Gracie The Public Gardens Duck

Gracie has a nice, comfortable life in the Halifax Public Gardens. Her days are full of swimming in lakes and fountains, napping in bushes, and gobbling up the delicious treats that the visitors to the park bring especially for her. Muffins, popcorn, and peanut butter sandwiches. Yum! Gracie loves the attention and the company she gets from people but she especially loves all the food. One day, however, Gracie''s favourite people stop giving her food. What''s happening? Why won''t anyone share their lunch? Aren''t they worried that she''ll starve? Despite her best efforts, Gracie''s turned away by all her food sources, and to fill up she has to turn to-well, duck food. And despite herself, she starts to enjoy it. Gracie, the Public Gardens Duck is a funny and sweet story, reminiscent of classic children''s literature, but with a modern heroine-one hungry duck in search of dinner.

Tells the story of Viola Desmond, an African Canadian woman who, in 1946, challenged a Nova Scotia movie theater's segregation policy by refusing to move from her seat to an upstairs section designated for use by blacks.

This children's picture book tells the story of a Black Loyalist's family in the early years of Birchtown, Nova Scotia.

What can you find at the beach? Seashells, rocks, bits of seaweed. But look closer and you can find so many other seaside treasures!

Finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award, Young People’s Literature – Illustrated Books When a young girl visits the site of Africville, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the stories she’s heard from her family come to mind. She imagines what the community was once like — the brightly painted houses nestled into the hillside, the field where boys played football, the pond where all the kids went rafting, the bountiful fishing, the huge bonfires. Coming out of her reverie, she visits the present-day park and the sundial where her great- grandmother’s name is carved in stone, and celebrates a summer day at the annual Africville Reunion/Festival. Africville was a vibrant Black community for more than 150 years. But even though its residents paid municipal taxes, they lived without running water, sewers, paved roads and police, fire-truck and ambulance services. Over time, the city located a slaughterhouse, a hospital for infectious disease, and even the city garbage dump nearby. In the 1960s, city officials decided to demolish the community, moving people out in city dump trucks and relocating them in public housing. Today, Africville has been replaced by a park, where former residents and their families gather each summer to remember their community.

On the day that Elliot is supposed to help move Gus the tortoise into a new habitat space at the Museum of Natural History, Gus manages to slip away and make his way around the neighborhood while Elliot frantically searches for him.

A hungry seagull will do anything for a lunch at the beach in this delightful read-aloud children’s book from comedic musician B.A. Johnston. It's a hot summer day and Gary is hungry. The beach is packed with people...and packed with people’s lunches. Though he’s been known to eat everything from minnows to garbage, it’s beach lunches Gary loves most of all. With his patented seagull cunning, Gary takes increasingly ridiculous measures to trick a young boy into sharing his lunch. Will the boy hand over his ketchup chips and watermelon? This uproarious read-aloud from beloved Ontario-based songwriter and entertainer, better known by his stage name, B.A. Johnston, will have parents hugging their beach coolers a little tighter and kids shouting “SHOO, BIRD! SHOO!” Halifax-based illustrator-cartoonist Paul Hammond provides bright and bold illustrations and hand-lettered embellishments for a salty good read. Praise for Gary the Seagull “An easy read that would be enjoyable for most kids. There are some bigger words that could make it useful for grade school-age children who are practicing reading. The bright and bold cartoon style illustrations depict all the colors that one would see at the beach. The wider beach scenes also show a diversity in the people who are there.” —Canadian Review of Materials