Running the Goat, Books & Broadsides

The story of how the world came to be on the turtle's back can be found in Indigenous cultures throughout North America/Turtle Island. It has many variations. This moving version of the tale-a story of resilience, sacrifice, and friendship-is one that Annie Picard was often told as a child by her maternal grandmother while they lived in nutshimit (on the land) in the Labrador/Quebec peninsula. Picard's lovely re-telling of this traditional Innu story of how little muskrat makes an enormous sacrifice to help the wolverine and his other friends rebuild the world after a great flood is brought vividly to life by Elizabeth Jancewicz's stunning illustrations.This is a bilingual edition in English and the Mushua dialect of Innu-aimun

Papa wants a treat of halwa, but Mama doesn't have the ingredients to make enough for their whole big family. Little Malala overhears their secret plan for a late-night treat and tells her six brothers and sisters-then the fun begins. Where have Mama's matches for the stove gone? And where could the sugar be? Who's behind the mysterious disappearances from the kitchen?This delightful Afghan story is full of laughter, surprises, and the joy of sharing. A heartwarming tale about clever kids, tasty treats, and the love of family. The book includes a recipe for halwa, so readers can enjoy this sweet dish themselves. Perfect for readers who love family fun, learning about other cultures, and sweet endings.

Teddy bears are going missing throughout Quidi Vidi village, and everyone is unhappy. Where could they be?  Mr. Beagle has a nose for mystery, and once again he is on the case. Will he uncover the bears' whereabouts and get them back to their owners?  Lori Doody's quirky canine detective is back in the fourth instalment of her charming picture-book mystery series that celebrates community and kindness, and solving puzzles.

"Out on the trail, and what do I see?" This gently rhyming picture book takes young ones on a walk through nature-discovering the ocean, a brook, clouds and more-and encouraging engagement with the world around them. Full-spread wordless pictures offer an opportunity for children to look further and discover more. Molly Margaret's charming illustrations are inspired by the beautiful landscape along the East Coast trail near her home. The author includes a brief afterword with tips for adult readers about how to interact with children to help increase their literacy and curiosity.

Puffin Circus 1 2 3, how many puffins do you see? One of the collective nouns for a group of puffins is "a circus"-how could picture book maker Lori Doody resist?  With its bright and whimsical illustrations and playful text, this charming book is sure to please little ones and their grown-ups, as they count the assembled (and very talented) puffins in Doody's delightful circus. 

The story of how the world came to be on the turtle's back can be found in Indigenous cultures throughout North America/Turtle Island. It has many variations. This moving version of the tale-a story of resilience, sacrifice, and friendship-is one that Annie Picard was often told as a child by her maternal grandmother while they lived in nutshimit (on the land) in the Labrador/Quebec peninsula. Picard's lovely re-telling of this traditional Innu story is brought vividly to life by Elizabeth Jancewicz's stunning illustrations. Written in English and Sheshatshiu Innu-aimun

Spring seems like the perfect time for something new, so Jennifer decides to adopt a pet. When she comes upon a stray pup, she happily takes her home. But this pup knows a trick or two, and has some very unexpected friends. Acclaimed picture book maker Lori Doody is back with a charming and quirky story about finding the perfect pet and making it welcome.

Agnes's neighbours think her penchant for vegetable gardening a bit odd. Why, she never seems to sit down to a fish pie or a bit of roast beef. But when the dread pirate Captain Brisket arrives on her ship the Carnivore and begins causing mayhem, it is Agnes who saves her garden and the day. A quirky and slant celebration of vegetables!

Award-winning duo Bill Richardson and Bill Pechet are back with another brilliantly funny and charmingly quirky picture book-My Bunny Lies Over the Ocean. When a beloved stuffed toy gets left at the beach and swept out to sea, all hands pitch in to see that poor bedraggled Bunny gets safely home. With its super starfish rescue operation, accommodating whale, kind kangaroo, round-about postal adventure, chorus of Bunny-smitten seagulls, and more, this hilarious romp will delight listeners young and old.

Petra loves rocks, and collects them with a passion.  She keeps them in her bedroom, in the kitchen cupboards, between the cushions of the living-room sofa, even in the bathroom medicine cabinet.  Petra's parents do not love rocks. At least, not as much as Petra does. To convince her to winnow down her collection, her parents offer her a wonderful treasure-a rock box, with a selection of the rocks and minerals found in her home province of Newfoundland and Labrador.  But is one of those rocks winking at her?   Acclaimed Canadian poet Don McKay creates a charming tale of geology and deep time and connection in his first children's book. 

