My Nova Scotia

Written by Lindsay Ruck

Illustrations by Martyna Czub

Nimbus Publishing

978-1-77471-439-3

32 pp.

Ages 3-7

June 2025 

 

Do not think that My Nova Scotia is a travelogue about one of Canada's Atlantic provinces. Instead, read and see about a land and people much loved and spirited and diverse through the words and art of two Nova Scotians, Lindsay Ruck and Martyna Czub.

From My Nova Scotia, written by Lindsay Ruck, illustrated by Martyna Czub

In a lovely, melodic rhyming text, Lindsay Ruck shows us her Nova Scotia. It's a setting of ocean breezes, rustling trees, apples, berries, and a rolling sea. But beyond what is seen in its landscape, it is a place of heritage and people. It is Mi'kma'ki and a land of diverse cultures, from Black Loyalists and refugees and Acadians to those who celebrate the Lunar New Year. They are a people who celebrate with music and dance, food and family. They are a people who have big dreams and share their stories.

 

We work as one and together we rise. 

From My Nova Scotia, written by Lindsay Ruck, illustrated by Martyna Czub

Lindsay Ruck tells of a Nova Scotia of the past and of the present, and honours all that it is with her words.

 

My Nova Scotia honours our past

Our cultures are rich and our heritage vast 

But added to Lindsay Ruck's words is the watercolour artwork of Martyna Czub which transports young readers to an ethereal Nova Scotia of colour and vibrancy, solitude and contemplation. She gives us lively scenes of Lunar New Year celebrations and ceilidhs, large family meals and the gardening and harvesting of food. Martyna Czub also takes us to quiet places of hiking in the woods and travelling on the water. But her depictions of these places and people are so emotive through her choice of colours and strokes of her brushes that Martyna Czub imbues her art with heart and a calming spirit of devotion. Both Martyna Czub and Lindsay Ruck give us a lovely view of Nova Scotia and yet each finds their own way to reveal its charm.

From My Nova Scotia, written by Lindsay Ruck, illustrated by Martyna Czub

I know that some readers may see My Nova Scotia as a regional book that could only be appreciated by locals, but you'd be mistaken. It's been years since I visited Nova Scotia so my appreciation of its beauty and people and all it has to offer a tourist is very limited. But, even if I had never been to this Atlantic province, I would get a true impression of its wonder.  And as I read the text, I was the hearing the melody of "Farewell to Nova Scotia," not because it had a similar tale but because they are both infused with love for a land. My Nova Scotia may be that of Lindsay Ruck and Martyna Czub, but it is an all-embracing admiration for a land unique in place and people that could only be Nova Scotia.

From My Nova Scotia, written by Lindsay Ruck, illustrated by Martyna Czub

Lobster's Vacation: Greetings from the Coast

Written by Michelle Robinson

Illustrated by Paul G. Hammond

Nimbus Publishing

978-1-77471-280-1

24 pp.

Ages 3-7

June 2024

 

Enjoying his ocean life with buddies Crab, Starfish and Whale, Lobster is shocked to be caught and transported to a chef's kitchen. But he's having none of it, jumping from the hot pot and making a run for it. It's time for him to get a break and take a vacation.

From Lobster's Vacation, written by Michelle Robinson, illustrated by Paul G. Hammond

So, amidst all the tourists and locals, some with maps and cameras, others with dogs and their binoculars, Lobster takes off. His first stop is for a tartan cap and ice cream on the waterfront. Then he's onto a tour bus and seeing all the sights from the wrought iron gates at Halifax Public Gardens National Historic Site to a harbour bridge and the Viola Desmond ferry. 

From Lobster's Vacation, written by Michelle Robinson, illustrated by Paul G. Hammond

In the country, Lobster shares a campfire and some music with woodland animals. When the leaves start to change, there's berries to pick and hiking. But, as for most of us, Lobster's vacation becomes tiring, and he longs to see his friends.

Lobster's heading homeward.

So long, sandy shore!

 

Back home with his buddies

on the ocean floor.

