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Season 8, Episode 4 Marilla Cuthbert isn't the most likable character in the "Anne of Green Gables" books. Readers may have wondered what made her such a cold and disapproving person. In her novel, "Marilla Before Anne", Louise Michalos answers that question by introducing us to a teenaged Marilla - a high-spirited, passionate young woman in early 19th century Prince Edward Island - and tells...

Season 8, Episode 3. The forest is where things burrow and slither and nest, where lichens with little red hats stand on mossy logs, and perfume-sweet wildflowers grow beside neighbours that stink. At a time when it's never been so important to get outside, writer/illustrator Sarah Grindler's "Forest Magic: A Guidebook for LIttle Woodland Explorers" will introduce children, parents, and grandparen...

Season 8, Episode 2 Emma Weaver has personal motives for choosing her M.A. thesis topic. She divides her time between poring over mute archival records and trying to find members of the notorious Gaugin family who'll talk to her. They were rounded up by authorities at their remote settlement in the 1990s, and Emma needs to interview people who were there to discover what happened after they were d...

Season 8, Episode 1. A phantom crew rows eternally through the Atlantic fog. A light moves from room to room in an abandoned house. A dark presence pins you to your bed at night. Charis Cotter's "Screech: Ghost Stories from Old Newfoundland" will not only give you goosebumps, but also insights into daily (and nightly) life in rural homes where the dead play surprising roles. She told Costas Halavr...

Season 7, Episode 9 Socrates was famously quoted as saying, "The unexamined life is not worth living".   Lesley Choyce believes that regular examination of his life is worth writing about, especially as aging challenges his ideals, illusions, and sense of priorities. He spoke with Costas Halavrezos about the insights, joys, and absurdities he's noted on approaching 70.

"It's Our Time" is a book that grew out of a public slur against African Nova Scotians who live in a cluster of communities known as The Preston Township. That insult made Rev. Dr. Joyce Ross resolve to publicise the deeper story of resilient Black men and women who fled slavery and wars in the U.S. and Jamaica, and then overcame more obstacles in their new country. While Wanda Taylor researched a...

They say you should never meet your heroes because they'll disappoint you (or leave you tongue-tied).  Heather Stemp learned that her Aunt Ginny actually met the world-famous aviator Amelia Earhart when she landed in Harbour Grace, Newfoundland in the 1930s. From that single fact, Heather has created a series of books blending history and fiction. She told Costas Halavrezos about the journey...

Season 7, Episode 6 "Headfirst is the most delicious way to go down a tree".  That's typical of the intriguing clues in "So Imagine Me: Nature Riddles in Poetry" by Lynn Davies. The answers (and some misleading clues) are embedded in Chrissie Park-MacNeil's colourful illustrations for each poem. Lynn tells host Costas Halavrezos how everything from her love of nature to growing up in her pare...

Nearly every coastal nation has folkloric beings who are part human, part sea creature. In "The Mermaid Handbook", Taylor Widrig brings us profiles of mermaids and other mer-people from around the world (including Minnow, the Mi'kmaq mermaid). But she also tells host Costas Halavrezos how young people can adopt the "mermaid way of life" - everything from how to treat the environment with respect,...

Season 7, Episode 4 In our hyper-connected world, what could be more exotic than a hermit - a person deliberately disengaged from people and technology? When Danny and his friend Ben discover one living in the forest near town, it sets in motion the discovery of a different way of life, family secrets, and information that leads to a dramatic turnaround in the community. Costas Halavrezos intervie...

Season 7, Episode 3 Eli Cooper has worked himself into a deep, middle-aged rut. A night editor at a newspaper, he has no life partner, and lives in the family home with his father, whose dementia is worsening. Then in one day, he loses both his job and his father. When Eli's successful sister books him on a trip to Cuba to escape these twin jolts, he becomes entranced by Mariela, a young tour guid...

Season 7, Episode 2 Do we really need wise-cracking giraffes in skirts to grab the attention of a child?  Jeffrey Domm's story of ravens and wolves inventing "Wild Pond Hockey" in their natural habitat, along with his vivid photo-realism illustrations, combine to create a book that will become a favourite - and have kids taking a new look at creatures in the great outdoors.

Season 7, Episode 1 You can't please everyone. That's what three frog musicians discover when they pedal into the woods to play an impromptu concert for their furred and feathered friends. The grouse, though, can't stand the racket or the animals who like it! Then, a terrible storm provides an opportunity for a change of heart. Kate Inglis's "A Great Big Night" is a delightful parable about perfor...

