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Wildflower
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$22.95You cannot own a wildflower.
An old woman’s wish for a child is granted in the form of a thumb-sized girl born inside a flower. Though the child brings the woman much joy, Wildflower cannot be planted in one place; she must go where the wild wind blows. And if her mother really loves her, she must let her go.
In Wildflower, artist Briana Corr Scott (The Book of Selkie) brings her whimsical illustrations and gentle poetry to the beloved Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, “Thumbelina.” Maintaining the original spirit of Andersen’s tale, celebrating love between mother and child, kinship between humans and animals, and bravery—no matter your size or shape—this refreshing retelling gives newfound agency to Wildflower, and offers young readers a tender lesson about the importance of respecting nature.
Wildflower is the perfect gift for new mothers and mothers-to-be, recent graduates, and anyone with a love and appreciation for nature.
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Seaside Lullaby
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$14.95A soothing board book that helps baby learn to count from 1 to 10, with vibrant illustrations of seaside fauna and flora, and gentle, rhyming refrains. From the celebrated creator of Mermaid Lullaby and Wildflower, this is the perfect bedtime read.
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Gabriella’s Kitchen
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$24.95When Gabriella first saw the Greek island of Corfu, “it was simply paradise”—except that there were no good restaurants. So she and her sociable Greek husband rented a charming old Venetian villa and opened their own. Here, Gabriella developed her own special recipes and catering to the rich and famous who increasingly found their way to her door (Julian Huxley, Paul McCartney, and Albert Finney, to name a few). In this bright, practical, and unusual cookbook, Gabriella shares her original recipe. Sprinkled throughout the book are engaging stories of people and events that coloured and enriched her life.
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From Palette to Palate Culinary Artworks from the Digby Pines Kitchen
Artist: Lynda ShalaganPublisher: SSP Publications$15.95Chef Dale Nichols and artist Lynda Shalagan have collaborated to create a mouth-watering and eye-opening masterpiece — the finest dishes the venerable Pines has to offer. Yes, there are scallops but so much more — for the vegetarian, the holistic and the environmentally responsible.
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Salt Fires
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$19.95Salt Fires is a volume of poems that embrace and reflect our human consciousness: our awareness, our blindness, our Shadow, our mythologies. They invite us to look at ourselves in ways that often are disconcerting, sometimes startling. Love of land infuses Salt Fires. Intimately inhabited and passionately shared, Nova Scotia’s farms, woods, and shores reveal themselves to be our Earth in microcosm.
A suite of Sable Island poems closes the book and affirms this notion—Sable Island, a strip of sand in a vast ocean, impossible, yet somehow here, like our planet, rich in life and beauty. This is the work of a mature poet who examines moral blindness and human frailties by inhabiting the experiences of the poems’ speakers with vulnerability and honesty. Accessible, clear, and alive with music, the poems inform and incite.
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It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time Ten Years of Misadventures in Coffee
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$19.95Annabel’s coffee adventures took her from a wet, dreary market in northern England to the Canadian Prairies via a PhD in Central America. She gradually mastered the art of juggling a start-up business, her thesis, and a five-month-old baby at the same time, and negotiated emigration bureaucracy, a few disastrous business relationships, and the brutality of Canadian winters. This is the real story of coffee entrepreneurship, with all the grim, impossible, frustrating, and messy bits left in. Because they all seemed like a good idea at the time.
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Louisbourg or Bust A Surfer’s Wild Ride Down Nova Scotia’s Drowned Coast
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$19.95A rickety surf rig on wheels. A guide named Don Quixote. No cellphone. Louisbourg or Bust is RC Shaw’s spandex-free pilgrimage up a haunted coastline. Fuelled by Hungry Man Stew and blind optimism, Shaw battles potholed hills and remote waves en route to the Fortress of Louisbourg.
With a Nova Scotia road map in one hand and a fat copy of Don Quixote in the other, Shaw hatches a plan. He builds The Rig, a Frankenstein-inspired bicycle-plus-trailer to haul his camping gear and surf stuff. Then he circles Louisbourg with a black Sharpie and vows to take the fortress back from its malevolent tourist occupiers. Finally, on a clear June morning, he kisses his family goodbye and creaks off down the road in search of adventure for adventure’s sake. No cellphone, no safety net. Just the restless pulse of the Atlantic Ocean as it rips and tears at the coastline of the Eastern Shore.
As the lark gets real, Shaw is forever changed by the gnarly soul of Nova Scotia’s fogbound, fading coastline.
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The Tides of Time
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$21.95Set in northeastern Nova Scotia and Cape Breton, The Tides of Time: A Nova Scotia Book of Seasons paints vivid portraits of contemporary labourers whose harvests mark the rhythms of the seasonal year. Each of the twelve monthly chapters tells the story of a labour unique to that month, including jobs like tuna fishing, cranberry farming, maple syrup production, sheep farming, beekeeping, lobster fishing, and foraging for wild mushrooms. Stewart revitalizes an older, contemplative view of the sacredness of time. In keeping with the genre of nature writing, her book offers a meticulous way of looking at the world as she blends first-hand observations of seasonal change with stories of the labourers. The Tides of Time offers a refuge from the rush of urban life. It turns to the seasons, rural life and literature for an alternative mode of time, which is fluid, rhythmic, and gentle. The symplicity is there—close at hand.