At a time when many families are visiting Nova Scotia and other parts of Atlantic Canada for their summer holidays, Michelle Robinson has given them a picture book to take along and feed their travels. If you're fortunate enough to be in Halifax and environs, you may be able to pick out the very ice cream shop where Lobster gets his double scoop or the tartan shop. You'll certainly be able to watch popular kite flying and even board the Viola Desmond ferry. Lobster certainly sees all the sights, both touristy and local faves, but Michelle Robinson still gets Lobster home, and with a cheeky postcard to the fishermen who caught him in the first place.

From Lobster's Vacation, written by Michelle Robinson, illustrated by Paul G. Hammond

Paul G. Hammond, also a creator from Halifax like Michelle Robinson, makes Lobster's adventures whimsical and postcard-ready. Every illustration is like a cartoon of a photo from a vacation, showing a smiling Lobster enjoying the sights of Nova Scotia and the company of others. Bold, bright colours, fabulous lines and shapes and text (within the art) makes for a flashy adventure for Lobster and for the readers who get to travel with him.

If you're lucky enough to be visiting the East Coast this summer or another, take along a copy of Lobster's Vacation. Use it as a child's guide to Halifax and area. The kids will love the rhyming story, and especially Lobster's escape from the cooking pot, and will be able to read it for themselves soon enough. And if a trip to Nova Scotia cannot be on your schedule, visit it vicariously through Lobster's Vacation. It's just like being there.

Ebb & Flow

Written by Heather Smith

Kids Can Press

978-1-77138-838-2

232 pp.

Ages 9-12

April 2018

If you've been reading this blog for a number of years, you'll know what a fan I am of novels in verse. These are stories told in free verse form and the authors who do it well are highly accomplished at writing with impact and few words.  I can now add author Heather Smith to that very short list of accomplished writers of novels in verse.  And she is extraordinary.

Ebb & Flow is the story of twelve-year-old Jett who has been sent to spend the summer with his Grandma Jo. Though he has been sent to stay with her because of a troublesome year, Jett is happy to see Grandma, having many positive memories about her before his move with his mother to the mainland.

I remembered

hugs that were big for her size,

her arms growing

like expandable straws. (pg. 9)

Wordplay is the dialogue between the two who love talking in puns, with Grandma telling her story as if she were a character in a series of anecdotes.  Sadly, because of the mistakes he made over the past year, Jett sees himself as the villain of his stories, deserving of little goodness, including his grandmother's love. Even away from the negative influence of Junior Dawson, a bully and angry classmate, with whom Jett teamed up, the boy cannot shake the bad thoughts about people and the anger he harbours about his own actions.  

In titled chapters of only one or two page verses, Heather Smith subtly reveals Jett's history and the events that led to his relocation for the summer.  In fact, Jett's character development is so subtle that the change in Jett from angry and confused boy to responsive and responsible is as inconspicuous as the tides that come in and go out.

Grandma?

Yes?

Why can't things just stay the same?

Because life is like the tides.
In, out.
Back, forth.
Push, pull.
High, low.
You just have to go with the flow, you know?

Yeah...
(pg. 177)

The reader will sense Jett's progression in increments, as slow as when he and Grandma Jo creep along the beach looking for sea glass, and then he's there, asking to visit his father and telling his own story to his grandmother.

Ebb & Flow may refer to Jett's responses to the ever-changing circumstances that impact him, including his own choices and mistakes, but the book makes a powerful statement about resiliency and the power to ride the tidal motion of life. Sometimes you need a little help, like Jett gets from Grandma Jo who never pushes her grandson to come to an epiphany, though she helps him get there with her love and guidance. Ebb & Flow makes it clear that, with forgiveness to others and self, people and relationships can be salvaged and, like sea glass, taken from sharp edges to soft gemstones.

In Grandma's hand,
five pieces of sea glass –
two white, two green,
one red.

I didn't find anything, I said.

You will.
(pg. 26)

Atlantic Book Awards' 2012 winners announced

In St. John's Newfoundland last night, the winners of the Atlantic Book Awards for 2012 were announced.

