Portolan

Portolan

About Portolan: the Atlantic Canadian Children's Literature Bibliography

Portolan is an annotated bibliography of Atlantic Canadian books for children and young adults. Atlantic Canada consists of the provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia.

Portolan is divided into four parts:

  • Portolan CLC, containing Atlantic Canadian children's literature held by the Eileen Wallace Children's Literature Collection in the Harriet Irving Library at UNB. All records in Portolan CLC have been annotated, have been assigned descriptors and have been labelled with age range and jurisdictional information.
  • Portolan UNB Libraries, containing Atlantic Canadian children's literature held by UNB Libraries, but not included in the Eileen Wallace Children's Literature Collection. These records are straight bibliographical citations with added jurisdictional information.
  • Portolan Wish List, containing Atlantic Canadian children's literature not held anywhere within the UNB Libraries system. As much information as was available is included with each title. This bibliography is by no means complete and is intended as a wish list for collections development activities for the Eileen Wallace Children's Literature Collection.
  • Potolan Complete, containing all the entries in the above listed bibliographies to facilitate unified searching.

Criteria for Inclusion

Books are included in this bibliography if:

The author is Atlantic Canadian. More specifically, this means:

  • Born in Atlantic Canada, or
  • Having spent a significant portion of his or her life in Atlantic Canada, or
  • Having made a significant contribution to the Atlantic Canadian literary world, or
  • Of Atlantic Canadian heritage, where this heritage plays a significant role in their writing.

The book is set in Atlantic Canada. This was determined by the presence of:

  • Atlantic Canadian place names
  • Obvious Atlantic Canadian settings (for example, a book that is set in Canada and takes place in an unnamed fishing community on the Atlantic coast)
  • Ocean adventures concerning the exploration of the Atlantic coast (for example, Captain's Courageous by Rudyard Kipling)

The book features Atlantic Canadian characters, even if the story takes place outside of an Atlantic Canadian setting.

The book is about Atlantic Canadian culture or history.

The book was published in Atlantic Canada.

The following sorts of books have not been included in the Database to any major extent:

  • Anthologies
  • Annuals
  • Children's periodicals, unless they are specifically Atlantic Canadian (for example, Ahoy).
  • Other collections in which Atlantic Canadian content can not be easily determined.

Fields: Portolan CLC

The fields in Portolan CLC contain the following value added information:

Abstract
a detailed annotation of the book, including information about the format and content as well as the relevance of the book to Atlantic Canada. The levels of the books in the bibliography are described by the following terms, defined below:
  • Picture book: A book in which the illustrations are central to the story and are found on every other page if not every page.
  • Easy Reader: A longer, more challenging picture book. That is, fewer illustrations and more words, but illustrations still play an important role.
  • Chapter Book: A book in which the story is relatively short and relatively simple, sometimes in large print, divided into chapters where black and white illustrations are frequent but do not dominate the story.
  • Novel: A longer story, usually directed at young adults, with complex plots and characters and rare, if any illustrations.
CLC Location
Contains the full call number for the book in the Eileen Wallace Children's Literature Collection.
Other Location
Includes the location code and the full call number for the book in a location in the UNB Libraries other than the Eileen Wallace Collection.
Jurisdiction
This field contains the name of the province:
  • where the book is set
  • that the book is about
  • where the publishing house is located
  • where the author was born and/or resides
If the book meets the above criteria for more than one province, the province names are separated with a semi-colon. If the location in Atlantic Canada is not specified, but the book is obviously Atlantic Canadian, it is marked "General." If the book is relevant to all four Atlantic provinces, all four province names are listed.
Age Range
The age of children to whom the particular book is directed. The information for this section has been derived from notes from the publishers and book reviews, especially in Canadian Review of Materials and Resource Links.

Fields: Portolan UNB Libraries

The user-defined fields in Portolan UNB Libraries contain the following information:

HIL Location:
Includes the location code and full call number for the book in the Harriet Irving Library.
WCL Location:
Includes the location code and full call number for the book in the Ward Chipman Library at UNBSJ.
Jurisdiction:
This field contains the name of the province
  • where the book is set
  • that the book is about
  • where the publishing house is located
  • where the author was born and/or resides
If the book meets the above criteria for more than one province, the province names are separated with a semi-colon. If the location in Atlantic Canada is not specified, but the book is obviously Atlantic Canadian, it is marked "General."

Fields: Portolan Wish List

The user-defined fields in Portolan UNB Libraries contain the following information:

Jurisdiction:
This field contains the name of the province
  • where the book is set
  • that the book is about
  • where the publishing house is located
  • where the author was born and/or resides
If the book meets the above criteria for more than one province, the province names are separated with a semi-colon. If the location in Atlantic Canada is not specified, but the book is obviously Atlantic Canadian, it is marked "General."

