National Network for Equitable Library Service

The Mother Goose Letters comprises the annotated correspondence between Mother Goose and her cohorts in Britain concerning migration to the Canadian Prairies. The letters reveal both her attempts to wheedle her fellow nursery rhyme characters to settle in the Prairies with her and their mixed responses to her plans. Responding to a cease and desist command from No. 10 Downing St., M. Goose categorically makes her case for the out-migration and re-migration of her stories. She supposes they will continue to live if she gives them leave to change as time, place, and experience dictate.

Earth and sky are devoid of colour. There are no beginnings or endings. Then the snow melts. Maybe it’s the dead cars. It could be the escaped bison roaming the downtown core. Mosquitoes? Sure. Dragonflies? Absolutely. And it’s also entirely possible it’s the pomegranate tree at the corner of Portage and Main. Or maybe, just maybe, it’s the people, like Dickie Reimer. Any way you slice it, something’s going on in Winnipeg. That’s really true. At some point, every Peg will ask so why’d you move here? Jack hopes the city will be the one place no one will look for him.

Robert Pasternak (NAK) is a virtuoso of the sequential art form. An adept panelologist and painstaking craftsman. Despite a loyal and attentive following, awareness of his work is limited. In many ways, what may appear to be a constraint is part of the NAK mystery and lore. The abstract comics medium is highly complex and only vaguely understood. For NAK, it’s merely a brushstroke. Yet, to define this artwork as abstract could be considered derivative. To the observer, NAK is ocular candy. Psychedelic sensuality.

With sensitivity and tenderness, Starkie Mak has captured a tale of the immigrant experience, from the eyes of a child. Masterfully rendered with careful homage paid to the children’s books that have touched the hearts of so many, Mak’s brush strokes and calligraphy evoke the turbulent emotions and difficulties a child must surely experience when having their little world upended, only to have a much larger and foreign world unfold before them. In a heartbreaking parting, a child says goodbye to her family and is left with her imagination as guide.

After serving two years in prison for breaking the neck of the man who assaulted his sister, Arden is released on bail. He lands a job working at Tuffy’s, a restaurant and bar on the beach strip, alongside his former cellmate, Slip Winegarden. Things seem to be looking good for Arden, until it all starts to unravel… When Slip is caught crossing Viktor Khernov, Tuffy’s owner, Arden witnesses the madman’s revenge from close quarters. Arden’s parole officer tells him to find another job or lose his parole status.

Reluctant amateur detective, Reverend Charles Lauchlan, departs the prairie city of Winnipeg and travels abroad to Scotland with his fiancé Maggie on a bicycle tour of the Highlands. Two near fatal accidents put members of the tour on edge and, to make matters worse, a shadowy figure seems to be observing their every move. Stuck in the remote Highland countryside, the group is thrown back on their own resources. While Charles and Maggie are trying to decipher what these strange events mean, they make another grisly discovery.

The small town is a haven in an unruly world. There is much reassurance in the familiar. Shirley at the post office knows everybody’s name. Bingo is every Wednesday night at the Legion. The community pulls together unquestioningly for funerals, fires and parades. A small town sets the parameters for personal successes and takes the blame for failures. Hot Town and other stories is a book about people who exchange their high expectations for belonging. Small town people are loyal and resilient, with histories steeped in both tradition and subversion.

The author weaves the story's other main characters - the sun, rocks, earth, water, air, fire, animals and people - into scenic treed landscapes and brings them all to life through the use of lyrical prose. Each character in turn claims ownership of the trees, but the trees have the final say. Scientific details in both the text and illustrations depict the natural beauty of our world.

Two best friends, a young boy and a monster truck, cooperate to clean up the big mess they make when they CRASH into the recycling bin, after Gus's imagination takes over and let's Buck do the driving.

Little Hare is young, and it is his first winter. He wants to learn about the things he sees in the yard, so he asks his friend, Wilson for help in identifying them.