Rita Joe

August 30, 2018 by Patty Musgrave

The Homing Place
Rachel Bryant
WLU Press

What is interesting and compelling about this book is the pointed reference to the use of such statements as, “He is a Cape Breton native,” to refer to someone of settler ancestry born in Cape Breton, and a brilliant assessment of Maritimers who refer to themselves as “belonging to the land” that actually belongs to someone else. Settler families who identify as “Irish” or “Scottish” or “Dutch” etc. have significant pride in the heritage of their ancestors, who came to this land to begin again, to make a life for their families and who by doing so, trampled a people who lived in peace and sustainability and governed themselves with respect and spiritual goodness.

The Homing Place will no doubt cause some stir among those who see themselves as owners of the land and those who have inherited parcels of land from generations of their families. The reality is, it was stolen land to begin with, used to lure settlers to various locations of the Mi’kmaq and Wolastoq, Passamaquoddy and Penobscot Territories. This process pushed Indigenous people farther and farther away from their homelands and into swamps and unsuitable plots of land where nomadic travel—from fishing and living near waterways in summer and inland hunting grounds in winter—became complicated and in some cases, impossible. There were also subtle attempts to terminate Indigenous ways of knowing.

I must admit to being pleasantly surprised by Bryant’s acknowledgement of the events of the fall of 2013 in New Brunswick, on Mi’kmaq Territory. That’s when federal officials and the Mi’kmaq (who were supported by allies including the Acadians and other Indigenous nations) became national news after a violent surprise attack upon the land defenders who were camped out. The land defenders’ aim was to prevent resource extraction by Texas-based multinational Southwestern Energy Company.

The company planned to frack in Kent County. Women, youth, Elders and men were pepper sprayed and in many cases bruised and battered by the representatives of the federal government, sent to extinguish the defenders’ desire to continue to be traditional land stewards and protect the Mother, the earth and water.

Bryant’s reference to Rita Joe and the beautifully cryptic way she told her stories is also magnificent.

If you are of settler ancestry and are open to the reconciliation process in its truest sense, and if you are willing to learn as part of that process, The Homing Place is a good place to start. It’s not an easy read but it is worth the time and highlighter ink.

I particularly appreciated the author’s acknowledgement that Indigenous people did not ever attempt to dismiss Christianity; in fact, this new religion was incorporated into their existing belief systems and practices, without the European “doctrine and exclusivity.” Indigenous people were willing to accept aspects of Christianity and were more than open to welcoming the settlers prior to their abhorrent disregard for the Indigenous lives they stomped on. Indigenous people today still welcome newcomers into their homes and hearts and are willing to teach them their ways, culture and knowledge.

Governments continuously use phrases like “nation to nation.” Yet they encourage corporate and not-for-profit Canada to use funding grants that are specific to Indigenous people, persisting with the practice of obtaining funds to “help” and “teach” and “include” Indigenous people, attempting to bring them into the settler fold.

Our reality is, Settler Canada still has not accepted the fact that there are thousands and thousands of people who live on Turtle Island who are indigenous to these lands and were banished from their own spaces. They were locked up and traumatized in residential schools, stolen during the Sixties Scoop and are now subjected to environmental racism in each part of this nation.

Rachel Bryant reminds her readers that there is a huge amount of work to do. I’m very glad to have come upon this book, the truth within its pages and the author’s dedication to making a positive contribution to the reconciliation process.

December 14, 2017 by Norma Jean MacPhee

Good scribes pop up everywhere. However, occasionally, a certain concentration collects in a particular locale, such as Inverness County, Cape Breton.

Lynn Coady, Alistair MacLeod, Sarah Faber, Kate Beaton, Linden MacIntyre, Frank Macdonald, Tom Ryan, Rebecca Silver Slayter, Johanna Skibsrud, Oisin Curran and Susan Paddon. Just to name a few.

“It gets in your bones and in your spirit,” says acclaimed award-winning journalist and writer Linden MacIntyre.

Linden MacIntyre. Photo by Joe Passaretti

Is it the water, or the air, the landscape, the people?

“There’s an aura about the place,” says MacIntyre. Raised in Inverness and still spending his summers there, the Giller winner says it’s difficult to pin it down. “Collectively there’s a certain civility and a quiet contemplative character in Inverness that suits a person who wants to be a writer.”

MacIntyre says since he was a kid, a high social value was assigned within the community to someone who could tell a good story. “A small child realizes telling stories gets the approval of adults,” said MacIntyre. “Akin to when people play the piano or fiddle.”