Resources

The following resources have been used in the construction of this database

  • Quest
  • "Exploring Contemporary Children's Literature of Atlantic Canada" by Claudia A. Mitchell. Atlantic Provinces Library Association Annual Conference, 1989.
  • Simpson, Cathy. "A select bibliography of Newfoundland children's books, 1970-1990." CCL 66, 1992.
  • "Canadian Children's Books in the Atlantic Provinces." Irene Aubrey. APLA Bulletin, Sept 1983.
  • Annapolis Valley Regional Library Booklist Collections: Historical Fiction #1 - Canada - Youth and Children, Oct 2002. http://www.valleylibrary.ca/
  • The Writer's Federation of Nova Scotia members list: http://www.writers.ns.ca/
  • The Writer's Federation of Nova Scotia Searchable Library Database: http://www.writers.ns.ca/library.html
  • The Writer's Federation of Nova Scotia Writers in the School 2003-2004 writers list: http://www.writers.ns.ca/WFwitswriter0304.htm
  • Canadian Society of Children's Authors, Illustrators and Performers: http://www.canscaip.org/
  • Canadian Children's Book Centre: http://www.bookcentre.ca/
  • PIKA Canadian Children's Literature Database: http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/3/13/index-e.html
  • The Canadian Authors Association Members List: http://www.canauthors.org/members.html
  • Potvin, Claude. "La literature de jeunesse chez la minorité acadienne" CCL 38, 1985.
  • The Cape Breton Catalogue: http://www.capebretonbooks.com/
  • Tidespoint.com: Books: http://www.tidespoint.com
  • Loomer, L.S. "Early Children's Books of the Atlantic Provinces: Notes on the Literature to 1915 (Part One)." The Occasional 6, Fall 1980.
  • Loomer, L.S. "Early Children's Books of the Atlantic Provinces: Notes on the Literature to 1915 (Part Two)." The Occasional 6, Spring 1981.
  • Canadian Children's Literature: a quick scan of the tables of contents 1976-1986 for articles and reviews about Atlantic Canadian children's literature.
  • A close examination of CCL annual bibliographies of Canadian children's literature for obviously Atlantic Canadian titles, authors, and publishing houses, 1976, 1981, 1985 and 1986.
  • Robinson, Paul. 200+ 'Jim Dandies' : A Bibliography of Canadian Children's Books. Sidney: Children's Centre UCCB, 1988.
  • Canadian Children's Illustrated Books in English: http://www.slais.ubc.ca/saltman/ccib/home.html
  • Association acadienne des artistes professionel.le.s du Nouveau-Brunswick members list: http://www.aaapnb.ca/aaapnb/index.cfm
  • Crichton Park Parents Book Club. "Stories from Home: Great Books for Kids from Nova Scotia." http://www.cps.ednet.ns.ca/index.htm
  • Canadian Review of Materials (archive). The Manitoba Library Association. http://www.umanitoba.ca/outreach/cm/
  • Bouton d'or Acadie online catalogue: http://www.boutondoracadie.com/

List of Search Terms used in conducting research for Portolan:

Geographical Locations:

  • Avonlea
  • Beauséjour
  • Campobello
  • Cape Breton
  • Cape Spear
  • Carleton
  • Charlottetown
  • Fredericton
  • Fundy
  • Grand Banks
  • Grand Manan
  • Halifax
  • Labrador
  • Maritimes
  • Miramichi
  • Moncton
  • New Brunswick (NB)
  • Newfoundland (NF)
  • Nova Scotia (NS)
  • Peggy's Cove
  • Prince Edward Island (PEI)
  • Rustico
  • Saint John
  • St. John's
  • Summerside
  • Tantramar

Cultures:

  • Acadie
  • Mi'kmaq
  • Maliseet

History:

  • Halifax Explosion
  • Louisbourg
  • Grand Pré
  • Beothuk
  • Bluenose
  • Mary Celeste
  • L'Anse aux Meadows

Publishing Houses:

  • Acorn Press
  • Goose Lane
  • Rhyme for Reason
  • Early Childhood Centre
  • Formac
  • New World Publishing
  • Tuckamore
  • Lancelot Press
  • Nimbus
  • Pottersfield
  • Newwaves
  • Gaspereau
  • Editions d'acadie
  • Ragweed Press
  • Breakwater Books
  • Jesperson Press
  • Brunswick Press
  • UCCB Press
  • Bouton d'or Acadie
  • Harry Cuff
  • Hamboyan
  • C-Plus Publishing Ltd.
  • Hannover House Press
  • Dreamcatcher
  • Deebee Designs

Specific author names, when other sources indicate that they meet the criteria for inclusion.

Specific book titles, when other sources indicate that they meet the criteria for inclusion.

Individual author names and book titles from print resources.