the cape, menacing the villagers with its eerie presence. Death is in the wind as well as on the dinner plate.
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The Grand Change
Publisher: Acorn Press$19.95William Andrews’ first novel examines life in a small PEI communityin the 1940s and 50s as changes, so common in the restof the world, begin to take hold. Using a road as an allegory, heweaves a lyrical tale of simple country people, their strugglesand their joys. The story is told through the eyes of a boy calledJake: he is the witness to life on the Hook Road and the eventsthat change that life forever. The book is in some ways like along poem: the people and the world they inhabit are richlyand meticulously described, and the superb writing takes thereader to a world no one will ever see again.
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Variations on Blue
Publisher: Acorn Press$17.95This year’s poetry book by an Island writer is by former P.E.I. bookseller Pam Martin; this is her first book. As a child Pam Martin had four very sudden and unexpected encounters with death. These experiences shaped her emotional life as she struggled to understand them and to find beauty in a world that seemed fraught with peril. The poems also examine, with delicacy and humour, the world she encountered as a teenager, a social worker and a wife.
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Bubba Begonia and the Bully
Artist: Dale McNevinPublisher: Acorn Press$8.95It was the first day of school and Bubba Begonia felt great. Then -SPLAT! Bubba meets his new classmate Stinky Biggs. He also meetsa stalking crow, a pair of puppets who speak Wabatawbee, a skunknamed Chiclet, a Flying Bag of Doom, and a dog with gas. He accidentallyrobs a bank, he’s called a ‘hero’ and is given a reward. Hehas the worst birthday party ever, sees his favourite teacher drippingwith egg, buys a wedding cake that tastes like ‘looove’, saves abully’s butt and nearly ends up in the slammer. This can’t be good,can it?
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Kira’s Secret
Publisher: Acorn Press$12.95Twelve-year-old Kira loves to swim. But her parents, who adopted her as a baby, have forbidden her to go near the sea where they live on the north Atlantic coast. Frustrated by their rules, Kira decides to rebel and jumps into the icy waters. She is shocked by what she learns about herself. With the help of her friend Cody, Kira begins the search for her original family. She soon discovers why her adoptive parents were afraid to let her go into the sea.
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Step Outside
Publisher: Acorn Press$19.95Doretta Groenendyk’s new book, Step Outside, promotes the valuable goal of relating to each other and the natural environment in a creative and enchanted way. Childhood obesity and the addiction to electronics is a growing concern that needs to be addressed. Step Outside is an artistic approach to inspire movement, to strengthen family bonds, to generate memories and celebrate the outdoors. It also visually enriches the readers repetoire with enticing, original, collaged, watercolour and acrylic creations within a moment of words. A beautiful combination of sport, art, poetry, nature and family, Step Outside, is sure to get you off your chair and enjoying the outdoors.
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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.
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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.