Of the nine Atlantic Book Awards, three awards are specific for children's and YA literature. A fourth award was won by a young adult book and has been included here as well.  The winners in these award categories are listed below.

Ann Connor Brimer Award 

for Children’s Literature

WINNER

The Year Mrs. Montague Cried

by Susan White 

Acorn Press

Lillian Shepherd Memorial Award 

for Excellence in Illustration

WINNER

There were Monkeys in My Kitchen

Illustrated by Sydney Smith

Written by Sheree Fitch

Nimbus Publishing

 

Margaret and John Savage 

First Book Award

WINNER

The Town That Drowned 

by Riel Nason

Goose Lane Editions

The Bruneau Family Children’s/Young Adult Literature Award

WINNER

Jack and the Manger

by Andy Jones

Running the Goat Books & Broadsides

 Congratulations  and  Félicitations

Hackmatack 2011/2012 Award Winners announced!

Readers 9 to 12 years of age and living in Atlantic Canada who participated in the annual Hackmatack Children's Choice Book Award literary program have made their selections.  Last Friday night, April 27, 2012, the winners of the 2012 Hackmatack Children's Choice Book Award were announced at the Capitol Theatre in Moncton, New Brunswick.  

Hearty congratulations to the winners in the four categories:

ENGLISH  FICTION 

Hugh Brewster

Prisoner of Dieppe: World War II, Alistair Morrison, 

Occupied France, 1942

Scholastic Canada

222 pp.

2010

Hugh Brewster

Scholastic Canada's I am Canada series

  

 ENGLISH  NON-FICTION

Catherine Rondina

Don’t Touch That Toad & Other Strange Things Adults Tell You

Illus. by Kevin Sylvester
Kids Can Press
96 pp.
2010

Catherine Rondina
Kevin Sylvester

ROMAN  FRANÇAIS

 Richard Petit

Ton journal intime Zone Frousse

Z'Ailées

120 pp.

2010

zonefrousse.com

DOCUMENTAIRE  FRANÇAIS

Stéphanie C. Dubois

Le petit livre des affaires dégueulasses

Les Malins Editions

105 pp.

2010

Hackmatack Children's Choice Book Award

Another Canadian young readers' book award?  You bet!

If you're a young reader, 9 to 12 years of age, living in Atlantic Canada, then you're fortunate to be able to share your favourite reading with others through the annual Hackmatack Children's Choice Book Award literary program.  This program, designed to promote literacy and Canadian books, provides four lists of ten nominated titles annually: English Fiction, English Non-Fiction, French Fiction and French Non-Fiction.  Nominations are announced in the spring with reading taking place from September to March, voting before April, and then announcement of the winning titles in April or May.

Young readers will soon be voting for their favourite reads from the 2011-2012 Hackmatack Children's Choice Book Award nominations (see lists below) with the winners announced at a ceremony on April 27, 2012 in Moncton, New Brunswick. 

2011-2012 Hackmatack Award nominees

ENGLISH FICTION The Adventures of Jack Lime  by James Leck  The Dread Crew: Pirates of the Backwoods by Kate Inglis The Gnome’s Eye by Anna Kerz Kayak Combat  by Eric Howling Libby’s Got the Beat  by Robert Rayner  Jacob Two-Two on the High Seas by Cary Fagan Prisoner of Dieppe: World War II by Hugh Brewster Pit Pony   by Joyce Barkhouse Tumbleweed Skies by Valerie Sherrard Zach & Zoe: Bully and the Beagle by Kristin Butcher

ENGLISH NON-FICTION

Animals That Changed the World

by Keltie Thomas

Canada from Above

by Heather Patterson

Canada’s Wars: An Illustrated History

by Jonathan Webb

Don’t Touch That Toad & Other Strange Things Adults Tell You

by Catherine Rondina

Fatty Legs: A True Story

by Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton

Case Closed? Nine Mysteries Unlocked by Modern Science

by Susan Hughes

The Hilarious History of Hockey

by Helaine Becker

Highway of Heroes

by Kathy Stinson

New Brunswick Kids Cook

By Marilyn Lohnes

Wild Ones

by Paddy Muir

 