Home By Choice

There’s a growing collection of creative people now living in Inverness County.

“I do think it’s the kind of place, if it grabs you by the heart it doesn’t let go,” says novelist Rebecca Silver Slayter.

The town of Inverness has a population around 1,400. If extended to all of Inverness County, the number jumps to 17,000.

Silver-Slayter moved to St. Joseph de Moine in 2010. She’s part of a cohort who studied together at Concordia in Montreal and then decided to move to Cape Breton. Some already had ties here, including Johanna Skibsrud and Sarah Faber.

“I feel I write better here than anywhere else I’ve lived,” says Silver-Slater, author of In the Land of Birdfishes.

“It’s not an easy place to live with the economy and the lack of jobs,” she acknowledges. “Those that stay are here for the love of it—with the commitment and energy to make it work.”

This same crew of writers are taking the directional helm of the successful Cabot Trail Writers Festival as it heads into its tenth year.

Silver Slayter says she’s amazed and strengthened by the audience turnout at that festival and also other writing events throughout the year. “The warmth and enthusiasm people bring, it’s quite a moving thing.”

Long-time award-winning columnist, poet, playwright and novelist, Frank Macdonald has lived in Inverness his whole life. “Well, except for that obligatory decade working away,” jokes Macdonald in his gravelly, easy-going voice.

His first two novels, A Forest for Calum and A Possible Madness were each long-listed for the Dublin Impact Award.

Macdonald says the story-telling goes back centuries, with the Gaelic culture immersed in an oral tradition. “Before writing, people gathered stories from the ‘characters’ around town, to share with others.”

Macdonald continues as a columnist for the Inverness Oran, the area’s weekly publication.

“I just love the town I live in and my ability to tell stories has been gratifying,” says Macdonald.

Despite the isolating nature of being on an island on the far east of the country, Rebecca Silver-Slater says it’s worth it. “The challenges of doing events and tours are well outweighed by the way of life here.”

Alexander MacLeod credits immense, unwavering support of the people in the community for his writing success. “People care,” said MacLeod.

One of seven children to Alistair and Anita MacLeod, since he was born, Alexander has spent every summer in Inverness. His collection of short-stories, Light Lifting, was a finalist for the Giller Prize.

MacLeod says the Port Hood building supply store is a terrific example of the area’s dedication to writers. “There beside the bulk nails, you find Cape Breton literature for sale, in a hardware store! That doesn’t always happen.”

He says the Inverness Oran is an important fixture in supporting the craft of writing. “It’s always been a place where they respected stories.”

Frank Macdonald says he remembers receiving letters from the acclaimed short-story master and novelist, Alistair MacLeod. “He was an encouraging subscriber,” says Macdonald. “He wasn’t sending them as Alistair MacLeod the writer, but as a subscriber who appreciated a letter from home every week.”

The younger MacLeod, Alexander says that although the strong cultural fabric seems built it, others laid the foundation. “It’s been a place driven by books, culture and thoughtful stuff for a long time,” says MacLeod, citing the great thinker Moses Coady and Mi’kmaq poet Rita Joe.

Fewer Distractions and Lots of Beauty

“It depends on the person, but being here helps me focus in a way I’m not able to do in the city,” says writer Sarah Faber. Her debut novel All is Beauty Now came out this fall. “It’s so calming here. For someone like me, with a constant chatter in my brain, this is a good place to get a clearer look. There’s a certain stillness I can achieve that allows you to go inwards.”

Faber says she likes being away from the industry flutter that might accompany living in Toronto. “I’d probably be caught up around the anxiety of it all,” she laughs.

Like MacLeod, Faber came to Inverness as a kid every summer and she also spent a year there during high school. When she and her friends from Concordia were considering moving rural as a group, Inverness seemed a natural choice. Although the history of writing greats wasn’t the reason she and the others moved here, Faber says the existing support is excellent. “I always had a sense it was an artistic place, lots of music and theatre. For a relatively sparse population, there’s lots going on!”

Her husband, Oisin Curran is also a fiction writer. His second novel, Blood Fable came out in October.

Faber says Inverness’ stunning beauty—including its expansive cliffs and sandy beaches—inevitably find their way into her writing. “The descriptions of beaches in Brazil (in All is Beauty Now) are really descriptions of beaches here,” says Faber. She also appreciates the community’s commitment to the arts. “People are just so supportive, it’s lovely. It’s nice how people will come out for events, even in the dead of winter.”

