This beautifully illustrated picture book — a fantastic read-aloud — introduces toddlers to animals and the sounds they make.

About Eugenie Fernandes

Eugenie Fernandes is an award-winning picture book author and illustrator. Her many works include Earth Magic, A Difficult Day , Sleepy Little Mouse and Busy Little Mouse. She lives in Southern Ontario.

A young girl learns that her footprint is more than the mark she leaves in the sand

Introduces young children to the concept of their eco-footprint and the impact of what they consume on the environment.

Sandy loves visiting her grandpa’s house by the beach every summer. She and her dog Pepper play in the sand and surf, chasing the seagulls. But on this day her walk on the beach is ruined when she comes across the garbage left from someone else’s picnic – pop cans, half-eaten hot dog buns, and even a yellow plastic mustard container. Angry, Sandy can’t understand why anyone would want to dirty her beautiful beach.

Sandy and Pepper are startled by the arrival of the “Garbage Lady,” who helps pick up the mess. The Garbage Lady explains to Sandy that everyone has an ecological footprint – the mark they leave on the world – and that it is their responsibility to shrink it. Sandy is impressed, and runs home to tell her family. A wonderful introduction to environmental responsibility, the book ends with a list of everyday actions we can all do to shrink our footprint. Fittingly illustrated with a unique collage technique using recycled and natural materials.

Printed on FSC Certified Paper

About the Author

Adrianna Steele-Card has used her training in a variety of media to create her unique form of collage art. She uses a combination of natural and recycled materials, highlighted by paints and fibers. Look closely and you will find fish made from leaves, cloths made from flower petals, and a host of other surprises. Adrianna is a professional artist living and working in the woods of Lanark Highlands, Ontario.

(ages 10 and up)  Powerful free verse captures the raw beauty of the landscape and wildlife of northern Ontario.

Food is scarce after a harsh winter and in order to stay alive, a large timber wolf must fight off two young male wolves and insert himself into a pack led by a strong alpha female. Together they lead the pack’s two-hundred-mile journey along the Winisk River to Hudson Bay and the Severn River, pursuing the Woodland Caribou. As their struggle for survival intensifies, the wolves are threatened by human hunters, near-starvation, treacherous waters, and attacks by competing packs. In this bold literary work, Paul Brown explores the Great North and the heart of its wildlife through the eyes of a determined, courageous timber wolf.

About Paul Brown

Paul Brown is a poet, fiction writer, and retired English teacher with thirty years of experience in the high school classroom. He has made several canoe trips into northern Ontario, including one from Webequie to Peawanuck on the Winisk River, the same journey made by the wolves in his debut novel, Wolf Pack of the Winisk River (Lobster Press, 2009). Through his research, Paul fell in love with the courage, tenacity, and intelligence of northern grey wolves. The Great Boreal Forest of northern Canada remains an unending source of fascination for him. Brown lives in Belleville, Ontario.

(ages 2 – 5)  Little Bear closes his eyes and wishes and wishes and wishes for his dreams to come true. But when he opens his eyes, he’s still just Little Bear living in the Arctic tundra. Mother Bear tenderly shows him how many of his wishes do come true, from being able to swim with the playful belugas, to gazing at the dazzling northern lights. Finally, Little Bear is delighted to discover that he was Mother Bear’s wish come true! Readers will be touched by this reassuring tale of love and hope, which is of the “Storybook” series of board books – uplifting stories that shine with glitter, foil, texture, and more. Durable, padded covers, rounded corners, and an easy-to-hold size, along with touching text and colorful illustrations, ensure that these storybooks will be treasured by children and parents alike.

About the Author

Author, illustrator, and graphic designer Per-Henrik Gürth was born in Freiburg, Germany, and now calls Kingston, Ontario, home. His bold and lively illustrations can be found in the bestselling “Canada Concept Books” from Kids Can Press, including Oh! Canada and ABC of Canada, which was a Canadian Children’s Book Centre “Our Choice” selection. In When Wishes Come True, Per creates soft scenes filled with texture and light to complement the heartwarming story inspired by his daughter, Emily, who was Per’s own wish come true.

Wily trickster Coyote is having his friends over for a little solstice get-together in the woods when a little girl comes by unexpectedly. She leads the friends through the snowy woods to the mall — a place they had never seen before. The trickster goes crazy with glee as he shops with abandon, only to discover that filling a shopping cart with goodies is not quite the same thing as actually paying for them. The trickster is tricked and goes back to his cabin in the woods — somewhat subdued — though nothing can keep Coyote down for long. Thomas King is known for his fiction featuring Canada’s Native people, while Gary Clement’s artwork has appeared in several popular children’s books. “A Coyote Solstice Tale” blends King’s brilliant deadpan humor and Clement’s evocative watercolors in this witty critique of consumerism and consumption aimed at all ages.

 The long-awaited new novel from Margaret Atwood, The Year of the Flood is a brilliant visionary imagining of the future that calls to mind her classic novel The Handmaid’s Tale.