Wilhelm is a hedgehog who lives in a park in the city. Unlike most hedgehogs who sleep in the day and eat and explore in the evening, Wilhelm is curious and wants to know a bit more about the daytime world-especially about Light and the sun.  His friends try to dissuade him, but eventually realize that Wilhelm won't be convinced to behave like a "normal" hedgehog. So instead they work together to help him achieve his dream.  A charming tale about being yourself, following your dreams, and about the friends who help you, Wilhelm the Hedgehog was originally published in Ukraine in 2017. It celebrates creativity, inspiration, and community.

Jack may be good at following recipes, but he's not very good at following directions. When his two older brothers fail to find the golden bird that made off with their father's prized golden apples, Jack steps up for the job. But there are many challenges to be faced along the way; without the help of a fast and friendly fox, Jack just might not make it. With a smart princess who loves grunge rock, angry kings, magic animals, conniving siblings, and tempting casinos, this delightful re-mix of an old Cape Breton Jack tale seamlessly blends modern and ancient. Acclaimed Canadian storyteller Dan Yashinsky brings wit and whimsy to this wonder tale. Ekaterina Khlebnikova's brilliant illustrations blend old and new creating a gorgeous visual world; a perfect complement to Yashinsky's re-telling. Together they serve up a book that will delight readers and listeners of all ages.

Ignatius is a pig with a big appetite and very little patience. When someone tosses a fresh dumpling his way, he grabs it in mid-air and swallows. That dumpling is big and it is hot, and very quickly it is stuck-right in Ignatius's throat! Desperate for relief, the poor pig races through his little community to reach the cooling water of the ocean. And careening on his way to the sea, he has plenty of near misses, and a few collisions, with local village folk. How much trouble can one pig cause? A playful story with a "you-can't-catch-me" spirit that celebrates small rural communities, simple living, and silly pigs.  

In this delightful nonsense poem, Ashley Fayth introduces readers to a range of "wild and wondrous" beasts-like the sniger, the floose, the squffin, and the butterflabbit. With its playful rhymes and rollicking rhythm, this book is a perfect read-aloud. Yet even in its silliest moments, The Sniger and the Floose is a gentle reminder to respect and preserve the beauty of the natural world around us, and a joyous celebration of imagination.

In this touching, often humorous remembrance, Diana Daly introduces young readers to her smart, funny, and caring great aunties and uncles-six remarkable people who lived with skeletal dysplasia at a time when the condition was not well understood. Daly intertwines older family stories with her own memories to create fond portraits of little people who embraced life with joy, faith, and wit. Daly focuses on ability, rather than disability, and and reminds readers that a family is always richer when a place can be made for all of its members. Based on the play "If a Place Could Be Made," which Daly co-wrote with Anne Troake and Louise Moyes, A Wonderful Bigness is a celebration of family, inclusion, and great heartedness. The book features artwork by NL-born multimedia artist and animator Bruce Alcock.

Ten-year-old Daphne is abuzz with excitement! She's learning the ins and outs of beekeeping from her grandmother. Together they assemble hive boxes, set up a colony, tend the colony and gather honey. Told in a simple, straightforward manner, this beautifully illustrated informational storybook is an excellent introduction to the many aspects of beekeeping. It includes lots of useful information, bee facts and more, all wrapped up in a story that celebrates the connection between grandparent and grandchild.

After her parents are duped by a coyote who is a master of disguise, Harriet ("Harry" for short) and her seven younger siblings are left to fend for themselves. Their only resource is their parents' now-empty bedroom, so Harry and her brothers and sisters open a "hare bed and breakfast." It is a great success. Then, the coyote comes calling again and learns that revenge is a dish best served as breakfast. Award-winning author Bill Richardson and acclaimed artist Bill Pechet join forces in this charming and hilarious tale about self-reliant young hares and a coyote who gets her comeuppance.

Eager for some peace and quiet, the main character of this tale in verse moves to the woods and builds a little cabin getaway. She's found the perfect retreat-or so she thinks until she meets her neighbours: an array of loud and lively creatures who crunch and crack and hoot their way into her life. Young listeners will delight in the animals' playful antics and learn a bit about life in the wild.