It lives, breathes and thrives

“It’s just a very potent cultural space” says Alexander MacLeod. “Not necessarily glamorous, just a lot of people working regularly; and working very, very hard.”

That desire and drive to enrich their community continues to thrive.

“According to the old model, it’s hard to create employment,” says Silver-Slater. “But if at least a certain segment of people can work here, while bringing money in from elsewhere, that’s ideal.”

Like a snowball effect on a vivid, snow-swirling February afternoon; creativity breeds creativity.

“Every new person living here helps support all the rest,” says Silver-Slater. “Enabling each other. I can’t imagine living anywhere else.”

June 21, 2016 by Chris Benjamin

It’s National Aboriginal Day, a day to honour and celebrate the heritage, cultures and achievements of First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples in Canada. As important as celebration, however, is learning. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission has called on non-Indigenous Canadians to learn as a step toward reconciliation with Indigenous Canadians.

Halifax Poet Laureate Rebecca Thomas puts it this way: “I ask that for today, non-Indigenous Canadians take a moment to read up on treaties, learn whose territory they are in, have a meaningful conversation with an Indigenous person, or learn a bit more about the first peoples of Turtle Island. We are still here.”

Much of this place, which we often call Atlantic Canada, is the territory of the Mi’kmaq, Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet), Peskotomuhkatiyik (Passamaquoddy), Abenaki, Penobscot (Panawahpskek), Beothuk, Innu and Inuit.

There are many ways for non-Indigenous Canadians to learn more about these First Peoples, who are not merely historical footnotes but are in fact still here. With our focus on books, Atlantic Books Today recommends the following resources for insight and occasional enlightenment on the historical and contemporary Indigenous peoples of this land:

Now in its third edition, Daniel Paul’s We Were Not the Savages is a history of the Mi’kmaq and colonialism in this region, from the Mi’kmaq perspective, which is both essential and underrepresented. It proudly represents the complex, vibrant, egalitarian and healthy society that existed prior to the arrival of European colonists, and the rapid decline of that society afterward, due to disease, land and food grabs, scalp bounties and warfare. Today, we see the strength and resilience of the Mi’kmaq in the form of healing and cultural revival.

Trudy Sable and Bernie Francis explore the closeness of language and land use in shaping a culture in The Language of This Land, Mi’kma’ki. This work serves as a definitive resource for understanding the historical significance of land and geography in Mi’kmaw culture. And while it won’t teach you the language, it offers valuable insights on its active, dynamic nature and its focus on relationships between individuals and with non-human things.

In Ni’n na L’nu: The Mi’kmaq of Prince Edward Island, Jesse Francis and A.J.B. Johnston provide a pictorial and written history of the Mi’kmaq on PEI, or Epekwitk, “cradle on the sea.” Looking at the lives of individuals and providing anthropological, archival, narrative and geographic information, this work explores the culture’s resilience and adaptability in the face of constant change since the arrival of European settlers. The importance of the land remains paramount here.

Now in its fourth edition, Isabelle Knockwood’s Out of the Depths: The Experiences of Mi’kmaw Children at the Indian Residential School at Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia, is one of the seminal works on the residential school experience for Indigenous children in Canada, and the lifelong, multi-generational impacts after the fact. The school took children from across the Maritimes. Knockwood’s book is essential reading for anyone hoping to positively contribute toward reconciliation.

Back in 1997, Lesley Choyce teamed up with revered Mi’maw poet Rita Joe to edit The Mi’kmaq Anthology, “the most comprehensive single volume of Mi’kmaq writing available.” It includes essay, memoir, poetry and traditional story by contributors including Don Julien, Elsie Charles Basque, Noel Knockwood, Helen Sylliboy, Marie Battiste, Theresa Meuse, Isabelle Knockwood, Daniel Paul and Rita Joe herself.

You may have to dig a bit to find this one, but it’s so worth it. The final proof of Stones and Switches was on its way to Elsipogtog author Lorne Simon when he was killed in a tragic car accident in October 1994. The family chose to proceed with publication and we now have a little-known great Mi’kmaw novel about a young man struggling with life on a fictional reserve during the Great Depression. The storytelling is nimble, engrossing and peppered with Mi’kmaw words. We lost a master 22 autumns ago and sadly most of us still don’t know his work.

In Bear River poet Shalan Joudry’s debut collection, Generations Re-Merging, she deftly explores the tightly wound threads holding together identity, loss, trauma, healing, language and the land, all with an eye to the way these things ravel and unravel through generations, how the hurt of one hurts the other and, conversely, the healing of one can help the other. The work is primarily in English but intertwined with Mi’kmaw while explicitly addressing the “struggle to learn / one more word L’nueiei* / teach my tongue to soften at the back of my throat / and make scaffolding out of language / to hold up a nation once beaten into submission / and to go on.”