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One Strong Girl
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$21.95One Strong Girl is a mother’s vivid account of what it is like to lose her daughter, India, to a rare debilitating disease. The story is a bold description of what it means to deal with deep sorrow and still find balance and beauty in an age steeped in the denial of death. At ten, India climbed the highest on the rope at gymnastics, yet by sixteen was so weak she was unable to even dress herself. The narrative follows the six-year fight for answers from the medical community. Finally, after the genetic testing of India’s DNA, it was discovered there were two mutations on her ASAH1 gene, a deadly combination. Today her cells are alive in a research lab at the University of Ottawa. This is a legacy that cuts both ways, a point of pride and pain. One Strong Girl is a story of what it’s like to outlive an only child. It describes the intensity of loving a dying child and most importantly, the joy to be found, even amidst the sorrow.
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Working from Home for a Harmonious Life
Publisher: Pottersfield Press$19.95Since Luc Desroches began working from his home office in 2016, he has been writing about how the move has allowed him to create a more harmonious life for both himself and his family. This book was mostly written pre-COVID-19, when working from home was more the exception than the rule. With almost every employee on the planet being encouraged to work from home where possible, COVID-19 has made the necessary transition from office to home more important than ever. Although there’s an explosion of teleworking articles with best practice tips, the author delves much deeper into the personal experience as he reflects on the values and teachings of the Mi’kmaq people who have worked from their homes for over ten thousand years.
The deeper messages of the book are perennial, which is what we need as we face unprecedented challenges. Now is an opportunity for millions of people to make a more informed decision on whether they should continue working from home or return to their pre-COVID workplaces. Now is a potential tipping point that could lead to a happier and healthier life for the individual and for society as a whole.
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Hare B&B
Artist: Bill PechetPublisher: Running the Goat$22.95Harriet and her seven young siblings are left orphans when their parents run afoul of a cunning coyote. They open their home as a “hare bed and breakfast” for paying guests, and when the coyote returns to the scene of the crime, they serve her her comeuppance for breakfast.
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Titanic True Stories of Her Passengers, Crew, and Legacy
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$25.95This book tells the lives of the passengers on the Titanic‘s ill-fated voyage, and shines a spotlight on the vessel’s lost treasures, its celebrated send-off from Belfast, its animal passengers, the iconic music and movies inspired by the story, and the many, many tales of heroism and bravery that arose from this tragedy. Richly illustrated with archival photographs and newspaper clippings, as well as a comprehensive index, timeline, and suggested further reading, this all-ages book presents an accessible, fascinating history of the world’s most famous ship. Includes over 50 black and white photos.
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Titanic
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing Limited$24.95This book tells the lives of the passengers on the Titanic‘s ill-fated voyage, and shines a spotlight on the vessel’s lost treasures, its celebrated send-off from Belfast, its animal passengers, the iconic music and movies inspired by the story, and the many, many tales of heroism and bravery that arose from this tragedy. Richly illustrated with archival photographs and newspaper clippings, as well as a comprehensive index, timeline, and suggested further reading, this all-ages book presents an accessible, fascinating history of the world’s most famous ship. Includes over 50 black and white photos.
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Memories on the Bounty A Story of Friendship, Love, and Adventure
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95In 1960, Roy Boutilier and twenty-four fellow Nova Scotians set sail for Tahiti aboard the newly built replica sailing ship Bounty. The ship stayed in Tahiti for almost a year while MGM Studios filmed the epic historical drama Mutiny on the Bounty, starring Marlon Brando.
Roy’s year on Bounty and his experiences in Tahiti are themselves the stuff of movies. But it took a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease for Roy and his long-time friend, Janet Sanford, to realize that a fascinating story would be lost if someone didn’t capture those memories.
And so began a series of Monday-morning meetings as Roy and the author embarked on a race against time. Memories on the Bounty goes far beyond re-telling Roy’s story; it explores the boundaries of memory, the challenges of storytelling, the pain of saying goodbye, and the enduring bonds of friendship.
With dozens of never-before-seen photos from Bounty’s maiden voyage and her time in Tahiti, Memories on the Bounty is a touching story of adventure, love, and loss.
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La nouvelle vie de Madame Bouteille
Artist: Jacinthe ChevalierPublisher: Bouton d'or Acadie$9.95During an incredible trip, Madam Bottle and her friend Mister Paper, are in for a… transformative experience! What will Madam Bottle look like after her beauty treatment?
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Petit Pico
Artist: Nathasha PilottePublisher: Bouton d'or Acadie$9.95“Crick, crack, crickety-crack! A baby chick is born.”
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Disaster at the Highland Games
Artist: Nathasha PilottePublisher: Chocolate River Publishing$15.95Kate doesn’t think she needs to practice her Highland dancing to get ready for the Highland Games. Practicing at home isn’t as much fun as dancing in class. She’s good enough already, and everything will be fine. Or will it?
This high-energy picture book by author and Highland dance teacher Riel Nason showcases Highland dancing and the Highland Games culture and is brought to life by the whimsical illustrations of Nathasha Pilotte.
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A Calf for Olive
Publisher: Chocolate River Publishing$10.95Olive is devastated when she overhears a kid at school making fun of her for wanting to raise a calf for the 4-H calf competition. They think she can’t possibly do it because she has cerebral palsy. But, with the love and support from her family and friends, Olive develops a strong bond with a Jersey calf and draws on her problem-solving skills to get her calf ready for the fall competition.
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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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