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Eastword, March- April 2005imPRESSed!: The newest titles by WFNS membersThe Ghost Horse of Meadow Green Kim sees a beautiful black horse from her school bus window on the very day Gramma-Lou is coming to live with her family. Gramma-Lou is Kim's best friend, sharing her passion for horses and loving her just as she is, overwhelming shyness and all. Everything is going to be perfect when Gramma-Lou comes to stay. But when Kim looks for the black horse, it seems to have vanished. Was it a ghost? There's talk of ghosts around Meadow Green - kids at school claim Kim's house is haunted. Kim's parents say it's nonsense, but when Gramma- Lou finally arrives, Kim's perfect plans are shattered and dark secrets come to light in Meadow Green. Anne Louise MacDonald lives in rural Nova Scotia with her husband, two horses and assorted pets. In addition to her work with animals at a local university, she enjoys gardening and has written three picture books.
Alice Walsh's tale is based on the true-life adventures of a young Labrador Inuit boy. It's 1893 in Chicago, and the most fabulous fair the Earth has ever seen becomes an unusual home for a boy dubbed Pomiuk, Prince of the North. Pomiuk captures the hearts of the millions of people who click through the turnstiles to see Eskimo Village, one of dozens of living cultures showcased at the exhibition. Nicknamed the White City, the World's Columbian Exposition introduces Americans to the Ferris wheel, Little Egypt's belly dancing, and Cracker Jack. For half a year in a square mile by the shore of Lake Michigan, the relatively novel wonders of the telephone and electricity astonish gawkers, as do the boisterous antics of Buffalo Bills' Wild West Show and the delights of the very first Midway. Alice Walsh is the author three previous children's books, Heroes of Isle aux Morts, Uncle Farley's False Teeth, and Something is Wrong with Kyla?s Mother. She lives in Lower Sackville. Many speakers make presentations that are poorly designed,
poorly delivered, and poorly received. There are those few, however,
that are so masterful, they move an audience to see the world differently
and inspire them to achieve more than they ever thought possible.
Donna Black is a recently retired Halifax County teacher.
The book is a joined project with her daughter Stephanie whose illustrations
accompany the text. Donna lives with her husband, John, and their
English Bulldog, Jezzabel in a house overlooking the beautiful waters
of St. Margaret's Bay. The dreadlocks of polar bears; the atomized droplets of an underground waterfall; oranges as an offering to the dead; a purple hippopotamus wading pool in a strip club; hoar frost and aurora borealis and bail bondsmen and road kill: Joanne Merriam's inaugural collection of poetry catalogues morsels of experience. The Glaze from Breaking overflows with lovely, vivid poems about the aftermath of a breakup, and the redemptive power of travel, nature and love. In language charged with verbal energy, Merriam has crafted a moving portrait of a woman who is saved by her close observation of the everyday wonders of the world. Available on this side of the Atlantic from www.amazon.co.uk. Born in Halifax, Joanne Merriam graduated in English and Mathematics from Dalhousie University, and has worked as a courier dispatcher, telemarketer, charity fundraiser, sheet music librarian, web designer and office administrator. In 2001, she quit her position as WFNS Executive Assistant to travel Canada by train, and then much of the Northeastern and Southern United States with her husband Alan Slone. Her writing has appeared in prestigious literary journals on both sides of the Atlantic, including, in the UK, Orbis Quarterly and Stand Magazine, and in North America, The Fiddlehead and Event Magazine. You can find her online at joannemerriam.com.
It was Martin's idea to decorate the model rocket with flames. So why did his friend steal the idea? Now Martin has to come up with something even better in time for Saturday's launch. But will he lose a friend in the process? Meet Martin Bridge, a boy whose plans for a brilliant rocket, a substitute bus driver and a very old hamster go terribly wrong in this lively trio of stories. Jessica Scott Kerrin lives in Halifax. She's a writer and aspiring rocket scientist, having recently assisted her son with his rocket project for the junior science fair.
It was, by all accounts, a "slug-ugly" crime. Brothers George and Rufus Hamilton, in a robbery gone wrong, drunkenly bludgeoned a taxi driver to death with a hammer. It was 1949, and the two siblings, part Mi'kmaq and part African, were both hanged in Fredericton for the killing. The novel shifts seamlessly back into the killers' pasts, recounting a bleak and sometimes comic tale of victims of violence who became killers, a black community too poor and too shamed to assist its downtrodden members, and a white community bent on condemning all blacks as dangerous outsiders. George & Rue is a book about a death that brims with fierce vitality and dark humour. Winner of the 2001 Governor Generals' Award for Poetry (Execution Poems), George Elliott Clarke is the author of three books of poetry, dramatic works, opera libretti, and an award-winning feature-film screenplay, One Heart Broken into Song (CBC Television, 1999). He is the E.J. Pratt Professor of Canadian Literature at the University of Toronto.
It is Halifax Nova Scotia in 1834, and 12-year-old Jack Dance, whose captain father is lost at sea, has to leave school and go to work. By chance he meets Joe Howe, who invites him to work as printer's boy at the office of his newspaper, The Nova Scotian. From then on, a series of things happen to make Jack's life exciting and even dangerous. He stumbles on a major smuggling ring, is kidnapped by the king of the smugglers, escapes with the help of a black ex-slave, and then slowly uncovers the evidence that will destroy their operations. Joe Howe to the Rescue weaves together a fiction tale of Jack Dance with the true story of Joe Howe's fight for freedom of the press. Michael Bawtree has worked in Canadian theatre and television for over 40 years, as playwright, director, educator, actor, TV host and producer. The founding head of the drama program at Simon Fraser University, Michael was Professor and Director of Drama at Acadia University from 1990 until his retirement in 2003. He has directed a total of over 60 productions in Canada, USA, and Finland.
Loving the Addict tells stories of some of the people
associated with the Crosbie House, the 28-day residential treatment
centre in Kentville, Nova Scotia. The centre treated more than four
thousand people with alcohol, drug and gambling addictions from 1978
until March 2003. In the book, Davidson compiled personal stories
of former staff members and clients of the Crosbie House, based on
letters and interviews. |
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Manners
Matter
Martin
Bridge Ready for Take Off!
Joe Howe to the Rescue