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From Nova Scotia to North Africa
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$19.95When Canada went to war in 1939, the life of twenty-year-old Clayton Graham changed in a heartbeat. From a small rural community, he never expected he would travel the world so extensively or under such circumstances.Â
From Nova Scotia to North Africa is a largely first-person account of Clayton’s experiences and adventures as a pilot in the Royal Air Force. He recounts in detail the sometimes exhilarating but often terrifying process of learning to fly fighter aircraft, training first in Canada, then in England and later flying with #250 Squadron in Africa and the Middle East: performing spins and loops, becoming adept with Hurricanes and Spitfires, evading enemy aircraft, flying on dangerous missions. He survives bombings on the ground and dogfights in the air. He sees comrades die in service to their country and the devastation war brings to ordinary people swept up in historic events.
Along the way, Clayton manages to get engaged, carrying the engagement ring around with him before he mails it back to his sweetheart in Canada. Shot down while serving in North Africa, it seems Clayton may not get back to marry the woman he loves.
Told with humour and insight, and packed with historical information about places, public figures, and events, From Nova Scotia to North Africa chronicles an important part of Nova Scotia, Canadian, and world history, capturing in a veteran’s own words the experience of war.
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Lighthouses and Lights of Nova Scotia
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$24.95The move by the federal government in 1968 to auomate and de-staff Nova Scotia’s lighthouses–those icons of the province’s seafaring tradition–sent shockwaves through the community of lighthouse conservationists. Concerned that lighthouses would disappear form the landscape forever, author Rip Irwin, a retired naval cheif petty officer, undertook to visit and photograph each of the structures still in existence. This book is the result of 17 years of exhaustive research on the evolution of each light.
In addition to photographs and detailed information on each of the province’s lightstations, Lighthouses and Lights of Nova Scotia contains stories and anecdotes about specific lights and lighthouse keepers. It also contains an alphabetical listing of all 164 lighthouses and lights, and is cross-referenced with the Coast Guard numbering system.
Lighthouses and Lights of Nova Scotia is the complete guide to the province’s most recognized nautical icons.
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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.Â
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Dramatic Life of a Country Doctor Fifty Years of Disasters and Diagnoses
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$16.95Dr. Arnold Burden’s career began unintentionally when he performed his first surgery in the woods following a hunting accident at age 14. As a 20-year-old hospital clerk, he handed battle casualties after D-Day in France and Germany. His early years as a doctor began in rural Prince Edward Island, where he served in the combined role of doctor and coroner. Back home in Springhill, Nova Scotia, Dr. Burden was the first medic to enter the mines after the deadly No. 4 mine explosion in 1956 and the No. 2 mine bump, the most severe bump ever recorded in North America, in 1958. In both cases he risked his life alongside the underground rescue teams to bring the gassed and trapped miners to the surface.
In this new edition Dr. Burden gives his account of an active life and of a man dedicated to his patients; a man full of common-sense and interesting stories, who writes candidly of his dealing with patients, unusual cases, and brave efforts made under difficult conditions. As the author states: “The real satisfaction in life has come from helping people.”
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Prince Edward Island: An Illustrated History
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$22.95In Prince Edward Island: An Illustrated History, Douglas Baldwin takes the reader on a journey through the incidents and events that have shaped the province and its inhabitants throughout their development, from the first Aboriginal presence over 11,000 years ago, to the arrival of European settlers in the early eighteenth century, to the Charlottetown Conference of 1864, to the opening of the Confederation Bridge in 1997. Along the way, he peppers the narrative with stories of the many people and places that have played a role in making PEI both a tightly knit rural community and an immensely popular tourist destination.
Illustrated throughout with over one hundred historical photos and illustrations, Prince Edward Island: An Illustrated History is a must-read for anyone who has fallen in love with Canada’s smallest province.
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Bryant Freeman All Things Fishing
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95Bryant Freeman was born by a river, and the sound of roaring water was both magical and constant. For the rest of his life, Freeman, an icon in the New Brunswick fly-fishing community, would be drawn to the outdoors, and, invariably, rivers. Freeman has been honoured for his many contributions to fly tying and the conservation of Atlantic salmon and his specialty fly shop, Eskape Anglers in Riverview, New Brunswick, has been a destination for decades, a gathering place for tyers and anglers. Fondly known as Bryant the Banana Finger Man, Freeman is also a born storyteller, and in this book, readers are treated to some of his tales. They even get instructions on how to tie a Carter’s Bug. Author and fisherman Doug Underhill follows Freeman from his childhood on the banks of Nova Scotia’s Medway River to today, revealing fascinating insights into the man and the fine art of fly tying.
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Miramichi Dictionary
Editor: Herb CurtisPublisher: Nimbus Publishing$10.95A one-of-a-kind interpretive guide to the distinct dialect spoken in New Brunswick’s Miramichi region. Startin’ off with the “Ah, geez” of the letter A, “zacktly” all the way to the letter Z.