Adam One, the kindly leader of God’s Gardeners — a religion devoted to the melding of science and religion — has long predicted a natural disaster that will alter Earth as we know it. Now it has occurred, obliterating most human life. Two women have been spared: Ren, a young trapeze-dancer, locked inside a high-end sex club; and one of God’s Gardeners, Toby, who is barricaded inside a luxurious spa. Have others survived?

By turns dark, tender, violent, thoughtful, and witty, The Year of the Flood unfolds Toby’s and Ren’s stories during the years prior to their meeting again. The novel not only brilliantly reflects to us a world we recognize but poignantly reminds us of our enduring humanity.

Review quotes

“This is a gutsy and expansive novel, rich with ideas and conceits, but overall it’s more optimistic than Oryx & Crake. Its characters have a compassion and energy lacking in Jimmy, the wounded and floating lothario at the previous novel’s center. Each novel can be enjoyed independently of the other, but what’s perhaps most impressive is the degree of connection between them. Together they form halves of a single epic…”
— Publisher’s Weekly (starred review)

“The tremendous imaginative power of [Atwood’s] fiction allows us to believe that anything is possible.”
— New York Times Book Review

“Trust Margaret Atwood to put her finger on the pulse of the future….”
— Globe and Mail

“Atwood is a natural seer for an age that does not want to look too closely at what it condones, or refuses to see.”
— Glasgow Herald“Margaret Atwood has outdone — and outsung — herself this time. The Year of the Flood is at once a solemn praise song to human hope and a dead-serious poke at our capacity for self-destruction. The novel shows the Nobel Prize-worthy Margaret Atwood at the pinnacle of her prodigious creative powers.”
— Elle Magazine

Meet skeleton spirits in Alaska — the Dancing Ahkiyyini — and gliding ghosts overseas, like Japan’s Legless Yurei. Witness groups of ghosts at Mexico’s Day of the Dead and the solitary Ibambo on their own in Africa. Of course, each ghost has its own personality. Some like to stay up all night partying. Others, it is said, emerge from the spilled blood of murdered souls. Others still may tidy up your house at night — but only if they like you. Where can such spooks be found? A World Full of Ghosts takes you around the world to find out. Each fun and frightening profile captures the enduring allure of the supernatural in cultures far and near. Interspersed throughout are first-person accounts of spectral sightings. Meanwhile, a scariness scale rates each tale for younger readers. Featuring 25 phantoms, a not-too-scary storytelling style and suitably luminous — and spooky — artwork.  A World Full of Ghosts is a glimpse into a world of imagination.

“Eww! What is that? Such horrible stew!Orange-colored roots that were sticky with goo. . . .”Bradley McGogg makes his home in the bog where there are plenty of yummy bugs for a frog to feed on. Upon finding his pantry bare one day, Bradley decides to meet his neighbors, in the hopes that they will share some of their favorite meals with him. But this “bog frog” soon finds that not all animals eat alike . . . .

Tim Beiser is the proud dad of twins Rowan and Daniel, and he and his family split their time between Toronto, Canada and Grignan, France. Bradley McGogg, the Very Fine Frog is his first book for children.

Rachel Berman is a self-educated painter who has lived and worked in Canada, the United States, and Ireland. Born in New Orleans, Rachel has worked as a professional artist for over thirty years. Her paintings have been likened to the poems of Leonard Cohen. The mysterious figures and hidden stories glimpsed in her paintings are a reflection of the mysteries Berman has unraveled in her own life. Once known as Susan King, she discovered her original birth name, birth date, and the names of her biological parents only ten years ago. This experience led her to reclaim her long-lost name. Rachel Berman lives in Victoria, British Columbia.

(ages 3 – 5)  Come along on a visit to the farm, where a girl plays in wide open spaces, meets different animals, and discovers the endless wonders of nature. Whimsical illustrations come alive with color and texture to compliment the gentle, rhythmic text. From the lamb’s nuzzle to the cow’s morning greeting, from the horse’s velvety nose to the ducklings’ playful quacks, the barnyard is brimming with possibilities to explore. Children will delight in the warm, friendly farm scenes, and can be encouraged to name the animals depicted throughout.

Scaredy never sleeps — sleep might mean bad dreams about dragons, ghosts, vampire bats and polka-dot monsters. Our wide-eyed hero has a plan: stay awake all night, every night. Between counting stars, playing cymbals and making scrapbooks, he does a good job of avoiding dreamland. With exhaustion taking its toll, Scaredy comes face-to-face with an alarming horoscope prediction: All his dreams are about to come true! He must prepare for the worst and his Bad Dream Action Plan includes a fire extinguisher to snuff out dragons and a fan to blast away ghosts. But when disaster strikes, will Scaredy survive this ordeal? Will he thank his lucky stars? Will he find sweet dreams? Scaredy Squirrel at Night tackles a fear everyone – and especially the young – can relate to. It’s a bedtime story to make light of kids’ fear of the dark and a fable for our sleep-deprived society.