*in the Mi’kmaw language.

April 9, 2016 by Chris Benjamin

Shannon Webb-Campbell by Meghan Tansey Whitton — photo by Meghan Tansey Whitton

To celebrate National Poetry Month, Atlantic Books Today is conducting a Proust-esque questionnaire, in which the poem is the thing, with four Atlantic Canadian poets, throughout the month of April.

First up is Shannon Webb-Campbell, an award winning poet of mixed Aboriginal ancestry living in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Her collection of poems, Still No Word, won the inaugural Egale Canada Out in Print Award.

ABT: The best thing about poetry is…

its unpredictable ability to articulate the inarticulable.

The worst thing about poetry is…

its predictable inability to inarticulate the articulable.

The best thing about being a poet in Newfoundland is…

the land speaks. I can hear a translation of my ancestors. It’s a merciful place of, and for poetry.

What distinguishes me from other poets is…

I am in it for the poetry.

The qualities I most desire in poems are…

to be seen. I seek both a resting and finding. I want a poem to be an invitation, a declaration, a parade.

Poetry’s best use is…

to bear witness, to take roots in the body, to protest. Poems can protect, some heal, and others teach.

My favourite poets include…

the Susan’s of Can Lit: Musgrave, Goyette and Sinclair. Leonard Cohen, Sina Queyras, Sharon Olds and Anne Carson. Newfoundland’s Michael Crummey, Des Walsh and Al Pittman. Not surprisingly, Sylvia Plath, Elizabeth Bishop and Adrienne Rich. And my fellow Indigenous poets Shalan Joudry, Rita Joe and Leanne Simpson, who are like medicine.

If I stopped writing poetry I would…

become a poem.

The best line I have ever written is this one:

“Seek wounded healer, cry out to unseen ancestors, still no word.” Mostly, because musician Kim Harris turned those lines from “A Healer’s Lune,” into a song, and her oceanic voice transcends language.

The best line anyone else has ever written is this one:

“I don’t want a theory; I want the poem inside me. I want the poem to unfurl like a thousand monks chanting inside me,” by the formidable poet and critic Sina Queyras.

April 6, 2016 by Steve Large

April is National Poetry Month, and 2016 is the celebration’s 20th anniversary. April is also the time when students are tucked away quietly in libraries studying for finals and people are sequestered indoors to escape the rain. So, here are 5 books of poetry for you to enjoy in the peace and quiet as the sun slowly creeps its way back into our Atlantic Canadian sky.

Check out the links for reviews, excerpts, and a deeper look.

The Blind Man’s Eyes, Rita Joe: A collection of over 100 of Joe’s best poems and an essay by George Elliot Clarke on her achievement, The Blind Man’s Eyes cements Joe’s place in Canadian literature.

The Brief Reincarnation of a Girl, Sue Goyette: Her eulogy for a girl society failed, Goyette’s poems explore the 2006 death of a four-year old Massachusetts girl from prolonged exposure to medication prescribed for ADHD and bi-polar disorder.

a fist made and then un-made, Matt Robinson: Shortlisted for the bpNichol Chapbook Award, a fist made and then un-made is the perfect way to acquaint, or reacquaint, yourself with Robinson’s poetry and get ready for his next collection Some Nights It’s Entertainment; Some Other Nights Just Work, coming this fall.

Not Even Laughter, Phillip Crymble: You may know Crymble as the poetry editor for the Fiddlehead and in this, his debut book of collected poems, he finds his own voice. Richard Tillenghast advises reading this one with a hangover, and it will set everything right.

Crossover, M. Travis Lane: Lane is a poet that can’t be nailed down. She flows seamlessly between lyric, monologue, song and riddle. This is her 15th collection as she explores our world and her own inner world.

December 8, 2015 by Rita Joe

When I Was Small

When I was small
I used to help my father
Coming home from the wood with
a bundle
Of maskwi, snawey, aqmoq,
My father would chip away,
Carving with a crooked knife,
Until a well-made handle appeared,
Ready to be sandpapered
By my brother.

When it was finished
We started another,
Sometimes working through the night
With me holding a lighted shaving
To light their way
When our kerosene lamp ran dry.

Then in the morning
My mother would be happy
That there would be food today
When my father sold our work.

