Gift of the Loon is the story of a woman ahead of her time. Set in the early twentieth century, Margaret Harrison wants to be an artist—a difficult proposition for a woman at a time when a woman’s place was in the home. Eschewing the burdens of marriage and children to become an accomplished painter, Margaret must not only go against society’s norms and the wishes of her family, she must also overcome imposter syndrome. Amid the pain and loss of World War One, Maggie revels in the avant-garde forms of expression emerging in the art world, including Cubism, Futurism, Expressionism, and Fauvism. When she meets artist, Tom Thomson while painting on the French River, her life is forever changed. And when he betrays her in a way she could never have anticipated, she has to find a way to once again see the joy in life. On her journey, Maggie discovers a truth about her choices that changes the way she sees herself and her relationship with the world. Through Maggie, the reader is immersed in art, travel, nature, romance, painting, and adventure. Gift of the Loon is multilayered, exploring themes of self-discovery, the roles of women, challenging society’s norms, our relationships with art and nature, and the development of Canada’s independent artistic vision. Ultimately, the story asks the question: How do you define success? Is success defined by someone else's standard of what we should achieve? Or, do we give ourselves permission to determine what success is for us?

The common loon is a graceful and reclusive bird whose eerie, tremolo call is said to capture the spirit of the wild. Call of the Loon offers a stunning, full-color life history of this gorgeous animal while unveiling its mysteries via a unique question-and-answer format authored by two leading experts on loon biology. Both casual and professional natural historians will benefit from this highly informative yet browsy and accessible volume. Packaged with the book is a unique DVD that features the video footage gathered by the BioDiversity Research Institute. Their ""loon cam" has captured exceptional footage of loon nest building, mating, egg hatching, and chick rearing. Along with the breathtaking images, viewers will hear the haunting calls of these beautiful birds.

A gentle read-aloud to help calm every young child's greatest fear.

“Kids like me didn’t go to Vietnam,” writes Jack McLean in his compulsively readable memoir. Raised in suburban New Jersey, he attended the Phillips Academy in Andover, MA, but decided to put college on hold. After graduation in the spring of 1966, faced with the mandatory military draft, he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps for a two-year stint. “Vietnam at the time was a country, and not yet a war,” he writes. It didn’t remain that way for long. A year later, after boot camp at Parris Island, South Carolina, and stateside duty in Barstow, California, the Vietnam War was reaching its peak. McLean, like most available Marines, was retrained at Camp Pendleton, California, and sent to Vietnam as a grunt to serve in an infantry company in the northernmost reaches of South Vietnam. McLean’s story climaxes with the horrific three-day Battle for Landing Zone Loon in June, 1968. Fought on a remote hill in the northwestern corner of South Vietnam, McLean bore witness to the horror of war and was forever changed. He returned home six weeks later to a country largely ambivalent to his service. Written with honesty and insight, Loon is a powerful coming-of-age portrait of a boy who bears witness to some of the most tumultuous events in our history, both in Vietnam and back home.

A gorgeously illustrated, lyrical non-fiction picture book about loons. It’s summertime, and as darkness falls there is a haunting sound from the lake — Ooh-hoo-oo, ooh-hoo-oo. It is a loon calling to its family across the water. This lyrical story follows the life cycle of two loon chicks. We see them breaking out of their eggshells, then learning to swim, find food and avoid predators such as snapping turtles and big bass fish. After they learn to fly, they migrate to the ocean. And when their striking black-and-white feathers finally emerge, they fly inland, each to find a new lake territory and mate. Accompanying Susan Vande Griek’s poetic text are Karen Reczuch’s gorgeous illustrations, which show the loons as they grow from tiny downy chicks to majestic adult birds. An afterword provides more information on loons, including their amazing diving ability, the meanings of their calls, and the environmental threats that they face. Also illustrated are five different types of loons and other animals that can be found in their lake habitat. The illustrations were researched in the Ornithology Collections at the Royal Ontario Museum, and Ron Ridout of Bird Studies Canada consulted on the text. Key Text Features illustrations author’s note further reading labels Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.5 Explain major differences between books that tell stories and books that give information, drawing on a wide reading of a range of text types. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.2.5 Describe the overall structure of a story, including describing how the beginning introduces the story and the ending concludes the action. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.7 Analyze how visual and multimedia elements contribute to the meaning, tone, or beauty of a text (e.g., graphic novel, multimedia presentation of fiction, folktale, myth, poem).

“More completely than any author before him, Richard Amory explores the tormented world of love for man by man . . . a happy amalgam of James Fenimore Cooper, Jean Genet and Hudson’s Green Mansions.”—from the cover copy of the 1969 edition Published well ahead of its time, in 1966 by Greenleaf Classics, Song of the Loon is a romantic novel that tells the story of Ephraim MacIver and his travels through the wilderness. Along his journey, he meets a number of characters who share with him stories, wisdom and homosexual encounters. The most popular erotic gay book of the 1960s and 1970s, Song of the Loon was the inspiration for two sequels, a 1970 film of the same name, at least one porn movie and a parody novel called Fruit of the Loon. Unique among pulp novels of the time, the gay characters in Song of the Loon are strong and romantically drawn, which has earned the book a place in the canon of gay American literature. With an introduction by Michael Bronski, editor of Pulp Friction and author of The Pleasure Principle. Little Sister’s Classics is a new series of books from Arsenal Pulp Press, reviving lost and out-of-print gay and lesbian classic books, both fiction and nonfiction. The books in the series are produced in conjunction with Little Sister’s Book and Art Emporium, the heroic Vancouver bookstore well-known for its anti-censorship efforts.

Carefully researched, readable text that covers the life history of the common loon, as well as giving extensive information on the arctic red-throated and yellow-billed loons. Extensively illustrated with one of the finest collections of loon photography ever assembled.

A Canadian Indian tale about an old blind man whose sight is restored with the help of a magical loon is interpreted through the collage artwork of a noted illustrator.

The fantastic Legend team of Kathy-jo Wargin and Gijsbert van Frankenhuyzen have another beautiful book to add to the Sleeping Bear and Mackinac Island stories. A Grandmother's love for her grandchildren is magically portrayed in "The Legend of the Loon". A perfect addition to your collection, this book remains true to the heartwarming qualities you've come to expect from these legendary storytellers.

Illustrations and rhyming text follow a loon chick as she learns how to survive--and thrive--in her first year. Includes facts about loons.