Season 6, Episode 9. Would you like an insider's view of how radio, TV, and the movies evolved in the 20th century? Then follow the career of Austin Willis. Starting with theatre and early radio in Halifax, he moved to Toronto as a staff announcer with CBC Radio (just in time to announce the start of World War II). Soon, Austin was hosting Victory Bond shows with visiting Hollywood stars. With liv...

Season 6, Episode 8 Carol Bruneau Maud Lewis enjoys nearly mythological status in Canada. With no formal training, she created some of the most recognizable images in 20th-century Canadian art. But her gnomic appearance and few recorded words leave us with more questions than answers. Carol Bruneau has dared to write in Maud's voice and describe a life of obstacles: the shame of having a child out...

Season 6, Episode 7  By the end of "The Dirty Thirties", Saint John, New Brunswick was reeling from The Great Depression, and the world was inching closer to another war. But a fascinating group of painters, writers, and artisans who'd traveled and studied abroad found inspiration in this unlikely time and place to create great art. Mark Blagrave sets his latest novel, "Lay Figures", in those...

Season 6, Episode 6 After decades in Montreal, Brenda Jones returned to PEI to retire. She learned how important the landscape of her youth was to her well-being. In "Medicinal Herbs of Eastern Canada: A Pictorial Manual", the award-winning illustrator of children's books turns her attention and artistic skills to wild plants - the nearly-lost knowledge about their healing properties, and the caut...

Season 6, Episode 5 If you aspire to be something - say, an entrepreneur - it's good to study people who excel at it. Donald Savoie's latest book, "Thanks For The Business", introduces us to the region's most conspicuously successful entrepreneurs - K.C. Irving and his son Arthur, the driving forces behind the growth of Irving Oil. As Atlantic Canada's most authoritative observer of economic devel...

Season 6, Episode 4 No matter how much you think you know about Canada, you'll find brand new gems of knowledge in Elizabeth F. Hill's, "All 'Bout Canada: A Compendium of Canadiana" (with art by Alex MacAskill). It's a book for all seasons that will sharpen your appreciation of Canadian characters, places, incidents, achievements, wildlife, inventions, and historical facts - not to mention quizzes...

Season 6, Episode 3 Real life can deliver more danger, action, courage, heroes, and villains than a thousand online games. Award-winning author Joanne Schwartz's "Fight On!" covers a brief era in Cape Breton's history which provides all those elements for young readers. It was a 25-year period when matters of life and death mobilized men, women, and children to battle for the right to work in safe...

Season 6, Episode 2 The dynamics between two siblings who are close in age can be wonderful.   But such natural developments as the arrival of puberty and the first steps towards independence from the family can break the bond between the elder and a younger child. A sense of betrayal of that bond can lead to issues which last for decades. In her interview with Costas Halavrezos, novelist And...

Season 6, Episode 1 What's the best way to tell people the history of a place? Through the lives of prominent citizens? Battles for control? Its economic ups and downs? Joan Dawson's approach grants us an instantly relatable point of entry. "Nova Scotia's Historic Harbours: The Seaports that Shaped the Province" leads us around a coastline brimming with stories, from the earliest Mi'kmaq activitie...

Season 5, Episode 9. Winnie has enjoyed an idyllic childhood in the Annapolis Valley, cycling around country roads and tubing down the Gaspereau River with her three best friends, who happen to be boys. But in a pivotal summer, Caleb, a newcomer from Vancouver, inserts himself into the group and undermines every vestige of their innocence. As Winnie comes to understand his amoral manipulations, a...

Season 5, Episode 8 After 15 years in a psychiatric hospital, Elizabeth has been pronounced "well" and released to a group home. With no memory of what led to her institutionalisation, she sets out to find the significance of names and words in her notebook. Through first-person accounts by Elizabeth and her family, Laura Best has crafted a gripping novel describing the disintegration and eventual...

Season 5, Episode 7  An idyllic childhood with her mum and grandparents in Yarmouth. A sudden, one-way relocation to Halifax with her mother. For Annaka, the 10-year gap fills her with longing and questions. But an equally sudden return for her grandfather's funeral provides a chance to seek answers - with the help of two friends: her old pal Tia and an imaginary person named Clay. In "Annaka...