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The Mastodon Mystery
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$8.95A visit to the museum sparks James’ interest in an important local discovery of mastodon bones, but he is even more intrigued by the strange behaviour of 2 men seen in the neighbourhood
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Peril at Plover Point
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$8.95Summer vacation reunites David, Mary and Stephen, the three young detectives. While exploring the area, the trio discovers a series of puzzling clues in this action packed mystery.
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Camas & Sage A Story of Bison Life on the Prairie
Artist: Christina WaldPublisher: Mountain Press Publishing$12.00In Camas and Sage: A Story of Bison Life on the Prairie, kids are invited to explore and discover the northern plains in a truly unique way: through the eyes and ears of a bison calf.
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Genius at Work
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$25.95In 1885, nine years after his invention of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell and his wife built a house and laboratory in Nova Scotia, where they summered for the next thirty-seven years. In Genius at Work, Eber weaves together the reminiscences of neighbours with excerpts from family journals, diaries and letters, to create an engaging account of this energetic, exuberant and occasionally eccentric man. Equally fascinating are the photographs that document his work and family. Together with the text, they shed new light on the career and character of this great inventor.
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An Anecdotal History York and Sunbury Counties of New Brunswick
Publisher: Neptune Publishing$11.95Dorothy Dearborn began writing as a child and published her first poetry and short stories in the 1950s. A television career in the 1960s was interrupted by 6 years of front-line political involvement before choosing journalism as a career. She served in various editorial positions, including that of city editor, at the Saint John Times Globe and was editor of two weekly newspapers, The Kings County Record and the Saint John Citizen.
Among her many interests are the promotion of adult literacy in New Brunswick and an often frustrating romance with Duplicate Bridge.
Mrs. Dearborn continues to work as a journalist contributing regularly to regional, national and international newspapers and magazines and, in recent years established and publishes her own magazine, We’re Home.
When not traveling the province researching and collecting stories and information for her work she can be found in front of her Macintosh computer at the family’s 19th century farmhouse in Hampton, in the company of her new dog, Golden Boy. Ancient pony ‘Soupy’ and a motley assortment of other critters roam the fields.
She is married to Fred Dearborn, they have four grown children and numerous grandchildren.
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New Brunswick Haunted Houses and other tales of strange and eerie events
Artist: Carol TaylorPublisher: Neptune Publishing$9.95Best selling mystery writer Dorothy Dearborn takes the reader into the haunted homes of New Bruswick in her book New Brunswick Haunted Houses.
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Legends, Oddities and Mysteries including UFO experiences in New Brunswick
Artist: Carol TaylorPublisher: Neptune Publishing$9.95In Legends, Oddities and Mysteries, author Dorothy Dearborn takes readers on a journey through some of New Brunswick’s legends and lore.
Excerpt from the book:
“This time when she took the picture it was as if the black iron door had created a negative image and the outline of the face and features were clearer and sharper than ever … It was not unusual for well-to-do families to have their own crematoria in their cellars.” -
Hangman’s Noose A New Brunswick Book
Artist: Carol TaylorPublisher: Neptune Publishing$8.95In her book The Hangman’s Noose, Dorothy Dearborn explores the stories and traditions of more than 200 years of legal lynchings in New Brunswick. The most successful hangmen turned, what was often perceived as a ghoulish task, into what others considered to be a work of art, the success of which was based on effecting a clean and quick kill.
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New Brunswick Sea Stories
Artist: Ralph OlivePublisher: Nimbus Publishing$15.95Phantom ships, sea monsters, mutiny, and murder find their places beside stories of those Iron Men of the sea who sailed their ships around the world time and time again in dangerous circumstances. New Brunswick Seas Stories by Dorothy Dearborn runs the gamut from miracles to mayhem as the author presents stories reflecting the times and traditions of two centuries of shipbuilding and sailing in New Brunswick.
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Lifetime of Rug-Hooking
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$34.95Canada’s East Coast has a unique craft heritage that has seen generations hooking rugs during the long winter evenings. Hooked mats and rugs were originally intended as functional pieces–a place to wipe dirty feet at the back door, or a cover for drafty floors. But at some point aesthetics crept into this process, and those simple mats have evolved int the wonderful folk art rugs we see today.
Nova Scotia’s Doris Eaton has been hooking rugs for nearly fifty years and is one of the region’s most well-known rug-hookers. A Lifetime of Rug-Hooking features over eighty of Doris’s colourful and lively rugs and the inspiration and materials behind her art. Doris also shares some of her tried and true techniques, including her famous “Eaton Edge” for finishing a rug.