Lana the llama lives in the farmyard with all of her sheep friends. She loves being part of their flock, but she knows that she doesn't fit in-her legs and neck are much too long, and her `baa' is very baaad. Lana does her best to look like the other sheep, until one day a bully arrives, and Lana has to stand up for herself and her friends.

Awarding-winning author Bill Richardson and illustrator Bill Pechet team up again with Lola Flies Alone, a delightful story about a young airline passenger who has even more imagination than she has style-and she has plenty of that. Lola's first unaccompanied flight is beset by problems, but whether it be mermaids in a wading pool blocking the runway or a ballerina doing plies in the aisle, Lola has the solution. A delightful tale about being "good and kind and generous and brave", it's a reminder that brave and stylish girls can always save the day.

Someone is snatching snacks on Signal Hill! Can Mr. Beagle suss out who? While taking a hike up Signal Hill, Mr. Beagle soon realizes that people's picnics are being plundered! Who could the culprit be? With his nose for clues and a handy pair of binoculars, he solves the puzzle, and finds a way to encourage community and collaboration. Lori Doody's quirky canine detective is back with another fun and charming picture-book mystery-the third in her on-going Mr. Beagle series.

An island off the coast of another island is home to a small community; life is rich with joy and challenges, and the people who live there love their island home. One day they learn that the government will move them off the island, to new homes with modern conveniences like electricity. Life will be simpler, but will it be better? In gentle and spare prose, and with her unique folk-art illustrations, Lori Doody tells the story of resettlement in Newfoundland-it is a deeply personal tale, but it is also the story of anyone who must leave a loved home to start anew and who carries their old home still in their heart."

"What truths would you utter from your mouth If you could tell us your story" - The Possible Lives of W.H., Sailor In this powerful and deeply moving poetic narrative, author/artist Bushra Junaid gives presence to W.H., a mysterious nineteenth-century sailor whose remains were discovered in Labrador in the late 1980s. What little can be deduced about W.H. archaeologically is that he was of African heritage, and buried alone on the coast of a forbidding landscape. Junaid's poem embraces the mystery of W.H., ponders his life-who he might have been, how he might have lived- and in so doing not only offers a daring look at the history of the African experience in North America, but claims as kin a man isolated, alone, and until now, forgotten. The Possible Lives of W.H., Sailor was inspired by "What Carries Us: Newfoundland and Labrador in the Black Atlantic", an exhibition that Junaid curated at The Rooms (St. John's, NL) in 2020. The book includes a timeline about the Black experience in North America, as well as helpful material for further discussion.

Dave Paddon and Lily Snowden-Fine team up in this hilarious tall tale about a brother and sister who set out to find some fish for their father's supper. The fish aren't biting, so Kimmy and Mike head off to see if they'll have luck on the other side of the ocean. En route they encounter a hurricane, a giant squid, pirates, a merman, an iceberg and much more. Theirs is a round-the-world adventure with plenty of fun. But it's still up to their mother to find something for the pot. Paddon's playful rhymes resonate with Newfoundland dialect; Snowden-Fine's illustrations are a marvelous match.

Tamara is struggling to find the confidence to play her accordion in front of an audience. She learns the tunes well enough, and can play them when she's alone-but as soon as she tries to perform for others, everything falls apart. One day her father encourages her to try playing for an elderly man in the seniors' home where her grandmother lives. This man is Art Stoyles, a legendary accordion player in her hometown of St. John's, who is best known for a beautiful set of tunes called "The Portuguese Waltzes." Inspired by Stoyles, and by the stories of his musical friendship years before with a sea captain who fished the Grand Banks with the Portuguese White Fleet, Tamara gains the confidence she needs to perform. This charming middle reader celebrates the interconnections that music creates-forging bonds between young and old, reaching across cultures and oceans-and the mysterious hold that music can have on listeners and musicians alike. The story also highlights the deep connections that developed between Portugal and Newfoundland because of the cod fishery. Part of a larger, on-going project, The Mystery of the Portuguese Waltzes grows out of author and musician Richard Simas's fascination with the tunes Tamara learns; they are among the most beautiful and unique tunes that have come out of Newfoundland and Labrador, and their creation is the stuff of local legend. Art Stoyles, a much loved figure in the traditional music community in Newfoundland, was a member of many local musical groups, including the ground-breaking trad/rock band Figgy Duff. In 2005, he received the East Coast Music Association's Stompin' Tom Connors Award for his contributions to Atlantic Canadian music. He died in 2015 after a musical career that spanned almost six decades. The book features several colourful linocut illustrations by St. John's-based printmaker and musician Caroline Clarke, whose lively and engaging artwork often explores traditional Newfoundland music.