ROMAN FRANÇAIS

Bienvenue à Rocketville

par Danielle Boulianne

Catastrophe en Guadeloupe

par Camille Bouchard

Le combat des caboches

par Marie Beauchamp

L’étrange affaire du 413

par Nadya Larouche

Les livres mènent loin!

par Emilie Boucher

Du soccer extrême

par François Gravel

Le projet Persée

par Sophie Bérubé

Livreur express

par Véronique Drouin

Ton journal intime Zone Frousse

par Richard Petit

Vlad et moi et les nids-de-poule

par Brigitte Huppen

DOCUMENTAIRE FRANÇAIS 

L’astronomie facile et amusante

par Jean-Pierre Urbain

Le cheval

par Sylvie Roberge et Jacques Pasquet

Citron bleu et zeste de carotte

par Céline Malepart

Marco Polo

par Johanne Ménard

Les Marmottes

par Alain Bergeron; Sampar; Michel Quintin

Julie Payette

par Christine Ouin et Louise Pratte

Le petit livre des affaires dégueulasses

par Stéphanie C. Dubois

Mon premier livre de contes du Canada

par Corinne De Vailly

Secrets des fleurs de bord de routes

par Marie D’Amours

Ti-Jean-Tête-d’Or

par Melvin Gallant

The 2012-2013 Hackmatack Children's Choice Book Award nominations will be announced this spring.

Atlantic Book Awards: 2012

Last night, at a literary fundraiser that featured author Alexander Macleod speaking with other CanLit authors, the Atlantic Book Awards Society announced the shortlists of nominated titles for its nine different book prizes.

The Atlantic Book Awards and Festival will be held May 10-17, 2012, comprising of numerous free events in all Canadian Atlantic provinces, and will culminate with an awards ceremony on May 17 in Newfoundland.

To get more information about the Atlantic Canada Book Awards and this year's nominated titles, go to http://www.atlanticbookawards.ca/2012-atlantic-book-awards-and-festival-shortlist/


The nine Atlantic Book Awards are:

• Ann Connor Brimer Award for Children’s Literature

• APMA Best Atlantic-Published Book Award, sponsored by Friesens

• Dartmouth Book Award for Non-fiction in Memory of Robbie Robertson, presented by the Kiwanis Club of Dartmouth

• Democracy 250 Atlantic Book Award for Historical Writing

• Jim Connors Dartmouth Book Award (Fiction), presented by Boyne Clarke

• Lillian Shepherd Memorial Award for Excellence in Illustration

• Margaret and John Savage First Book Award

• Newfoundland and Labrador Book Award for Fiction

• The Bruneau Family Children’s/Young Adult Literature Award

Congratulations go out to all authors, illustrators and publishers.

If you've been reading CanLit for LittleCanadians, you know I always like to emphasize books for younger readers.  Here are the Atlantic Book Awards nominations of books and author/illustrators for young readers: 

Ann Connor Brimer Award for Children’s Literature

Betsy Wickwire’s Dirty Secret
by Vicki Grant
HarperCollins Canada

Chasing Freedom
by Gloria Ann Wesley
Roseway Publishing

The Year Mrs. Montague Cried
by Susan White 
Acorn Press









Lillian Shepherd Memorial Award for Excellence in Illustration

Thank You for My Bed
Illustrated and written by Doretta Groenendyk
Acorn Press

A Day with You in Paradise
Illustrated by Patsy MacKinnon  
Written by Lennie Gallant
Nimbus Publishing

There were Monkeys in My Kitchen
Illustrated by Sydney Smith
Written by Sheree Fitch
Nimbus Publishing


 




Margaret and John Savage First Book Award

The Town That Drowned 
by Riel Nason
Goose Lane Editions









The Bruneau Family Children’s/Young Adult Literature Award

Jack and the Manger
by Andy Jones
Running the Goat Books & Broadsides

Edge of Time
by Susan M. MacDonald
Breakwater Books

Dragon Seer’s Gift 
by Janet McNaughton
HarperCollins Canada