I Lost My Talk

I lost my talk
The talk you took away.
When I was a little girl
At Shubenacadie school.

You snatched it away:
I speak like you
I think like you
I create like you
The scrambled ballad, about my word.

Two ways I talk
Both ways I say,
Your way is more powerful.

So gently I offer my hand and ask,
Let me find my talk
So I can teach you about me.

Learning the Language

Look at the busy rivers
Where water runs over the pebbles
As if to say, “Hello, how are you? I
am gone.”
Or a leaf on a maple tree
“Touch me but don’t hurt.”
You look but move on.
Lay on the grass
Mold your body to it, relaxing,
The spiritual in effect
And look at the sky,
The lazy roll of a cloud passing by
With pictures of dreams your
mind wills
The reward of nature,
Gives you high high.

Fragment

A light from a kerosene lamp,
The warmth from a wood stove
Very much like shadows from
my childhood
The days long past.

The Blind Man’s Eyes
by Rita Joe
$17.95, paperback, 140 pp.
Breton Books, 2015

February 18, 2015 by Jon Tattrie

Photo courtesy of the Sisters of Charity, Halifax Congregational Archives

Chris Benjamin’s latest book shines a light on the people behind the Shubenacadie Residential School

Isabelle Knockwood’s searing memoir of her time at the Shubenacadie Residential School burned a question into Halifax writer Chris Benjamin’s mind.

“As a European-Canadian myself, I wondered: what the hell were we thinking about with this school? Why did it seem like a good idea?” he asks.

Knockwood’s Out of the Depths (Roseway Publishing, 1992), with its cover photo of the school engulfed in flames, shows the school from a survivor’s perspective. The cover of Benjamin’s book shows rows of students smiling for the camera while a nun stands in the background. This book is a forensic examination into the minds of the people who built and ran the school.

Indian School Road: Legacies of the Shubenacadie Residential School (Nimbus Publishing) marks a new direction for Benjamin. He’s written a novel, Drive-by Saviours (Fernwood Publishing, 2010) and the non-fiction Eco-Innovators (Nimbus Publishing, 2011), but this was his first historical book. He took the task seriously, digging deep into the archives to find the real-time voices of the people who built the school.

Read a review of Indian School Road: Legacies of the Shubenacadie Residential School (Nimbus Publishing)

The idea started in 1844, when the Province of Canada (today’s Ontario and Quebec) began to separate First Nations children from their families and the “half-civilized” reserves to make them “Canadian.” Prime Minister John A. Macdonald later explained the broader goal was “to do away with the tribal system and assimilate the Indian people.”

“The goal was to make Indian men farmers and women homemakers. They felt that would finally civilize them and make them like us – make them true Canadians,” Benjamin explains.

Find more Nova Scotia history:

The proposed solution to the “Indian problem” rolled out across Canada in the late 1800s, reaching the Maritimes in 1930.

Nova Scotia ignored reports that existing residential schools were killing half of their students through diseases like tuberculosis, poor conditions and child abuse. “They were horrible places of infestation, partly because they were poorly built and poorly funded. And yet they built Shubenacadie like every other school,” Benjamin says. “Indian Affairs had it in their mind that if they made [the children] into farmers, and modelled them after Europeans, then they would become like Europeans. That was the goal of the system.”

Sisters of Charity, Halifax Congregational Archives #1708 — Students at the residential school made pottery, which was later sold to help subsidize the school’s costs. The children did not receive any money for their pieces. *Photo credit: the Sisters of Charity Halifax Congregational Archives*

Indian agents scoured reserves and took children whose home situations they disapproved of. Benjamin says in some cases, the child appears to have been in genuine danger, but often it was cultural differences, or kids who disobeyed teachers at day schools, or orphans. “Over the years it became more and more of a penal [institution]. It was almost like juvie, where they sent kids that were acting up in class,” he says.

Some Mi’kmaq parents harnessed its fierce reputation as a boogeyman to frighten their kids into behaving better. At the school, the nuns prohibited the Mi’kmaw language, and never discussed Mi’kmaw culture, other than as a stain of shame. “It was about, ‘Act white. Be White. Stop being Mi’kmaq,” Benjamin says.

Over the three decades it was open (it closed in 1967), about 2,000 children attended the school. It failed to produce farmers or homemakers, and largely failed to make Mi’kmaq kids into Europeans – a blessing, many would say. But it caused deep damage. “I would say the people who left the school were pretty messed up by it. Everyone was different, but there was a legacy of personal problems.”