With a foreword from fellow Nova Scotia rug-hooker and artist Deanne Fitzpatrick, A Lifetime of Rug-Hooking is a marvellous visual tour of the work of an influential East Coast folk artist.
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Lifetime of Rug Hooking
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$34.95Canada’s East Coast has a unique craft heritage that has seen generations hooking rugs during the long winter evenings. Hooked mats and rugs were originally intented as functional pieces–a place to wipe dirty feet at the back door, or a cover for drafty floors. But at some point aesthetics crept into this process, and those simple mats have evolved into the wonderful folk art rugs we see today.
Nova Scotia’s Doris Eaton has been hooking rugs for nearly 50 years and is one of the region’s most well-known rug-hookers.
A Lifetime of Rug-Hooking features over 80 of Doris’s colourful and lively rugs and the inspiration and materials behind her art. Doris also shares some of her tried and true techniques, including her famous “Eaton Edge” for finishing a rug. With a foreword from fellow Nova Scotia rug-hooker and artist Deanne Fitzpatrick, A Lifetime of Rug-Hooking is a marvellous visual tour of the work of an influential East Coast folk artist.
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Bounce and Beans and Burn
Publisher: Acorn Press$7.95After breakfast Sam is so excited that he’s bouncing off the walls. His mother tells him to go out to the garden to play. At lunch he’s so full of beans that all he can get up to is mischief. His grandmother tells him to go out to the garden to play. After supper he has so much energy to burn that he can’t sit still. His father tells him to go out to the garden to play. Little do they know that when Sam does, he turns into a ferocious Samurai, goes on an adventure with Jack and the Beanstalk, and meets a fire-breathing dragon. Bounce & Beans & Burn follows Sam through an ordinary day of extraordinary adventure.
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I’m Writing a Story
Publisher: Acorn Press$12.95Mother of three young children, Doretta Groenendyk teaches art to young people, is active in her children’s school, and participates widely in the Nova Scotia artistic community, doing workshops around the province, including Word on the Street in Halifax. Based in Canning, NS, Doretta is the illustrator of Bounce and Beans and Burn, with text by Shannon Murray, which was shortlisted for the PEI Book Award in 2008
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Snow for Christmas
Publisher: Acorn Press$12.95Mother of three young children, Doretta Groenendyk teaches art to young people, is active in her children’s school, and participates widely in the Nova Scotia artistic community, doing workshops around the province, including Word on the Street in Halifax. Based in Canning, NS, Doretta is the illustrator of Bounce and Beans and Burn, with text by Shannon Murray, which was shortlisted for the PEI Book Award in 2008, and I’m Writing a Story, her first book featuring her own stories and illustrations.
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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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Step Outside
Publisher: Acorn Press$19.95Â Doretta 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. Â 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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Hockey Morning Noon and Night
Publisher: Acorn Press$12.95Hockey Morning, Noon and Night is a warm, light-hearted story about one little boy’s love of the game. Based on her seven-year-old son’s real-life obsession with hockey, author Doretta Groenendyk has created a delightful book for young budding stars, with bright, colourful ink and acrylic illustrations..
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I’m Drawing a Picture
Publisher: Acorn Press$12.95I’m Drawing a Picture combines story and images to captivate and inspire young readers to harness their creative spirit. A collaboration between artwork and text, this whimsical book has a different inspirational idea on each page, with a scene that each “artist” imagines. The concept is based on Doretta Groenendyk’s experience working with children in schools and trying to inspire them to be creative in all forms of mediums of art. The text is geared to four- to ten-year-olds, and is an excellent teaching tool for aspiring writers. An ideal elementary teacher’s resource, the book’s characters span cultures, genders, and ages.
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Love You More than Anything
Publisher: Acorn Press$19.95This colourful new picture book by Doretta Groenendyk is filled with whimsical images of love from many different backgrounds. It is about the expression of glee, surprise, intense emotion and delight. It is between friends and neighbors, children or seniors, women and family.
This book crosses cultures and generations, social change and tradition. It exudes warmth and playfulness, sharing whimsical images and sweet memory. The childlike, playful evaluation and understatement of “what is loved more” is immediately addictive.
Each colourful, whimsical page depicts a different “couple” enjoying the expressed scene together, two grandparents, two teenagers, a girl and her granny, two boys, a boy and a girl, two men, young girlfriends, a child and parent, persons of diverse race, religion, size….essentially love happening between anyone, anywhere. Love You More than Anything is a simple, beautiful book to remember love.
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You Make Me Happy
Publisher: Acorn Press$16.95With Doretta Groenendyk’s whimsical illustrations and narrative style, Small Things Make Me Happy explores the joys of everyday wonders and important, intangible things. Whether we are big or little, there are always things that we truly love. Whether it be sitting by the fire, reading in the bath, or travelling at night, this book explores the importance of finding happiness in all around you.
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