They say Dor's family is cursed. The house her great-great grandfather built on the south side of St. John's has never been at peace; the old people think it lies on a fairy path. Ever since electricity came to the island, things have worsened, and experiments in the brand-new technology of radio put her family in real peril. In December 1901, Marconi arrives in Newfoundland with a secret mission: to receive the first wireless trans-Atlantic radio signal. Disguised as a boy, Dor joins his team. Then the Little Strangers kidnap her mother. Must Dor sabotage Marconi's experiments to save her?

In the middle of the twentieth century in Eastern Europe, a young girl dreams of adventures near and far. One day, a huge wall appears that separates East from West, and dreamer from dreams. No ladder is high enough, no tunnel deep enough to get past that wall. But then a crack appears in the wall, and the girl (now a woman) knows she has the chance to follow her dreams again.

In this companion volume to their collaboration An Old Man's Winter Night, Tom Dawe and Veselina Tomova present a fascinating, tantalizing, and chilling collection of fairy lore. No benign tooth fairies here; these fairies are amoral, tricky, dangerous, and beguiling. A young school teacher learns about strange lights in a foreboding marsh; a nurse in a remote outport visits the baby she delivered just weeks before to find a devastating change; a woman meets a mysterious funeral procession late one evening; a musician happens upon a group of strange little people; a girl is entranced by a strange green butterfly. The pages of Spirited Away are populated by those who wander onto fairy paths or fall under the spell of mysterious music; by the fairy-led-people lost in surroundings long familiar; by changelings; by people who stray onto fairy turf, and experience unnerving events. These literary renderings of stories and anecdotes Dawe has collected across the province offer an accessible and engaging introduction to one of Newfoundland and Labrador's most powerful and peculiar folk traditions. Tomova's darkly poetic wood-cut illustrations plumb the fascinating heart of these strange and affecting tales.

Award-winning storyteller Andy Jones and acclaimed illustrator Darka Erdelji are back with another whimsical, wise, and witty 'Jack tale'-the third in their on-going series. Jack and Mary in the Land of Thieves finds Jack, that everyman of folktales, married to his sweetheart Mary, the best woman ever born and a mighty fine baker to boot. Their lives are as happy and successful as can be, until an underhanded sea captain and Jack's own bragging get the better of our hero. Jack is sent to work on Slave Islands, and Mary is turned out of house and home. But Mary is resolute and resourceful, and has plans to find Jack and restore their fortunes. With a hidden key, a storm at sea, and a singing mynah bird named Baxter who carries more than his share of tunes, Jack and Mary in the Land of Thieves will delight youngsters and oldsters alike. As a special bonus, the melodies of all of Baxter's songs are included, so that readers can learn them, sing them, and share them.

When he decides to visit his cousin Georgie, Mr. Beagle is not looking for a new mystery to solve-but he finds one nonetheless. Books have been going missing in the neighborhood, and not just any books...storybooks. Of course, Mr. Beagle's keen nose and sharp eyes help him find the answer. In this delightful picture book, Lori Doody has her quirky canine sleuth solve a new puzzle and celebrates the importance of stories in the lives of us all.

PB spends her summer on Fox Island with the other sheep and goats, but she's more interested in stargazing than nibbling on the grass. She knows a famous astronomer once visited Toads Cove, and has set her sights on following in his path and finding a comet. Her determination irks a cantankerous old goat who plots to undermine her efforts. This playful poetic tale about a sheep who won't give up and an old goat who learns a thing or two is inspired by the author's community, where sheep and goats really do graze on islands off the coast, and a famous astronomer really did once visit. Award-winning artist Veselina Tomova's illustrations offer a delightfully whimsical complement to this charming story.

Bridie and her brother and sister love to sit up late, listening to the adults trade stories. One stormy night the talk is not only about the price of fish, ghosts and pirates, but also about Poor Keye, a neighbor in hospital who had always loved these storied nights. A loud bang and the sound of his familiar shuffling footsteps suggests that perhaps he is home after all, and has come to join the gathering. But when Bridie's mother goes to welcome him, Poor Keye is nowhere to be found. The next morning a telegram arrives with shocking news.