025 A simple memorial-Chris Benjamin — A simple memorial stands on the site of the former school. *Photo credit: Chris Benjamin*

Many struggled with the legacy of sexual abuse and violence, and from being cut out of their families and culture at a very young age. Many adopted the motto heard often at the Truth and Reconciliation hearings: My revenge is to succeed. People like Knockwood, who became a distinguished academic and writer, and Rita Joe, whose poem “I Lost My Talk” opens Benjamin’s book.

Benjamin says the Mi’kmaq people he spoke to found healing in returning to their culture, in embracing the language and traditions. He wrote the book for the 95 per cent of Maritimers who aren’t Mi’kmaq.

“When I talk to white people about it, I find they’re generally sympathetic. They realize it was a terrible thing and it makes them sad to think about it. But if you flesh these conversations out too often, I end up hearing things like, ‘What Aboriginal People need to do is …’ I feel that’s missing the point. This whole thing came about from white people thinking they knew what aboriginal people should do with themselves.”

There never was an Indian problem, he says; it was always a European-Canadian problem. Benjamin argues that the school should be seen more a part of European-Nova Scotian history than Mi’kmaq history, and so white Maritimers should study it carefully.

“It’s the kind of self-education we need to do to be good citizens,” he concludes. “What we do about it once we know about it? Well, that’s for each of us to figure out.”

Top photo: But for rare occasions, the Shubenacadie Residential School was divided by gender. Photo credit: the Sisters of Charity Halifax Congregational Archives

Find more Nova Scotia history:

December 4, 2014 by Pam Estabrook

Atlantic Canada has an abundance of Christmas traditions to share and stories to tell

The holidays are the perfect time to treat yourself to a new book from Atlantic Canada, whether it’s a tale for children, a collection of recipes, a short story anthology or a historical account of a fascinating holiday tradition.

Christmas traditions

Any Mummers ‘Lowed In? by Dale Jarvis (Flanker Press) is about mummering, a time-tested Newfoundland and Labrador tradition. Mummers dressed in disguise make surprise visits during the holidays spreading cheer and mischief while trying to keep their identities secret. The author uses archival records, personal accounts and historical photographs to tell the story of the fascinating practice.

The Man With The White Beard (Creative Book Publishing) is the follow-up to Bruce Templeton’s 2012 bestseller, The Man In The Red Suit. The author shares more heartwarming and at times heartbreaking tales of spreading cheer as Santa Claus in St. John’s, NL. Templeton emphasizes the importance of spending time with loved ones during the holidays, and shares the message that it’s your “presence” and not “presents” that counts at Christmastime.

Festive Flavours by Lars Willum (Boularderie Island Press) is a collection of more than 50 delicious holiday recipes gathered from around the world.

Christmas tales

In Nimbus Publishing’s new Christmas anthology, The Finest Tree And Other Christmas Stories From Atlantic Canada, Dan Soucoup collects more than 20 holiday tales from the region’s past and present. Included are short stories from some of Atlantic Canada’s finest authors, such as LM Montgomery, Kevin Major and Ernest Buckler.

In Sleigh Tracks In The Snow (Pottersfield Press), Wayne Curtis recounts the traditions that made Christmas special for his family and community. This story collection will remind readers of a more innocent time from the 1950s through the early 20th century in rural New Brunswick.

In Bette MacDonald’s new book, Mary Morrison’s Cape Breton Christmas (Nimbus Publishing), the author shares holiday tips and recipes from her beloved Cape Breton character.

Cape Breton’s Christmas: A Treasury of Stories & Memories (Breton Books) is a collection of stories and memories compiled by Ronald Caplan by well-known Cape Bretoners such as Beatrice MacNeil, Hugh MacLennan and Rita Joe.

Christmas stories for young readers

The True Meaning of Crumbfest by David Weale (Acorn Press, 1999) has been reprinted just in time for Christmas. It tells the tale of Ekhart the mouse and his quest to learn more about Crumbfest, the winter day when crumbs are plentiful in the PEI farmhouse he calls home.

In The Littlest Christmas Kettle (Pennywell Books), Deborah Cranford tells the story of Sallie, a Salvation Army kettle, and her quest to bring joy to the less fortunate at Christmas.

Lisa Dalrymple’s new book for children, A Moose Goes A-Mummering (Tuckamore Books) tells the story of Chris the moose. He grows frustrated when everyone he knows still recognizes him, despite his increasingly adorable efforts to disguise himself while mummering and spreading cheer during the 12 days of Christmas in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Rita Joe

Home By Choice

Fewer Distractions and Lots of Beauty